Player types

[Neil Frarey]

Can a chess player's playing style be determined from how they write their own personal signature?

[Brad Thomson]

I do recall that Nick eschewed algebraic notation when it came to gamescores, preferring the descriptive.

[Neil Frarey]

From my chess stuff ... one of my fav treasures ...



... Deen castled queenside ... Anand grabbed the center, ha!

Playing style(s) similar to their sigs?

[Hans Jung]

I prefer full descriptive notation.
As in: The pawn of the king steps forward two squares to take a part in the centre.
or: The king marches two squares to the right and the rook slides around the king two squares to the left.
but unfortunately thats not allowed in tournaments.

[Brad Thomson]

I prefer full descriptive notation.
As in: The pawn of the king steps forward two squares to take a part in the centre.
or: The king marches two squares to the right and the rook slides around the king two squares to the left.
but unfortunately thats not allowed in tournaments.

To paraphrase Nick, White plays Bishop captures the Knight on Queen Bishop Six and the police can be called to the murder scene.

[Hans Jung]

Yes Nick had it right and had a good sense of humour. I loved it when he came outside (usually for a smoke) during tournament games and said something pointy.

[Hans Jung]

Nick passed in 2004. Tom had already slowed down (in terms of playing tournament chess) and Deen was pretty much done by 2000. Brad, you were close to them. What was the reason for stopping? - computers?, CFC office? coaching? others?

[Brad Thomson]

Hans, I have maintained a good friendship with both Tom and Deen over the years. I ran CMA chess camps with them both, Tom from 2008 to about 2012 and then Deen after that. Tom found himself a lovely wife, left town, and has lived as a coach. Deen moved off of chess and into both Bridge and Scrabble. He has a world champion scalp in Scrabble. They both played in the world seniors chess event a number of years ago now, along with Jean Hebert and Dave Ross (maybe his brother, Paul, as well), I think in Germany, but apart from this I do not believe that either of them has been active playing.

[Hans Jung]

I just remembered that Tom liked to play in PEI and did so once a year for many years.
Lawrence Day had the longest run from 1962 to at least 2016. I think after he was no longer columnist of the Toronto Star (1976 - 2013) (37 years!!) his motivation shifted.

[Brad Thomson]

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2052142 Brad, do you remember talk of this game? This is what made Nick feared. Baragar was a respected many time Canadian Championship competitor. Nick uncorked 21.Nxc6 and sacrificed two other pieces to push the C pawn through. What a brilliant game! I remember being astounded. Game of the tournament?

For those of us who still have En Passant 129 in our possession we have Nick himself fully annotating this game, and his games against Kevin, Lawrence and Alex from the same event. Many En Passant issues from those days have games well annotated by Nick because I twisted his arm vigorously. There is one where Nick claims to be the leading exponent on the planet in the Arkangelsk, and he states that they should call it the "Nick System". Then later in time Nick punched out Shirov playing this same opening (only to draw eventually), despite the fact that Shirov was the number three ranked player on earth at the time and was supposed to be an expert on the line himself. There are other annotated Nick games that I could dig up.

[Hans Jung]

Brad if would be nice if you did so and started a new thread with Bryon Nickoloff in the title. I would change the title of this thread if I knew how.

[Brad Thomson]

Thanks Hans, I certainly do not mind doing a little typing to get the games and notes in. My hope would be that the thread focused on the chess games and only on the chess games.

[Hans Jung]

I for one would appreciate if you did that Brad.

[Neil Frarey]

Thanks Hans, I certainly do not mind doing a little typing to get the games and notes in. My hope would be that the thread focused on the chess games and only on the chess games.

Not that want to save your delicate little fingers from the agony of pecking at your fingerboard but ... I thought I'd scan those games from my copy of En Passant 129 and upload 'em to our server and link them here for ya...

https://www.chessmetro.com/images/EP129_BN_1.jpg
https://www.chessmetro.com/images/EP129_BN_2.jpg
https://www.chessmetro.com/images/EP129_BN_3.jpg
https://www.chessmetro.com/images/EP129_BN_4.jpg
https://www.chessmetro.com/images/EP129_BN_5.jpg
https://www.chessmetro.com/images/EP129_BN_6.jpg

[Brad Thomson]

Fantastic, thanks Neil. I have been going over the games from the actual magazines. I will look through other magazines for more Nick annotations. I know Nick annotated the famous Shirov game, there is an earlier Arkangelsk, and others. Hans has suggested a new thread for Nick's annotations. I will get it going. Please put the links there!