tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376758972024-03-14T06:16:54.396+00:00The Streatham & Brixton Chess BlogUpdated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday ... and maybe other days too.Tom Chivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09850710685193416732noreply@blogger.comBlogger2645125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-19416366117680551242016-03-11T07:55:00.001+00:002016-03-12T12:22:43.652+00:00Openings and endings<blockquote>
<i>The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
</i><br />
<i>Moves on</i><br />
<br />
- The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam<br />
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
I was looking for a theme for today's post, and nearly picked the one that we used yesterday, since it's not hard to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28176-2005Mar11.html">find</a> <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/331180/world-chess-champion-kasparov-retires">old</a> <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4338719.stm">sources</a> which give the impression that Kasparov announced his retirement on March 11, or even one that (in <a href="http://www.kasparovagent.com/garry_kasparov_biography.php">this</a> surprising case) says so outright. <br />
<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YJ5Wbxoijzk/Vt821PUe7RI/AAAAAAAAPuY/r7Xh01uB5yQ/s1600/Kasparovretirement11March.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YJ5Wbxoijzk/Vt821PUe7RI/AAAAAAAAPuY/r7Xh01uB5yQ/s400/Kasparovretirement11March.png" /></a></div>
<br />
Still, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Day-Kasparov-Quit-interviews/dp/9056911635">Dirk</a> was there, and Dirk is reliable if nothing else<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B3tglgZFNYU/Vt84cUTQ5RI/AAAAAAAAPuo/uIgEjwfyA0E/s1600/KasparovretirementDirk.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B3tglgZFNYU/Vt84cUTQ5RI/AAAAAAAAPuo/uIgEjwfyA0E/s400/KasparovretirementDirk.png" /></a></div>
<br />
so if we are to find an event that coincides with 11 March then we may have to make do with the Candidates Tournament, which starts <a href="http://moscow2016.fide.com/#intro">today</a>. Or, alternatively, yesterday - depending on which part of the front page you look at <br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ii8SxcBboo4/Vt86Vs__l2I/AAAAAAAAPu4/9Sw5ZhVb4Q8/s1600/Candidatessitedates.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ii8SxcBboo4/Vt86Vs__l2I/AAAAAAAAPu4/9Sw5ZhVb4Q8/s400/Candidatessitedates.png" /></a></div>
<br />
or come to that you could have consulted <a href="http://www.agonlimited.com/calendar/2016/3/10/candidates-tournament">AGON</a> and discovered that the tournament actually began last Tuesday.
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RK2hfb_bl-8/Vt87J1q2UfI/AAAAAAAAPvA/eq_w6SX1P6g/s1600/AGONCandidates.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RK2hfb_bl-8/Vt87J1q2UfI/AAAAAAAAPvA/eq_w6SX1P6g/s640/AGONCandidates.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I assume the 10 March date refers to the Opening Ceremony. What AGON are on about, I have no idea.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Meanwhile, what <i>are</i> AGON on about? What is <a href="https://www.chess.com/news/candidates-to-start-friday-agon-blocks-games-transmission-by-chess-sites-5161">this</a> nonsense? Are they really going to go after people for doing what we've always done - always, since we first started following chess on the internet - for posting the moves and discussing them with whoever else we choose?
<br />
<br />
Apparently they <a href="http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?p=175261#p175261">are</a>: not just other chess-broadcasting sites but little people, you and me.
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YRgSa6rsDM4/VuHuqwW34rI/AAAAAAAAPvk/njNVTiXUjpA_MDuFAqRKolJB2OBKX_Mjw/s1600/DylanLoebMcClain.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YRgSa6rsDM4/VuHuqwW34rI/AAAAAAAAPvk/njNVTiXUjpA_MDuFAqRKolJB2OBKX_Mjw/s640/DylanLoebMcClain.png" /></a></div>
<br />
And how are they going to do this? They're going to do it by making us log in to their site, with the conditions of the log-in to include, if I understand <a href="http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?p=175298#p175298">Dylan</a> right, promising not to re-post the moves.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I8P6xuLAsL0/VuIMi01oFQI/AAAAAAAAPv0/bx24tlgy2gUYF5UZKboWxunAqFK8aZcaQ/s1600/DylanLoebMcClain2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I8P6xuLAsL0/VuIMi01oFQI/AAAAAAAAPv0/bx24tlgy2gUYF5UZKboWxunAqFK8aZcaQ/s640/DylanLoebMcClain2.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
This is likely to result in a big ruck, since the main chess-broadcasting sites are promising to proceed wtih their transmissions - or, perhaps, it is just as likely to result in AGON backing down and pretending never to have made any threats at all. This would be a preferable alternative. But at any rate, this is bullying, on a grand scale - and it's not just bullying, it's bullshit, and quite important bullshit at that, because chess moves aren't subject to copyright. Chess moves are facts.<br />
<br />
You cannot buy up the exclusive rights to broadcast chess moves, <i>because there are no rights in those chess moves</i>: you cannot prevent people repeating them, just as you cannot prevent people repeating that (say) Barnsley are leading 2-1 at Colchester but have had a man sent off, or that a man has grown a beard. These are facts, and to try and prevent the repetition and discussion of facts is to threaten free speech in a real and potentially important way. (See very good Chessbomb piece <a href="http://blog.chessbomb.com/2016/03/candidates-2016-to-start-with.html">here</a>.)<br />
<br />
It's also stupid, and on the principle that you can judge the quality of an idea by the quality of idiot who <a href="https://twitter.com/GiddinsSteve/status/707581615992664064">endorses</a> it, here's Steve Giddins.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-07I2hLyAdc4/VuHnVPdmAWI/AAAAAAAAPvU/i-i-b3xwq-YPxUZG2UiQAtdFzSZMBPm0g/s1600/RogersGiddinstweet.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-07I2hLyAdc4/VuHnVPdmAWI/AAAAAAAAPvU/i-i-b3xwq-YPxUZG2UiQAtdFzSZMBPm0g/s400/RogersGiddinstweet.png" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">One of these two people is a lickspittle to a larcenist</span></b></div>
<br />
Still, leaving aside, for the while, threats to the right freely to disseminate information, it really <i>is</i> the sheer stupidity of the idea that's most impressive. What better way to prevent chess gaining a wider audience than to make it much harder for regular players to discuss it casually with other internet users? (This is something I used to do <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2007/05/loki.html">regularly</a>.) What better way to cut down on traffic to your site than to insist on people logging in (that's all the casual viewers gone, for starters) and then to put conditions on that log-in that many of your potential visitors loathe and have no intention of respecting?
<br />
<br />
Tell you something interesting. A few months ago, I was contacted by the very same Dylan Loeb McClain, asking me to write about chess for AGON. I turned him down - not, I confess, without thinking about it first. But it seemed to me, before and after thinking about it, that if I wanted to write about the sort of thing I wanted to write about, in the way in which I wanted to write it, I'd probably be closed down before very long.<br />
<br />
Yes, yes, there were guarantees of independence, but guarantees from <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2015/11/an-evening-with-ilya-merezon.html">Ilya Merenzon</a>? Not somebody I'd rely on to tell me the date unless I had a calendar to hand. Maybe Dylan believed him, anyway, and that explains how somebody who used until recently to be a serious journalist comes to be playing the pop-up head for this particular idiocy. Well, he wouldn't be the first chess journalist we've seen turn to the dark side over the lifetime of this blog.
<br />
<br />
Still, you can't always write what you want, and perhaps it's just as well. I'd intended, before AGON intervened, to make this piece about openings and endings, and yet there's little enough I know about the second of these categories. Yes, that's everybody's story, for sure, we all know our openings better than our endings and we all know it ought to be the other way around, but I've not just never written very well about endings, I've scarcely written about them at all. There's nearly a hundred posts on endings <a href="http://www.streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/rook-and-pawn-index.html">here</a> and <a href="http://www.streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/king-and-pawn-index.html">here</a>. I didn't write any of them. I can think of <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2009/08/good-things-come-to-those-who-wait.html">this</a> one to my credit - and can't, not immediately, come up with another.
<br />
<br />
If I'd ever read any of these properly, it might have helped<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PAQBxL1excw/VtyErLr5-BI/AAAAAAAAPtU/7-AtPE_lGWY/s1600/Endingshelf2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PAQBxL1excw/VtyErLr5-BI/AAAAAAAAPtU/7-AtPE_lGWY/s400/Endingshelf2.png" /></a></div>
<br />
but I always had my mind on the <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2016/03/whatever-happened-to-scheveningen.html">Scheveningen</a> instead. Or if it wasn't the Scheveningen it was something else, however <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/once-was-enough-index.html">briefly</a> that might have been.<br />
<br />
Hey, I forgot to mention that Kasparov's last <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1333302">ever win</a> in tournament chess was with the Scheveningen. Come to that it had also slipped my mind that the very last <a href="http://en.chessbase.com/post/linares-r14-topalov-beats-kasparov-shares-first">game</a> he played, with his mind clearly on other things, culminated in his losing a <a href="http://www.streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2015/05/on-appropriateness-of-forgetting.html">pawn ending</a>.
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YA-tWBE0kTE/VtyTW-LdM8I/AAAAAAAAPuA/Sv4-cC9rxUA/s1600/TopalovKasparovLinares.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YA-tWBE0kTE/VtyTW-LdM8I/AAAAAAAAPuA/Sv4-cC9rxUA/s320/TopalovKasparovLinares.png" width="313" /></a></div>
<br />
Topalov is winning here, but shouldn't have been after the move (<b>27. h4?</b>) he played - and then Kasparov shouldn't have been losing, but was, and did lose, after the move (<b>27...g6?</b>) he played. Or so they <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52498-2005Mar20.html">tell</a> me. I can see the explanation and I can understand it. I can even indirectly understand it when the computer tells me it's a draw - which it does, not by showing me a line ending with 0.00 and bare kings, but by the equivalent of tapping its fingers on the table and looking straight at me to see if I've worked out the obvious yet. <br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g8uaSkRKw1M/VtySjfrSI2I/AAAAAAAAPt8/JU7ahKmXXuI/s1600/TopalovKasparov.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g8uaSkRKw1M/VtySjfrSI2I/AAAAAAAAPt8/JU7ahKmXXuI/s400/TopalovKasparov.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
But though I can follow it, and work out what has already been explained to me, I'd never see it, never reproduce it, over the board. I never learned enough about the endings to stop blundering about and start thinking about them <i>properly</i>, with some idea of where I was going and some idea of how to get there.
<br />
<br />
Which - the blundering about part - is more or less how I do everything, including writing for this blog. And I imagine it's how I'll follow the Candidates games, if, given all the bullying and all the palaver, I can be bothered to follow them at all. <br />
<br />
<i>Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen</i>. Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. I never knew enough about any sort of ending to talk about it properly. So it makes a kind of sense that when a proper ending comes along, I really don't know what to say.ejhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-74787058732303830722016-03-10T07:55:00.001+00:002016-03-10T07:55:00.978+00:00To retirementOn this day, 2005.<br />
<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2Fk0kJZKMWc/VtyIer7iRzI/AAAAAAAAPtg/vvoQCVHJ51Y/s1600/KasparovretiresChessbase.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2Fk0kJZKMWc/VtyIer7iRzI/AAAAAAAAPtg/vvoQCVHJ51Y/s640/KasparovretiresChessbase.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8vJX4JImQWM/VtyIgt9PZhI/AAAAAAAAPtk/pfMjViQxEF8/s1600/KasparovretiresMig.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8vJX4JImQWM/VtyIgt9PZhI/AAAAAAAAPtk/pfMjViQxEF8/s640/KasparovretiresMig.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pcKuWZn5jt8/VtyIimH566I/AAAAAAAAPto/dz1BS9BTZ-s/s1600/KasparovretiresTWIC.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pcKuWZn5jt8/VtyIimH566I/AAAAAAAAPto/dz1BS9BTZ-s/s640/KasparovretiresTWIC.png" /></a></div>
<br />
Far too soon and yet not a moment too late. A far better chess player than he will ever be anything else and yet a far better chess player than almost anybody else.<br /><br />There'll never be another.ejhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-52879761414471094872016-03-09T07:55:00.003+00:002016-03-29T16:07:40.028+01:00Traditions<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change</i><br />
<br />
- Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa, <i>The Leopard</i></blockquote>
Ray,<a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/puzzles/chess/article4688326.ece" target="_blank"> Saturday</a>:<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fUn-EdSAT3k/VtxWjFXV9_I/AAAAAAAAPs0/oA4KOJXBPBU/s1600/RayTimes5March2016.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fUn-EdSAT3k/VtxWjFXV9_I/AAAAAAAAPs0/oA4KOJXBPBU/s320/RayTimes5March2016.png" width="295" /></a></div>
<br />
Did Ray actually make it to the <a href="http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/201603vars-viewer.html" target="_blank">Varsity Match</a> this year? Not as far as I can tell<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> [edit Wednesday afternoon: he did! see below]</span> since he doesn't appear in any photographs that I've seen. If that's right, it was anything but the worse for his absence.<br />
<br />
But he was there in spirit, as his chum and crony Tony Buzan appears to have been present at the "splendid black-tie dinner" and sent Ray what appears to be the <a href="https://twitter.com/Times_Chess/status/706438544752046080">menu</a> (is that David Sedgwick's signature at the top?) and <a href="https://twitter.com/Times_Chess/status/706438884427747329" target="_blank">something else</a> that our man describes as a souvenir but seems to resemble a mindmap.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EVFr-fzjLb0/VtxYGcHFCjI/AAAAAAAAPtA/1XV8ZN2WUFE/s1600/Buzanvarsitysouvenir.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EVFr-fzjLb0/VtxYGcHFCjI/AAAAAAAAPtA/1XV8ZN2WUFE/s320/Buzanvarsitysouvenir.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Who knows what it means.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>Presumably it doesn't mean that Ray is done with the Varsity Match, nor that the Varsity Match is done with him. Such ought to be the case, since you can either have an event which boasts of the academic traditions of two great universities, or you can have the country's leading <a href="https://twitter.com/KeeneWatchers/status/706034422508695552" target="_blank">plagiarist</a> as a guest. But you cannot have both.<br />
<br />
Either way, it would be nice, though almost certainly self-deluding, to think that it has begun to filter through what an embarrassment Ray is to the event, to the degree that the event itself has become an embarrassment: even to mention it is to invite saracastic commentary, and entirely merited sarcastic commentary at that.<br />
<br />
But if you're thinking you've read me saying this <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2014/03/a-cheat-at-chess.html" target="_blank">before</a>, I guess you're right. It's become part of the tradition. But that's the thing about traditions: you have to change them for things to stay as they are.<br />
<br />
Otherwise you lose them. As all traditions, eventually, are one way or another lost. For all good things must come to an end<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[<b>EDIT</b>: Thanks to our reader for sending us <a href="https://twitter.com/malolaprasath/status/706181528364195841" target="_blank">this</a> which does seem to show the Tawdry Fraud in one of the photos.] </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Ray Keene <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/ray-keene-index.html" target="_blank">index</a>]</span>ejhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-86065226630928937012016-03-08T08:00:00.000+00:002016-03-14T07:51:05.653+00:00Les Chesseurs Britanniques de Paris: Part 6 The Addendum Just a quick addendum on the British Chess Club of Paris while <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris.html">Part 5</a> is still hot off the press and fresh in the memory, and before the series disappears from view to find its final resting place somewhere in the depths of the Blog's <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2006/10/history.html">History</a> archive.<br />
<br />
This post-script is possible due, once again, to the generosity of Dominique Thimognier of <i><a href="http://heritageechecsfra.free.fr/">Héritage des Échecs Français</a></i>, who unearthed so much of the material that documents the activities of the BCCP - thus it is only right to thank him again. The snippets below are from him. I'll just mention also, en passant, how tolerant he has been of the liberties taken in the series with his mother tongue. A propos of the blogs as a whole he commented to me, with <i>un peu d'humour français</i>, that my faux pas here and there added "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>une petite touche
de charme britannique</i>". Very drôle. </span><br />
<br />
In <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris_5.html">Part 2 The Opposition</a> we mentioned that the BCCP had taken a table at a 60 board simul by Alekhine in February 1932. It was held, in fact, at the Hotel Claridge - and, more importantly, the BCCP was one of the 17 teams that drew with the World Champion. Well done chaps - even if not one of the 6 that beat him.<br />
<br />
For the sake of completion we can also add that on May 30 1931 the BCCP was one of 10 teams that played Alekhine in an earlier simul, <i>sans voir</i>, to raise funds for impecunious Russian students. Alekhine won 6, and drew 4. Sadly, this time our boys were among the losers. Here is the score of the Champ's comprehensive 19 move rout of <i>l'équipe britannique</i>:<br />
<div>
<object data="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" height="350" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"><param name="movie" value="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value='orientation=H&tabmode=false&light=f4f4fF&dark=0072b9&bordertext=494949&headerforeground=ffffff&mtforeground=000000&mtvariations=FF0000&mtmainline=000000&mtbackground=ffffff&pgndata=[Event "Paris blindsim of 10"] [Site "Paris"] [Date "1931.05.30"] [Round "?"] [White "Alekhine, Alexander (blind)"] [Black "British Chess Club"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C68"] [PlyCount "37"] [EventDate "1931.05.10"] [SourceDate "2005.01.01"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. Nc3 Bd6 6. d4 Qe7 7. dxe5 Bxe5 8. Nxe5 Qxe5 9. Qf3 Be6 10. Bf4 Qa5 11. O-O-O Nf6 12. h3 O-O 13. Rd4 c5 14. Ra4 Qb6 15. e5 Ne8 16. Rd1 c6 17. Be3 Nc7 18. Rh4 g6 19. Ne4 1-0 '/><p>
<iframe width='100%' height='350' src='http://kvchess.com/joo/latest/showpgn.html?tabmode=0&boardonly=1&orientation=H&tabmode=false&light=f4f4fF&dark=0072b9&bordertext=494949&headerforeground=ffffff&mtforeground=000000&mtvariations=FF0000&mtmainline=000000&mtbackground=ffffff&pgndata=%5BEvent%20%22Paris%20blindsim%20of%2010%22%5D%0A%5BSite%20%22Paris%22%5D%0A%5BDate%20%221931.05.30%22%5D%0A%5BRound%20%22%3F%22%5D%0A%5BWhite%20%22Alekhine%2C%20Alexander%20%28blind%29%22%5D%0A%5BBlack%20%22British%20Chess%20Club%22%5D%0A%5BResult%20%221-0%22%5D%0A%5BECO%20%22C68%22%5D%0A%5BPlyCount%20%2237%22%5D%0A%5BEventDate%20%221931.05.10%22%5D%0A%5BSourceDate%20%222005.01.01%22%5D%0A%0A1.%20e4%20e5%202.%20Nf3%20Nc6%203.%20Bb5%20a6%204.%20Bxc6%20dxc6%205.%20Nc3%20Bd6%206.%20d4%20Qe7%207.%20dxe5%20Bxe5%208.%0ANxe5%20Qxe5%209.%20Qf3%20Be6%2010.%20Bf4%20Qa5%2011.%20O-O-O%20Nf6%2012.%20h3%20O-O%2013.%20Rd4%20c5%2014.%20Ra4%0AQb6%2015.%20e5%20Ne8%2016.%20Rd1%20c6%2017.%20Be3%20Nc7%2018.%20Rh4%20g6%2019.%20Ne4%201-0%20%20%20' border='no' seamless='seamless'><a href='http://kvchess.com/joo/latest/showpgn.html?pgndata=%5BEvent%20%22Paris%20blindsim%20of%2010%22%5D%0A%5BSite%20%22Paris%22%5D%0A%5BDate%20%221931.05.30%22%5D%0A%5BRound%20%22%3F%22%5D%0A%5BWhite%20%22Alekhine%2C%20Alexander%20%28blind%29%22%5D%0A%5BBlack%20%22British%20Chess%20Club%22%5D%0A%5BResult%20%221-0%22%5D%0A%5BECO%20%22C68%22%5D%0A%5BPlyCount%20%2237%22%5D%0A%5BEventDate%20%221931.05.10%22%5D%0A%5BSourceDate%20%222005.01.01%22%5D%0A%0A1.%20e4%20e5%202.%20Nf3%20Nc6%203.%20Bb5%20a6%204.%20Bxc6%20dxc6%205.%20Nc3%20Bd6%206.%20d4%20Qe7%207.%20dxe5%20Bxe5%208.%0ANxe5%20Qxe5%209.%20Qf3%20Be6%2010.%20Bf4%20Qa5%2011.%20O-O-O%20Nf6%2012.%20h3%20O-O%2013.%20Rd4%20c5%2014.%20Ra4%0AQb6%2015.%20e5%20Ne8%2016.%20Rd1%20c6%2017.%20Be3%20Nc7%2018.%20Rh4%20g6%2019.%20Ne4%201-0%20%20%20'>PGN</a></iframe></p>
</object><br />
Source: <i>Alexander Alekhine's Chess Games 1902-1946 </i>L.M.Skinner and R.G.P. Verhoeven (McFarland, 1998).<br />
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<a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris.html">Part 1 The Club</a>; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris_5.html">Part 2 The Opposition</a>; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris.html">Part 3 The Match</a>; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris_26.html">Part 4 The Beast</a>; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris.html">Part 5 The Robot</a>.<b> </b><br />
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Martin Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17616856982265044441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-76869382185682746622016-03-07T08:00:00.000+00:002016-03-07T08:00:00.290+00:00Chess goes to the movies: The Seventh Seal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">WARNING: This post contains spoilers</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8RH9oWa-Ftk/Vtn0ZXLboUI/AAAAAAAAIr8/XD2dm48gCZA/s1600/Ingmar_Bergman-The_Seventh_Seal-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8RH9oWa-Ftk/Vtn0ZXLboUI/AAAAAAAAIr8/XD2dm48gCZA/s1600/Ingmar_Bergman-The_Seventh_Seal-01.jpg" /></a></div>
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You know this one. <i>The Thomas Crown Affair</i> and <i>From Russia With Love</i> might be <a href="http://www.streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/chess-goes-to-movies-two-classics.html">classics</a>, but when it comes to chess in film, <i>The Seventh Seal</i> is the daddy of them all.</div>
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It’s the one where the guy plays chess with Death. Yes, you know it. Everybody does.</div>
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Everybody knows it, it’s just that nobody’s actually seen it. Not even cultured aesthetes like you, dear reader. Which makes you just like me. Well, it makes you just like me until last week when I finally took the DVD down from the shelf where it’s been sitting still in its plastic wrapper these past couple of years.</div>
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As it turns out, there isn’t a chess scene as such in <i>The Seventh Seal</i>. Chess is not a simple plot device (<a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/chess-goes-to-movies-blade-runner.html">Blade Runner</a>; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/chess-goes-to-movies-saturn-3.html">Saturn 3</a>), it’s not used for characterisation (<a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/chess-goes-to-movies-thing.html">The Thing</a>) and it’s not there to provide a moment of comic relief (<a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/chess-goes-to-movies-spice-world.html">Spice World</a>; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/chess-goes-to-movies-star-wars.html">Star Wars</a>). Our game is the very spine of Ingmar Bergman’s story.</div>
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We start with two guys lying on a beach. They’ve got horses, but it’s clear that they’re not going anywhere any time soon. Why? Because there’s a chess set, the time honoured signal that the people that you’re seeing on screen have a lot of time on the hands (see Cggtm's <a href="http://www.streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/chess-goes-to-movies-2001.html">2001</a>, <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/chess-goes-to-movies-spectre.html">Spectre</a>, <a href="http://www.streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/chess-goes-to-movies-hateful-eight.html">The Hateful Eight & Bridge of Spies</a> for instance, as well as <a href="https://youtu.be/JzUtr5sjRvU">Triple 9</a> which is currently playing at your local cinema).<br />
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Then Death shows up.<br />
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Our man - the Knight - isn’t ready to pop off just yet, though. He proposes that they play a game of chess.<br />
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<i>The condition is I live as long as I resist you. If I conquer you, you free me.</i></blockquote>
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For no adequately explored reason, Death agrees. Neither is it explained why the game is to be played a few moves at a time for that matter. Still, as the Knight goes about his business we do at least find out why he wants to play. After 10 years away on a a Crusade he's lost his faith in God. He’s struggling to understand the purpose of his life and he wants the extra time to allow him to do <i>"one meaningful act"</i>. If only he can discover what it should be.<br />
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Anyhoo, what of the chess? Sad to say, there’s not much there for the aficionado. The two-pieces-behind-your-back-to-choose-colours bit is a nice touch. After that, though, things rather go downhill.<br />
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At one point Death - who turns out to be a bit of a knob - impersonates a priest to trick his opponent into giving away his strategy for their game. <i>"I’m playing a combination of bishop and knight that he hasn’t noticed yet,"</i> the Knight says. <i>"I’ll expose his flank in the next move."</i> That’s not exactly the sort of dialogue that convinces you that Bergman was One Of Us, is it?<br />
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And then there's the game itself. The fact that Death leaves his king hanging around the centre until deep into the middle game suggests that his claim to be, <i>"quite a skillful chess player"</i> is wishful thinking on either his or Ingmar’s part.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1JpEBmqi7Eg/Vtw2AbMRFRI/AAAAAAAAItU/fT618SNyWKA/s1600/Seventh_Seal%2Bchess%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1JpEBmqi7Eg/Vtw2AbMRFRI/AAAAAAAAItU/fT618SNyWKA/s320/Seventh_Seal%2Bchess%2B2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>The Seventh Seal</i> is 60 years old now. That puts it as far away from us as it is from the very first films (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Ppp5902Yg">e,g.</a>). It’s entertainment from another time and it looks it. And yet, dodgy chess, ropey acting and an almost complete absence of anything that might be thought of as action, somehow it’s still well worth a look.<br />
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I like the ending if nothing else. The Knight, knowing he’s about to be checkmated, knocks over the pieces. He’s not trying to save himself. He's distracting Death to save a family of jesters he befriended on his way home.<br />
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Just Like MacReady from <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/chess-goes-to-movies-thing.html"><i>The Thing</i></a>, the Knight loses in the end as he inevitably must, but he loses in style. He loses on his own terms. Our man, with the help of chess, found his meaningful act.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Chess goes to the movies: <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2006/10/chess-goes-to-movies-index.html">Index</a></span></b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-75550521299851421122016-03-06T09:55:00.000+00:002016-03-06T09:55:05.361+00:00A Literary Reference: Goodbye To All That<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The most honoured man there was Geoffrey Young, an Eton master, and the President of the Climbers' Club. His four closest friends had all been killed climbing; a comment on the extraordinary care which he always took himself. It appeared not merely in his preparartions for an ascent - the careful examination strand by strand of the Alpine rope, the attention to his boot-nails, and the balanced loading of his ruck-sack - but also in his caution on the rock-face. Before making any move he thought it out foot-by-foot, as though it were a chess problem.
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Robert Graves, <i>Goodbye To All That</i>, Penguin, 2000, p. 49. (Original date of publication 1929.) <br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Thanks to Martin]</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[A Literary Reference <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/01/literary-reference-index.html">index</a>]</span>ejhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-60541835842978830922016-03-04T08:00:00.001+00:002016-03-08T20:25:00.235+00:00Les Chesseurs Britanniques de Paris: Part 5 The RobotSo far in this series we have tracked the fortunes of the British Chess Club of Paris (1926 to 1938/9) and some of its more famous, and infamous, members. In this final post we continue to dog the footsteps of one of them: George Langelaan. Apart from his escapades with the BCCP, his heroic war service in occupied territory, and his association with <i>Planète</i>,<i> </i>he<i> </i>will be known to many readers as the author of <i>The Fly</i>, published in the States in 1957, then in Belgium as <i>La Mouche</i> in 1962.<br />
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In 1986 it was famously made into a film by David Cronenberg - and before even that, a 1958 original starred Vincent Price.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XIfKQ5Gg3Do/Vr4v0woAtRI/AAAAAAAAHhU/i_jvkGZoZOc/s1600/the-fly-poster-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XIfKQ5Gg3Do/Vr4v0woAtRI/AAAAAAAAHhU/i_jvkGZoZOc/s320/the-fly-poster-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>At the time it created quite a buzz.</b></td></tr>
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In this episode we will
examine another short-story by Langelaan, a sci-fi not-so-far-in-the-future shocker also published in 1962: the chess-themed <i>Robots Pensants. </i><br />
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This is where you would have found both <i>La Mouche</i> and <i>Robots Pensants. </i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cOKQMoiDq2U/Vr5Ml78tK8I/AAAAAAAAHhk/MMG2yLx5Mrg/s1600/MarBib0252.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cOKQMoiDq2U/Vr5Ml78tK8I/AAAAAAAAHhk/MMG2yLx5Mrg/s320/MarBib0252.jpg" width="206" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Published by Marabout, Belgium, in 1962.</span></b></td></tr>
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Over 50 years later you will still have to read the<i> Robots</i> in French. So, as a service to our English speaking readers, we offer a synopsis of sorts below, along with a discussion of the chess, of sorts, integral to the plot. <i> </i><br />
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The story opens at the
dead of night in a Parisian cemetery, where our hero Lewis Armeigh (an Englishman
attached to the Embassy, and "nearer forty than thirty") is surreptitiously poking around the tombs in the family vault of
his recently deceased best friend Robert Tournon (killed in a car accident). Lewis is there
at the behest of Penny - betrothed to Robert shortly before his unfortunate demise. I'm guessing that Lewis still harbours his pash for Penny (an American in
Paris) - she likes him a lot, but she chose Robert. </div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The inscription on
Robert’s tomb tells us that the setting for the story is 1971 (then ten years into the future). Next to his tomb he sees the space that was awaiting Penny herself</span>, in the fullness of time, as
Robert’s intended wife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As for Robert's freshly installed
coffin: it is empty. There is no Robert therein. Dead or alive.</div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In the debrief, Penny, on thinking about it, can’t recall ever seeing Robert’s body after the accident,
and she is sure that the chess-playing mannequin demonstrated by the perfectly-mannered Count
of Saint Germain – she saw it give a display just the other day at an "ultra-chic
reception" - looks a dead-ringer for her presumed deceased fiancé. She had
confirmation from his father that Robert had a habit of twiddling a piece
between his fingers before completing a move, just like the Count's automaton. Uncanny. Robert incidentally was sometime Paris champion, and a pretty decent
player. Penny is a pretty (and) decent concert pianist. She and Lewis remark upon the
Count’s notoriety for constructing life-like, and life-size, mannequins.</span><br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The story, by the way, was made into a télé-film in 1976, shown in France with the title of <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190718/">Le Collectionneur de Cerveaux</a></i>. There are various extracts on-line (see Acknowledgements). This is Penny and Lewis in earnest discussion.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yqXxphUiSdo/VsBo0NiTMsI/AAAAAAAAHh0/y4qKKtaUe7g/s1600/Lewis%2Band%2BPenny.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yqXxphUiSdo/VsBo0NiTMsI/AAAAAAAAHh0/y4qKKtaUe7g/s320/Lewis%2Band%2BPenny.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>François Dunoyer as Lewis and Claude Jade as Penny</b></td></tr>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The two of them take a spin down to Rouen (please drive safely!) for the next demonstration of the dodgy Count's chess automaton. Again it fiddles with its bits while it trashes its opponents. Here is</span> the robot at play in the film:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-leJSrvUSfU8/Vr4QE76sXJI/AAAAAAAAHg0/ZLv7quueNw0/s1600/collectioneur%2Bde%2Bcerveaux.%2B2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-leJSrvUSfU8/Vr4QE76sXJI/AAAAAAAAHg0/ZLv7quueNw0/s320/collectioneur%2Bde%2Bcerveaux.%2B2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Jean-Pierre Hiercé as the Robot</b></td></tr>
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This is one of those occasions when it is better left to the imagination. The filmic robot looks rather too obviously like an actor in studio make-up, whereas the Count's robot was - as was plain for all to see in the story itself - manifestly a mannequin, but one that could play chess as if human.<br />
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Back to Langelaan's original story: when showing off his
creation the Count goes to great lengths to convince the audience that there
is no-one hidden inside - in all other respects, he says, it is an “exact copy” of Van (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sic</i>) Kempelen’s Turk. To prove his point he leaves all the cabinet doors open at the same time as his robot is powered up and is pushing its pawns.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zD71KJZtrP0/Vr4VsEmsE3I/AAAAAAAAHhE/MjPSbGRxjcA/s1600/Early%2BTurk.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zD71KJZtrP0/Vr4VsEmsE3I/AAAAAAAAHhE/MjPSbGRxjcA/s320/Early%2BTurk.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>A representation from 1789 of von Kempelen's Turk</b><br />
<b> - actually of a model of it by Joseph Racknitz , with all</b><br />
<b>the doors open (see plate 3 below). </b><b> </b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
As a further aside, compare this with the ingenious arrangement devised by von Kempelen whereby the real and human “Director” inside could slide back and forward, within the cabinet, on an adapted seat running on rails. Thus could he escape detection (see below). The various doors were opened in a pre-determined sequence (and never all simultaneously) - and closed again before play began; though the exact details of the original were lost when the machine went up in flames in a museum in Philadelphia on the 5th July 1854.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G6VZY8UTIK0/VsDaEB6ca3I/AAAAAAAAHiY/vdPUyYRcHBA/s1600/turk-hidden-1-4.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="355" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G6VZY8UTIK0/VsDaEB6ca3I/AAAAAAAAHiY/vdPUyYRcHBA/s400/turk-hidden-1-4.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">From an article by Ernest Wittenberg in <i>American Heritage</i> in 1960, </span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">showing a plausible reconstruction of how the Turk did it </span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">- though the the Director looks a bit on the small side. </span></b> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
When, in <i>Robots Pensants</i>,<i> </i>Lewis has his first encounter with the Count's chess automaton, we get a description of its embodied workings seen when he, and others in the audience, are invited to inspect it on-stage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Lewis</span> sees "tubes, wires, and condensers very similar to those of a radio or television. There were also lots of mechanical parts, axles, cogs, springs, levers, pinions, small chains, cables, and several glass tubes more or less full of a green liquid." At the demonstration the power comes from the mains when "there is a hum of an electric motor, the cogs begin to turn, small lamps light up, and bubbles appear in the liquid pumped through the glass tubing."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(My translations) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Although an apparent copy of the original Turk, t</span>he Count is at pains to proclaim the technological superiority of his creation over von Kempelen's.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lewis, our hero, discreetly checks out the premises, but there is no-one in the adjacent rooms pulling
strings (as you might say) by transmitting the moves. Nothing in the Count’s "<i>camionnette</i>" either,
parked outside - such as a short wave radio
transmitter as suspected by Lewis. Here Langelaan might be referencing Mephisto, the Victorian chess automaton of the 1880s who was, it seems, directed by such means, but of a primitive sort; however Langelaan does not have the Count, or Lewis, explicitly make the connection.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wwltjkM3QzY/VsDUH1PX-7I/AAAAAAAAHiE/hDIN0cuTPKg/s1600/Mephisto%2B4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wwltjkM3QzY/VsDUH1PX-7I/AAAAAAAAHiE/hDIN0cuTPKg/s320/Mephisto%2B4.png" width="277" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Mephisto; here with the black pieces.</b><br />
<b>Sadly, not mentioned by Langelaan. </b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Before witnessing the robot in the flesh, as it were, Lewis was sceptical of Penny's scepticism.
Now he is not so sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lewis is convinced that the Count's Heath Robinson-ish stuff is a masquerade, but he is still thinks there must be a human presence at work in the "<i>horrible machine</i>". Incidentally and of course: in the case of the real Turk of von Kempelen, all the mechanical
gubbins on display <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i> a bluff, and
that included the charade of winding it up before the Turk would play. </div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">As for its chess: Langelaan has Lewis
explain that von K's Turk always took white, whereas the Count’s machine accepts
either colour (another mark of progress says the Count). However Langelaan/Lewis has
it wrong here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to Gerald M.
Levitt’s excellent history of the Turk there are many recorded games where it
played Black - for example when Jacques-François Mouret (a grandnephew of Philidor) was manipulating
the pieces from within, often at pawn and move. The veracity of the stories of how Napoleon pulled rank and took White against Von K's wishes - for example </span><span lang="FR"><a href="http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/03/28/the-grandmaster-hoax/"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">here</span></a></span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> – and then adopted various ruses to confound the
working of the automaton, is, says Levitt, debatable. Boney, says one
version of the story, threw a lady's shawl over the Turk’s head to stop it "seeing" the
board - which was just a waste of a decent fashion accessory as the "Director" was of course in the cabinet underneath. Here is a game supposedly played by Allgaier, in the guise of the Turk, against Bonaparte - it doesn't take long. </span><br />
<div>
<object data="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" height="350" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"><param name="movie" value="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value='orientation=H&tabmode=false&light=f4f4fF&dark=0072b9&bordertext=494949&headerforeground=ffffff&mtforeground=000000&mtvariations=FF0000&mtmainline=000000&mtbackground=ffffff&pgndata=[Site "Vienna"] [Date "1809"] [White "Napoleon"] [Black "Turk (Allgaier)"] [Result "0-1"] 1.e4 e5 2.Qf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ne2 Bc5 5.a3 d6 6.O-O Bg4 7.Qd3 Nh5 8.h3 Bxe2 9.Qxe2 Nf4 10.Qe1 Nd4 11.Bb3 Nxh3 12.Kh2 Qh4 13.g3 Nf3%2B 14.Kg2 Nxe1%2B 15.Rxe1 Qg4 16.d3 Bxf2 17.Rh1 Qxg3%2B 18.Kf1 Bd4 19.Ke2 Qg2%2B 20.Kd1 Qxh1%2B 21.Kd2 Qg2%2B 22.Ke1 Ng1 23.Nc3 Bxc3%2B 24.bxc3 Qe2 {Mate}'/><p>
<iframe width='100%' height='350' src='http://kvchess.com/joo/latest/showpgn.html?tabmode=0&boardonly=1&orientation=H&tabmode=false&light=f4f4fF&dark=0072b9&bordertext=494949&headerforeground=ffffff&mtforeground=000000&mtvariations=FF0000&mtmainline=000000&mtbackground=ffffff&pgndata=%5BSite%20%22Vienna%22%5D%0A%5BDate%20%221809%22%5D%0A%5BWhite%20%22Napoleon%22%5D%0A%5BBlack%20%22Turk%20%28Allgaier%29%22%5D%0A%5BResult%20%220-1%22%5D%0A%0A1.e4%20e5%0A2.Qf3%20Nc6%0A3.Bc4%20Nf6%0A4.Ne2%20Bc5%0A5.a3%20d6%0A6.O-O%20Bg4%0A7.Qd3%20Nh5%0A8.h3%20Bxe2%0A9.Qxe2%20Nf4%20%20%0A10.Qe1%20Nd4%0A11.Bb3%20Nxh3%0A12.Kh2%20Qh4%0A13.g3%20Nf3+%0A14.Kg2%20Nxe1+%0A15.Rxe1%20Qg4%0A16.d3%20Bxf2%0A17.Rh1%20Qxg3+%0A18.Kf1%20Bd4%0A19.Ke2%20Qg2+%0A20.Kd1%20Qxh1+%0A21.Kd2%20Qg2+%0A22.Ke1%20Ng1%0A23.Nc3%20Bxc3+%0A24.bxc3%20Qe2%20' border='no' seamless='seamless'><a href='http://kvchess.com/joo/latest/showpgn.html?pgndata=%5BSite%20%22Vienna%22%5D%0A%5BDate%20%221809%22%5D%0A%5BWhite%20%22Napoleon%22%5D%0A%5BBlack%20%22Turk%20%28Allgaier%29%22%5D%0A%5BResult%20%220-1%22%5D%0A%0A1.e4%20e5%0A2.Qf3%20Nc6%0A3.Bc4%20Nf6%0A4.Ne2%20Bc5%0A5.a3%20d6%0A6.O-O%20Bg4%0A7.Qd3%20Nh5%0A8.h3%20Bxe2%0A9.Qxe2%20Nf4%20%20%0A10.Qe1%20Nd4%0A11.Bb3%20Nxh3%0A12.Kh2%20Qh4%0A13.g3%20Nf3+%0A14.Kg2%20Nxe1+%0A15.Rxe1%20Qg4%0A16.d3%20Bxf2%0A17.Rh1%20Qxg3+%0A18.Kf1%20Bd4%0A19.Ke2%20Qg2+%0A20.Kd1%20Qxh1+%0A21.Kd2%20Qg2+%0A22.Ke1%20Ng1%0A23.Nc3%20Bxc3+%0A24.bxc3%20Qe2%20'>PGN</a></iframe></p>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Thus Langelaan's story has a nice interplay between the Count’s creation and the "real" Turk, and there is also a knowing reference, voiced in the plot by Lewis, to Edgar Allen Poe’s essay of 1836 (<a href="http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/poe/maelzel.html">here</a>, but it's hard going). </span>Poe correctly surmised that there was human agency in the Turk (as later owned and run by Maelzel), but otherwise had many of the details completely wrong. So, in Langelaan's story there are correlations between the Turk and the automaton, and von Kempelen and the devilishly aspirational Count. You could say the same, at one remove, about Poe, a master of the short horror story, and Langelaan himself, would-be master of the genre and the <i>deus ex machina</i> of the plot.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Langelaan shows off his credentials as a sometime chess expert by endowing the Count’s robot with a proper opening
repertoire: the Giuoco Piano, 2. e5 against the Alekhine, and the King’s
Gambit - all of which get named by Lewis when the robot is observed at
play. Thus the plot poses the following teaser: what is the source of the robot's sophisticated chess know-how, bearing in mind that these were, we are told, Robert's preferred openings? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Lewis pays a visit to
the Count’s chateau to do a recce. </span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IXoQyQw5suA/VsI23KgMXVI/AAAAAAAAHio/17jS7xfvPQU/s1600/Count.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="229" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IXoQyQw5suA/VsI23KgMXVI/AAAAAAAAHio/17jS7xfvPQU/s320/Count.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>André Reybaz as the Count - a very model gentleman.</b><br />
<b>(Von Kempelen was described as a "modest and quiet man" by Walker, in 1839 <a href="https://archive.org/details/chesschessplaye00unkngoog">here</a>) </b> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
There is a fearsome dog guarding the gates, menacing intruders, but it is made of papier-mâché and is but a paper tiger, its bark worse than its bite. The Count graciously consents to give Lewis a guided tour; demonstration of a nearly completed robot-pianist <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">inclus</i>. The host helpfully explains
that it is awaiting final adjustments (a spare part maybe?) so that it may improvise like a real concert pianist. But as far as a peek at the chess-playing automaton is
concerned, it is off-limits: <i>accès interdit</i>.</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Lewis schemes a
return visit to find out what the Count is hiding, and a few days later
enlists the aid of Bertie, an English chum, for a midnight foray to the castle
while the Count is away on undisclosed, but undoubtedly nefarious, business. Bertie disapproves, as a gentleman would, of Lewis
wearing casual, even if practical, shoes with a dinner suit; but they pass muster, and the buddies dine at the Casino and take a turn at the tables before their
nocturnal adventure. Somehow, in decent society in 1960s Paris, Bertie, the Englishman abroad, has access to a gun. Notwithstanding his earlier attention to sartorial detail, he is now oblivious to the stylistic consequences of packing a revolver. Meanwhile Penny
goes missing – as Lewis learns from an anguished call from her parents. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">They penetrate the
castle having neutralised robo-dog. In the depths
they find the chess-robot in standby mode, and hit the 'on' switch. For some reason not explained it comes into Lewis's head to scribble for the automaton's consideration a Turing-style message:
CAN YOU READ? Robo-chesser takes the pen (so that’s a YES, then) and scratches enough to direct
them to the cellar where they find Penny lashed to a bed, semi-drugged, ditto <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">déshabilée</i>, minded by a demented robo-nurse
on wheels. <i>Nom d'un chien!</i> (Gorblimey!) Penny is being prepared for some ghastly surgical procedure to activate the Count’s <i>piece de resistance</i>, his robo-pianist. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Robo-riot! Alarmed at the uninvited intrusion, a ghoulish mob of mannequins goes beserk. The Count re-appears as if from nowhere. Bertie floors him. They escape with Penny
wrapped for decency in a blanket. The castle and its denizens, in whatever degree human, go up in flames (shades of the demise of von K's Turk in 1854). </span><br />
<br />
In a final sequence plucky Penny recovers (the Doctor prescribing, <i>à la façon français</i>, nothing more than <i>beaucoup de café noir très fort</i>), and Lewis returns to the smoking ruins in the interests of scientific enquiry. He retrieves the bit which made the mannequin-dog bark in the night-time. A surgeon friend does the forensics. It is some real mutt's brain. Robert reports that it had been wired up to a similar kit of paraphernalia, tubes of green liquid and all, just as he saw in the robo-chesser.<br />
<br />
So, robo-mystery solved and all's well that ends well. There is even a suggestion that Lewis and Penny will now get it together, which is perhaps what the doomed Robert, selfless indeed, might have wished. But what did become of Robert? And it is with this thought that Langelaan's plot leaves some unanswered, and unsettling, questions - and a slow after-burn to the story. If the Robert-robot was sentient enough to read and write, and was sufficiently aware still to have feelings for his sometime fiancée, what must have been going through his/its brain as he/it was engulfed by the flames? <br />
<br />
This post may now be getting a bit too philosophical. The mind-body problem is perhaps a step too far for a chess blog - except that these issues have arisen before, when we reviewed <i><a href="http://www.streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/lots-to-do-with-chess-after-all.html#more">Philosophy Looks At Chess</a>.</i> So, would a human brain re-assigned to an artificial life-support system, and directing its prosthetic appendage to play the King's Gambit, have qualified as some kind of first generation cyborg - as mooted in Hartmann's and Selinger's essays? And in 1962 was Langelaan ahead of the game? <br />
<br />
There is a clue in his dedication of his chiller "<i>A la memoire d'Alexis Carrel, bien sur</i>". Unfortunately, this adds only another layer of enigma. Wikipedia reports <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Carrel">Alexis Carrel</a>, (who died in France in 1944) working on the transplantation of organs and heads, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1912. In this respect he was a valid inspiration for Langellan. But whatever Carrel's pioneering medical work, he was accused of adhering to a French proto-fascist group in the 1930s, then with Petain's collaborationist government during the Second World War - and assisting with their eugenics policy. Given Langelaan's role in the War, fighting against exactly this sort of thing, this dedication to Carrel is perplexing.<br />
<br />
And so this post and, for now, this series ends - on a quizzical note. Who knows - like George Langelaan - what the future holds.<br />
<br />
<b>Acknowledgements</b><br />
Gerald M. Levitt (2000) <i>The Turk, Chess Automaton.</i> McFarland, North Carolina. He credits the illustrations to the Library Company of Philadelphia. <br />
Benjamin Hale (ed) (2008) <i>Philosophy Looks at Chess</i>. Open Court. Illinois.<br />
Extracts from <i>Le Collectionneur de Cerveaux</i> may be found <a href="http://www.ina.fr/video/CPB76055043">here</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n73DwV4e8k">here</a>. <br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">[And thanks to ejh for the fly-tip</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">.]</span></b><br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris.html">Part 1 The Club</a>; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris_5.html">Part 2 The Opposition</a>; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris.html">Part 3 The Match</a>; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris_26.html">Part 4 The Beast</a>. </span><a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris_8.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Part 6 The Addendum</span></a><b> </b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2006/10/history.html">History Index</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
</div>
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</div>
Martin Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17616856982265044441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-31527810195711861892016-03-03T07:55:00.000+00:002016-03-03T07:55:02.332+00:00More than one billionSo now the Carlsen v Candidates-winner world championship match has been <a href="http://worldchess.com/nyc2016/">set up</a>, how many people are going to watch it?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/605-million-index.html">605 million</a>, perhaps?<br />
<br />
Not at all.<br />
<br />
More.<br />
<br />
This many.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o9I9o7Ibjcg/VtdXJq1S71I/AAAAAAAAPrw/SBQoG6iMFck/s1600/1%2Bbillion%2Bmore.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o9I9o7Ibjcg/VtdXJq1S71I/AAAAAAAAPrw/SBQoG6iMFck/s1600/1%2Bbillion%2Bmore.png" /></a></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
And why not? <a href="https://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/9471-the-world-chess-championship-comes-to-new-york-city-.html">After all</a>...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ChvcWPcg6AI/VtdX5-BIahI/AAAAAAAAPr4/saIQlAGIESI/s1600/1.2%2Bbillion.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="54" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ChvcWPcg6AI/VtdX5-BIahI/AAAAAAAAPr4/saIQlAGIESI/s640/1.2%2Bbillion.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<blockquote>
<i>The last World Championship match, held in Russia in 2014, enjoyed record-breaking coverage with the total audience for the whole event topping 1.2bn people</i></blockquote>
Heh, no, obviously it didn't, though it's <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2013/11/another-figure-of-fun.html">not the first time</a> somebody's claimed that sort of figure for a match.<br />
<br />
Sill, why stop when you're on a roll?
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X8ddpa2BpdM/VtdZEYdIhAI/AAAAAAAAPsE/LrtGRvnBuHw/s1600/More%2BFIDE%2Bbollocks%2B2016.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X8ddpa2BpdM/VtdZEYdIhAI/AAAAAAAAPsE/LrtGRvnBuHw/s640/More%2BFIDE%2Bbollocks%2B2016.png" /></a></div>
Pick your own nonsense out of that lot, there's more than one to choose from.<br />
<br />
More of this rubbish to come. We can at least be sure of that.
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/OlimpiuUrcan/status/704559102345654272">Olimpiu</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/OlimpiuUrcan/status/704953976907673600">Urcan</a> and <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/605-million-index.html?showComment=1456903543034#c1452324998030093198">anon</a>]</span>ejhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-21687307917162107682016-03-02T07:55:00.000+00:002016-03-02T17:52:47.169+00:00Whatever happened to the Scheveningen?Writing about the Accelerated Dragon the <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2016/02/once-was-enough-viii-accelerated-dragon.html">other day</a> jogged my memory where my one-time favourite Sicilian, the Scheveningen, was concerned. The Scheveningen was the Sicilian variation that first appealed to me in my youth: it appealed also to the most exciting and strongest young player in the world. So whatever happened to the Scheveningen?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YTlbqeWunUE/VtcoSP7sIqI/AAAAAAAAPrg/esDZK8Sva-w/s1600/Scheveningen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YTlbqeWunUE/VtcoSP7sIqI/AAAAAAAAPrg/esDZK8Sva-w/s400/Scheveningen.png" /></a></div>
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I grew up in a house full of <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2015/11/bookshelf-ii.html">books</a>, and more than a few of these were chess books: the first opening books I saw were probably Barden's on the Ruy Lopez
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-97C2XvFqCMQ/VtFz-Ar2kDI/AAAAAAAAPoo/M93ke8-_Yas/s1600/BardenLopez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-97C2XvFqCMQ/VtFz-Ar2kDI/AAAAAAAAPoo/M93ke8-_Yas/s320/BardenLopez.jpg" /></a></div>
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and Hooper's on the Petroff<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9AoWiXTaJnI/VtF0HFSzChI/AAAAAAAAPos/Krqv3ZxV6tE/s1600/HooperPetroff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9AoWiXTaJnI/VtF0HFSzChI/AAAAAAAAPos/Krqv3ZxV6tE/s320/HooperPetroff.jpg" /></a></div>
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the second of which was a particular influence.<br />
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But those books had been there as long as I remembered: the Barden may even have turned up before I was born. Certainly both were around before I knew there was such a thing as chess.<br />
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The first opening book I can remember actually arriving was Craig Pritchett's Batsford book on the Scheveningen, published in 1977, just as I was beginning to play tournament chess.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2N-Bj9rhG5A/VtF1aDu3SSI/AAAAAAAAPo4/wrRUVeYRwOE/s1600/PritchettScheveningen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2N-Bj9rhG5A/VtF1aDu3SSI/AAAAAAAAPo4/wrRUVeYRwOE/s400/PritchettScheveningen.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a name='more'></a>What I recall attracting my attention was this strange <i>2...e6</i> move, which seemed perfectly sensible to me but also seemed eccentric, given that when the Sicilian appeared in, say, <i>My Sixty Memorable Games</i>, it was always with <i>2...d6 </i>or <i>2...Nc6</i>. How strange. But it looked more solid and less subject to getting mated in twenty moves than the alternatives, so I paid attention. <br />
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Later in my teens I found myself tempted by the Taimanov - I'd been looking at Karpov's games, and he had been an aficionado in his earlier days - and less sensibly the Najdorf, in which you likely <i>did</i> get mated in twenty moves. But I was interested enough to get Garry Kasparov's book, or what I <i>thought</i> was Garry Kasparov's book, though these days I tend to ask myself how much of it was Nikitin's work and how much Kasparov's name on the cover. What the cover <i>didn't</i> say, in fact, was "Scheveningen". But the Scheveningen was basically what it was.
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pSyeY44Bp6Q/VtGJZMARjII/AAAAAAAAPpI/bRlbNT7KnKo/s1600/KasparovNitikin.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pSyeY44Bp6Q/VtGJZMARjII/AAAAAAAAPpI/bRlbNT7KnKo/s400/KasparovNitikin.png" /></a></div>
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That was 1983, which when I both went to university and went into a few years' semi-retirement from chess, playing just a small number of inter-college games and some postal games to keep my hand in. While I was sort of away, Garry Kasparov played quite likely the most famous of all Scheveningen games- and for that matter, one of the most famous games played between the end of the Spassky-Fischer match and the present day.<br />
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<div>
<object data="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" height="300" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="70%"><param name="movie" value="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value='orientation=H&tabmode=false&light=cccccc&dark=777777&border=0&bordertext=cccccc&headerbackground=0&headerforeground=ffffff&mtbackground=cccccc&pgndata=[Event "World championship match"] [Date "9 November 1985"] [Round "24"] [Result "0-1"] [White "Anatoly Karpov"] [Black "Garry Kasparov"] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e6 7.O-O Be7 8.f4 O-O 9.Kh1 Qc7 10.a4 Nc6 11.Be3 Re8 12.Bf3 Rb8 13.Qd2 Bd7 14.Nb3 b6 15.g4 Bc8 16.g5 Nd7 17.Qf2 Bf8 18.Bg2 Bb7 19.Rad1 g6 20.Bc1 Rbc8 21.Rd3 Nb4 22.Rh3 Bg7 23.Be3 Re7 24.Kg1 Rce8 25.Rd1 f5 26.gxf6 Nxf6 27.Rg3 Rf7 28.Bxb6 Qb8 29.Be3 Nh5 30.Rg4 Nf6 31.Rh4 g5 32.fxg5 Ng4 33.Qd2 Nxe3 34.Qxe3 Nxc2 35.Qb6 Ba8 36.Rxd6 Rb7 37.Qxa6 Rxb3 38.Rxe6 Rxb2 39.Qc4 Kh8 40.e5 Qa7%2B 41.Kh1 Bxg2%2B 42.Kxg2 Nd4%2B 0-1'/><p>
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</object></div>
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When I came back, half a decade later, I played (at first) the same openings that I had before, including the Scheveningen, even playing a couple ofhalf- decent games with it, or at least a half-decent game and a half. (The half-decent game can be viewed below. The half half-decent game is viewable <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2007/04/heres-how-you-could-have-won.html">here</a>.) And then at some point or other I noticed that nobody who was any good seemed to be playing any Scheveningens, not via <i>2...e6</i> at any rate. In 1993 Kasparov played ten Sicilians against Nigel Short, all with <i>2...d6</i>: later in the decade, at supergrandmaster level, there was a lot of <i>2...Nc6</i>, leading to the Sveshnikov. (Whatever <i>did</i> happen to the Sveshnikov?) But the Scheveningen seemed to be forgotten.
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It turned out I hadn't been paying proper attention in 1984-5: without my noticing it, Kasparov had apparently become disillusioned with Black's prospects in the Scheveningen, at least when reached by way of <i>2...e6</i>. In fact, though in the first two matches with Karpov he'd played several Scheveningens, only the first game of the first match had come about by that move-order. <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067195">Game 43</a> in the first match arose via the Najdorf with <i>6. Be2</i>, as did game 45, at least if you follow the move-order Ray gives
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uP8Yp8IOSjs/VtGy-fW0xdI/AAAAAAAAPqQ/GqpJa0wFDmY/s1600/KarpovKasparovgame45.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uP8Yp8IOSjs/VtGy-fW0xdI/AAAAAAAAPqQ/GqpJa0wFDmY/s400/KarpovKasparovgame45.png" /></a></div>
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in his instantly-recycled-Spectator-columns <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2013/10/up-to-this-point-exact-replica.html">book of the match</a><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Cw7b1hgTVBY/VtGzqI9QKzI/AAAAAAAAPqY/ND_WLwSz0Hs/s1600/MoscowChallenge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Cw7b1hgTVBY/VtGzqI9QKzI/AAAAAAAAPqY/ND_WLwSz0Hs/s320/MoscowChallenge.jpg" /></a></div>
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but not, for some reason, by the current chessgames.com <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067108">page</a>, which gives <i>2...e6</i>.
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sKid8diXKx8/VtG0Pd5fQgI/AAAAAAAAPqg/EAvYIiGjEPk/s1600/Chessgames45.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sKid8diXKx8/VtG0Pd5fQgI/AAAAAAAAPqg/EAvYIiGjEPk/s400/Chessgames45.png" /></a></div>
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Similarly with game 5, for which Ray gives<i> 2...d6</i>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g626JqPdk7Y/VtG2m2FjViI/AAAAAAAAPq8/rBgzO76x7FU/s1600/MoscowChallengegame5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="294" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g626JqPdk7Y/VtG2m2FjViI/AAAAAAAAPq8/rBgzO76x7FU/s320/MoscowChallengegame5.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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but chessgames.com <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067109">gives</a> <i>2...e6</i>.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HHkIFGN-N4o/VtG1hENP2jI/AAAAAAAAPqs/7vy1fOXqDO4/s1600/Chessgames5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HHkIFGN-N4o/VtG1hENP2jI/AAAAAAAAPqs/7vy1fOXqDO4/s400/Chessgames5.png" /></a></div>
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Be that as it may, games <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067104">35</a> and <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067104">37</a> were Richter-Rauzers. Game <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067128">3</a>, though it began with <i>2...e6</i>, went into a Taimanov, as did games <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070174">12</a> and <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067175">16</a> in the second match. Games <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067177">2</a>, <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067176">10</a> and <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067178">18</a> of the second match, and of course game 24 as given above, were all Scheveningens - but they all got there via <i>2...d6</i>.<br />
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There was also game <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067202">14</a>, which began with the hybrid <i>1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 d6</i>, after which Karpov continued <i>6. g4</i> taking aim at a knight which had not yet come to f6. And in this eccentric choice lay, apparently, the secret of Kasparov's reluctance to come to the standard Scheveningen position by the standard order: the Keres Attack, <i>6. g4</i>. Strong enough to play even without a knight yet there to threaten: stronger still when it's been waiting for you on f6 from move four.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DTZ5PeVWdgs/VtGuh19nSsI/AAAAAAAAPqE/FSjZDziqcPQ/s1600/Keresattack.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DTZ5PeVWdgs/VtGuh19nSsI/AAAAAAAAPqE/FSjZDziqcPQ/s320/Keresattack.png" /></a></div>
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That was what Karpov had played in that very <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067129">first game</a> of the very first match, and although nothing apparently terrifying for Black had occurred in the game itself, Kasparov obviously had not liked either what he had seen or what he found later. He liked it for White, at <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070476">any rate</a>.<br />
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And that, as far as I can see, is what happened to the Scheveningen: the Keres Attack. By the time I found out I'd had a quarrel with it myself, by way of Mihai Suba's immensely interesting <i>Dynamic Chess Strategy </i>(Pergamon, 1991)<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x5Jqu35k4FA/VtGPJbxyCZI/AAAAAAAAPp0/Gvd3MDmJsAk/s1600/SubaDynamic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x5Jqu35k4FA/VtGPJbxyCZI/AAAAAAAAPp0/Gvd3MDmJsAk/s320/SubaDynamic.jpg" /></a></div>
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which touched on the <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070288">game</a> van der Wiel-Kasparov. Amsterdam 1988 and the forced draw which White played in that game. Suba says<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>I can recommend the safer 10...b6 or just switching to the Caro-Kann</i></blockquote>
and not fancying the first of those choices I went looking for another way to play with Black.<br />
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Nevertheless I still got Pedersen's 1998 Cadogan book, which is unfortunately just about the dullest opening book I've ever bought
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yE66VbFMzJc/VtGMvFZ7JxI/AAAAAAAAPpY/Dl6zsDuUKiM/s1600/PedersenScheveningen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yE66VbFMzJc/VtGMvFZ7JxI/AAAAAAAAPpY/Dl6zsDuUKiM/s320/PedersenScheveningen.jpg" /></a></div>
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but two later efforts haven't tempted me to open my wallet.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q-rPJXwnvIk/VtGNHyeD-NI/AAAAAAAAPpc/zhkcTWd_Q2k/s1600/PritchettScheveningen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q-rPJXwnvIk/VtGNHyeD-NI/AAAAAAAAPpc/zhkcTWd_Q2k/s320/PritchettScheveningen.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-flH2c3MSMxk/VtGNJQXs64I/AAAAAAAAPpg/Q5G1VjKqHf0/s1600/DCostaScheveningen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-flH2c3MSMxk/VtGNJQXs64I/AAAAAAAAPpg/Q5G1VjKqHf0/s320/DCostaScheveningen.jpg" /></a></div>
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I even bought an old secondhand copy of the original Pritchett, just for old times' sake, but I'd lost interest in it as an opening for the present day. Still have.<br />
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At which point you may be asking, as I did not - what happens if Black goes with Kasparov's move order, via the Najdorf, and White plays <i>6. Be2</i> - is the Scheveningen still viable? And to tell you the truth, I haven't really got a clue. Nor much interest, since <i>not</i> playing the Najdorf was always what I was trying to do. But I can't say as I've seen much of it lately, by any move order. <br />
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Then again. I can't claim to have been paying attention. And for all I know it'll crop up in the next few weeks as the opening of choice in Moscow.<br />
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Or it really might be dormant, or dead, as an option at the highest level. If it is - who, other than Karpov and Keres, killed it?
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<div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Whatever happened to the <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2015/12/whatever-happened-to-french-defence.html">French Defence</a>?]</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Whatever happened to the <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2012/02/whatever-happened-to-kings-indian.html">King's Indian Attack</a>?]</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Whatever happened to the <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2011/11/whatever-happened-to-polugaevsky.html">Polugaevsky Variation</a>?]</span> ejhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-43856563127009809182016-03-01T07:55:00.000+00:002016-03-01T07:55:03.420+00:00You decideI often remark that after you reach the age of forty, it becomes impossible to distinguish satire from reality. Once you turn <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2015/06/fifty.html">fifty</a>, even more so.<br />
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So I find myself unable to make sense of <a href="http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?p=174473#p174473">this</a> remark from Stewart Reuben, at least in the sense of understanding in which of the two aforementioned categories I should place it. <br />
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Perhaps readers can help. In your opinion:
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mgYqa0zuitY/VtSktgkFJvI/AAAAAAAAPrQ/2_EOjRxJ9q0/s1600/Raytakingthepiss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mgYqa0zuitY/VtSktgkFJvI/AAAAAAAAPrQ/2_EOjRxJ9q0/s400/Raytakingthepiss.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />(a) is Ray taking the piss, or just completely lacking any sense of self-awareness?
<br /><br />Alternatively:<br /><br />(b) is <i>Stewart</i> taking the piss?
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<br />Your assistance urgently required.
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Ray Keene <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/ray-keene-index.html">index</a>]</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Ray Keene plagiarism <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/ray-keene-plagiarism-index.html">index</a>]</span>ejhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-86737627161621825352016-02-29T08:00:00.002+00:002016-02-29T08:00:12.804+00:00Just Barely Got Something to do with chess XII<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_s9ebM_pei8/VtLCyTJBqHI/AAAAAAAAIrs/-M-mj8t9iik/s1600/irrationality.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_s9ebM_pei8/VtLCyTJBqHI/AAAAAAAAIrs/-M-mj8t9iik/s1600/irrationality.jpg" /></a></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Philosophers have discussed at great length the ultimate goal, if any, of mankind, but they have reached no consensus, for that is the nature of philosophy. To be rational, a goal for mankind must be one that everyone could follow without conflict. Three plausible candidates are the survival of the human race, the greatest happiness for the greatest number and the pursuit of knowledge. Noe of them withstands scrutiny. If alien beings who were kinder, more intelligent and in every way superior to us landed on earth carrying a virus that we knew would wipe all of us out and if the only alternative to extinction were to kill them, we would undoubtedly do so: but that could be seen as a parochial and selfish act. In these circumstances some people might want to take into account goals other than the survival of the human race. As to happiness, how is it measured? How does one offset one person’s happiness against another’s joy? The pursuit of knowledge sounds very glorious, but why is it better than everyone striving to be good athletes or excellent chess players? Moreover, it could be self-defeating, since the unwise use of its technological spin-offs could result in there being nobody left on Earth to know anything. In thinking about ultimate goals, we are beyond the realm of rationality. A given goal can only be defended in terms of a superior goal: one cannot as the saying goes 'get an "ought" from an "is". In Pascal’s words, 'The heart has its reasons that reasons knows not of'. Hence, ultimate goals cannot be defended by their nature they have no superior goals in terms of which they can be justified. In practice it may be doubted if anyone has systematically pursued any such ultimate goals.</blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>... to do with chess <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2006/10/to-do-with-chess-index.html">Index</a></b></span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-72885394288360144152016-02-26T08:00:00.000+00:002017-08-17T10:30:13.801+01:00Les Chesseurs Britanniques de Paris: Part 4 The Beast In this series we have tracked the fortunes of the British Chess Club of Paris and its members for the 12 years or so up to its demise when war was declared in 1939 (though the serious fighting didn't start until 1940). In this episode we will see what happened to two club stalwarts afterwards, although this will also involve a return to the years when the club was in full swing. As we have come to expect in this series, we will do all this in the company of <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Langelaan">George Louis Alexis Langelaan</a> (19 January 1908 - 9 February 1972). He will take centre stage in much of this episode. It is where he would have felt at home. As tends to happen where George is concerned, fact and fiction blur at the edges - even when it comes to his appearance.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">At the beginning of the war this is how Langelaan would have looked - the bit of him we can see - in a cropped mugshot-style photograph. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XGB_gW4vHOc/VqOsbK00lxI/AAAAAAAAHeQ/HGbog-NZ49Q/s1600/00004363%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XGB_gW4vHOc/VqOsbK00lxI/AAAAAAAAHeQ/HGbog-NZ49Q/s320/00004363%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="275" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>George fact</b>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It is how he might have appeared, partially anyway, to the other members of the BCCP between 1926 and 1938/9 (plus or minus a few years). And this is how he looked a little later...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-K9q2rWh6SaU/VqOvMXqi_wI/AAAAAAAAHec/M-oRRq8ebVc/s1600/00004362.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-K9q2rWh6SaU/VqOvMXqi_wI/AAAAAAAAHec/M-oRRq8ebVc/s320/00004362.jpg" width="237" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>George fiction</b>.<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Pictures from <i>Knights of Floating Silk </i>(1959)</span></b></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Ignore the stage-prop moustache (though it might be his own) and the specs, and the comb-over: these are merely cosmetic and possibly temporary. It's really about the ears, which have been streamlined by plastic surgery - the point of the cropped pictures is to show-off this feature before the application of the surgeon's scalpel (ouch). Yes: the ear-job is permanent. Would that have been done out of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">personal vanity? Or was there a more profound reason? </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">He recounts in "<i>un nommé Langdon</i>" (published in France in 1950, over here as "</span><i>Knights of Floating Silk</i>" and in the States as<i> </i>"<i>The Masks of War</i>" - both in 1959 - and praised by one historian, M.R.D. Foot, as "a well-written agent's war autobiography") that, when war broke out, "<i>as a British subject living in France
I had joined up in Paris….after a bare four weeks at the Le Mans base, had been
sent up to the north of France to join the Nth Field Security Section</i>." His French proved useful straightaway in helping his local command communicate with French gun batteries as the Germans overran the Maginot line in 1940. He was evacuated at Dunkirk (a place he had known before the war) in June.<br />
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With his language skills, and his flair, Langelaan had an obvious role to play, so his appearance was doctored by SOE in order that he could operate in occupied territory without attracting unwanted attention. He did invaluable intelligence work, although on his first mission in 1940 he was arrested after only a month and imprisoned by the French authorities. He was held in solitary, but played chess with another (unknown) prisoner - "<i>scratching boards on the floor of our cells...My chessmen were made from pieces of straw pulled out of my bedding</i>" (<i>Masks</i> p 148) - by tapping out the moves on the pipe-work. He was expelled to Blightly, and then parachuted back in to continue his adventures.<br />
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He claimed to be among the first Allied soldiers to enter Paris at its liberation in August 1944, returning to the streets he had known as a child. His citation for the Croix de Guerre in 1946/7 (although British, he was decorated by the French) read as follows:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
"<i>George LANGELAAN was parachuted into France in September 1941. Using Lyons as a base he established contact with various British Sympathisers and with their help obtained a job as a local food distribution officer and under that cover was able to travel in the surrounding countryside. He amassed a great deal of intelligence regarding French Resistance, the railways, the press but was arrested and imprisoned. He finally escaped and made his way home via Spain.</i>" </blockquote>
In diplomatic traffic between Westminster and Paris (in the National Archives) concerning Langelaan's decoration another ex-BCCPer may be found, joined with him in the same documentation in fact: Major Laurent Henry Mortimore. In Part 2 we told how he had been the club's delegate to the French Chess Federation - perhaps because of a facility with the language. He, too, had been born on French soil to parents of both British and French nationalities, and he, too, had opted to relinquish the French. This is his citation:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>"<i>Legion of Honour Degree of Chevalier: </i></b><i>Commencing his work in France in the Resistance from August 1940 up to February 1941, he was thereafter charged with organising the passage of men and materials through Spain, Portugal and North Africa up to the liberation. He carried out with complete success all the missions entrusted to him in the formation of reseaux </i>[networks - MS]<i> in France</i>" </blockquote>
Mortimore gets his a small place in history for assisting with the reception and assessment of Resistance leader Jean Moulin - then an unknown quantity to the British - en route from France to meet De Gaulle in London in 1941. This is one account:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>"[Moulin] crossed the Spanish frontier on 9 September...He reached Portugal on 12 September, setting himself up in a guesthouse...He met British representatives and found he was dealing not with consular officials, but with SOE. On their behalf he was interviewed by Major L.H.Mortimore, a British businessman recently based in France. Mortimore reported that Moulin 'made an excellent impression', and he later told his sister that 'his shining patriotism and personality commanded attention'." </i>(Clinton, A. Jean Moulin 1899-1943. Palgrave Macmillan (2001)).<i> </i> </blockquote>
In London Moulin was charged by De Gaulle with the mission of uniting the different Resistance networks under one leadership. Back in France Moulin was betrayed, captured, tortured and murdered by the Nazis in 1943; he is honoured as a hero of the French Resistance, and commemorated in the Pantheon, in Paris, of the great men and women of France.<br />
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If it's not straying too far from the subject of the series, and if you will permit the indulgence, let's quickly also celebrate Jean Moulin's skill as an artist (under the name "Romanin"), here lampooning not so much modern art as they who refuse to treat with it.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aLqi1Nbwwgg/VsiVvFzwsUI/AAAAAAAAHjA/4ogmKZfHtiQ/s1600/Moulin%2Bcartoons%2B2%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="377" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aLqi1Nbwwgg/VsiVvFzwsUI/AAAAAAAAHjA/4ogmKZfHtiQ/s640/Moulin%2Bcartoons%2B2%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>"<i>incovenant</i>" here means "indecent"</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">By 1946/7 </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Langelaan was in the </span>Press Section of the British Embassy in Paris, from where he picked up again his career in journalism and writing. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">One has to suppose that in his accounts of his war-time exploits Langelaan tells it how it was as an agent in occupied France, </span>without embellishment. However, his recollection of the years of the British Chess Club, when re-told thirty-five years later may have been decidedly more shaky: for example the reminiscence that turned up in issue 19 (November/December 1964) of the outré French language revue <i>Planète</i>,<i> </i>with which he was closely associated.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kI0Ff0MOloQ/VqYvEG22gzI/AAAAAAAAHe4/NMkTWWI0Ixs/s1600/652_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kI0Ff0MOloQ/VqYvEG22gzI/AAAAAAAAHe4/NMkTWWI0Ixs/s400/652_001.jpg" width="346" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">No, not another facial for George.</span></b></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Talking of reminiscence: I remember from my childhood a popular series on black and white television called "<i>Fact is Stranger than Fiction</i>". Of the same stripe is Planète's proud boast that "<i>Nothing that's strange is foreign to us</i>", and you don't have to translate the foot of the front page [click on to enlarge] to catch their drift. "</span>Fantastic(al) Realism" would be the genre where many might pigeon-hole it (although it is a receptacle of another sort wherein others might consign it). <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In issue No 19 we find, under the rubric "invisible history", an article by Jacques Mousseau (Planète's Editor, and, we are told, a respected journalist): <i>Un compagnon de Lucifer: Aleister Crowley</i> - and the alarm bells start ringing. And no, nor </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">is the cover a portrait in blue of The Beast - he </span>appears on the inside, in this familiar image. <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bt4XMLa-DOc/Vq8uvk9EOmI/AAAAAAAAHfE/3ZFQW0oBN9o/s1600/3%2BArticle%2B1%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bt4XMLa-DOc/Vq8uvk9EOmI/AAAAAAAAHfE/3ZFQW0oBN9o/s400/3%2BArticle%2B1%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Crowley, in 1912 (so it is said).</span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Now here's another bit of trivia I can't resist sharing with you: Crowley went to school in Streatham, and lived for a year or so in a street </span>down by the Common, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">now behind the War Memorial . H</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">e </span>had form at the chess board, as you will know, and had a chess column in <i>The Eastbourne Gazette</i> for six months in 1894 (managing to put many people's backs up in the process). In his column of 11 April he gave a score of a simul draw against Blackburne (below), and he was apparently uncharacteristically modest in omitting any mention that it was he who played the game; but then, most of the games featured in his column were egostically his, as if no-one else's were worthy of mention (these observations are indebted to the late and lamented Chris Ravilious, and his brilliant in depth review of Crowley's chess career <a href="http://hastingschess.proboards.com/thread/15/aleister-crowley">here</a>).</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_IREAwlZvIE/Vq9OfhoXh6I/AAAAAAAAHfU/Eq0K23A80lY/s1600/Crowley%2Bchess%2Bcolumn%2B%2B11%2BApril%2B1894.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_IREAwlZvIE/Vq9OfhoXh6I/AAAAAAAAHfU/Eq0K23A80lY/s400/Crowley%2Bchess%2Bcolumn%2B%2B11%2BApril%2B1894.jpg" width="221" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Up at Cambridge he got himself the Presidency of the University Chess Club, and was thus board 1 in the 1897 Oxbridge Varsity Match (he lost to Edward George Spencer-Churchill). T</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">he Beast could play; and so what could be more natural, when he was sojourning in Paris in the 1920s, than he should involve himself in the local chess scene. See, for example, this in <i>Le Petit Parisien</i> of 17 April 1929: </span>"<i>I love Paris. It's my headquarters. There I know only decent restaurants and my chess club - where I am well respected. I don't want to go anywhere else</i>."<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Reminiscing for Mousseau's article in <i>Planète</i> George Langelaan (back to him again) said he got to know Crowley at the British Chess Club in Paris around 1930-32, when he dropped in once or twice a week to the Café du Grand Palais. In spite of Crowley's notorious reputation - "<i>grand maitre de la magie noire</i>" - he</span> waxes lyrical: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">..."</span><i>only a lot later, and little by little did I </i>[Langellan] <i>discover the reality about the man: one of the great minds of the century, one of three or four great men who we can now recognise, just as, since the end of the [19th] century, we can now see those dark stars of legend.</i>" (My translation).<br />
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Langelaan then goes on to recount - including, verbatim, a conversation between himself and Crowley - how the latter says he beat Tartakower in a club match. Crowley had been a pawn down against the great master, but after a "conference with the Baron" between moves - in front of the mirror in the <i>lavabos - </i>the game continued and Tarta blundered his Queen. He "<i>renversa son Roi en signe d'abandon</i>."<br />
<br />
Crowley beat Tartakower? With such specific and lurid detail, surely this couldn't be yet another piece of self-serving fabulation by The Beast? But Dominique Thimognier of <i><a href="http://heritageechecsfra.free.fr/">Heritage des Echecs Francais</a></i>, who knows a thing or two about Tarta, has serious doubts. Much doesn't ring true. There is the no small matter of Crowley having been expelled from France in 1929 (the substance of the <i>Petit Parisien</i> article quoted above) suspected of spying for foreign powers. But Langelaan placed the supposed Tarta game sometime in 1930-32. An inconsistency, though it could be from an understandable trick of Langelaan's memory. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YOq8F3VL6NY/Vq9ww7aruHI/AAAAAAAAHfk/slKuE_uO-tE/s1600/1929-04-17%2BLe%2BPetit%2BParisien_2%2Bcrop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YOq8F3VL6NY/Vq9ww7aruHI/AAAAAAAAHfk/slKuE_uO-tE/s640/1929-04-17%2BLe%2BPetit%2BParisien_2%2Bcrop.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">"Magus? Spy? The enigmatic face of Aleister Crowley who is about to be expelled from France."<br /><i>Le Petit Parisien</i> 17 April 1929 </span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
However, even if the game (assuming it had happened all) had taken place in, say, the first "<i>Liberté</i>" Paris Club competition in 1929 (Langelaan having misremembered the precise year), there is considerable doubt that Tartakower would have played. In such matches there was a presumption against GMs playing club v club. When the <i>Cercle de</i> <i>Potemkhine </i>(Tarta's club)<i> </i>tried to field him later, in the 1931 edition, against <i>Fou de Roi</i> it provoked a row, and <i>Fou de Roi</i> eventually walked out (info from Dominique)<br />
<br />
It is possible that Tarta might have played in some friendly club encounter before Crowley's expulsion in 1929 - if a player of Tarta's calibre could have been tempted; but whatever the circumstances, if it did happen as described, surely a "Crowley beat Tartakower" sensation would have been all over town, and into the chess press, in no time at all. Not least because Crowley would have seen to it. But the chess record is silent, there is no game score, and as far as I can see there is no reference to the incident in Crowley's own writing (though I haven't checked it all - there is a limit to how much Crowley one can take, even for the Streatham and Brixton Chess Blog). <br />
<br />
Nevertheless, whether the defeat of Tartakower is fantastical fact, or plain and simple fantasy, it is quite plausible that Crowley - an habitué of the Café de Grand Palais when the Club was in session - was, all said and done, a member of the BCCP. So we should perhaps update the list of members that we gave in the episode before last, and include "The Beast" - but maybe not as the cod-Gaelic "Ta Dhuibh", which is how he signed-off his Eastbourne Gazette chess column. His membership, if such, would only have run up until when he was bundled out of France in 1929. It's a shame he wasn't still around in 1932 for the Club's "burlesque performance of<i> Faust</i>". He would have made a more convincing Mephistopheles than even George Langelaan.<br />
<br />
Langelaan himself had a successful career after the war, and we will follow this up in the next episode, where George makes good use of his knowledge of the <i>noble jeu</i>. <br />
<br />
<b>Appendix</b><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<i><b>Members of the BCCP 1926-38 mentioned in the BCM and/or French sources (updated):</b> </i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
N.Baliol Scott, E.L.Barbier,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>E.O.Barnard, M.Behles, R.Brown, G.W.Champion, E.Coleman, D.J.Collins, <b>E.</b><b>A.Crowley, </b>C.C.Curtis, R.Dunlop, F.Farrington, J.J.Fitzpatrick,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S.T.Fletcher, W.I.Gastman, E.Grad, H.K.Handasyde, R.W.Holmes, D.Japp, J.M.Lang, George L.A. Langelaan, Gérard Langelaan, L.H.Mortimore, H.Reyss, A.Roe, H.G.Spencer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<o:p></o:p><br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<i><b>Members of the correspondence section:</b></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
B.Reilly, Col.Stuart-Prince<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(based in Nice and Hyères respectively); A.W.Mongredien.</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<o:p></o:p><br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b><i>Others mentioned in a social context</i>:</b></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
D.Langelaan, M.Staub.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>[With thanks also to Richard James, who knows a thing or two about Crowley.] </b></span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris.html">Part 1 The Club</a>; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris_5.html">Part 2 The Opposition</a>; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris.html">Part 3 The Match</a>; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris.html">Part 5 The Robot</a>; </span><a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris_8.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Part 6 The Addendum</span></a><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2006/10/history.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">History Index</span></a></div>
</div>
</div>
<br /></div>
Martin Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17616856982265044441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-9187537952393437452016-02-25T07:55:00.000+00:002016-02-25T08:24:04.168+00:00Highly typicalWhen we were discussing Reti's 15. Qa1 <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2016/02/my-favourite-moves-xv.html">yesterday</a>, we observed that Fine, annotating the move in <a href="https://books.google.es/books?id=rWYK2rOi8dAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">The World's Great Chess Games</a>, quoted Hans Kmoch.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ngvcM9q8ubs/Vr4X9jqzfuI/AAAAAAAAPlI/Dp1vyTLLHDI/s1600/RetiRubinsteinFinep122.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ngvcM9q8ubs/Vr4X9jqzfuI/AAAAAAAAPlI/Dp1vyTLLHDI/s400/RetiRubinsteinFinep122.png" /></a></div>
<br />
What we left until today to observe is that when Ray annotated the same move in the Times, on 27 August 2011<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pbu7_hy9DOY/Vr305YliK2I/AAAAAAAAPjc/ftuzfmlGpNY/s1600/RetiRubinsteinTimesW15.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pbu7_hy9DOY/Vr305YliK2I/AAAAAAAAPjc/ftuzfmlGpNY/s400/RetiRubinsteinTimesW15.png" /></a></div>
<br />
so did he.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kmP8btbD94c/Vr31DVEHFwI/AAAAAAAAPjg/eycfS3AWFsY/s1600/RetiRubinsteinMGPW15.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kmP8btbD94c/Vr31DVEHFwI/AAAAAAAAPjg/eycfS3AWFsY/s400/RetiRubinsteinMGPW15.png" /></a></div>
<br />
Difference is that Ray didn't bother to say so.<br />
<br />
The plagiarism wasn't just of Kmoch*, but - as so often - of the first volume of My Great Predecessors.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TyhcKQ6b-O8/Vr33r8eIJpI/AAAAAAAAPko/0V5ax3hSwAI/s1600/MGP1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TyhcKQ6b-O8/Vr33r8eIJpI/AAAAAAAAPko/0V5ax3hSwAI/s1600/MGP1.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Here's the whole thing, such as it is. Do enjoy the charming moment when, copying practically everything else, Ray omits Kasparov's improper usage of "literally".<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5cEHKjg5R0U/Vr31RXZ99xI/AAAAAAAAPjk/q15O4Z33hYc/s1600/RetiRubinsteinTimes1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5cEHKjg5R0U/Vr31RXZ99xI/AAAAAAAAPjk/q15O4Z33hYc/s1600/RetiRubinsteinTimes1.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_-cFc2RgBis/Vr31TyTB61I/AAAAAAAAPjo/i9qro9hVwos/s1600/RetiRubinsteinTimes2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_-cFc2RgBis/Vr31TyTB61I/AAAAAAAAPjo/i9qro9hVwos/s1600/RetiRubinsteinTimes2.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GQVJiCoePC0/Vr31V5BgtXI/AAAAAAAAPjs/ciV6TbPR8TI/s1600/RetiRubinsteinTimes3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GQVJiCoePC0/Vr31V5BgtXI/AAAAAAAAPjs/ciV6TbPR8TI/s1600/RetiRubinsteinTimes3.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7-lUzqXVVTE/Vr31bcEmeSI/AAAAAAAAPjw/qMpocxlv9xQ/s1600/RetiRubinsteinMGPW6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7-lUzqXVVTE/Vr31bcEmeSI/AAAAAAAAPjw/qMpocxlv9xQ/s400/RetiRubinsteinMGPW6.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TGVS6cx9xQI/Vr31dQlhxGI/AAAAAAAAPj0/TSCMxWAwqQI/s1600/RetiRubinsteinMGPW15.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TGVS6cx9xQI/Vr31dQlhxGI/AAAAAAAAPj0/TSCMxWAwqQI/s400/RetiRubinsteinMGPW15.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dYTrjiPivaA/Vr31gV8QQdI/AAAAAAAAPj4/4J3Kx80_uUM/s1600/RetiRubinsteinMGPW22.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dYTrjiPivaA/Vr31gV8QQdI/AAAAAAAAPj4/4J3Kx80_uUM/s400/RetiRubinsteinMGPW22.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ikPpDWV5pjY/Vr31iI86pGI/AAAAAAAAPj8/r_yflpU4GmQ/s1600/RetiRubinsteinMGPB25.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ikPpDWV5pjY/Vr31iI86pGI/AAAAAAAAPj8/r_yflpU4GmQ/s400/RetiRubinsteinMGPB25.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9y-honJ71fc/Vr31jyIimpI/AAAAAAAAPkA/2e4RAe1glI4/s1600/RetiRubinsteinMGPB33.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9y-honJ71fc/Vr31jyIimpI/AAAAAAAAPkA/2e4RAe1glI4/s400/RetiRubinsteinMGPB33.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zIQiJQvrHy0/Vr31mILzjYI/AAAAAAAAPkE/1Gfri1DJf3o/s1600/RetiRubinsteinMGPW34.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zIQiJQvrHy0/Vr31mILzjYI/AAAAAAAAPkE/1Gfri1DJf3o/s400/RetiRubinsteinMGPW34.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z-k4vtrQ7g8/Vr31ofeqe6I/AAAAAAAAPkI/OCvN0I4dsw4/s1600/RetiRubinsteinMGPB40.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z-k4vtrQ7g8/Vr31ofeqe6I/AAAAAAAAPkI/OCvN0I4dsw4/s400/RetiRubinsteinMGPB40.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
And so it is, Ray, so it is.<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mPcIT-TrZd8/Vr32GqTx-rI/AAAAAAAAPkY/bJtrZO1-Gng/s1600/RetiRubinsteinMGPend.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mPcIT-TrZd8/Vr32GqTx-rI/AAAAAAAAPkY/bJtrZO1-Gng/s400/RetiRubinsteinMGPend.png" /></a></div>
<br />
Well, it's a model example of something.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[* anybody know where Kmoch wrote?]</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Thanks to Pablo Byrne]</span><br/>
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Ray Keene <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/ray-keene-index.html">index</a>]</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Ray Keene plagiarism <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/ray-keene-plagiarism-index.html">index</a>]</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Plagiarised by Ray <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/plagiarised-by-ray-keene-index.html">index</a>]</span>ejhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-51969102366644238112016-02-24T07:55:00.000+00:002016-03-14T12:03:39.741+00:00My favourite moves XVII<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SQI22KfioqQ/Vrxr8GsuagI/AAAAAAAAPh0/vL1gWtutuoE/s1600/RetiRubinstein.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SQI22KfioqQ/Vrxr8GsuagI/AAAAAAAAPh0/vL1gWtutuoE/s400/RetiRubinstein.png" width="391" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Reti-Rubinstein</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Karlsbad, 1923</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">15. Qa1! </span></div>
<br />
This is a an obvious move, isn't it? It's obvious to you. It's obvious to me, now. But it wasn't obvious to me when I was shown it as a child, and the thing we all knew was that we had to centralise our pieces.<br />
<br />
I've gone over this ground before, when we were <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2010/04/my-favourite-moves-xi.html">looking</a> at Nimzowitsch's Nh1, which I notice now was also played against Rubinstein. Ray's remark in <i>Nimzowitsch: A Reappraisal</i> makes sense here too:<br />
<blockquote>
<i>When I first read My System I was so impressed by this game that I deliberately created situations in my next few games where the move Ng3-h1 was possible</i></blockquote>
or at least, when I had a long period playing the Reti Opening in the nineties I was always particularly keen to get the queen to a1, behind the bishop on b2.<br />
<br />
Easier said than done, since you have to get round the queenside rook, but Reti himself managed it again the following year against <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1007029">Yates</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qaNGkTKe5Vo/VsYYlwbM3zI/AAAAAAAAPmg/L1vfjUz0Sek/s1600/RetiYates.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qaNGkTKe5Vo/VsYYlwbM3zI/AAAAAAAAPmg/L1vfjUz0Sek/s200/RetiYates.png" /></a></div>
<br />
which may go some way to explain Kmoch's comment, quoted by Fine (in <i>The World's Great Chess Games</i>) when annotating the Rubinstein game:
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3cVSo-ATAGE/Vr4Xa4Kf7-I/AAAAAAAAPlA/DgzZMQiM7BI/s1600/RetiRubinsteinFinep122.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3cVSo-ATAGE/Vr4Xa4Kf7-I/AAAAAAAAPlA/DgzZMQiM7BI/s400/RetiRubinsteinFinep122.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Golombek, annotating the same encounter in his collection of Reti's best games<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-abq9O3mclTk/VsYaWUg99tI/AAAAAAAAPms/dh4Qz1E2uuw/s1600/GolombekReti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-abq9O3mclTk/VsYaWUg99tI/AAAAAAAAPms/dh4Qz1E2uuw/s400/GolombekReti.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
describes the queen move as
<br />
<blockquote>
<i>beautiful play that increases the pressure on Black's position both diagonally and vertically</i></blockquote>
and in <i>Flank Openings</i> Ray gives 15. Qa1 an exclamation mark, as it merits.<br />
<br />
In the <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/puzzles/chess/article3094075.ece#tab-5">Times</a> (paywall) for 27 August 2011 he was more forthcoming, if slightly more careless:
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V3FakR1vghs/Vr4XLkOF0LI/AAAAAAAAPk8/DDvA7PmcUYM/s1600/RetiRubinsteinTimesW15.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V3FakR1vghs/Vr4XLkOF0LI/AAAAAAAAPk8/DDvA7PmcUYM/s400/RetiRubinsteinTimesW15.png" /></a></div>
<br />
Strong and typical, but perhaps a little obvious, today: I'm sure most readers would play it almost without thinking. But it still has the same, simple, geometric beauty, in the combination of rank and diagonal,as it must have had in 1923, or as it had when I first saw it, half a century later. One should not confuse what is complex with what is attractive. Not in art, not in music, not even in chess.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div>
<object data="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" height="350" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="50%"><param name="movie" value="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value='orientation=H&tabmode=false&light=cccccc&dark=777777&border=0&bordertext=cccccc&headerbackground=0&headerforeground=ffffff&mtbackground=cccccc&pgndata=[Event "Karlsbad"] [Date "April 1928"] [Result "1-0"] [White "Richard Reti"] [Black "Akiba Rubinstein"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 g6 4. c4 d4 5. d3 Bg7 6. b4 O-O 7. Nbd2 c5 8. Nb3 cxb4 9. Bb2 Nc6 10. Nbxd4 Nxd4 11. Bxd4 b6 12. a3 Bb7 13. Bb2 bxa3 14. Rxa3 Qc7 15. Qa1 Ne8 16. Bxg7 Nxg7 17. O-O Ne6 18. Rb1 Bc6 19. d4 Be4 20. Rd1 a5 21. d5 Nc5 22. Nd4 Bxg2 23. Kxg2 Rfd8 24. Nc6 Rd6 25. Re3 Re8 26. Qe5 f6 27. Qb2 e5 28. Qb5 Kf7 29. Rb1 Nd7 30. f3 Rc8 31. Rd3 e4 32. fxe4 Ne5 33. Qxb6 Nxc6 34. c5 Rd7 35. dxc6 Rxd3 36. Qxc7%2B Rxc7 37. exd3 Rxc6 38. Rb7%2B Ke8 39. d4 Ra6 40. Rb6 Ra8 41. Rxf6 a4 42. Rf2 a3 43. Ra2 Kd7 44. d5 g5 45. Kf3 Ra4 46. Ke3 h5 47. h4 gxh4 48. gxh4 Ke7 49. Kf4 Kd7 50. Kf5 1-0'/><p>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[My favourite moves <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/01/my-favourite-moves-index.html">index</a>]</span>ejhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-91520760213856620682016-02-22T08:00:00.000+00:002016-02-22T08:00:08.478+00:00C92: 84 - 95<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Fh2Dfc2eUYI/VsbZA2vwyPI/AAAAAAAAIoY/_ESfoOKxI3M/s1600/Zaitsev%2BStarting%2BPosition.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Fh2Dfc2eUYI/VsbZA2vwyPI/AAAAAAAAIoY/_ESfoOKxI3M/s1600/Zaitsev%2BStarting%2BPosition.png" /></a></div>
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Here’s a post that’s long and pointless: a theoretical survey on an opening that nobody bothers with these days. I’m not even going to be looking at the current state of what’s happening in the Zaitsev variation of the Ruy Lopez. I’m only going to cover what was happening from roughly 1984 to 1995. The closest I’m going to come to topicality is a brief reference to a game played in 2005.</div>
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Why?<br />
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Since you (or at least I) ask, I did it purely to see if I could. To be precise, I wanted to know if I could do it <i>from</i> <i>memory</i>. I’m sorely lacking in chess culture when it comes to mating patterns. This much we know. After <a href="http://www.streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/the-worst-move-on-board-xxvi.html">last week’s post</a>, I wanted to see if I’d picked up anything at all in nigh on thirty years of chessing.</div>
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You want Karpov-era Zaitsev theory? It turns out I’m still your man. I remembered nearly everything. A few details of the game references aside, virtually everything that follows came to mind pretty easily.</div>
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It's knowledge entirely lacking practical value, sure, but then it always was. Yes, I was tooled up with a ton of options at move 17 and beyond in the Zaitsev mainline. No, in all the years I played <b>9 ... Bb7</b> and <b>10 ... Re8</b>, nobody ever took me beyond move 12 in a serious game.</div>
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So well done me. I have a detailed knowledge of 25-year-old theory of an opening I haven’t played for more than a decade. That’s not an awful lot to show for a life in chess, but at least it’s something.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">PREAMBLE</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dkga2uCi15s/VsbapJNCw4I/AAAAAAAAIok/x7sJi_ztv4I/s1600/Smyslov%2Bstart.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dkga2uCi15s/VsbapJNCw4I/AAAAAAAAIok/x7sJi_ztv4I/s320/Smyslov%2Bstart.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">9 ... h6</span></b></div>
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Why play the Zaitsev variation at all? After <b>9 ... h6</b>, White has time for a typical Spanish knight's tour with <b>10 d4 Bb7, 11 Nbd2 Re8, 12 Nf1 Bf8, 13 Ng3</b><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bAvEqJzwJiE/VsbbQ6aZK7I/AAAAAAAAIos/M-_ryAlXPX8/s1600/Smyslov.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bAvEqJzwJiE/VsbbQ6aZK7I/AAAAAAAAIos/M-_ryAlXPX8/s200/Smyslov.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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White needn’t fear <b>... exd4 </b>uncovering an attack on the e4 from the Re8 - a key theme in the variation - because the centre is already adequately defended.</div>
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What Zaitsev understood was that <i>... h6</i><b> </b>could be delayed, and sometimes even omitted altogether. After <b>9 ... Bb7, 10 d4 Re8, 11 Ng5</b> ...</div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f6oSaXr4FrU/VsbcUc_XtSI/AAAAAAAAIo4/sm0R-l7sgpU/s1600/11%2BNg5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f6oSaXr4FrU/VsbcUc_XtSI/AAAAAAAAIo4/sm0R-l7sgpU/s200/11%2BNg5.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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... Black can simply return the rook to f8 and it seems that White has nothing than to go back to f3. There was a game where Ljubojevic (<a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1091726">against Gligoric</a>, it turns out) tried to avoid the repetition and press on with f2-f4 but Black has nothing to fear there.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">LENINGRAD</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mx9_EWwY-HY/VsbdbeNEoPI/AAAAAAAAIpE/WWpUu7zbuIo/s1600/17%2B_c4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mx9_EWwY-HY/VsbdbeNEoPI/AAAAAAAAIpE/WWpUu7zbuIo/s320/17%2B_c4.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">17 ... c5-c4</span></b></div>
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The Zaitsev variation started for me at Leningrad in 1986. During the third Kasparov - Karpov match, after <b>9 ... Bb7, 10 d4 Re8, 11 Nbd2 Bf8, 12 a4 h6, 13 Bc2 exd4, 14 cxd4 Nb4, 15 Bb1 c5, 16 d5 Nd7, 17 Ra3 c4 </b>Gazza punted <b>18 axb5</b> in <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067211">game 14</a> and <b>18 Nd4</b> in <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067209">game 16</a>, winning both times. Curious that I should be inspired to adopt a defence after two crushing defeats for Black, but there you are.</div>
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In the second of the infamous defeats Karpov had played a theoretical novelty with<b> 18 ... Qf6</b>. It seems that he had already discovered a knight sacrifice that Kasparov was intending to play in what had previously been considered to be the main line. Not that anybody else knew that at the time.<br />
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Over the next couple of years <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1124293">Sax - Short, Interzonal 1987</a> and <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1114224">Sokolov - Portisch, Brussels World Cup 1988</a> made the strength of <b>Nxc4</b> (after <b>18 ... Ne5, 19 axb5 Qb6</b>) common knowledge and everybody decided that Karpov, comprehensive drubbing notwithstanding, was right to bring out his queen all along.</div>
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<b>18 ... Qf6</b> was always going to be my choice. I was ready with <b>25 ... Ncd3 </b>(preventing <b>26 Qc2</b>) which was the suggested improvement over <i>25 ... Nbd3</i> which was actually played in the game </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">SIDELINES</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xvSK0GLNlAI/VsbhTo74m6I/AAAAAAAAIpQ/eMqHGac_A5A/s1600/12%2B_exd4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xvSK0GLNlAI/VsbhTo74m6I/AAAAAAAAIpQ/eMqHGac_A5A/s320/12%2B_exd4.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">12 ... exd4</span></b></div>
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In the first two K-K matches things had gone differently. Black had given up the centre before retreating with ... Bf8 - <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067199">Kasparov - Karpov, World Championship Match, 1984/1985 (44)</a> - played <b>12 ... Qd7</b> instead of <b>... h6</b> -</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mdA2KnpdYjY/VsbiGdPE8gI/AAAAAAAAIpY/Gh2bTxOs1wE/s1600/12%2B_Qd7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mdA2KnpdYjY/VsbiGdPE8gI/AAAAAAAAIpY/Gh2bTxOs1wE/s200/12%2B_Qd7.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067173">Kasparov - Karpov, World Championship Match, 1984/1985 (46)</a>; <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067181">Kasparov - Karpov, World Championship Match, 1985 (5)</a> - and on one occasion transposed into something more akin to a Breyer with <b>13 ... Nb8</b> - <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067193">Kasparov - Karpov, World Championship Match, 1985 (9)</a>.</div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4T_PTpTf-Og/Vsbig6QE_TI/AAAAAAAAIpc/7EQldjYKy1s/s1600/13%2B_Nb8.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4T_PTpTf-Og/Vsbig6QE_TI/AAAAAAAAIpc/7EQldjYKy1s/s200/13%2B_Nb8.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Black scored</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; text-align: justify;"> +1 =3 -0 </span><span style="text-align: justify;">in these games, but I can’t say these lines ever appealed to me.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">KARPOV ABANDONS THE SHARP STUFF</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o2ga_SHeb8Q/VsbixhKNbjI/AAAAAAAAIpk/hhjquwgsYrk/s1600/13%2B_Rab8.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o2ga_SHeb8Q/VsbixhKNbjI/AAAAAAAAIpk/hhjquwgsYrk/s320/13%2B_Rab8.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">13 ... Rb8<span style="color: red;">*</span></span></b></div>
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No doubt fed up after getting spanked in the exciting variations, Karpov dialled things down after the ’86 match. He tried <b>... Rb8</b> instead of giving up the centre against Timman (<a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1068511">at Tilburg</a>) and gave up the Ruy Lopez entirely, swapping 1 ... e5 for the Caro-Kann, during his Candidates’ Final match against Sokolov and again in Seville during Kasparov-Karpov IV.</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Sv40--sQY7I/Vsbkx6n3jsI/AAAAAAAAIp0/qPW8iii--3w/s1600/15%2B_bxa4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Sv40--sQY7I/Vsbkx6n3jsI/AAAAAAAAIp0/qPW8iii--3w/s320/15%2B_bxa4.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">9 ... Bb7, 10 d4 Re8, 11 Nbd2 Bf8, 12 a4 h6, 13 Bc2 exd4, 14 cxd4 Nb4, 15 Bb1 bxa4</span></b></div>
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Evidently this was not entirely to his satisfaction, though, and a couple of years later Anatoly returned to the Zaitsev, albeit favouring a different sub-line. <b>15 ... bxa4</b> wasn’t new to me, I knew that it had been played at the Moscow Interzonal years before (<a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1276573">Sax - Beliavsky</a>), but I had never thought of it as a serious try.</div>
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Capturing the a-pawn always looked decidedly anti-positional to me. I say that not with the benefit of hindsight - Karpov and everybody else would eventually give it up after he got battered by Kasparov in <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067283">game 2 of the 1990 match</a> - I never got it at the time. Successful tests against Ivanchuk (<a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1060063">Linares 1989</a>), Hjartarson (<a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1068758">Candidates Match 1989</a>) and Timman in the 1990 Candidates’ Final (<a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1068811">game 1</a>, <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1068812">game 5</a>) or otherwise, I never understood the <b>15 ... bxa4</b> / <b>17 ... Ra6</b> plan and was never tempted to try it for myself.</div>
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As a by-the-by, I should mention that if you’ve been with us from the beginning you may just recall that this opening patterns crops up in a post (<i><a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2006/10/susan-polgars-brilliant-brain.html">Susan Polgar’s Brilliant Brain</a>)</i> from July 2007.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">BRINGING SEXY BACK</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n4Pjx1d3GM0/Vsbnza3s-9I/AAAAAAAAIqA/q6QH063NrbM/s1600/17%2B_f5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n4Pjx1d3GM0/Vsbnza3s-9I/AAAAAAAAIqA/q6QH063NrbM/s320/17%2B_f5.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">17 ... f5</span></b></div>
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So back we went to the sharper plans with .<b>.. exd4</b> and a subsequent queenside expansion. Karpov never returned to<b> 17 ... c5-c4</b>, though. Instead he switched to <b>17 ... f7-f5</b>, the move that White’s a-file Rook lift was supposed to discourage.</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JbNS0En_qWE/Vsboi3jOgZI/AAAAAAAAIqI/qu-2xZt9PiQ/s1600/17%2BNf1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JbNS0En_qWE/Vsboi3jOgZI/AAAAAAAAIqI/qu-2xZt9PiQ/s200/17%2BNf1.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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In one of the first games to reach this position (<a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1038114">de Firimian - Beliavsky</a> at the 1985 Tunis Interzonal - yes, <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/keenes-gambit.html"><i>that</i></a> one), white had gone with the traditional Lopez manoeuvre Nbd2-f1 and Black had responded with <b>... f7-f5</b>. The idea - to destroy White’s centre and free the bishop on b7 - is clear enough and the theoretical consensus was that Black has a comfortable game at the very least.</div>
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The point of Ra1-a3 was to exploit the loosening of Black’s king’s position that the pawn advance would leave behind. It also helps to keep the knight on d2 for a bit longer as it may be able to go directly to the centre should the e4-pawn be traded for the f-pawn.</div>
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Karpov first tried <b>17 ... f5</b> in <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1068813">game 9</a> of his Candidates’ Final match against Timman. He tried it again against Kasparov in their fifth match, Gazza responding with <b>18 exf5</b> in <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067292">game 4</a> and <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067293">game 22</a> and <b>18 Rae3</b> (as Timman had) in <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067294">game 20</a>. These were the last of the Kasparov-Karpov World Championship Zaitsev games, but there was one final hurrah - another <b>17 ... f5, 18 Rae3</b> encounter (at <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067313">Amsterdam 1991</a>) which ended in a draw.</div>
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<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">AFTERS</span></b><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;">The final score in the K-K Zaitsev mini-match was <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">+4 =5 </span>(6 if you included Amsterdam) <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">-1</span>. A fairly healthy score for White, to be honest, and it becomes absolutely pulverising when you recall that 2.5 of Karpov’s points came in the first two matches.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Not that Black’s conspicuous lack of success with the Zaitsev at the very highest level put off me or many others. Nigel Short relied on the system to win his St John Candidates’ match against Sax in 1988 for instance<b><span style="color: red;">**</span></b> and it cropped up a couple of times - <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1124576">game 2</a>; <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1124575">game 10</a> - in the Short - Timman Candidates’ Final early in 1993. Either through respect for the positions he’d previously played with Black or simply a desire to surprise, Nige opted to avoid the mainlines with <b>12 Bc2</b> and an early <b>d4-d5 </b>in those games.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Kamsky played the Zaitsev throughout his PCA Candidates’ match with Anand in 1995. He punted a couple of sidelines, it’s true, but in game <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1018610">game 5</a> he went for <b>17 ... c4, 18 Nd4 Qf6, 19 N2f3 Nd3</b> which had been suggested as an option (by Kasparov, I think) immediately after Leningrad. Anand could find nothing better than to force a repetition very soon afterwards. <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1018612">Game 7</a> was a much longer draw in the <b>18 axb5</b> line.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Since Kamsky had tried <b>9 ... Bb7</b> against the future world champion in another match the year before, Anand must have been very prepared for it. Quite how ready he was wouldn’t become clear for another 10 years though. At the San Luis World Championship match tournament in 2005, Adams <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1361575">walked into an exchange sacrifice</a> that Anand had analysed with Yusupov prior to playing Kamsky.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Timman subsequently wrote in <i>New in Ches</i>s that he had discovered <b>23 Qd2</b> when preparing for Karpov in 1990. I’ve also heard tell that Kasparov claimed to have found it in 1989 too. Odds on, Kamsky went <b>17 ... c4, 18 axb5 axb5, 19 Nd4 Ne5</b> rather than <b>19 ... Qb6</b> because he knew about it as well. Adams, who didn’t make a habit of playing the Zaitsev, was evidently on his own. A bit of bad luck for Mickey, that, but such is life when you play a sharp line at the top level.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Tt5g931EG64/VshhzRhxISI/AAAAAAAAIqY/a-NkkgPpbfU/s1600/adams01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Tt5g931EG64/VshhzRhxISI/AAAAAAAAIqY/a-NkkgPpbfU/s200/adams01.jpg" width="153" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Oops</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And that’s where we’ll leave it, I think. I gave up the Zaitsev a year or two before San Luis. I haven’t the foggiest what’s happened since then, although I’m fairly sure there haven’t been (m)any games at the highest levels.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If you know different - and have made it this far - do please feel free to let me know in the comments.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">*</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">It was actually <b>15 ... Rb8</b> in the game, Timman having previously thrown in one repetition with <b>11 Ng5 Rf8, 12 Nf3 Re8</b>. This was a common tactic back in the day, White either trying to bluff Black out of his/her favourite defence or simply getting a couple of moves nearer to the time control.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="color: red;">** </b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sax-Short <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1124363">game 2</a> was one of my major inspirations to take up the system whilst <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1124359">game 4</a> - like <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/nph-chesspgn?text=1&gid=1068708">game 3</a> of the Hjartarson - Karpov match the following year and a couple of games (<a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070168">1</a> and <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070170">3</a>) from the ’85 Timman - Kasparov match - is an example of what happens when White opts for restraint with <b>12 a3</b> rather than try the more direct <b>12 a4</b>. I was always going to go with Karpov’s <b>15 ... a5 </b>rather than <b>... g6</b> as preferred by Gazza and Nosh.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Adams pic via <a href="http://en.chessbase.com/portals/4/files/news/2011/events/adams01.jpg">Chessbase</a></span></b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-10224388333246563822016-02-21T09:55:00.000+00:002016-02-21T11:05:07.837+00:00Cover version: Handel / ll Complesso Barocco / Curtis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kIUdmstwpcg/Vsitxck8FsI/AAAAAAAAPnk/NpfZqSLWjXQ/s1600/Lotario.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="348" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kIUdmstwpcg/Vsitxck8FsI/AAAAAAAAPnk/NpfZqSLWjXQ/s400/Lotario.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Alan Curtis, Il Complesso Barocco, <i>Handel: Lotario</i> (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, 2011)</div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[<a href="https://twitter.com/chesstutor/status/682230502451998720">via</a> Richard James]</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Cover version <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/cover-version-index.html">index</a>]</span>ejhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-10831636430211528032016-02-19T07:55:00.002+00:002016-02-19T18:41:00.750+00:00Surprise movesLord Avebury is <a href="https://twitter.com/KingpinEd/status/698880206765977600">dead</a>.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Twakklb5f6A/VsHc5xjtwYI/AAAAAAAAPmQ/H4xu4RfCyS4/s1600/Aveburytweet.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Twakklb5f6A/VsHc5xjtwYI/AAAAAAAAPmQ/H4xu4RfCyS4/s400/Aveburytweet.png" /></a></div>
I think I missed that at the time, or I'd forgotten about it since, but I had a look around and as per usual, having gone searching for something on the internet I found myself looking at something else, specifically a statement by Baroness Symons to the House of Lords in June 1999 concerning the conflict in Kosovo (and <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199899/ldhansrd/vo990614/text/90614-11.htm">subsequent</a> <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199899/ldhansrd/vo990614/text/90614-12.htm">questions</a>). My search caught it becase Lord Avebury contributed, but it was someone else who raised the question of chess.
<br />
<br />
Our man in the ermine on this occasion was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Schreiber,_Baron_Marlesford">Baron Marlesford</a>, of Eton and the Coldstream Guards, who offered the House a surprising, if unoriginal, chess-centred perspective on Russian troop movements in the conflict.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tRhfcn2cszE/VsG8zFry6VI/AAAAAAAAPls/WRKO42iLk7s/s1600/HansardMarlesford.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="124" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tRhfcn2cszE/VsG8zFry6VI/AAAAAAAAPls/WRKO42iLk7s/s640/HansardMarlesford.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MgOds6sOxDs/VsHX445HiCI/AAAAAAAAPmA/VOTDwiRNfkk/s1600/Marlesford.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MgOds6sOxDs/VsHX445HiCI/AAAAAAAAPmA/VOTDwiRNfkk/s320/Marlesford.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>Pompous arse</b></span></div>
<br />
What the hell <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Symons,_Baroness_Symons_of_Vernham_Dean">Liz Symons</a> was supposed to reply to that I don't know (I'd have gone for either "yes, we're shipping over two dozen of them on the next transport" or "haven't you been abolished yet?") but you can almost hear the "oh, Christ" at the start of her reply.
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BQU7p6ABomM/VsG8lhm3cgI/AAAAAAAAPlg/t8_lxAXn9pQ/s1600/HansardSymons1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="124" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BQU7p6ABomM/VsG8lhm3cgI/AAAAAAAAPlg/t8_lxAXn9pQ/s640/HansardSymons1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a>But wait! There was more, this time from
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Ponsonby,_4th_Baron_Ponsonby_of_Shulbrede">Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede</a> on the Labour benches. The nobel Lord had an extremely important point to make.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W-DpMdCNrIw/VsG8nAF1VwI/AAAAAAAAPlk/HqgzHTSH_5M/s1600/HansardPonsonby.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="83" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W-DpMdCNrIw/VsG8nAF1VwI/AAAAAAAAPlk/HqgzHTSH_5M/s640/HansardPonsonby.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Now I am no great admirer of Liz Symons but she is (and was) at least in possession of a functioning intelligence and presumably in possession of a functioning capacity for patience. But not an infinite one.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1aT3XLgszfY/VsG8pcsNXBI/AAAAAAAAPlo/PEQqo17xcxg/s1600/HansardSymons2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="113" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1aT3XLgszfY/VsG8pcsNXBI/AAAAAAAAPlo/PEQqo17xcxg/s640/HansardSymons2.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Yes, yes I know all about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bletchley_Park#Personnel">Bletchley Park</a> but does anybody think this was anything other than the tedious old tradition of invoking chess whenever Russia and international relations are the subject of discussion? Or, for that matter, the tedious old tradition of self-important old drones thinking that invoking chess makes them look clever and knowledgeable when in fact it has the opposite effect?<br />
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It's not important, really, except that it's not realy about chess, it's about war, and talking about one as if it were the other is nearly always glib and hence nearly always a touch distasteful: it's one thing trying to make yourself look clever, another trying to make youself look clever when the background to that is war, bombing and death. Is that not so?<br />
<br />
Purdy <a href="http://www.kingpinchess.net/2015/06/chess-and-war/">reminds</a> us that from the point of view of chess, chess-and-war metaphors don't really work<br />
<blockquote>
<i>almost the whole basis of chess is the rule that each player must move in turn and only one thing at a time. This makes it entirely different from war</i></blockquote>
but the more important truth is that they don't do anything for our understanding of war either: all they do is trivialise. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Syrian_Civil_War_barrel_bomb_attacks">Barrel bombs</a> aren't chess and they aren't anything that can properly be compared to chess. I really wouldn't mind if we just dispensed with the chess-and-war metaphors altogether.
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<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Pompous arse <a href="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/59839000/jpg/_59839692_-9.jpg">image</a> <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_lords/newsid_9714000/9714271.stm">via</a>]
</span>ejhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-49123120968029542922016-02-17T07:55:00.000+00:002016-02-20T20:37:13.650+00:00Once was enough VIII : Accelerated Dragon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pe8buMkz6ag/Vr22UkQuTyI/AAAAAAAAPiY/XoR1xjn0mA0/s1600/AccDrag.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pe8buMkz6ag/Vr22UkQuTyI/AAAAAAAAPiY/XoR1xjn0mA0/s400/AccDrag.png" /></a></div>
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<b>1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6</b></div>
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The Accelerated Dragon. Never remotely as popular as its allegedly slower cousin, but as far as I recall I've never played <i>that</i> version at all, almost the only major variation of the Sicilian that I haven't. When I started out playing competitive chess, lots of people (but probably above all, Miles and Mestel) were giving it a go, in English chess at any rate, but I took more notice of Fischer's <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1008373&kpage=3#kibitzing">annotations</a> in 60 Memorable Games.<br />
<blockquote>
<i>I once thumbed through several issues of "Shakhmatny Bulletin," when the Yugoslav Attack was making its debut, and found the ratio was something like nine wins out of ten in White's favor</i>.</blockquote>
"Weak players even beat Grandmasters with it", says Fischer of the Yugoslav Attack. I suspect I'd lose to weak players with either side of it.<br />
<br />
There's actually an Accelerated Dragon in the book too, though I never properly noticed that at the time: the <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1008402&kpage=1">second game</a> in the Fischer-Reshevsky match, in which Fischer improved on <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1008353">Alekhine-Botvinnik</a> from 1936. I wasn't paying attention: not only does the 1961 game open with our move order as above (rather than the <i>2...d6</i> of the normal Dragon) but Fischer's note to White's eighth specifically refers to<br />
<blockquote>
<i>the point of Black's "accelerated fianchetto"</i></blockquote>
which is precisely to play, if possible, ...d5 in one go.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b>WHY I PLAYED IT:</b>
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<br />
Why I played it at the time I did I haven't the faintest recollection: I see from my scorebooks that it comes after a whole mishmash of different stuff: a few open games preceded by a Caro-Kann, some French Defences and a number of Sicilians of which the only one to feature <i>3. d4</i> was a Sveshnikov. Something different every game, like the top players do - except without the ability, the preparation or the results.
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<br />
Why I was attracted to it generally: that's simple enough. Simple is the word. It seemed to have a <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2008/01/these-we-have-loved.html">simple idea</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
<i>there's a particular ending which Black tries to reach involving swapping off everything</i></blockquote>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zP6cfQtIAjc/Vr3KZIG9ERI/AAAAAAAAPi0/9PBzpvJ1OTs/s1600/AccDragplan1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zP6cfQtIAjc/Vr3KZIG9ERI/AAAAAAAAPi0/9PBzpvJ1OTs/s200/AccDragplan1.png" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iEYvI9eqYl4/Vr3KaGyabQI/AAAAAAAAPi4/ybAicvlJTzc/s1600/AccDragplan2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iEYvI9eqYl4/Vr3KaGyabQI/AAAAAAAAPi4/ybAicvlJTzc/s200/AccDragplan2.png" /></a></div>
<blockquote>
<i>except one Black knight and White's white-squared bishop, which is therefore bad, so Black wins the ending.</i></blockquote>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IOSgMJdH7Kg/Vr3Kefiq6zI/AAAAAAAAPi8/34Urcs4S20U/s1600/AccDragplan3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IOSgMJdH7Kg/Vr3Kefiq6zI/AAAAAAAAPi8/34Urcs4S20U/s200/AccDragplan3.png" /></a></div>
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And that's all there is to it, as Bruce Forsyth used to put it. That, and the presence of various cheap traps involving ...Nxe4, like this one for instance.
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aeHQ-qbqyFI/Vr3Ml1u5n9I/AAAAAAAAPjM/buJXruZXGUQ/s1600/AccDragtrap.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aeHQ-qbqyFI/Vr3Ml1u5n9I/AAAAAAAAPjM/buJXruZXGUQ/s200/AccDragtrap.png" /></a></div>
<br />
It's not "accelerated" at all. It offers a simple plan, cheap traps and above all the knowledge that it probably isn't really any good. What more could a club player want from a opening?
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<b>
WHERE I FOUND IT:</b><br />
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<a href="http://www.foyles.co.uk/">Foyle's</a>. It was big and brightly-coloured.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tqEvw2BQzAo/VrxuhjRTBfI/AAAAAAAAPiA/lbfXZxIoyIo/s1600/AccDragNielsenHansen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tqEvw2BQzAo/VrxuhjRTBfI/AAAAAAAAPiA/lbfXZxIoyIo/s400/AccDragNielsenHansen.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
I like a nice chunky openings book: the garish colour is a bonus, as are illustrative games from Larsen such as <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1124137">this</a> and <a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1124137">this</a>. <i>The Accelerated Dragon</i>, the preface tells us,<br />
<blockquote>
<i>had lived a life of semi-obscurity for many years, when Bent Larsen revitalised the black side</i></blockquote>
and they also cite "Tiviakov, Anand, Alterman, Petursson, Andersson and Larsen" as proponents of the system, if system it can properly be called. They must have raised its profile more than I'd realised: not only did this book come out in 1998 but, looking at the other two books I acquired on the opening, one by Jeremy Silman and John Donaldson (Cadogan)
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HD4tSSCk8hE/VrxujbENgxI/AAAAAAAAPiI/HBuvfDdRXyI/s1600/AccDragDonaldsonSilman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HD4tSSCk8hE/VrxujbENgxI/AAAAAAAAPiI/HBuvfDdRXyI/s400/AccDragDonaldsonSilman.jpg" /></a></div>
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and one by Silman on his own (Chess Digest)
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CUBB3hnRbA8/VrxuivBZn4I/AAAAAAAAPiE/lgX5wuQ-JqI/s1600/AccDragSilman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CUBB3hnRbA8/VrxuivBZn4I/AAAAAAAAPiE/lgX5wuQ-JqI/s400/AccDragSilman.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
both those came out in that same year. All the more strange, then, you might think, that it should take me another five years to get round to giving it a go: almost as strange as buying three books on an opening that I ended up playing only once. (Imagine the state of your library if you adopted that pattern as a rule.)
<br />
<br />
Not that strange, though, when I reflect that I've also got three books on the Leningrad Dutch, which I've never played at all. Never even really considered it.<br />
<br />
<b>WHY I STOPPED PLAYING IT: </b>
<br />
<br />
The next game in my scorebook has me starting <i>1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6</i> but then <i>3. d3</i>, so I'm guessing I was perfectly happy to give it another shot. But on the other hand I can't have been that keen, since in fact, to date, the game is the last Open Sicilian I've ever played: a few months later I <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2013/06/the-last-sicilian.html">gave up</a> playing the Sicilian.
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<br />
You're thinking, the game wasn't as bad as all that. Indeed it wasn't. But something had to go and the Sicilian was it.<br />
<br />
<b>CHANCES OF MY PLAYING IT AGAIN: </b>
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It's an academic question as long as I keep up my no-Sicilians rule. even if I didn't, you often find, at club level, that whatever Sicilian you decide on, you're lucky if anybody ever lets you play it: it's all sidelines and deviations, and I'm a bit out of touch on what to do about them nowadays, what with not playing the Sicilian and all. And what do people play against <i>3. Bb5</i> these days?
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But I can't say I'm not tempted. Probably not tempted enough, but tempted all the same. You've got cheap tricks and a simple plan. And if it probably isn't really any good, well, which of us really are?
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Once was enough <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/once-was-enough-index.html">index</a>]</span>ejhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-594912501477677192016-02-15T08:00:00.000+00:002016-02-15T12:04:50.852+00:00The Worst Move on the Board XXVI<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>White to play</i></div>
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I was leafing through an old chess magazine the other day. I came across a piece by Jacob Aagaard on what was then the new edition of <a href="http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/products/2/140/chess_tactics_from_scratch_-_uct_2nd_edition_by_martin_weteschnik/"><i>Chess Tactics from Scratch</i></a>. The original version was apparently one of the best selling books from <i>Quality Chess</i>’s original range. The new edition, or so the claim went, was the best of its type ever produced.</div>
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Mr A’s thoughts notwithstanding, my opinion remains that <i>Chess Tactics from Scratch</i> is very likely the worst written chess book that I’ve ever seen. If only I had time enough to expound on this thesis I would happily do so. At length. For now I’ll just have to limit myself to saying that doesn’t mean I think it has no value.</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HjyTC8b_gW8/VsCScr4UITI/AAAAAAAAIm8/Ny1TTIWsd3A/s1600/Epaulette.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HjyTC8b_gW8/VsCScr4UITI/AAAAAAAAIm8/Ny1TTIWsd3A/s320/Epaulette.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>The Epaulette Mate</b></div>
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Like a lot of chessers, I suspect, I didn’t learn the game in any kind of systematic way. I just picked things up here and there. I played a lot, spent much too much time reading openings books and by and large completely neglected to build up a store of the basic patterns. The ones that good and even moderate players take for granted.</div>
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One of the mating patterns that pretty much passed me by is the Epaulette mate. You can see it above. If White has a supported queen on d5 - or Black has one on g3 - it’s mate. Well, it is as long as the highlighted squares are blocked by defending pieces. It’s not too fanciful to see these squares as being on the king’s shoulders, hence the name.</div>
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I have a vague recollection of seeing this explained in a book at some point in my late teens. As I said, though, I never worked on chess in a coherent way so even if I did 'know' it, the pattern of the Epaulette Mate never became part of my unconscious thinking. I could and can tell you about various theoretical ideas that Black had at move 17 of the Zaitsev - starting from either .<b>.. c5-c4</b> for .<b>.. f7-f5</b> - but the Epaulette Mate didn’t stick.</div>
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<i>Chess Tactics from Scratch</i> is certainly lacking in all sorts of ways. I can’t deny, though, that working through it means I can now, usually, see the Epaulette Mate coming. Indeed, it was Weteschnik’s book that came to mind when I saw the position at the head of today’s blog.</div>
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I gather the position at the head of today’s blog occurred in the last round of one of the Gibraltar side events. White is an exchange and a couple of pawns up. By my count White has over 30 legal moves to choose from. Our man found the only one that hands the win to Black in an instant.</div>
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A tough break for White. Especially since had he won the game he would have shared first place in the tournament. One move on from the position you see above, it was the player of the Black pieces who was going home with a share of the £900 first prize.</div>
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As many people have said in the past, there really should be an Informator symbol for "Ouch".</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: justify;">With thanks to David Sedgwick</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>The Worst Move on the Board <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2006/10/worst-move-on-board-index.html">Index</a></b></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-73707610400288105332016-02-12T08:00:00.000+00:002017-08-18T11:33:07.907+01:00Les Chesseurs Britanniques de Paris: Part 3 The MatchIn the<a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris.html"> first post</a> on this series about the long-forgotten British Chess Club of Paris (1926 to 1938/9) we looked at some of the personalities involved in its activities. <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris_5.html">Part 2</a> looked at its impact on the Parisian chess scene of the time. In this episode we will take the long view backwards to 1931. It was a good year for the Club: 5 years after its foundation it was the year when it made the headlines. <br />
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Well, a small one, anyway, on Monday 23 November. The reason? On Sunday 22 November 1931, "<i>le club anglais</i>" - our French friends were a little shaky on the British/English distinction - played a match against the Manhattan Chess Club. The BCCP team resigned on the 31st move. Not quite the headline the Club would have wished. But, any publicity...etc. They played in Paris. Their American opponents played in New York. The match was played by cable between teams of five-a-side in consultation.<br />
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In this episode of the series we tell the story of the "match", as it was invariably referred to (even though only one game was played; but as it was a team event I suppose we could let that go), and we will do so occasionally in the company of the inevitable George Langelaan, for it was he who was credited as the author of the account of the event in the British Chess Magazine of January 1932.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Fulsome though his report was, extravagant even, fortunately we don't have to rely on him alone. There was plenty of other press coverage; though we don't have access to all the "<i>twenty</i> front page stories" claimed by George. However, Dominique Thimognier (to whom this post is especially indebted) of <i><a href="http://heritageechecsfra.free.fr/">Heritage des Échecs Français</a></i> has tracked down the most significant. We can thus draw on reports in the general press from this both sides of the Atlantic, and also reports from the specialist chess press in the States, France and Britain (they are listed at the end of the post). Over here the match featured in a special report in the BCM at the time (with a photo), and was also mentioned in the retrospective 10 year progress report on the BCCP in the BCM of April 1935. The latter, we may suppose, was also penned by the talented Mr Langelaan, adopting, as his <i>nom de plume </i>"A Correspondent" in an uncharacteristic act of self-effacement (Part 4 of the series will treat further with his slippery visage). <br />
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Still on preliminaries: the motivation for the match was that the BCCP was desirous of contributing to the French Chess Federation's promotional effort "<i>en faveur de ce noble jeu</i>" (<i>Le Journal</i> 33 Nov 1931 - all references from that year unless stated otherwise). Nevertheless one feels a bit nervous, given the possible French readership of our Blog, of repeating the claim from the British camp that the match was responsible for breathing life back into a flagging domestic chess scene. "Many French players date the revival of chess in [France] to the organisation of the match...the large amount of publicity...which it obtained, had undoubtedly the effect of stirring up attention to the game" (BCM April 1935) asserted "A Correspondent". Maybe that was to try and salvage some honour after the BCCP's melt-down in the game itself.<br />
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The match was initiated by a challenge from this side of the Atlantic. The jocular manner of its reception on the other implies that it was perceived as an impertinence: "<i>British chess players residing in Paris and spoiling for a fight, have thrown their hats into the ring...A distinct dare accompanied the gesture, whereby the owners of the aforesaid hats were separated from their covering</i>" (<i>Brooklyn Daily Eagle </i>12 Nov). The same column was later unabashed, on the 25 November, in trumpeting American superiority, as if the result had been a foregone conclusion: <i>"The British chess players...were no match for the team representing the Manhattan Chess Club...it was quite plain that the overseas contingent had taken on more than they could conveniently manage...It created no surprise that victory should rest with the club that had brought out such experts as Kashdan, Kupchik [etc]." </i><br />
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The French press was less partisan and generally supportive of their British <i>confrères</i>,<i> </i>with <i>Le Matin </i>and <i>Le Figaro</i> providing some in-depth coverage. They dwelt on the human interest angle rather more than the chess itself, perhaps because they were addressing a general readership - it was, after all, an eye-catching stunt intended to appeal to the <i>le grand public. </i>In fact <i>le match</i> was billed beforehand in <i>le Petit Parisien</i> of the 21st November: the BCCP team would play from the offices of the Commercial Cable Company 24, blvd du Capucines (the Manhattan CC would play from the Company offices in Broad Street, New York) - and the public would be admitted to watch. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8T8ONK_CiAA/VrI85sGlyiI/AAAAAAAAHgE/kZTYCNoNwLk/s1600/24%2Bblvd%2Bcap.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8T8ONK_CiAA/VrI85sGlyiI/AAAAAAAAHgE/kZTYCNoNwLk/s400/24%2Bblvd%2Bcap.png" width="321" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">The brown door at 24 blvd du Capucines</span></b></td></tr>
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Interested spectators were warned, though, that game could take several hours, and with a start time of 14.00 in Paris a pertinent speculation surfaced in the pages of <i>Le Figaro</i> (22 Nov) attentive as it was - in the Gallic manner - to matters alimentary. At 14.00 the <i>équipe anglaise</i> would have had time for a decent lunch; but the Americans, starting at 09.00 local time, would barely have had time for breakfast, a hurried one if at all. Pondered <i>Le Figaro</i>: would this be an advantage, or not, for <i>les Anglais</i> (sympathetically adopting their perspective)? Note, however, that an hour's adjournment was scheduled for 18.00 should the teams have felt a little peckish.<br />
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<i>Le Figaro</i> raised yet another practical issue, though of lesser moment. What about colours? As if conversant with the finer nuances of chess etiquette, it pointed out that who had white was determined, when playing "<i>dans un café"</i>, by the toss of a coin. But "<i>à travers l'Atlantique</i>"? The solution was simple. On the Friday morning before the match each side simultaneously transmitted a number from 1 to 10. If the sum was even Manhattan CC would take white. It was the only thing they got wrong. As to the technical side: French readers were provided with exhaustive detail. The moves were transmitted along 6,786 kilomètres of cable - no more, no less - (<i>Le Petit Parisien</i> 21 Nov, confirmed by <i>Le Figaro</i> 22 Nov), sinking to a more rounded 9,000 mètres "<i>dans les profondeurs atlantiques</i>". In spite of these prodigious dimensions, the moves would reach the other side in a mere six seconds. It fell to <i>Le Matin</i> (23 Nov) to make another startling exposé: that at 15 francs a move the match cost in total nearly 1000 francs of cable-time; though I don't suppose that the Commercial Cable Company minded too much. <br />
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It was agreed that neither side would field masters or professional players (<i>Brooklyn Daily Eagle</i> 12 Nov, also BCM Jan 32), furthermore the two sides would play "<i>dans le plus strict incognito</i>" (<i>Le Matin</i> 23 Nov) - a handicap that may have also have afflicted the spectators in Paris peering through the fug to make out the home team enveloped by "<i>une fumée olympienne</i>" as the <i>jouers</i> sucked "solemnly" upon their pipes. But if it was intended that the teams should remain secret it was one badly kept: the Paris fans could have discovered the identity of the Americans in the<i> Brooklyn Daily Eagle</i> which revealed all in their 12 November issue, 10 days before the match...<br />
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This is how they squared up. For the BCCP: N. Baliol Scott, G.W.Champion (captain) D. J. Collins, C.C.Curtis, and R.W. Holmes - invigilated in Paris by Joshua Crane of Boston CC (<i>Le Journal</i> 33 Nov), who may also have been the "match umpire" (as given by the BCM Jan 32); and for Manhattan CC: L.B.Meyer, A. Pinkus (captain), L. Samuels, A. Schroder and R. Williams. The observer in New York was Dr. N. Lederer (<i>New York Evening Post</i> 23 Nov) who may or may not have been the English representative <i>sur place</i> mentioned by <i>Le Matin</i> 23 November. In contrast to its premature disclosure of the Manhattan team, the<i> Brooklyn Daily Eagle</i> omitted to mention, in any of its coverage, that the event was graced by a rather significant figure in the chess world: Alexander Alekhine, the world champion. He was engaged to adjudicate if the game was unfinished after the nine (!) hours of cable time alloted. Alekhine offered his prediction (so reported <i>Le Journal</i> 23 Nov) that the match would be hard fought ("<i>rude</i>"), and was, in his estimation, unlikely to conclude in a draw.<br />
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Langelaan, who was credited in the BCM of January 1932 as the organiser of the event, gave a explanatory commentary "<i>avec un sens admirable de l'humour</i>" elucidating "<i>un jeu simple et clair</i>" that takes only half an hour to learn, and an ordinary game only 45 minutes to play (as reported <i>Le Matin</i> 23 Nov). The spectators in Paris could follow the game itself on "<i>un immense tableau</i>" (<i>Le Journal</i> 23 Nov)<br />
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Remarkably there are photographs from both ends of the cable, though of differing quality, united here for maybe the first time.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Left - from the <i>New York Evening Post</i> 23 November 1931: left to right seated - Samuels, Willman, Pinkus, Schroder, and Meyer; standing Lederer (referee). "The players are just receiving a cable play from Paris"</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Right - from the <i>BCM</i> January 1932: "The scene at the Paris end...with the World Champion in the centre." </span></b> </td></tr>
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The Manhattan picture looks a little posed (two clocks?) in spite of the caption, but at least you can see all the participants, whereas its Parisian counterpart has a charmingly <i>improviste</i> quality, and a haphazard approach to showing off the players (though there's a decent display of pipes). The latter also shows the ingenious arrangement adopted by the Brits to make efficient use of the available brain power. So: whereas in New York it would appear that the team clustered around a single board to thrash out their move, in Paris - according to <i>Le Matin</i> (23 November) - "each studied the move on their own board...and from time to time they would assemble around the master-board" (and now back to the French) "<i>pour discuter à voix basse</i>" (and back again) "surrounded by a mute wall of engrossed spectators".<br />
<br />
At "2-2 p.m., Paris time" (BCM Jan 32), on Sunday 22 November 1931, the captain of the BCCP team, D.G.Collins, pushed a pawn to Q4 (or 4D). It was converted into a code "<i>javanais</i>" (<i>Le Matin</i> 23 Nov) - for which my dictionary offers "double Dutch" - and passed to the operator. "The keyboard trembled"..."the needle flickered" (it sounds so much better in French), "<i>un boy</i>" (better evidently in English) raced down the corridor - thus the move arrived, acknowledged by "<i>un laconique O.K.!</i>" All this coming and going, by the way, was overseen at each end by the two observers as "serious and correct as if at an assembly of the League of Nations" (<i>Le Matin'</i>s reportage again). <br />
<br />
And so it was that game unfolded - with a time control of 30 moves in 2 hours, then 15 moves per hour thereafter (<i>Le Journal</i> again) - finishing after six and a half hours play with an American victory duly confirmed by the world champion (Le Matin 23 Nov), whose adjudication "services were not called upon" (BCM Jan 32). The Brits offered their congratulations, and left it to Langelaan to make their excuses.<br />
<br />
The game score was circulated widely and, in the days before algebraic standardization, in the preferred notation of each country. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mZT-XbzDJ8U/VrW8mbUDa_I/AAAAAAAAHgk/LijkETfuQIk/s1600/game%2Bcomp.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mZT-XbzDJ8U/VrW8mbUDa_I/AAAAAAAAHgk/LijkETfuQIk/s640/game%2Bcomp.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Left: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle 25 November 1931. Right: La Stratégie November 1931.</span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<object data="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" height="350" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"><param name="movie" value="http://kvchess.com/releases/latest/KnightVision.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value='orientation=H&tabmode=false&light=f4f4fF&dark=0072b9&bordertext=494949&headerforeground=ffffff&mtforeground=000000&mtvariations=FF0000&mtmainline=000000&mtbackground=ffffff&pgndata=[Event "Paris-London Cable Match"] [Site "CCC Offices"] [Date "22 November 1931"] [White "British CC of Paris"] [Black "Manhattan CC"] [Result "0-1"] 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 c6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.e3 b5 6.a4 b4 7.Na2 e6 8.Bxc4 Nbd7 9.O-O Bb7 10.a5 Qxa5 11.Bd2 Qb6 12.Qe1 a5 13.e4 Be7 14.Bg5 h6 15.Be3 Ba6 {Adjournment 18.00-19.00} 16.Ne5 Bxc4 17.Nxc4 Qb5 18.Nd2 Ng4 19.h3 Nxe3 20.fxe3 e5 21.Nf3 O-O 22.Nc1 c5 23.d5 c4 24.Ne2 a4 25.Ng3 g6 26.Nh2 c3 27.bxc3 b3 28.Nf5 gxf5 29.Qg3%2B Kh7 30.Rxf5 b2 31.Rb1 a3 0-1 '/><p>
<iframe width='100%' height='350' src='http://kvchess.com/joo/latest/showpgn.html?tabmode=0&boardonly=1&orientation=H&tabmode=false&light=f4f4fF&dark=0072b9&bordertext=494949&headerforeground=ffffff&mtforeground=000000&mtvariations=FF0000&mtmainline=000000&mtbackground=ffffff&pgndata=%5BEvent%20%22Paris-London%20Cable%20Match%22%5D%0A%5BSite%20%22CCC%20Offices%22%5D%0A%5BDate%20%2222%20November%201931%22%5D%0A%5BWhite%20%22British%20CC%20of%20Paris%22%5D%0A%5BBlack%20%22Manhattan%20CC%22%5D%0A%5BResult%20%220-1%22%5D%0A%0A1.d4%20Nf6%20%0A2.Nf3%20d5%0A3.c4%20c6%0A4.Nc3%20dxc4%0A5.e3%20b5%0A6.a4%20b4%0A7.Na2%20e6%20%0A8.Bxc4%20Nbd7%0A9.O-O%20Bb7%0A10.a5%20Qxa5%0A11.Bd2%20Qb6%0A12.Qe1%20a5%0A13.e4%20Be7%0A14.Bg5%20h6%0A15.Be3%20Ba6%0A%0A16.Ne5%20Bxc4%0A17.Nxc4%20Qb5%0A18.Nd2%20Ng4%0A19.h3%20Nxe3%0A20.fxe3%20e5%0A21.Nf3%20O-O%0A22.Nc1%20c5%0A23.d5%20c4%0A24.Ne2%20a4%0A25.Ng3%20g6%0A26.Nh2%20c3%0A27.bxc3%20b3%0A28.Nf5%20gxf5%0A29.Qg3+%20Kh7%0A30.Rxf5%20b2%0A31.Rb1%20a3%0A0-1%0A%0A' border='no' seamless='seamless'><a href='http://kvchess.com/joo/latest/showpgn.html?pgndata=%5BEvent%20%22Paris-London%20Cable%20Match%22%5D%0A%5BSite%20%22CCC%20Offices%22%5D%0A%5BDate%20%2222%20November%201931%22%5D%0A%5BWhite%20%22British%20CC%20of%20Paris%22%5D%0A%5BBlack%20%22Manhattan%20CC%22%5D%0A%5BResult%20%220-1%22%5D%0A%0A1.d4%20Nf6%20%0A2.Nf3%20d5%0A3.c4%20c6%0A4.Nc3%20dxc4%0A5.e3%20b5%0A6.a4%20b4%0A7.Na2%20e6%20%0A8.Bxc4%20Nbd7%0A9.O-O%20Bb7%0A10.a5%20Qxa5%0A11.Bd2%20Qb6%0A12.Qe1%20a5%0A13.e4%20Be7%0A14.Bg5%20h6%0A15.Be3%20Ba6%0A%0A16.Ne5%20Bxc4%0A17.Nxc4%20Qb5%0A18.Nd2%20Ng4%0A19.h3%20Nxe3%0A20.fxe3%20e5%0A21.Nf3%20O-O%0A22.Nc1%20c5%0A23.d5%20c4%0A24.Ne2%20a4%0A25.Ng3%20g6%0A26.Nh2%20c3%0A27.bxc3%20b3%0A28.Nf5%20gxf5%0A29.Qg3+%20Kh7%0A30.Rxf5%20b2%0A31.Rb1%20a3%0A0-1%0A%0A'>PGN</a></iframe></p>
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Indeed, both sides gave their view of the game, but naturally this technical stuff only appeared in the chess press. First, the American take, from the chess column of the <i>Brooklyn Daily Eagle</i> of 25 November 1931:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<i>Not alone were the Anglo-Parisians outranked in advance in paper but they made matters worse by venturing upon an experiment costing a pawn without any return. The New Yorkers followed the Howell variation in the Queen's Gambit and, after accepting the gift of a pawn, proceeded to develop along natural lines. The pawn was never relinquished and eventually figured in the denouement preceding resignation. A little earlier the sacrifice of a knight by the allies in Paris was a mere flash in the pan.</i>" </blockquote>
In the BCM of January 1932, Langelaan did his best:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<i>An unfortunate lapse occurred when White deferred until the 10th move a move that they had intended to make on the 9th, and this cost them a Pawn. In the effort to transfer the play vigorously to the King's side before Black could make the most of their preponderance on the Queen's, White lost much time and the 6 o'clock adjournment came after White's 16th move </i>[sic - the 15th according to La Stratégie - MS]<i> White having taken an hour and 39 minutes. On the resumption of play, therefore, they had to get through 14 moves in 21 minutes. With two minutes to go and still 3 moves to make, White in desperation offered the sacrifice of a Knight to get a momentary attack, but without avail. Although 30 moves were accomplished on the stroke of time, the resulting position was hopeless....</i>" </blockquote>
So: forgotten preparation, time trouble...we've heard it all before. But it's not the winning, it's the taking part that matters, as we all know - though winning now and then would be nice... In the BCM Langelaan made much of the press interest: "the 'big' French Press on Monday morning and the local and regional Press all took it up". He claimed a higher level victory: for the game of chess itself. <br />
<br />
The next episode in the series will introduce a member who we have not yet met, and show how Langelaan himself remained in the public eye after 1938. <br />
<br />
<b>Note: </b><br />
General press reports identified: <b>French</b> - <i>Le Petit Parisien </i>21 November 1931; <i>Le Figaro </i>22 November; <i>Le Journal, Le Matin, Le Petit Parisien </i>23 November 1931; <b>American </b>- <i>New York Evening Post </i>23 November 1931.<br />
Chess press/columns: <b>French</b> - <i>La Stratégie</i> November 1931; <b>American -</b> <i>Brooklyn Daily Eagle</i> 12 & 25 November 1931; <b>British</b> - <i>British Chess Magazine</i> January 1932 & April 1935.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris.html">Part 1 The Club</a>; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris_5.html">Part 2 The Opposition</a>; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris_26.html">Part 4 The Beast</a>; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris.html">Part 5 The Robot</a>; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris_8.html">Part 6 The Addendum</a><b> </b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2006/10/history.html">History Index</a><br />
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Martin Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17616856982265044441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-29363816359594980762016-02-10T07:55:00.000+00:002016-02-10T08:05:56.625+00:00Much too Keene<a href="https://twitter.com/sophiettriay/status/694936963137343490">Yuck</a>. <br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SG8UU53V46M/VrXdNogsonI/AAAAAAAAPhA/CEnAsEW4qdA/s1600/SophieTriayRaytweet.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SG8UU53V46M/VrXdNogsonI/AAAAAAAAPhA/CEnAsEW4qdA/s400/SophieTriayRaytweet.png" width="392" /></a></div>
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Naturally one hopes that everybody checked their envelopes carefully to make sure there wasn't five hundred quid <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2011/01/keenes-gambit.html">missing</a>, as is traditional with Ray and tournaments on the Mediterranean. More <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sophietriay/sets/72157661930281974/">here</a> for anyone who has the stomach for it.<br />
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Well I guess you're never too disreputable to give out the prizes at a chess tournament. And as I was <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/what-crockett-vi.html">saying</a> just this past week...<br />
<blockquote>
<i>there's always more than enough people in chess who don't give a damn ... if it's their mate involved.</i></blockquote>
And that's one of the most rancid features of the world of chess, the spectacle of Ray and his old mates forever promoting one another.<br />
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As I said, Yuck.<br />
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I can't say I was too impressed either with the following <a href="https://twitter.com/Times_Chess/status/695137447072681984">exchange</a>:<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tM82T0r0MdY/Vrn93m1Xt4I/AAAAAAAAPhk/RVJ0rcHp28U/s1600/RayGarc%25C3%25ADatweet.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tM82T0r0MdY/Vrn93m1Xt4I/AAAAAAAAPhk/RVJ0rcHp28U/s400/RayGarc%25C3%25ADatweet.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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That might even be true, you know. But knowing where to stop is kind of important, isn't it? Even in the cause of promoting chess. And a good place to stop is "short of associating with disreputable plagiarists and frauds".<br />
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Because they're not good people for chess to be associated with.<br />
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So while you can argue, if you like, about what "stimulating" means in Leontxo's <a href="https://twitter.com/leontxogarcia/status/695165448023863296">reply</a>:
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gOgqLTtSqDs/VrXjYWuj-yI/AAAAAAAAPhQ/orfdCL_RkwE/s1600/RayGarc%25C3%25ADatweet.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gOgqLTtSqDs/VrXjYWuj-yI/AAAAAAAAPhQ/orfdCL_RkwE/s400/RayGarc%25C3%25ADatweet.png" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NV-LehjDxew/VrXjZzadVAI/AAAAAAAAPhU/gAia42shRq4/s1600/Garc%25C3%25ADaRaytweet.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NV-LehjDxew/VrXjZzadVAI/AAAAAAAAPhU/gAia42shRq4/s400/Garc%25C3%25ADaRaytweet.png" /></a></div>
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I don't think proper journalists don't go looking for compliments from <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/ray-keene-plagiarism-index.html">plagiarists</a>.<br />
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Proper journalists don't go hanging around with plagiarists at all.
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Ray Keene <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/ray-keene-index.html">index</a>]</span>ejhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-78346269879487414842016-02-08T08:00:00.000+00:002016-02-09T10:23:15.190+00:00The Rudd Test (aka: Why Doesn’t it Rain Indoors?)<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MzYjLtfaEI8/VrbzqeYcodI/AAAAAAAAIk4/zhdKGIRpzF0/s1600/Faye.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MzYjLtfaEI8/VrbzqeYcodI/AAAAAAAAIk4/zhdKGIRpzF0/s320/Faye.jpg" width="310" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/chess-goes-to-movies-two-classics.html">Faye’s game</a> wouldn’t pass the Rudd Test</span></b></div>
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<i>"Why doesn’t it rain indoors?"</i> That’s a pretty good question if you think about it. Especially when it comes from a boy in Mrs Dickinson’s third-year junior school class.</div>
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My friend David had noticed something the rest of us hadn’t: it doesn’t rain indoors. Actually we <i>had</i> observed this. It’s just that we’d seen it not rain indoors so often that we didn’t even think about it. The point is not that David had noticed, but that he’d noticed that he’d noticed.</div>
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I’m no expert, but I suspect that there’s an evolutionary advantage in being able to forget about stuff that happens all the time. That's all very well, but the downside is that when the everyday passes us by we run the risk of not thinking to question why things are that way. Is it the natural order of things or are they constructed in some way? Brought about by <i>us</i>?</div>
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Assuming that we do want to ask why - why, for instance, there are so few women tournament chess players in Britain today - what are we going to do? Well, the first step is that we need to decide that noticing the phenomenon is something that we want to do. Jack Rudd has come up with a way to help us.<br />
<br />
More of the Rudd Test later. First, I have to set the scene by talking a bit about women in film.</div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hGnsmc6lIsg/VrYFhh7uhmI/AAAAAAAAIkM/7ZKarYe6TZE/s1600/perry_logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hGnsmc6lIsg/VrYFhh7uhmI/AAAAAAAAIkM/7ZKarYe6TZE/s1600/perry_logo.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Mrs Dickinson worked here</b></span></div>
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You many recall January’s media furore over the absence of nominations (again) for non-White actors in this year’s Academy awards (<a href="http://www.streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/similar-to-oscars.html">Similar to the Oscars?</a>). The situation for women in film is clearly rather different. Thanks to <a href="http://oscar.go.com/news/nominations/best-actress-nominations-2016-oscars">Best Actress</a>; <a href="http://oscar.go.com/news/home-featured-content-list/best-supporting-actress-nominations-2016-oscars">Best Supporting Actress</a> at least two statues are assured to go to women. Issues around gender and film remain, however, not the least of them being how female characters are portrayed - or not, as the case may be - on screen. </div>
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Women in modern cinema are systematically under-represented in terms of screen time (even in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/shortcuts/2016/jan/31/snow-white-and-the-seven-lines-has-disney-got-a-princess-problem?INTCMP=sfl">Disney films about princesses</a>), <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/04/reese-witherspoon-hollywood-sexism-girlfriend-producer-strong-roles-women?INTCMP=sfl">marginalised in roles that are tangental to the main story</a> and very often all but invisible. That’s when female characters are there at all. Of the eight <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jan/14/oscars-2016-full-list-of-nominations-awards-movies?INTCMP=sfl">Best Picture nominees</a> for this year’s Oscars, three - <a href="http://www.streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/chess-goes-to-movies-hateful-eight.html"><i>Bridge of Spies</i></a>, <i>The Revenant</i> and <i>The Big Short</i> - have no significant roles for women. Of the remainder <i>The Martian</i> just about does (Jessica Chastain captains the ship that’s on its way to rescue the stranded astronaut but this is very much Matt Damon’s film) and just one the four central characters in <i>Spotlight </i>central is female<b><span style="color: red;">*</span></b>. Only <i>Room </i>has a narrative lead by a female character.</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nSVKV8YC-aY/Vrb499A3YrI/AAAAAAAAIlI/Z3P0CN3BEDc/s1600/bechdel-test.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nSVKV8YC-aY/Vrb499A3YrI/AAAAAAAAIlI/Z3P0CN3BEDc/s320/bechdel-test.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Hence the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test">Bechdel Test</a>. Put simply, all a film has to do to pass is have two named female characters appear on screen together having a conversation about something that is not a man. Not exactly setting the bar absurdly high, and yet an astonishing number of films fail to meet even this modest standard.</div>
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As instruments of measurement go, Bechdel is certainly a blunt one. Failing the test doesn’t necessarily mean your film is loathsomely misogynistic. <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/chess-goes-to-movies-spice-world.html">Passing</a> won’t necessarily get you the approval of what Nigel Short likes to call the "<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11690553/Nigel-Short-shrill-feminists-have-turned-me-into-the-pantomine-villain-of-chess.html">Tyrannical Feminist Lobby</a>". Nevertheless Bechdel has worth. Principally in helping us notice that we've noticed that it doesn’t rain indoors.</div>
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When you consider entire populations of films - all those you’ve seen this month, this year, this life time - the Bechdel Test helps us notice the discrepancy in how male and female characters are portrayed on screen. It reminds us that it’s not <i>The Martian</i>’s gender roles that are the problem. It’s that things are nearly the main character = male, secondary character = female way around.</div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SUOwfecYDGk/Vrb65VYT4QI/AAAAAAAAIlU/WvYAcK8fY0M/s1600/Jack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SUOwfecYDGk/Vrb65VYT4QI/AAAAAAAAIlU/WvYAcK8fY0M/s320/Jack.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>Jack Rudd</b><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">photo by Olivia Netshagen</span><br />
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Last week Jack Rudd proposed we adopt our own version of the Bechdel Test for chess. To pass a tournament must at some stage pair one woman chesser against another. That’s all. It is not, I feel, setting the bar absurdly high.<br />
<br />
Jack set some qualifications. The event must not be an all-play-all, not be open only to female participants and not adopt special pairing rules. If I am allowed to fiddle with his idea I might be tempted to add a further point about age - the women involved must be older than, say, 16.</div>
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Given these criteria, how many chess tournaments would pass the Rudd Test? Jack suggests that Gibraltar would pass easily. I suspect that most of Sean Hewitt's e2-e4 events - <span style="font-size: x-small;">making a <a href="http://www.e2e4.org.uk/gatwick/feb2016/index.htm">welcome comeback at Gatwick in a couple of weeks</a>, btw</span> - probably would too. How many others, do you think? Not many probably. Not enough, certainly.</div>
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It doesn’t rain indoors. A tiny proportion of tournament chessers are women. We all know that these things are true. They are so obviously true that we don’t usually pay them any attention. Maybe we should, though. Maybe it’s worth having a think about whether the number of women at chess events is, like rain, a naturally occurring phenomenon or if there’s something else at play. Whether it’s something which we could and should be addressing.<br />
<br />
It says something about where we are with respect to gender diversity that every tournament having even just one game played between two women would be a huge step forward for British chess. The Rudd Test is not the solution to all of chess’s problems. It is, though, something which could helps us think about gender issues. It’s something that would allow us some way to measure progress - or lack thereof - in terms of increasing the numbers of women playing competitively.<br />
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The Bechdel Test has become commonplace in discussions about film and the film industry. I hope one day we’ll be able to say the same about the Rudd Test and chess.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">*</span></b><span style="font-size: x-small;"> that’s twice as good as <a href="http://www.streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/chess-goes-to-movies-hateful-eight.html">The Hateful Eight</a>, admittedly.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-45220627593038287492016-02-06T09:55:00.000+00:002016-02-06T09:55:00.219+00:00What a Crockett VII<a href="http://www.englishchess.org.uk/grand-prix-controller-update/">Exit Crockett</a>.<br />
<br />
Do read, as suggested, his own <a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=859040350859854&id=823966241033932">statement</a>, for its entertainment value alone. Among the various nonsenses, we can find one comment at least which I think I can endorse without qualification:<br />
<blockquote>
<i>It hardly needs saying that I cannot remain in post as Controller of the Grand Prix or be eligible for any of the Grand Prix section prizes while these allegations are being made.</i></blockquote>
It hardly does.<br />
<br />
But as we know, this is not a situation that dates from 27 January, when the <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2016/01/what-crockett.html">first</a> in this series of pieces was published. It dates from October 26, 2015 when Mr Crockett was first <a href="http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7864">named</a> in the English Chess Forum thread which put the controversy in the public domain.
<br />
<br />
Mr Crockett was put in post after that time. I can't find any official notification of the appointment: it's not in the <a href="http://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Minutes-of-the-101st-meeting-publication-version.pdf">latest</a> board minutes, for instance, nor can I find any specific notice on the ECF <a href="http://www.englishchess.org.uk/">website</a>. Given the circumstances - given that the controversy <i>was already public</i> - it surely was a most remarkable appointment. For precisely the reason that Mr Crockett gives.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Entirely anonymous comments will not be accepted on this series of articles.]
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[What a Crockett <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/what-crockett-index.html">index</a>]</span>ejhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-58229081510704197082016-02-05T08:00:00.000+00:002016-03-08T20:26:33.207+00:00Les Chesseurs Britanniques de Paris: Part 2 The OppositionThe <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris.html">first part of this series</a> introduced the British Chess Club of Paris that was founded in 1926. It remained active until the declaration of war in 1939 brought the curtain down on much chess activity both at home and on the continent (a story told in several episodes starting <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/war-game-4.html">here</a>), until things got back to some kind of normality after the defeat of the Axis in 1945. The last reference that we have found to the BCCP in the British and French chess press was in 1938.<br />
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Perhaps it is worth noting however, that just as the war didn't bring a complete halt to British homeland chess, it appeared to stagger on in France too. So, although the Paris championship was suspended in 1939, by 1942 it was contested again, with Henri Reyss - who we mentioned last time as a BCCP member - playing in 43 and 44 (the latter in May, Paris was liberated in late August). The championship of France was suspended in 39, resumed in 1940, and Reyss played in the 1941 edition, and finished 3rd in 1942. Otherwise <i>le Championnat de France</i> went right through, only suspended again in November 44 consequent on the disruption of the Liberation. (Thanks to <i><a href="http://heritageechecsfra.free.fr/index.htm">Heritage des Echecs Francais</a></i> for all that). <br />
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Back with the BCCP, in the decade before the war: one of its first steps, in late 1926, was to affiliate to the French Chess Federation, and in this episode we will look at the Club's impact on the Parisian chess scene, in which it played its part - with moderate success.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>In 1928 the Club "won the <i>Coupe de Paris</i> (subsidiary tournament) with ease" - so reported the piece in the BCM of April 1935 on the Club's 10th anniversary. A pretty decent result for such a new outfit.<br />
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The following year they "concluded only half point behind the winners (<i>Rive Gauche</i>) and just missed winning the <i>Coupe</i>" (<i>op cit</i>). For some bizarre reason, the win by the Club 2.5 v 1.5 over the <i>Cercle du Palais Royale</i> in the 1929 tournament - putting it in the lead at that stage with 13.5 points - made it onto the front page "Stop-Press News" of the <i>Western Daily Press</i> on 18th March; along with the more weightier matter (some would say) of the bombing of rebel positions in Torrion in the Mexican Civil War. Not a headline - but it was a start.<br />
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So the club had arrived - though some members were already well-known in Parisian chess circles, e.g. H.K. Handsyde and G.W.Champion. "A Correspondent", that is to say the author of the 1935 BCM retrospective, then struck a downbeat note: " [a] loss of members brought diminished strength in subsequent years [i.e. 1930 onwards], and results have been less satisfactory". This decline in fortunes though, if one might take mild issue with George Langelaan (if it was he who, as I suspect, had adopted "A Correspondent" as his <i>nom de plume</i>),<i> </i>was only modest. The club remained active, and continued to "flourish" (BCM March 1933) in many respects.<br />
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The BCM of April 1931 reports the Club coming 2nd in the Major Tournament for the <i>Coupe </i>(aka "<i>Challenge de "La Liberté</i>"). The tournament scored 3-2-1 <i>match</i> points for a win, draw, and loss (very modern). Results, in <i>game</i> points over four boards, were: 1 v 3 <i>Lutèce</i>; 2.5 v 1.5 <i>Buttes-Chaumont</i>; 2 v 2 <i>Russe</i>; 2.5 v 1.5 <i>Hongrois </i>(a "new club" said BCM May 28). The Club wasn't doing too badly.<br />
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BCM April 1931 is helpful in giving the individual players in these matches, and in the Appendix below you will find all the names mentioned in connection with the BCCP from all sources. Many are now apparently forgotten by history, such as J.J.Fitzpatrick who lost on board 1 against <i>Russe</i> to someone much better remembered: <a href="http://heritageechecsfra.free.fr/rossolimo.htm">Nicolas Rossolimo</a>, who went to become a GM and French Champion in 1948. We'll take the opportunity here to mention someone else in the Club who does re-appear in the historical record, (though he didn't play in the above matches): N.Baliol Scott. He had come second in the BCCP Club championship in 1931, and after the war was President of the Ministry of Supply Chess Cub. He died tragically as a result of a traffic accident in 1956. It was "a sad loss of a fine player and sterling Club member" said a note in the Civil Service Chess Club Bulletin. A Civil Service posting possibly explains his presence in France before the War. <br />
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In other friendly challenge-and-return matches in 1931 the BCCP beat <i>Cercle de Levallois</i> in February, 6 v 4<i> </i>and 5.5 v 4.5 (BCM April 31); <i>Buttes-Chaumont</i> over 13 boards 7.5 v 5.5 (La Strategie May 31), and <i>Cercle Echec-et-Mat </i>twice 7 v 5 in April, and 7.5 v 5.5 May (BCM June 31). So 1930/31 was, indeed, a good season for the Club. The <i>Buttes-Chaumont</i>,<i> </i>by the<i> </i>way, is a lumpy pleasure ground laid out in the 19th Century on old quarry workings (a pretext for inserting a period photo below, to lighten things up a bit); but I don't think they have organised chess there, now or ever, as in the <a href="http://www.chess.com/blog/nairobiny/chess-in-the-jardin-du-luxembourg">Jardin du Luxembourg</a>.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bdar4AXeNNM/VpkkBj3tSoI/AAAAAAAAHdg/c4rCw2JQ8vc/s1600/paris-buttes-chaumont-pont-briques.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="401" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bdar4AXeNNM/VpkkBj3tSoI/AAAAAAAAHdg/c4rCw2JQ8vc/s640/paris-buttes-chaumont-pont-briques.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <a href="http://www.paris1900.fr/paris-rive-droite/parc-des-buttes-chaumont">here</a> </td></tr>
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The above match results are included here not just for the record, but also out of interest in the opposition i.e. the other Paris chess clubs (or <i>Cercles</i>) of the time: not only teams based apparently on locality/venue, but some likely to be based on specific communities in the capital. Others to mention are <i>Vichy-sur-Seine, </i><i>Les Echecs du Palais-Royal</i>; and the splendid <i>le</i> <i>Fou de Roi </i>-<i> </i>perhaps we might say the <i>Crazy Kings</i>, but it's a <i>jeu de mots </i>as "<i>le fou</i>" is also the French for the chess bishop (unless, as is entirely possible, my French is again inadequate to the task). They were based in Montmartre.<br />
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I have a soft spot for the <i>Cercle Potemkhine </i>(aka <i>Cercle Russe</i>)<i>. </i>BCCP played them twice in June 31, with a 5-all draw, and (with a "very scratch team") losing badly 2 v 8 in the return. <i>Potemkhine</i> was strong, winning the 1932 "4th inter-club championship of Paris" (BCM May 32) with 41 game points (when BCCP came 3rd with 28); they also won the second division.<i> </i>As far as one can see there is no chess in Eisenstein's film <i>Battleship Potemkin</i> - but there is some in his <i>Ivan the Terrible</i>.<br />
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All those inter-club matches, as well as the individual Paris championship, were to be put on a proper footing - as reported the BCM in November 1931 - with a "permanent Committee" to oversee matters "presumably on the lines of the London League". This was duly established (BCM January 1932) with D.J.Collins as the Club's rep. to, and Vice-President of, the <i>Comité</i>. L.H.Mortimore drew the short straw in September 1932 (BCM November 32) when he was appointed, doubling as delegate to the French Chess Federation. He was another who held dual nationality, as did George Langelaan, and he too will reappear later in the story, but after the demise of the BCCP in 1938/9.<br />
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In 1932 the BCCP set up a correspondence section (BCM November 32) for "Britons resident in France", although this was no impediment to Brian O'Reilly, "Irish by race" but born in France, being admitted to membership. Another recruit was A.W.Mongredien, also living in the South of France (BCM Nov 32), as was Colonel Stuart-Prince (BCM March 1933); and by November BCCP was engaged in a 10 board match with Blyth (Northumberland) CC, presumably because of a connection with a BCCP member. The final result was 5 v 5, declared in the BCM a year later just as a 6 board correspondence match was to begin with the Braille CC - as said the BCM in November 1933, adding again that "a hearty welcome [at the Club] is assured all readers of the BCM, should business or pleasure take them to Paris." <br />
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Incidentally Brian Reilly won the <a href="http://heritageechecsfra.free.fr/1931nice.htm">March 1931 Nice Masters Tournament</a> ahead of George Thomas, Jacques Mieses, and, in last place, Marcel Duchamp. There was evidently a British chess presence in the South of France around this time as the<i> Falkirk Herald</i> (12 February 1930) reported that Mr. S.S.Blackburne would once again be acting as hon.sec. for the Alassio British Chess Club (South France) after some illness. His is a resonant name, but he appears to be unrelated to Joseph Henry Blackburne (1841-1924) - at least, I can find no reference to him in Tim Harding's recent biography of the big man. An S.S.Blackburne had published a well-received book on chess problems "<i>Terms and Themes of Chess Problems</i>" back in 1908, and was then regarded as "one of the best living authorities on the subject" according to <i>The</i> <i>Times</i>.<br />
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If 1931 seemed to be the <i>annus mirabilis</i> for the club, then results did slip a bit subsequently. In 1933 it finished 5th in the "<i>Challenge de 'La Liberté' </i>" (BCM Jan 34), and =4/5th the following year (BCM June 34). A good omen for the 34/5 season was the defeat of the "strong" <i>Cercle de Buttes-Chaumont</i> by 5 v 4, although the BCCP could manage only to finish the season 4th out of 6 in the "<i>Liberté</i>" (BCM June 35). To complete the record: they finished 3rd in 1936, (BCM Feb 36), and =3/4th (and last) in 1937/8 (La Stategie April 1938).<br />
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After this rather dry episode, next time we will have some proper fun and games when we cover the BCCP's most eye-catching external engagement, also in 1931; but let's finish this one by noting another occasion when the Club joined in the convivial chess life of the City of Light, by logging the Club's participation in Alekhine's monster 300 simul (reported in the <i>Yorkshire Post</i> of 22 February 1932). That's 300 players, not 300 boards. His opponents were constituted as 60 teams of 5 in consultation. It was in aid of French disabled players says the report. The BCCP took one table. The result was +37, =17, -6 for the World Champion. At the time of writing I have yet to establish how the British team fared, but I'd like to think that they won.<br />
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<b>Appendix</b><br />
<i><b>Members of the BCCP 1926-38 mentioned in the BCM and/or French sources:</b> </i><br />
N.Baliol Scott, E.L.Barbier,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>E.O.Barnard, M.Behles, R.Brown, G.W.Champion, E.Coleman, D.J.Collins, C.C.Curtis,
R.Dunlop, F.Farrington, J.J.Fitzpatrick,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S.T.Fletcher, W.I.Gastman, E.Grad, H.K.Handasyde,
R.W.Holmes, D.Japp, J.M.Lang, George L.A. Langelaan, Gérard Langelaan, L.H.Mortimore, H.Reyss, A.Roe, H.G.Spencer.<br />
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<i><b>Members of the correspondence section:</b></i><br />
B.Reilly, Col.Stuart-Prince<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(based in Nice and Hyères respectively); A.W.Mongredien.</div>
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<b><i>Others mentioned in a social context</i>:</b><br />
D.Langelaan, M.Staub. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Les Chesseurs Britanniques de Paris: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris.html">Part 1</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> The Club; </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris.html">Part 3</a> The Match; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris_26.html">Part 4</a> The Beast; <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris.html">Part 5</a> The Robot; </span><a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris_8.html">Part 6</a> The Addendum<b> </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2006/10/history.html">History Index</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> </span><br />
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Martin Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17616856982265044441noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-55547641144290482772016-02-03T07:55:00.000+00:002016-02-03T07:55:00.859+00:00What a Crockett VII was pleased to read <a href="http://www.englishchess.org.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=495">this</a>.<br />
<br />
What precisely it means may not be entirely clear, but I'd hope to be reading it right if I assume that somebody will finally be looking into the <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2016/01/what-crockett.html">curious</a> <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2016/01/what-crockett-ii.html">case</a> <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/what-crockett-iii.html">of</a> <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/what-crockett-iv.html">Stephen</a> <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/what-crockett-v.html">Crockett</a> - which, when all is said and done, is all these pieces have been asking for.<br />
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I'd also hope that from here on, suspicious sequences of results will be reviewed as a matter of course, as <a href="http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?p=167717#p167717">proposed</a> in that same English Chess Forum thread that first brought to my attention the name of Stephen Crockett.<br />
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This would be a vast improvement over the previous system of looking the other way, not to mention the recently-adopted procedure of responding to complaints by making the individual complained about controller of the Grand Prix.<br />
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That appointment kind of complicates things a bit, but still, better something than nothing and better late than never.<br />
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That said, if only somebody had done this five years ago. It might have saved an awful lot of fuss and bother later on.<br />
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There's a fair few suggestions on that <a href="http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7864">thread</a> about what English chess should do about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbagging">sandbagging</a>, to which we might add "try and find out how widespread we think the problem is".<br />
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We're not likely to come to a view unless we try to find out, are we? But it's not the first time that there have been claims of this nature - as I <a href="http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?p=167674#p167674">wrote</a>, a few weeks past, and some years ago.<br />
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My thanks to Kevin Thurlow for coming back with the following <a href="http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?p=168215#p168215">information</a>, of which I hadn't previously been aware:<br />
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Well, at least somebody took some action against somebody, you might say. Or you could say, if you looked through the half-full glass the other way, it's amazing what some people in chess think they can get away with.<br />
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But what <i>is</i> Andrew Horton-Kitchlew doing in chess these days? He, too, was a <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/independent-pursuits-chess-1190073.html">contender</a> for the Grand Prix in his day. Last I heard he was still winning <a href="http://www.englishchess.org.uk/international-round-up-200410-from-lawrence-cooper/">Challengers</a> events, after all these years, albeit a long way away from Leamington Spa, which was the only place I ever met him over the board, who knows how long ago, 1990 or something. It was a rapidplay, a challengers event. He probably won it. I certainly lost the game.<br />
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Allegations of sandbagging accompanied Andrew Horton-Kitchlew around the circuit for years and years. For far too long, really*. Maybe congress organisers didn't see the need to act when federations hadn't acted. Maybe federations didn't see the need to act while congress organisers kept accepting the player's entries. There were plenty of good reasons.<br />
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And plenty of bad reasons, since there's always more than enough people in chess who don't give a damn about sandbagging or anything else, if it's their mate involved. (Horton-Kitchlew always had a lot of mates like that.) Or people who simply, whatever the problem, just don't want to hear about it - as long as it's not <i>them</i> affected. <br />
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Which is kind of why English chess, as a community, is never likely to get out of its habit of hoping problems go away, and get into a better one, of dealing with problems <i>when they actually come up</i>.<br />
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It might save an awful lot of fuss and bother if we did, don't you think?<br />
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Do you think we ever will?<br />
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Dream on.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Entirely anonymous comments will not be accepted on this series of articles.]</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[* I'm not saying <i>nobody</i> ever did anything about Horton-Kitchlew: but I am saying that the circus went on, embarrassingly, for years.]</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[What a Crockett <a href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com.es/2006/10/what-crockett-index.html">index</a>] </span>ejhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.com4