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In New in Chess Jorden Van Foreest: Do you want to know the real secret of my success? Cold showers. Its great for your heart, for your stress levels, for your blood vessels. I started with half a minute, then built it up to one minute. I did it every day. Then he won Tata Steel (Wijk aan Zee 2021)
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Great Chess Quotes
May 25, 2021
Olimpiu G. Urcan (tweet) - Watching a bit of the #FTXCryptoCup, I wish I could time-travel to the 1920s just to tell those players that the future will involve moving chess pieces they can't really touch, to the delight of thousands of spectators they can't really see, for money they can't really hold.
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Great Chess Quotes
May 26, 2021
In the Monty Python sketches there is one called Four Yorkshiremen. In it, four old guys try to one-up each other with what a difficult life they had when young:
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
I was happier then and I had nothin'. We used to live in this tiny old house with great big holes in the roof
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
House! You were lucky to live in a house! We used to live in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
Eh, you were lucky to have a room! We used to have to live in t' corridor!
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would ha' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House? Huh
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Well, when I say 'house' it was only a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a house to us
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This morning in the Chat Room of chess24’s coverage of the FTX Crypto Cup 2021, there was this chess comment in the way of the four Yorkshiremen:
In my day, we had to walk 5 miles in the snow to en passant, and we liked it
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When I was a lad, we used to walk 5 miles to school... In the winter... Barefoot... Uphill... Both ways!
And you tell that to the young folk of today and they don't believe ya!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHFZBUTA4k
This is before Monty Python.Comment
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Great Chess Quotes
May 28, 2021
There are players all over the world who volunteer their services for the good of chess.
I recently noticed tributes to an English player. I didn’t recognize the name and he is not internationally known. But they were interesting and together make a good obituary and a good read too! One can only hope when one’s time ends that you are remembered with such affection.
Mike Bolan
David Shepherd - I am sorry to have to report the death of Mike Bolan on Thursday 13th May .
Mike was active in training and encouraging juniors over many years and seemed to be an ever present fixture at junior events all over the country. He was a Life Vice President of the SCCA (Surrey County Chess Association) and was a good friend that I have known for many years and I am sure many tributes will follow RIP Mike.
John Saunders: That's very sad news. A quick check of statutory records indicates that Mike was 81, having been born in Whitchurch, Shropshire in 1939. Mike was the smiling face of Ashtead Chess Club when I, as match captain of (now defunct) Mitcham CC, used to cross swords with them in Surrey Trophy matches in the 1980s and 1990s. As anyone who's ever been a match captain knows, disputes can and do arise between people appointed to this thankless role but I cannot ever remember anything of the sort occurring between me and Mike, who was as affable as he was efficient. I think he was rather better at managing his side and running his club than I ever was (as evidenced by the fact that his club is still around and mine isn't). Lovely bloke - RIP.
James Pratt: Mike was a keen music lover, we went to a Gilbert & Sullivan concert at the Anvil in Basingstoke, often bounced musical opinions off each other. He started life as a librarian, went into teaching with a degree in French, thereafter was a stickler for linguistic accuracy. Like Argos the Hundred Eyed you'd see him at the bookstall seemingly drinking in all he saw, his leg pulled by me with annoying regularity. I shared his love of fish and chips and he'd celebrate with pints of Ruddles beer. He retired from teaching but stayed close to his school turning up at endless prize givings with loyalty and his bright smile, enthusiasm newer than any junior whom he mentored! Awarded the Presidents Award for Chess in 2004, he'd travel to the British or Paignton, shaking hands formally and always with great warmth, his trademark his Centre-Counters and Colles.
Mike suffered a stroke in 1985, lost his powers of speech. Regrettably he visited hospital at least twice more but coped with a modest grin. I never heard him complain. He retired to Oxshott.
I do hope Surrey chess can turn out a cup or two in his memory. So, so sad to see him gone. I think he leaves a sister and an untouched inheritance, a characteristic mark - dare I say it? - of principle.
Richard Pibworth - "It was very sad to hear that Mike Bolan had passed away.
Back before Epsom, I was a member at Ashtead for a few years. Mike's humanity and passion for chess, evidenced in his dedication to the young players there was an inspiration. I don't know what the overlap was but it's not a surprise that David Howell came out of this environment.
Under his watch no one was allowed to get out of a match on the basis that "something important had come up". To this, Mike would fix his eye on you for several seconds and ask "but what could possibly be more important than chess"? Over the years I tried "homework", "football", "family life", and as time went by variously "marriage", "job security", "holiday", "imminent HMRC deadline" and even "grammar school education", all to no effect. I do wonder how Marcus (Gosling, Epsom organizer - kjt) possibly managed to get out of an Ashtead junior membership.
Not that Mike limited his encouragement to the younger players. I well remember taking my daughter to an U11 tournament at Hinchley Wood that Mike was invigilating at. I had entered the parents tournament and on game 2 was drawn against a much stronger player. It was fear of Mike coming down the boards to look at my game which compelled me to turn an outright blunder into a desperate attack and lucky win, followed by him telling my daughter that "your Dad isn't such a bad player you know".
That day ended with me winning my first tournament in 30 years and experiencing one of the pinnacle events of the UK chess world - getting a trophy from Mike Basman. All due to Mike Bolan.
Mike Bolan was a true extrovert and one of those rare people who believed in people and inspired you to go beyond what you thought you were capable of, even if you actually weren't and really shouldn't have been able to. I will really miss him."
https://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=11729
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Great Chess Quotes
June 28, 2021
Nigel Short’s DNA Makeup
I can’t recall if we have ever had so much information about the national origins of a master chess player!
Nigel Short (tweet): Finally got my DNA results. It appears that I am 78% English, 10% Scottish, 5% Welsh, 3% Irish, 2% Norwegian and 2% Swedish. Can't keep the Vikings out, it seems :)
https://twitter.com/nigelshortchess?...ess-news.ru%2F
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"Frank, it looks like you've coached Raja too well!"
Gerald deLugt, veteran Kingston Chess Club member, after Raja Panjwani, age ten years and ten months, defeated his coach Frank Dixon in the 2001 Kingston Championship, about 14 months after starting to study with him!Comment
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Great Chess Quotes
August 17, 2021
FIDE and the Pre-Move
Dear Friend,
Pre-Move is here for those who wish to use it!
Pre-move, one of the most requested features is now available on the FIDE Online Arena. You just need to turn on the ‘pre-move switch’ in settings if you’d like to use this option.
Pre-move is a distinctive feature available in online chess games — there is nothing like it in ‘over-the-board games — in fact, it’s illegal (just watch Hikaru Nakamura losing a game in the Candidates because of this rule!).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puRR65UUKAs
In online chess, the pre-move is now legal according to the newly adopted online chess regulations.
https://rcc.fide.com/wp-content/uplo...ions.pdf#page3
Pre-move is an option to make a move before your opponent sets up theirs, and it’s usually done in time trouble or if the opponent’s next move is obvious. Pre-move is carried out automatically after your opponent has made their move. In some cases (for example, if your pre-move is considered illegal for any reason), the pre-move is canceled and you have to make a new move.
Pre-move is a useful way to play in time trouble, but can lead to a blunder if your opponent makes an unexpected move (or somehow tricks you into making a bad pre-move!). On FOA, you can make just one pre-move at a time.
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Great Chess Quotes
August 23, 2021
Edward Winter in his Chess Notes takes apart the book Chess by Paul Langfield, Macdonald Guidelines (London), 1978
https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/jottings.html
“The closing section on ‘Great Chess Players’ is astonishing. There are biographical entries for B. Brinck-Claussen, Ricardo Calvo, Nicholaas Cortlever, Svend Hamann and Axel Ornstein, but nothing at all on Labourdonnais, Rubinstein or Steinitz ... In fairness it must be pointed out that the author does say, ‘The list is an arbitrary one, culled from the author’s own reading in the world of chess, so inevitably there will be ommissions [sic]. For these, humble apologies are offered’ (page 76). One wonders, though, what kind of author it can be whose own reading gives Axel Ornstein preference over Wilhelm Steinitz.”
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Great Chess Quotes
September 3, 2021
Haven’t We Met Before?
A famous episode from Mikhail Botvinnik’s biography is his first encounter with Capablanca. When he came to Moscow in 1925 for the first international chess tournament in the Soviet Union, the Cuban World Champion not only played a small part in the movie Chess Fever of young filmmaker Vsevolod Pudovkin, but he also played a simul on 30 boards. One of his four conquerors was a future World Champion, 14-year-old Botvinnik. Little could Capablanca have expected then that he would met this boy again in several direct encounters.
It's a nice story but it’s not unique, Many readers will remember the cover of our 1988/7 NIC issue, which shows a historic photo of the same Botvinnik (well, quite a few years older) playing against a very young Boris Spassky in a simultaneous exhibition.
And perhaps even more spectacular were the tense games that 12-year-old Garry Kasparov played in 1975 in two clock simuls against Anatoly Karpov (an unnecessary loss) and Viktor Kortchnoi (a well-deserved draw).
This year, in Linares, Spanish journalist David Llada showed Garry Kasparov a photograph, taken on the island of Menorca in 1987, and asked him if he recognised his opponent. After a brief look Kasparov identified the five-year-old with the words: ‘Don’t tell me it’s Vallejo!’ And he added: ‘I wonder how many of my opponents I first played in a simul. In any case there are Kramnik and Shirov.’
Taking another look at the Vallejo picture and thinking back to the two draws against the Spaniard that he had to settle for in Linares and more in particular the overwhelming attack he had in their second game, he smiled: ‘At least I hope I won that game!’
From New In Chess 2003 Issue 3, page 5,
where you an see the photo and also read about Paco Vallejo at Linares.
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Imagination is more important than knowledge. - Albert EinsteinComment
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Hi Hans:
Great quote; hadn't heard that before; all school teachers need to read it!!
Bob AComment
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Albert Einstein vs Robert OppenheimerOriginally posted by Hans Jung View Post
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1261614
This too applies to chess...
Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. - Thomas Edison
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Believe me, it takes more than a lifetime to learn everything about chess. - AlekhineComment
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