English Chess Forum

Very nice clip from 1966, but who is Jonathan? I'm informed that the little boy with the toffee apple who is playing Martin Bell is Jonathan Christopher Benjamin who passed away in 2000. If it is him, I remember him when I was just starting to play chess and there are games of his on the database. ...

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 24, 2020 10:07 pm

Well there is no reason why such discussions *have* to be rancourous, but its nearly Christmas Day so lets leave it there

Yes, have a restful, festive and happy Christmas

I think its reasonably "objective" to observe that this country is near the top of quite a few virus "league tables". (ones you wouldn't want to be high up in, I mean) That's not the point Jon made (similar to something Mick Norris wrote) and to which I was replying, which essentially was about how...

I really doubt it would make any difference who was PM - it's a difficult situation and people will make mistakes. The sheer apologist complacency of that pile of twaddle. You can see what difference it would have made by looking all round the world (other than the US obviously). Almost anyone woul...

The amount of cheating on chess.com is becoming comical. I have been awarded between 4 and 16 points on nine separate occasions in the last fortnight alone because "recent opponents have violated our Fair Play policy", and my rating has descended from 2100 in April to about 1700 now (not that I care...

I was very disappointed to hear from a good friend of mine that lichess had restricted his activity because of "violations" which they will not specify. Good news, as my friend reports: LiChess have said that they are constantly improving their cheating detection s/w, but that in my case it flagged...

I was very disappointed to hear from a good friend of mine that lichess had restricted his activity because of "violations" which they will not specify. Good news, as my friend reports: LiChess have said that they are constantly improving their cheating detection s/w, but that in my case it flagged...

I was very disappointed to hear from a good friend of mine that lichess had restricted his activity because of "violations" which they will not specify. Are you able to tell us any more about what you mean by "restricted"? No rated games, unable to join tournaments or receive challenges. Maybe some...

It's rendered slightly differently in the novel , by the way. Stok rolled the cigar across his mouth and said, "Buyer watch out," a couple of times. I just drank the lemon tea and said nothing. Stok ambled across to the chessboard on the side-table, his leather coat creaking like a windjammer. "Are...

I was very disappointed to hear from a good friend of mine that lichess had restricted his activity because of "violations" which they will not specify. My friend is honest and I know he would not cheat. Like me, he plays some online blitz for fun, and has not played any serious chess online. I also...

Richard says it all perfectly. It is a tribute to Nick's courage that he carried on playing chess online as if nothing was wrong, and never made a fuss. Rest in peace, Nick.

An unfortunate mouseslip for Kasparov against Caruana in round 4. Strange to explain as mouse slip, though. What was the intended move if it was a mouse slip? The only explanation is clicking on the wrong piece (queen rather than bishop), dragging it accidentally and then letting go of it. That wou...

Are the players allowed to see the other games? In 960 especially, it might be worth sacrificing a few minutes to see how others are handling the early opening. In OTB chess, an arbiter would take steps to prevent this happening if he/she saw a player copying another game.

It niggles me when people (especially in writing) use "prevaricate" as a synonym for "procrastinate". "Snuck" instead of "sneaked" has snuck/sneaked its way into everyday use, also to my annoyance.

India appealing against the result in the final because of the disconnection. Given the Armenia result in the semi-final, hard to see India's appeal getting anywhere.