English Chess Forum

What do you think?

Sanguine Jack says: it's some of the best fun there is.
Phlegmatic Jack says: it's intellectually satisfying and challenging.
Melancholic Jack says: it's a form of mental torture and it's out to get me.

Most of us have had those range of feelings, tbh.

I was on a bit of a downer with chess myself a few years ago, but am enjoying it again much more now.

I drag myself reluctantly to a club match, sometimes driving up to 10 miles if we are playing away.
Throughout the journey I am thinking that I will probably get thrashed yet again and there are just so many other things that I would rather be doing.
Then I somehow manage to win my game and all the way home I am on a high and wondering if there are any congresses coming up that I can enter!

It's pain and pleasure, you can't have the highs without the lows!

At the back of the first edition of New in Chess for 2015 there is an interview with Alejandro Ramirez (came 2nd in the 2013 US Championship) who in response to what the most exciting game of chess he's ever seen was answered Morozevich - MVL from Biel 2009 "was the most WTF game" he'd ever seen.

Of course I should have been working but that sounded interesting so I gave it a look. OMG! If this game doesn't put a smile on your face then nothing will....

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd4 4. Nd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f3 e6 7. Be3 b5 8. Qd2 Nbd7 9. g4 h6 10. O-O-O b4 11. Nce2 Qc7 12. h4 d5 13. Nf4 e5 14. Nfe6 fe6 15. Ne6 Qa5 16. ed5 Qa2 17. Qd3 Kf7 18. g5 Nd5 19. Bh3 Ne3 20. Nd8 Ke7 21. Nc6 Kf7 22. g6 Kg8 23. Qe3 Bc5 24. Qe4 Nf8 25. Rd8 Bb7 26. Ra8 Ba8 27. h5 Rh7 28. Re1 Bc6 29. Qc6 Bd4 30. Kd2 Qb2 31. Qc4 Kh8 32. Kd3 a5 33. Qc8 Qa3 34. Ke4 b3 35. cb3 a4 36. Rb1 Qb4 37. Qc4 Qb7 38. Qd5 Qb4 39. Qc4 Qd2 40. Bg4 a3 41. Qf7 Qc2 42. Kd5 Qc5 43. Ke4 a2 44. Rc1 a1Q 45. Rc5 Bc5 46. Qd5 Qe1 47. Kd3 Qd1 48. Kc4 Qd5 49. Kd5 Ba3 50. Bf5 Kg8 51. Ke5 Rh8 52. Kd5 Nh7 53. gh7 Kf7 54. Bg6 Kf6 55. f4 Bc1 56. f5 Bd2 57. Kd6 Be1 58. Kd7 Bb4 59. Kc7 Ke5 60. Kd7 Ba3 61. Kc6 Kd4 62. Kc7 Kc3 63. Kd7 Kb4 64. Kd6 Kb3 65. Kd5 Bb2 66. Kd6 Bf6 67. Kc5 Kc3 68. Kd6 Kd4 69. Kc6 Rd8 70. Kb6 Kd5 71. Kc7 Kc5 72. Bf7 g5 73. fg6 Rd6 74. Be8 Be5 75. Kb7 Rb6 76. Kc8 Kd6 0-1

Some hailed it at the time as the game of the decade. Morozevich missed a number of wins in this crazy game. If you want it again with a bit of analysis here's an old ChessBase report to look at

http://en.chessbase.com/post/biel-2009- ... nchuk-lead

After two pretty mediocre congress performances in as many weeks I’m on a bit of a Chess downer at the minute. I’m dragging myself to a Bradford league match tonight, when all I fancy doing is finishing work, going home to make some tea and veg out with my new Blackadder box set which has just arrived off amazon.

Blackpool in particular was a bit poor, I should have been a favourite in that section but after a good start 2 lower graded opponents got draws with me and someone beat me (using the Nigel Short DTF method) slowly torturing a weak pawn, which held up my whole position.

Ironically after taking it all super seriously, I had a few pints Sunday lunch time and played one of the best sacrificial mating combo’s of my life in R5, hey-ho it’s a funny old game! Think I’m going to stick to Majors from now on, I prefer having nothing to loose

Jon Mahony wrote: (using the Nigel Short DTF method)

TDF, I believe

JustinHorton wrote:

Jon Mahony wrote: (using the Nigel Short DTF method)

TDF, I believe

Had to look it up http://www.kingpinchess.net/2014/09/tdf/

You can of course manage to be in both places at once

Evening league stuff I'm on a broadly self inflicted run of 0/4 and a 0-5 team loss in a K/O final. Longer play? A big plus score for the season and we just won one of the critical matches in the Yorkshire league.... Frankly that mostly leaves me slightly confused

You do certainly need to be quite level headed to roll with it. I'm sure we all know people who find it genuinely hard to take.

MartinCarpenter wrote: You do certainly need to be quite level headed to roll with it. I'm sure we all know people who find it genuinely hard to take.

Yes, you can see them on the grading database - every 3 years or so they "give up" chess and take a season off but they always come back for more!

Clive Blackburn wrote:

MartinCarpenter wrote: You do certainly need to be quite level headed to roll with it. I'm sure we all know people who find it genuinely hard to take.

Yes, you can see them on the grading database - every 3 years or so they "give up" chess and take a season off but they always come back for more!

Bernie Hare (author of Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew, graded 170+ and former member of Leeds Chess Club) once told me he was “Cured” when discussing his giving up Chess - mind you he does seem to have stayed more or less on the waggon apart from playing the British RP major a couple of years ago.

I greatly prefer reading chess books to playing.

I find playing chess quite meditative. I can switch off the outside world for a couple of hours.

But it is important when playing, not to worry about the result.

If you lose, you lose, and it is probably because your opponent played well.

It is not fun to play a game and be scared of losing.

For recent games high on the "WTF!" factor it is hard to beat Cheparinov-Sutovsky, Poikovsky 2013.

(starting maybe with 14 Rg1!? which had apparently been played before )

Thanks for all the comments. I played my first game for a while last night and it was fun. This was partly because, as referred to above, I did not worry too much about the result, helped by my opponent being more highly graded than me. And I got a draw having had to defend the worst side of an ending.

I my other roles, as a secondary school chess organiser, I am concerned that chess is often not enough fun. The sort of event I'm running tomorrow, with 4 rounds of blitz chess, seems to be more enjoyed by school teams than the more traditional long play matches. Prhaps reflected by having 10 schools entering. Perhaps I should play more blitz myself!

Not fun in the ordinary sense, no. Fun in a grim, vigilant, sadistic and masochistic way, yes.