English Chess Forum

Sorry, too much chess in 'Not Chess!'.

Have something more related to the title of this thread then, Señor!

https://twitter.com/QuizThePlay/status/ ... 5948992512

I was hoping for some practical advice, which is rather lacking on this thread.

This is guaranteed to work: lend Donald Trump a billion dollars.

Sorry Bill.

But here is some practical advice on how to take a different take on what, to you, may have seemed sorted

https://twitter.com/QuizThePlay/status/ ... 7269164032

New tip on how to become a millionaire, Bill... with a specificity at 2:14 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvaJdVaxyfs ...although he did not tell us how he, qua audience member, voted re Ingram´s guilt at the end of each act of the play QUIZ, did he?!

btw, one of my Phone A Friends, Bill Hartston, DID attend the play QUIZ during its West End Run.
He voted them Guilty at the end of each act.
He said to me that he thought audiences would have been more cynical had they had it presented to them that Ingram was later found guilty of another fraud.
But Ingram was not.
He made mistakes in quoting the dates of a previous burglary and the insurance company called in a private investigator who passed letters, by hand, through Chris Tarrant´s door saying that Ingram had committed another dodgy act. Tarrant passed those on to the police who prosecuted.
Ingram was found guilty of something which David Taylor of Wilts Constabulary said was "not fraud".

Stewart Reuben attended and also voted Guilty.
Although he told me he would have preferred the option available to a Scots juror of ´Not Proven´.

Mariotti popped up last month on the island of Rhodes at the World Veterans Team Olympiad, where Italy actually finished quite highly. First time I saw him.
re Mr T.K. Hemingway, another name which features in the cutting of Sweby´s from a Luton paper and whom I have not seen now in over thirty years - anybody know whatever became of him, may I ask?

Maia CHIGURBANIDZE played in Beds in the late 1970s!

Get outta here!!

James Plaskett wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:40 pm

Maia CHIGURBANIDZE played in Beds in the late 1970s!

Get outta here!!

I can assure you she did as Sweby was quite taken by her, and I'm sorry to say James had you faced both her and Mariotti, who you mentioned previously, over the board in Beds in the 70s, you would have been done in by them. They were both around their peak and as Paul will tell you Sergio was super-tough. Just look at how Karpov struggled to get a draw against him in Milan 75.

James Plaskett wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:40 pm

Maia CHIGURBANIDZE played in Beds in the late 1970s!

Get outta here!!

If you thought you were the greatest of all competitors in the Beds league, I'm afraid you may have to reconsider that James.

Which still leaves the question of how and why MC ended up playing in Beds in the late 70s......

I can't gain access to the resources to answer that. The local columnist Sweby had a propensity to be vague at times. He only said she was visiting or 'now playing', which I assume was his way of hiding the fact that he didn't know himself. There wasn't much he didn't know. I also can't account for how well she spoke English at the time so perhaps nothing was said seeing as she was a Soviet citizen also. Perhaps he didn't want to draw attention to anything that may cause her difficulty and so kept it hush-hush, I really don't know. It goes against the grain of him proudly announcing visiting players to our league, that's all I can tell you. Mr. Paul Habershon will know more about this than I. All I can add is that I have been through her home town of Borjomi in Georgia and it is a very pretty little place, and very near Stalin's hometown itself.

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 09, 2020 5:08 pm

Which still leaves the question of how and why MC ended up playing in Beds in the late 70s......

I was following Chib's career at the time, and Soviet citizens, let alone a girl in her teens, didn't just turn up in the West in 1978 for a visit.

This must refer to 1985, when Maia played at Lloyds Bank http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/198 ... iewer.html I remember talking to her during that tournament, and she did speak a little English. Perhaps there was a simul in Bedfordshire after the tournament, though it still seems an unlikely tale.

Unfortunately I don't have access to my resources but Sweby mentioned her several times between 77-83. I believe in one column he quoted her and drew reference to the fact we had no females playing in our league but that's all I can say at the moment.

Leonard Barden wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 10, 2020 9:29 am

This must refer to 1985, when Maia played at Lloyds Bank http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/198 ... iewer.html I remember talking to her during that tournament, and she did speak a little English.

She also played in the weekend tournament at County Hall immediately after the Lloyds Bank Masters, an event which I recall for four reasons:

1. Chiburdanidze lost a crucial game to Nigel Short, who had had a poor record against her until then.

2. The caretaker tried to throw us out after about half an hour of the Saturday evening round. The personal intervention of Tony Banks, then GLC Chairman, enabled us to continue.

3. Short and John Nunn tied for first. After a playoff in which two Blitz games were also drawn, they played a third game in which Black had draw odds - an early Armageddon game.

4. It was the first event at which I had been an arbiter after passing the BCF Arbiter examination.