English Chess Forum

Good grief. It seems extraordinarily mean-spirited to me to complain about obituaries of foreign GMs and well-known players. In my opinion they add to the forum.

Sorry to hear this. I played Yrjo in a Norwegian tournament in about 1982. He met my English with a kind of reversed Wing Gambit a tempo down, and slaughtered me very quickly. He struck me on that evidence as a player with a fine sense of dynamics, and a civil and polite chap in the post-mortem. RIP.

Really sad to hear. My oldest chess friend. David was the strongest Shropshire chess player when I first went to Shrewsbury Chess Club aged four or five in 1967. I am sure I was intolerable, and looking back on it some of the other players obviously thought so, but David's kindness and encouragement...

Chessers of a certain vintage may remember Jeff as a formidable Midlands organiser of the 1970s and 1980s, and in particular as the founder of the Shropshire congress. Many juniors of the time stayed at their farmhouse in Shropshire during both this event and others (including the Forrest Cup and th...

Sad news. RIP, Dave. I can't believe he wasn't an IM; of course the title was much harder to get then. What I will remember is the twinkle he always had in his eye; it was always an event to play him. I didn't know he was still playing bridge; I used to see him sometimes at the Young Chelsea in the ...

There used to be some sort of statistical records on the site - most draws, etc - indeed you could even look up the all-time record of nonentities like me.

Did I dream it? Or has it gone having previously existed? I can't find it any more.

1. Sack Dylan Maclean, or whatever his name is. He's absolutely appalling. 2. Stop with this stupid whining about draws. 3. Respect the game and the players (see 1. here). That's about it, really. If it were me I'd like a live video for each board, but then I expect that costs money, and it would on...

My God, the man is an utter moron. Talking about how at least the tie-break system hasn't been decisive.

So why are we being subjected to FM Dylan Maclain from the USA? It's not like there aren't people who can do this job competently.

Who on earth is this hateful twerp running the press conferences and co-commenting with Ian?

Chook-shee-teh, I believe. That's what a Lithuanian friend told me, anyway.

That's the end of that, then. Bring on Caruana.

Greatest number of wins is the worst of all tie-breaks, as you'd expect from something used by FIDE to determine the challenger from the world championship, of course. Fewest number of wins would be better (as would tossing a coin, an eating contest or an Elvis Presley lookalike competition, to name...

I don't think Aronian means he doesn't need to work on his game. He means that he doesn't need to work with a trainer. You can see that from his other interview which is linked to.

I would have thought g4 would have been a rather more tenacious effort than g3, although spoiling the aesthetic effect, as you say.

Better to win a piece than to give mate, as Botvinnik apparently said.