English Chess Forum

Mike Surtees is very attached to his Bucket hat.

Pal Benko wore sunglasses to counter the piercing stare of Mikhail Tal - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKvy0spdWY4

Six Indian players on the top 5 boards - impressive.

Despite having a reasonable theoretical strength (last quickplay grade was 192 - but that's a significant over-estimate of my strength) I play at most one or two tournaments a year (none since 2013) ... make me have to become an ECF member and it's not going to happen at all... and people won't star...

"some kind of verbal altercation" - now that I *can* understand.

"Expelled" for that ... has to be ball-cocks, doesn't it?!

Dubnium - actually named after the City where Tony Miles secured the GM title.

Guess: Fischer 45, Kasparov 31, Karpov 12, Carlsen 11, Kramnik 3 ("cheated" on the last, obviously)

<Later>
Ah, just looked on iPlayer - won't comment further - though the actual scores demonstrate just how far below the parapet is the sport we think so well known

... which argues against JR's earlier comment. It perhaps just reflects what the organisers think tournaments are for - to encourage chess in the area, make a profit, attract publicity. In any event, I certainly don't want to appear critical in any way .... these people work long and hard, whilst I ...

All things are possible - this is a one-day "Rapidplay" - where the prizes are modest anyway ... the prizes for Section 2 are higher than those in Section 3. I guess the organisers can do just what they want .... not an issue for me, anyway - I'd enter the Open and wouldn't win a prize!

I play very little so don't know what is common practice here... It's normal for a congress to have several graded sections and an Open section. I've just been looking at one that I might possibly enter (first for 4 years!) Surprised to see that the entry fees are the same for each section - but the...

Hooper seems like an interesting person - with or without bevy: http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/hooper.html. Re Hooper's letter at the foot of the piece, in my ignorance, I hadn't clocked that Penrose was a Quaker - though there are certainly references to the fact.