Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Things fall apart

A few bits and pieces for your amusement, here on this miserable-looking Wednesday.
  • Dead-rock-legend to-be Pete Doherty played chess at school, according this report. The headline of the article has already inflated the revelation from a former classmate, saying Doherty was a "chess champ". The way news reporting goes in this country, he'll be a Grandmaster by the weekend. The way FIDE is going, he might be anyway.

  • It's always worth keeping an eye on our comments, here at S&BCC. Like yesterday's find by David of this curiosity where by move 18 (see diagram) white had managed to achieve eight isolated pawns, maintaining them until move 22 no less. It doesn't get any better than that. Or worse.

  • Finally, sports fans amongst the readership will no doubt know that Portsmouth took a 6-0 battering the weekend gone in the Premiership. And lo, this coming weekend sees the Portsmouth Congress - a six rounder spread over three days, offering you the chance to repeat that scoreline. I'm playing in the Open where I'll probably be on the receiving end of it. See you there?
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13 comments:

  1. AnonymousWed Sept 24, 11:58:00 am 2008

    I fancied playing at Portsmouth, but I wanted Byes on Friday and Saturday night. I could have asked
    for 2 Byes I suppose.


    Alan

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jonathan BWed Sept 24, 12:18:00 pm 2008

    "Dead-rock-legend-to-be"

    That's a rather cynical description isn't it Tom?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jonathan BWed Sept 24, 12:18:00 pm 2008

    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousWed Sept 24, 12:38:00 pm 2008

    The Friday game makes it an extra tough weekend, especcially if one is losing and working Monday

    George

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tom ChiversWed Sept 24, 12:42:00 pm 2008

    I'm not sure if you'd get two half-point byes, but you could probably get one half-point bye and one (zero-point) default. It might be worth asking anyhow.

    Cynical! Moi?

    ReplyDelete
  6. transformationWed Sept 24, 12:43:00 pm 2008

    'TFA... the center does not hold'
    WB Yates! you keep testing me!

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousWed Sept 24, 03:10:00 pm 2008

    Alan said: "I fancied playing at Portsmouth, but I wanted Byes on Friday and Saturday night. I could have asked for 2 Byes I suppose."

    Alan, just the Saturday afternoon is all I need.

    Harry.

    ReplyDelete
  8. ejhWed Sept 24, 04:40:00 pm 2008

    I fancied playing at Portsmouth, but I wanted Byes on Friday and Saturday night

    Presumably not in order to go out on the town.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Alexey HurricaneThu Sept 25, 01:25:00 am 2008

    i'll try to visit the venue , possibly on saturday!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Chris MorganThu Sept 25, 09:57:00 am 2008

    You should be playing Alexey. Or is the student rock 'n' roll lifestyle luring you away from chess - a la Pete Doherty.
    Actually I didn't play much chess when I was a student.

    ReplyDelete
  11. ejhThu Sept 25, 10:05:00 am 2008

    No, me neither. I played a few games for my college but other than that, I didn't really play at all: in fact between 1983 and about 1990 I think those few games were the only OTB chess I ever played.

    Presumably cost me x rating points in lost years of improvements.

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousThu Sept 25, 01:33:00 pm 2008

    29 of the 67 names so far entered at Portsmouth have requested a bye,with probably a few more wishing they had, takes it to half the players.

    Even for keen chess players,6 rounds seems too much for workers, students etc.

    ReplyDelete
  13. ejhThu Sept 25, 02:38:00 pm 2008

    It should be said that you're not actually obliged to play to the finish if it's too many. It's perfectly in order to withdraw from a congress and I've done so a number of times.

    ReplyDelete