English Chess Forum

Extracted from http://stevegiddinschessblog.wordpress.com/ but 'comments' are allowed....

A recent exchange from the ever-delightful Egregious Chess Forum, between one of the nicest people in English chess, and the self-appointed Censor-in-Chief of the said Forum. I am sorry to see Kevin mired in such nastiness, but, as the old saying goes, “Those who sup with the Devil…”

“Kevin Thurlow Post subject: Tournament dispute from several years ago Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 12:47 pm
Post removed in protest at censorship by Forum managers. The post was relevant to its former home, but obviously someone found it uncomfortable reading!

Carl Hibbard Post subject: Re: Tournament dispute from several years ago Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 12:37 pm
There was no censorship just a move into it’s own thread since as you say a little further down the two are unrelated, you were also referring to someone who is sadly no longer with us and we felt uncomfortable with that element of your post
Your original post was left intact though

Kevin Thurlow Post subject: Re: Tournament dispute from several years ago Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 1:10 pm
Really?
I made no derogatory comments about any deceased person and your insinuation that I did so is intolerable. It is an immediate requirement that you apologise for your false accusation and/or delete it.”

Devil and self-appointed Censor-in-Chief seem excessive does it?

If you are the Devil , does this Make me God?

Carl Hibbard wrote:Devil and self-appointed Censor-in-Chief seem excessive does it?

Just the Anteater frothing at the proboscis, nothing serious.

I must have missed something...
Who is this guy and why is he so upset with this forum?

I don't know why he's so upset with the forum but he does sound rather over the top. What a thing to say! I don't think I'll buy any more of his chess books.

I think it all started with some criticism of the 2008 Staunton Memorial. In summary, the tournament was criticised for slowness in publishing the games; for including a hopelessly outclassed Bob Wade in the field; and for clashing with other events (notably the British Championship).

The arbiter, Eric Schiller, posted an article entitled Behind the Scenes: Beware of termites!, and Steve Giddins, who wrote the tournament reports, referred to the same insects in his Round 7 report.

And there it might have rested, but there was a passing reference to termites in 2009, picked up by the Streatham & Brixton blog.

In 2010, Giddins was made editor of the BCM. During his brief tenure, he published various comments on a blog (http://stevegiddins.blogspot.com/ - now deleted), which are referred to in another Streatham & Brixton blog post. Some of the BCM's travails were discussed on the forum when an appeal was made for more subscribers - otherwise the magazine would fold.

I dimly recall that termites were again criticised on the now defunct blog, but that could be a false memory. There is more discussion of the deleted blog in this thread. In any case, relations between Giddins and this forum were by this time rather poor.

So when Giddins started a new blog this year, it was quickly discovered and mentioned on the forum by Roger de Coverley. The fact that it was closed to comments was noted in Roger's post. Giddins managed a termite reference in only the second sentence of his very first post. Since then, Giddins has demanded the removal of a photo of himself from the forum (for copyright reasons), attacked forumites for criticising his description of Gay Times as 'a pornographic magazine' (discussion here), and most recently described Carl Hibbard as being the 'Censor-in-Chief' of this forum.

I think that covers it. Did I miss anything?

michele clack wrote:I don't know why he's so upset with the forum but he does sound rather over the top. What a thing to say! I don't think I'll buy any more of his chess books.

I've only read one of his books, "50 Essential Chess Lessons", which I thought was excellent. Also his blog has some fantastic studies (not his, but usually ones I've never seen before). It's OK to enjoy his work whilst still thinking the author is a prize turnip. Of course you might decide that you don't want to buy his books because you don't want any royalties going his way, and that's fair enough in my opinion.

Jon D'Souza-Eva wrote:

michele clack wrote:I don't know why he's so upset with the forum but he does sound rather over the top. What a thing to say! I don't think I'll buy any more of his chess books.

I've only read one of his books, "50 Essential Chess Lessons", which I thought was excellent. Also his blog has some fantastic studies (not his, but usually ones I've never seen before). It's OK to enjoy his work whilst still thinking the author is a prize turnip. Of course you might decide that you don't want to buy his books because you don't want any royalties going his way, and that's fair enough in my opinion.

May I say, without further comment, that Learn from the Grandmasters, Flank Openings, Aron Nimzowitsch and Leonid Stein - Master of Attack are some of my favourite books.

Great, now all we have to do is find something worthwhile by Eric Schiller... OK, two out of three isn't bad.

Ian Kingston wrote: I think that covers it. Did I miss anything?

A writer in Malcolm's magazine commented that this forum featured "obscure, endless arguments". Not to be outdone, the then BCM editor chimed in with "tiny and totally unrepresentative". This was not long after he'd taken over at the BCM, in November 2010.

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... g&start=24

(edit) comma added, since it was in November 2010 that he made the comment, having already been the editor since the summer. (/edit)

Roger de Coverly wrote:

Ian Kingston wrote: I think that covers it. Did I miss anything?

A writer in Malcolm's magazine commented that this forum featured "obscure, endless arguments". Not to be outdone, the then BCM editor chimed in with "tiny and totally unrepresentative". This was not long after he'd taken over at the BCM in November 2010.

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... g&start=24

Thank you. I'd been trying to locate that thread but couldn't find the right search terms.

Paolo Casaschi wrote:I must have missed something...
Who is this guy and why is he so upset with this forum?

Thanks to everyone that replied.
Got the picture.

"A recent exchange from the ever-delightful Egregious Chess Forum, between one of the nicest people in English chess, and the self-appointed Censor-in-Chief of the said Forum. I am sorry to see Kevin mired in such nastiness, but, as the old saying goes, “Those who sup with the Devil…”"

He sounds good to me...

Carl Hibbard wrote:Extracted from http://stevegiddinschessblog.wordpress.com/ but 'comments' are allowed....

Carl, do you have a copyright notice on the forum?