Christmas Eve incident in a rock bar

[Anthony Ibbitson]

Chess in a rock bar sounds like a great idea! The chess rockers, the chess metalheads, chess rock...

[John Upham]

Chess in a rock bar sounds like a great idea! The chess rockers, the chess metalheads, chess rock...

Perhaps there is one in Brighton?

[Anthony Ibbitson]

Chess in a rock bar sounds like a great idea! The chess rockers, the chess metalheads, chess rock...

Perhaps there is one in Brighton?

Brighton's a bit far from me, I'm in West Yorkshire!

[John Upham]

Chess in a rock bar sounds like a great idea! The chess rockers, the chess metalheads, chess rock...

Perhaps there is one in Brighton?

Brighton's a bit far from me, I'm in West Yorkshire!

It was a Graham Greene connection...

[Andrew Zigmond]

I have met friends for chess in Harrogate's rock bar a few times.

[John Clarke]

Chess in a rock bar sounds like a great idea! The chess rockers, the chess metalheads, chess rock...

Perhaps there is one in Brighton?

If so, that would be the worst horror of all ....

[IM Jack Rudd]

There was plenty of music accompanying tonight's blitz. Which was fine, but I wouldn't want it for anything more serious.

[Anthony Ibbitson]

There was plenty of music accompanying tonight's blitz. Which was fine, but I wouldn't want it for anything more serious.

I wouldn't mind it for a chess social with beers etc but not for a serious event.

[John Townsend]

It reminds me of when I played at one club where they had rehearsals for performances in a nearby room. We played several matches to the strains of HMS Pinafore and The Pajama Game. You wouldn't want it in the same room, though.

[Stephen Westmoreland]

Due to a mix up, two Huddersfield teams were once sent to a Pagan Meet in Todmorden. Those were the days!

[John Clarke]

It reminds me of when I played at one club where they had rehearsals for performances in a nearby room. We played several matches to the strains of HMS Pinafore and The Pajama Game. You wouldn't want it in the same room, though.

Oh I don't know ... the second of those could be a pretty apt accompaniment to a chess game. Think of Seven And A Half Cents (with its recurring lyric "He figured it out / With a pencil and a pad* he figured it out". And when it comes to a time-scramble, Racing With The Clock (one of the lesser-known numbers) could hardly be more fitting.
*cheating?

[John Townsend]

Another rehearsal from that time was Oklahoma! It can be quite uplifting in mood, but it is no help whatsoever to concentration!

[Alistair Campbell]

I recall being in attendance at an evening league match in the early 80s between an Edinburgh University team and UDS (I think Mark Condie was playing) in the Student Union whilst Uriah Heep (a popular, if loud, beat combo of the time) were playing downstairs. Pieces were trembling on the board.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Alistair,

Yes UDS, (Ultra Data Systems?) They had the same teams for many years, the two Condies, Don Heron, Eric Smith and Norman Macleod the problem composer. I cannot recall their board 6. Did you ever play for them?

I played v the University in the same place. Not sure of the band but it a bit loud.
On another night the University had two home matches but not enough sets. I had to play on one of those horrid cardboard boards with red and black squares and hollow plastic men, the set was incomplete I had a matchbox for a Rook!

Staying in the early 80's I returned to the club after an away match (I still lived there) and was told the then captain of Edin 5, John Prestage was in the street outside the Edinburgh club asking passers by if they knew how to play chess just to sit at a board so his team could claim the bottom board by default. Both teams had turned up a man short and John found someone who sat there as Black and won time. He was an out of uniform off duty traffic warden.

I wondered what would have happened if the away captain (I'm pretty sure it was v Wardie) had the same idea and we saw two strangers plucked off the street on their way home suddenly pitted against each other. Happy Days!

[Andrew Zigmond]

I wondered what would have happened if the away captain (I'm pretty sure it was v Wardie) had the same idea and we saw two strangers plucked off the street on their way home suddenly pitted against each other. Happy Days!

The Even More Complete Chess Addict reported something of the kind; two teams who were (unbeknown to each other) both short of a player recruited a stranger at the last minute, gave him a crash course in the moves and stuck him on bottom board. At the end of the game both players were in checkmate.