English Chess Forum

"2 hours 20 minutes"

That was it. I assume it was in the days of 40 moves in 2.5 hours. In case anyone was wondering, his name is pronounced to rhyme with boys.

That's a shame - I played him at Hastings in 1978. He was a nice guy. I seem to recall he once spent an inordinate amount of time (something like an hour and a half?) on one move in a later tournament.

I have now watched all of Naroditsky's piece on the cheating accusation and it is interesting. He does comment that the platforms are not likely to ban a strong GM without being certain they're right. (It would be good if they applied that to everyone.) He does make the good point that anyone could ...

"pronouncing the latter as "Keramics"."

Quite right too!

"Trump Golf was founded in 1999 with the mission to create the world’s best luxury golf experience that celebrates the purity of the game, family values and tradition." "...the purity of the game, family values and tradition." Wow. I was watching the start of the latest impeachment process on Sky Ne...

"One of the alleged signs on a camera is staring at something away from the board." Yes, it means nothing - e.g. Ivanchuk frequently stares at the ceiling and I don't suppose he has a chess set stuck there... Even I sometimes stare into space then look at the board in the hope that I will suddenly s...

"Also good news about little Georgie Hahn."

I had noticed the junior winner was about 6 inches taller! I feared that the proximity to the war might have terminated Georgie's career (and indeed Georgie himself), so it was good to see he lived a long life.

"If you click on the link it will take you to 1 hour 52 minutes in. If you watch for 30 minutes or so you will have a good understanding of the case against Maghsoodloo." I have now watched the first 20 minutes and it's certainly interesting (and Naroditsky is always a good presenter). I thought ......

"Is that video really going to be four hours long?"

Well, at least it suggests it's thorough!

"Our second edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage agrees that that used to be the orthodox pronunciation, but adds that the influence of such words as aerodrome, hippodrome, palindrome, etc had prompted the change." Interesting. I don't suppose "aerodrome" is Ancient Greek! You could pronounce "h...

Dealing with online cheating seems a bit of an art, not a science. I'm reminded of the Football League last season banning the Leeds goalkeeper for about 6 games for making a racist comment. He denied it and the league said, "we can't prove you did it, but we'll ban you anyway". Unfortunately, some ...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-55658370

Scroll down to 0945 today (at time of writing, everything above it is depressing) - there is a giant chessboard in Beirut.

"I believe - though cannot find a reference - that, in the early years of the 20C, "syndrome" was pronounced "Syn-drom-ee" - to rhyme with epitome." I recall the late Kenneth Williams expounding on this subject at length on a TV chat show, along those lines, referencing the pronunciation of epitome,...

"I have heard people say tortoise as tortoys in the past too and I have always thought it may be a valid alternative, but now I think it may be valid only in some dialects at best, not in Received Pronunciation."

I agree.

"I'd say pet hate is the stronger - I've always understood peeve to mean a mild annoyance. But the qualifier "pet" to my mind considerably reduces the force of both." Yes - I agree with that, but maybe the "pet" suggests also, "I don't like this but I would understand if other people disagreed with ...