Agreeing a time control not permitted by the rules?

[Mike Gunn]

http://www.barking-dagenham.gov.uk/2-ne ... cfm?id=798

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi John:

You are being silly cats don't play chess. Bill Hartston has researched this.

Also, you missed a chance to produce a 'groaner' .

On hearing the news, cats across the world ...

Should have read:

On hearing the mews, cats across the world...

Watch this. (My terrible jokes grade is 2521).

Yes the breed of dog will be important.

I cannot use a Dalmation as that would soon get spotted. (groan).



Cheers Mike.

I'll enroll the dog there - any idea what the club subs are and do they
do concessions - the neighbours dog is a 'retired' greyhound.

[John Wright]

[quote="Mike Gunn"]http://www.barking-dagenham.gov.uk/2-ne ... cfm?id=798[/quote

http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getpl ... ers=barker

[Geoff Chandler]

Thanks for the inspiration lads.

It's going to be Ralph Barker.

And I cannot wait till next year so I'll do a Corner - most likey in a few
days saying I have already done it complete with 'proof' (woof!) pics and games.

Heading: There is a Dog on the 2009 Scottish List!!

of course 'Doggy' Bryson (I must use that) will deny it but by then
it will be too late and will have flashed around the globe quicker than you can 'Jack Russell'.

[Richard James]

I've been doing some research into Mrs Sidney.

There is some confusion as in four separate documents her name is given as Eliza, Elizabeth, Ellen and Helen.

My guess is that she was actually Eliza, and that, far from being the aristocratic grande dame and Lady Bountiful you might have expected, her story has parallels with another, fictional, Eliza.

It seems that she was born Eliza Truelove (wonderful, you couldn't make it up) in Newdigate, Surrey in 1858, the daughter of a humble agricultural labourer. In 1883 she married Paul Sidney, a surveyor and architect some 28 years her senior. He was a widower whose first wife, Mary Ann, had died young. He was born in Camden Town and his brother Algernon was a solicitor. His family may have been related to the Sidney family who held the Earldom of Leicester between 1618 and 1744, and his father, when he died owned property in Camden Town, Haggerston and Chelsea, Peckham, Wandsworth and Caterham, and Taplow.

So we have a wealthy and possibly aristocratic widower taking a much younger country girl as his wife. I have no record of how they met as I could locate neither of them in the 1881 census. Perhaps he taught her chess so that they would have something to pass the time during those long winter nights in Hove. Anyway, it would seem that Eliza, who was now calling herself Elizabeth, took to the game, showing both an interest and an aptitude. Paul died in 1914 and his widow, it seems, threw herself into competitive chess, continuing to play until her death (her name was given as Helen on her death certificate) in 1939.

Thus the transformation from Eliza Truelove, rosy cheeked country girl, to Elizabeth Helen Sidney, Grande Dame of Sussex chess.

[Anthony Higgs]

Geoff,

Looks like your pooch already has a blog...

http://www.chessdogjournal.com/

[John Moore]

Geoff - I like the idea of the dog becoming an FM.

It should be possible to teach a very intelligent dog to move a pawn or two - the difficulty would be making it wait until it was its go. Be a bit embarassing if you managed to teach it three pawn moves and you sat it down and it made them all at once. Plus the knight moves might be a bit tricky.

[John Saunders]

Similarly you must be careful of a CAT scan, revealing the cat scam.
Stewart Reuben

The words 'cat scam' remind me of my own cat Scamp. This is the name of my male cat who is also the mascot of BritBase (http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/). I believe I have already told the story of him making a legal move on a chessboard elsewhere? As you can see from the BritBase logo, he likes to sleep at the chessboard (as per RGW when playing Korchnoi, remember?). In more lively moments he also likes to knock the pieces on the floor (again, not entirely unprecedented chessplayer behaviour). On such one occasion, after Scamp had demolished most of the pieces, the white rook remained unmoved on h1. Scamp peered at it uncomprehendingly and then patted it with his right paw in the way cats do with mice when they want them to provide entertainment by attempting to run away. The inert rook failed to run away, of course, but, after a few more quick and delicate paw pats, found itself neatly relocated on g1. Thus Scamp had played Rh1-g1 - a legal chess move. One of those moments when I would have given a small fortune to be holding a camcorder.

[John Saunders]

I suppose Scamp might be described as an expert on rook and paw endings. Also, you will note that he is black and white - or, as we chessplayers might put it, a cat of opposite colours.

John Moore is presumably suggesting that dogs are only eligible for the Fido Master title.

[Stewart Reuben]

To see two apes playing chess go to http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/g ... index.html. I am surprised John Saunders has not mentioned that as he is the webmaster for the event.
Stewart Reuben

[John Saunders]

Carl - can you move Stewart's off-topic ape comment to another thread, please? Some of us are trying to have a perfectly sensible conversation about cats and dogs playing chess here and then Stewart has the effrontery to butt in with his nonsense about apes... really!

[John Moore]

Anyone can teach a primate to play chess.

[Geoff Chandler]

Yes there is definelty a Corner to be done out of this lot.

I'll post a link to the Dog's Blog.

Some people will actually believe I have done this.

I've seen one post and had an email re my Duke of Brunswick thingy.

hang on.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7abOJqphn0

Saying there were no Euro's in 1858 it was Francs....

I smile and think they are joking - but there again....

So:
Opening Gag:
Open with the dog grading scam, make up a game. post link.
(I have dog and now need to borrow grading list to photo-copy pages
and insert Ralph Barker - then will show doctored evidence that the
dog is on the CS data base)

Instructive bit:
Show that game played played by Ken Bloodworth , show another game
with same motiff. (possibly 2).

Rant gag:
Edinburgh Library has just brought in it's Autumn stock (I have a contact there
who tells me when the new chess books arrive) It's all opening books.
I've taken a photo so will make merry with that lot.

Then close with the Apes playing chess.
(I will not stoop and use the obvious Orangutan pun)

And you thought I made it up as I went along -it's all carefully planned.

Cheers Lads