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by AustinElliott
Mon Mar 11, 2024 11:44 pm
Forum: Chess History
Topic: Intersection between academia and international chess titles
Replies: 37
Views: 3259

Re: Intersection between academia and international chess titles

Mestel appears to be the only one who went on to supervise future doctoral students himself. Not a surprise, as Mestel is the one who stayed to make a career in academia and ultimately became a full Professor. His dad Leon (1927-2017) was a very distinguished astrophysicist , of course, FRS and Edd...
by AustinElliott
Mon Mar 11, 2024 1:15 am
Forum: Chess History
Topic: Intersection between academia and international chess titles
Replies: 37
Views: 3259

Re: Intersection between academia and international chess titles

For another thread no doubt, but which is the strongest University now? It was Warwick a few years back but these things can change quickly. Might be hard to tell what current player rosters would be, given that a lot of the stronger University players are likely to be non-British and may not have ...
by AustinElliott
Thu Jan 11, 2024 11:51 pm
Forum: Chess History
Topic: Alfred Milner Manchester - any relation with Milner Barry or Sir Alfred Milner
Replies: 16
Views: 1213

Re: Alfred Milner Manchester - any relation with Milner Barry or Sir Alfred Milner

Alfred and his siblings (two sisters and a brother) all changed their surname to Milner around the time of the Great War but their parents seem to have stuck to Mielziner. (see family tree I linked to above). A very common thing to do at the time, of course, from the Royal family on down. When I wa...
by AustinElliott
Tue Nov 21, 2023 5:59 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Annoying line in the Caro kahn
Replies: 13
Views: 1640

Re: Annoying line in the Caro kahn

Matt Mackenzie wrote:
Mon Nov 20, 2023 4:02 pm
Which is why I said "something like that" (the notorious QGD - as opposed to Slav - exchange variation isn't symmetrical either)
Like the idea of the "Notorious Q.G.D.". Sounds like the name of a (chess?) rap artist.
by AustinElliott
Tue Sep 26, 2023 10:42 pm
Forum: Book Reviews
Topic: Old chess books - any bookstore in London?
Replies: 14
Views: 1419

Re: Old chess books - any bookstore in London?

Another vote for Tony Peterson as a fairly-priced source of used chess books, but he is a dealer with a list, so not somewhere you can go and browse.
by AustinElliott
Mon Jul 04, 2022 4:38 pm
Forum: International News
Topic: Madrid Candidates 16th June to Tue 5th Jul 2022
Replies: 345
Views: 21366

Re: Madrid Candidates 16th June to Tue 5th Jul 2022

A surprisingly lively final round, given the tournament winner is already decided. Only Nakamura and Ding playing the kind of cautious stuff you might have expected.
by AustinElliott
Mon Jul 04, 2022 3:23 pm
Forum: International News
Topic: Madrid Candidates 16th June to Tue 5th Jul 2022
Replies: 345
Views: 21366

Re: Madrid Candidates 16th June to Tue 5th Jul 2022

Nepo is, of course, automatically entitled to Israeli citizenship, like quite a lot of chess-players from Russian and the former Soviet republics past and present. Given that Nepo is playing the Candidates, but playing under an FIDE neutral flag, and made his feelings about the Ukraine invasion clea...
by AustinElliott
Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:48 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal
Replies: 2787
Views: 242586

Re: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal

On the face of it, they've taken short cuts on the legal side. As part of the paperwork with the Oxford vaccine, I was given what describes itself as a "Package leaflet" which states the vaccine to have been "given authorisation for temporary supply" My understanding is that this is mostly avoiding...
by AustinElliott
Thu Mar 04, 2021 6:13 pm
Forum: Chess History
Topic: Lilian Letitia Barber
Replies: 6
Views: 1419

Re: Lilian Letitia Barber

The 1990 MCF centenary volume only gives us the info we already have, i.e. that Mrs Barber was President of the M'cr Chess Assoc'n for the 1924-25 season, and that she was a member of the St Margaret's Chess Club of Altrincham. St Margaret's was already a long-established club, as they appear in the...
by AustinElliott
Thu Oct 08, 2020 8:55 pm
Forum: Not Chess!
Topic: Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez bag the Nobel Prize for Physics
Replies: 2
Views: 781

Re: Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez bag the Nobel Prize for Physics

Yes, the Penrose joke could be that Roger may have the Nobel, but he isn't even the senior Professor of mathematical physics in the remarkable Penrose family - that honour belongs to brother Oliver, who is two years older. Fortunately (from a Nobel perspective) British theoretical physicists seem to...
by AustinElliott
Mon May 11, 2020 12:12 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Can online chess ever beat the face-to-face over the board experience?
Replies: 46
Views: 5441

Re: Can online chess ever beat the face-to-face over the board experience?

Re. "How far apart?", there is, I fear, a bit more to it than that. Apart from the direct risk of sitting opposite your opponent for an extended period, and sharing the clock, there's the question of room air and ventilation, plus that bugbear of all chess venues, the sordid toilet - now potentially...
by AustinElliott
Wed Apr 01, 2020 4:50 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Worrying times
Replies: 412
Views: 38204

Re: Worrying times

For those interested in the (ongoing) discussion of mask wearing, there is a very good article in The Atlantic by the excellent science writer Ed Yong which discusses what is, and isn't, currently known.
by AustinElliott
Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:29 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Worrying times
Replies: 412
Views: 38204

Re: Worrying times

bit.ly/39t6PSg This is a video put out by the Czech Ministry of Health saying we should all wear face masks. I have to say that I believed the stories that only the proper ones do any good, but the Czechs don't think so and they seem to be doing quite well. Anyway, I'm going to make one and wear it...
by AustinElliott
Wed Jan 29, 2020 11:15 am
Forum: General Chat
Topic: The difference between extrovert and introvert chess players.
Replies: 17
Views: 3469

Re: The difference between extrovert and introvert chess players.

The "mature' Keres feels more like an introvert/analyser type, though clearly in his pre-WW2 youth he played in a more swashbuckling style than in his latter years. Perhaps his experiences in surviving WW2 and the early post-WW2 Soviet years cured him of optimism. Or possibly just the famous 1941 ga...
by AustinElliott
Sun Nov 24, 2019 3:13 pm
Forum: International News
Topic: Malta International Open
Replies: 14
Views: 3621

Re: Malta International Open

I believe 3Cs' Adam Ashton finished on 7/9 as well. Anyone know if that got him anywhere near an IM norm?