English Chess Forum

Good move, Jack.

It should've been there from the off, but I thought a chess game of Boris' might come to light...

If it does, please feel free to move it to where it will shine...

John McKenna wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 27, 2019 2:39 am

Then ask yourself - can he really make the required moves to avoid, zugzwang, stalemate and checkmate?

Not long ago an article on the Guardian compared different Brexit options and ranked them by how much worse they would affect the economy, compared to the baseline of doing nothing and staying in the EU. Needless to say the options ranked from "a little bit worse", through "definitely worse" to "a compete disaster". From that perspective, the proper chess metaphor is definitely zugzwang, even more appropriate that being a German word.

Every chess player knows, when in zugzwang, you might as well pick a move and hope for the best; doing nothing for a while would only leave you in the same bad position, adding zeitnot to your zugzwang problems.

Paolo Casaschi wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 29, 2019 1:45 pm

From that perspective, the proper chess metaphor is definitely zugzwang, even more appropriate that being a German word.

Mutual zugzwang, presumably.

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 29, 2019 3:40 pm

Paolo Casaschi wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 29, 2019 1:45 pm

From that perspective, the proper chess metaphor is definitely zugzwang, even more appropriate that being a German word.

Mutual zugzwang, presumably.

Not really. The ball is entirely on the UK side at the moment. Once you decide to take back control you can’t keep blaming others anymore. UK to move.

Sorry to introduce chess into this, and it's a bit off-topic, but... I organized car hire today for my trip to Guernsey in October and discovered a bit of small print that says in the event of a no-deal Brexit, UK drivers will have to produce an international driving permit as well as their licence. Now, I could understand that for trips to France, Spain, Netherlands (and all the other EU countries), but for Guernsey? Guernsey is a sort of associate member of EU, owing to their mainland UK ties, but I doubt they will stay in the EU when we leave...

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 29, 2019 10:31 pm

Sorry to introduce chess into this, and it's a bit off-topic, but... I organized car hire today for my trip to Guernsey in October and discovered a bit of small print that says in the event of a no-deal Brexit, UK drivers will have to produce an international driving permit as well as their licence. Now, I could understand that for trips to France, Spain, Netherlands (and all the other EU countries), but for Guernsey? Guernsey is a sort of associate member of EU, owing to their mainland UK ties, but I doubt they will stay in the EU when we leave...

Guernsey certainly won't stay in the EU if and when the United Kingdom leaves for the rather obvious reason that it's not currently part of the EU. It is part of the Common Travel Area, a concept which predates the EU, along with the United Kingdom, Jersey, the Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland. It's not remotely my area of expertise but I'm not clear that the CTA (within which area passport-free travel has always applied) will be affected by any decision regarding EU membership but others may know better.

The arrangements on arrival in Ireland from elsewhere in the CTA have always seemed rather daft. British and Irish citizens are not required to show documents, but they may be required to demonstrate that they are in one of those categories and how are they supposed to do that?

As to the Guernsey driving permit question, I would say with some confidence that someone is being an idiot.

I saw this

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49165504

and for a moment I thought a contributor to this forum had a new job.

"As to the Guernsey driving permit question, I would say with some confidence that someone is being an idiot."

As long as it isn't me. I read the paperwork again and will follow it up.

I know Guernsey isn't a member of EU, but it has some of the benefits. A good quiz question is to ask which is the westernmost country in the EU. I think it's France as Martinique still counts as part of France.

I have now resorted to Wikipedia, which may be right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_m ... pean_Union