English Chess Forum

Playing my first chess tournament for a decade last September, I was unsure whether my cheap low-tech £20 digital watch would be in contravention of whatever the new tournament rules were. So I decided to take it off in advance and - poetic justice? - the strap duly broke. But even an absolute ban o...

A few months ago, playing my first tournament for almost a decade and so having no current grade, I was hoping to be listed as grade 0 / ungraded to lull opponents into false complacency (my brother-in-law playing in the same tournament was in a similar situation). Unfortunately the tournament organ...

As I have realised.... 1. d4 e6 2. Na3 Ke7 3. Qd3 Kd6 4. Bf4+ Kd5 5. Qf5+ Kxd4 6. 0-0-0

1. e4 c5 2. Ke2 Na6 3. Kd3 Qc7 4. Kc4 d5+ 5. Kxd5 Bf5 6.c4 0-0-0 is 6 moves. Can it go better?

As has already been pointed out, it is not suspicion but public domain fact that an account with the name 'DeclanLovelock' was opened on lichess and then has been flagged by the lichess software for using computer assistance during games. The games played by this account are there to see; they conta...

Thanks; it seems a bit surprising that time constraints are that severe when the U9/U11 events have 2 full days available to them, with no overlap with other junior events. A tidying-up at my parents recently re-united me with my scoresheets from the 1988 British U9 (5.5/7, at Blackpool I think). In...

This may seem a slightly footling question, but anyway it is something that I am curious about on returning to chess as mostly a parent, occasionally an organiser/coach, and even less occasionally a player. But anyway: at what point did the British U9 switch to being a 6-round tournament rather than...

To further elaborate on Michael's comment: One of the earliest references the OED gives is to a 13th century French manuscript: 12.. MS. Royal 13 A xviij lf. 161 Icy comencent les iu partiez des Eschez. With the chessplayer hat on, I would be curious to know what followed this sentence, and how any ...

In a discussion on chess and its history with one of my distinguished humanities colleagues I was told to my surprise that the English word 'Jeopardy' comes originally from chess. The origin is from French 'Jeu parti' - or split game, even game - being the old-fashioned (Pre-1500) expression for a c...

Roger - I think that 3000+ rating involves an online server where you also gain rating points based on the absolute number of games played rather than just on the results of the games. On chess.com/lichess the blitz ratings correlate reasonably well with OTB strength (they might be out by a couple o...

I don't agree; I think the flaw in the logic is that it does not regard as significant the fact that this unknown X has played a game against a player graded 200 (which is *already* information about their strength, even prior to the result). i.e. the average grade among players who have played a gr...

It is the Arabs refusing to play them. Iranians are not Arabs. In any case, is it the individual players who are refusing to play? If a player has no realistic practical choice on a policy imposed on them by their own government, it seems unreasonable to sanction an individual beyond a default in t...

From Ray Keene's chess column in today's Spectator:

"After 42 years without missing a week, this is my last column for The Spectator."

The final game of the column is Keene-Kovacevic (1973).

Qh5 followed by Bd1?

Alex: I don't think so. Or to be more precise, I think there are plenty of circumstances where the act of initiating a handshake, by itself, would automatically denote either resignation or acceptance of a draw offer, whether or not accompanied by anything else. I also find it hard to think of circu...