English Chess Forum

I have been playing in the Surrey League for nearly 45 years, (and must write a book about my experiences), so tend to play a lot of people repeatedly. This season has been slightly different.

In the run up to Christmas I played:-

Martin Cath for the first time since 1974(!), and he has played regularly since before I started.
Julian Way for the first time since 1987, and he has played quite often.
Paul Durrant for the first time, and he has played for many years.

And then last week I played John Bennett for the first time since 1978 (and that was a different league), although he is an infrequent visitor.

Of course, people tend to play different boards over the years and teams get promoted or relegated.

In contrast I did play one Wimbledon player for the second successive time.

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Kevin J Thurlow

"One of the nicest people in English chess." - S Giddins 2011
"Not a gracious gentleman" - D Howes 2011

I've played Martin more times than any other person. Seven or eight times over about ten or twelve years I think.


Talking about playing people after long periods of time, I once did the opposite and played the same guy twice in a few days. Once in a London League game and then again in a County game. Never seen him since.

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http://www.streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com

"Of all the stupid questions so far, This one is particularly annoying, and irrelevant and when I meet you, I propose to write it down on cardboard and nail it to your face."
- Jerry Sadowitz

Good to read that Kevin is renewing 'auld' acquaintances OTB.
In the same Surrey League had the following experience playing one particular club.
I keep encountering the same player and apart from a draw have lost the rest.
In the first encounter his small son appeared next to him so he took the boy away. On returning he noticed that from being a pawn up it was now equal pawns!
He asked me if I'd taken it off, I said no but agreed one was missing so he got a replacement.
After a pawn was found on the floor.

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To find a for(u)m that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now. (Samuel Beckett)

I have been playing in the Beds League for only about 4 years, but I have already played some players 4 or 5 times. I guess after 45 years that might become a bit tedious, especially against the one I have scored 0% against.

My experience in the Surrey League over about 10 years was that often the same players would crop up time and again - I think there were several I played 5 or 6 times - but that there was geneally a greater throughput of players, with people moving into and out of the area. Glad to hear you finally got to play Paul, Kevin. I look forward to reading the book!

"Twice in a few days" is nothing - at Hastings this year two guys played each other in a morning tournament and were paired against each other a couple of hours later in the afternoon tournament.

PB

That happened to me last year. One of the disadvantages of small tournaments like that if several chose to play in both morning and afternoon sessions.

I have played the same person in consecutive rounds of the same tournament, although not on the same day.

We had played in round 3 on the Saturday, and come Sunday morning, neither of our paired opponenets turned up, and we were the only players who didn't have an opponent, so the arbiter gave us the option to play again (colours reversed), which since we'd both come to play chess we decided to do. I won both games

That happened to me and Adrian Waldock a few years ago at Hastings! Luckily we each had one white and one black.

Two enjoyable draws I seem to recall.

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Follow me on Twitter @BackRankTristan for a patzer's-eye view of the amateur chess world: 140-character book reviews, ill-informed opinion, cartoon updates from the Back Rank, and other assorted chess rubbish.

http://www.twitter.com/backranktristan

Part of the reason I play in e2e4 events is to avoid having to always play the same opponents. Although I suppose if I keep playing in them I will eventually have new 'same opponents'! See you all in Brighton!

Having resumed playing after several decades, I'm waiting to see if I re-encounter any of my opponents of (very) yesteryear - none so far. Though as I'm in a different part of the country to my teenage years, probably not all that surprising.

Just don't play him at online correspondence chess, he's nigh on unbeatable at that!
http://www.redhotpawn.com/profile/playe ... uid=483530
http://www.chess.com/echess/profile/awaldock
http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthr ... 601&page=1

Is there any point dredging this stuff up again?

Personally, I don't see the point in correspondence chess without the use of books or engines, at all.

For the record, Adrian is a decent fellow. This bad reputation he has gained does not tally with his actual character.

redhotpawn.com which is very hot (sorry) on detecting computer use has a forum at http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/threadl ... ?forumid=9

Whilst it's amusing sometimes to see what they are talking about, if the standard of questions indicates the standard of play, many participants have next to no knowledge of chess theory or literature, and if they have chess engines, switching them on and using them to evaluate their standard of play would be a "good idea". Having said that, sending off a move, only to see the reply as suggested by (insert name of popular engine) is somewhat pointless. If you have the engine installed you could play it yourself without involving third parties to operate it.

There's a blog writer who doesn't like comments who seems to enjoy mocking the players of a reasonable standard who contribute to this forum. Were he to tire of this he could find much to satirise at redhotpawn.

Jonathan could also have mentioned that he travelled to another country to play a tournament last summer and was drawn to play the bloke at whose house he was staying.

Some years ago (maybe about 2004) I played Simon Roe in a tournament and the name seemed familiar. Looking it up I discovered I had played him before...in the first ever tournament I played,in (I think) 1977.

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"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

That reminds me of the 2007 BUCA tournament, when I was top board for Warwick 3 and in the course of six rounds we got drawn against all the other three Warwick teams in the tournament. At least we were hosting it, so we didn't have to travel far to play each other!

The Coventry League is pretty small, so once you've played in it for a year or two you're likely to start coming up against the same people. I managed a notable exception to this a few years ago in playing 21 games in a season, all against different opponents (the 22nd was my last game of the season, and my only repeat opponent). The secret to this was being one of only two players in the club who possessed a car, and thus shuffling between teams and divisions according to who needed a lift on a particular night.