Time Changer...

Discuss anything you like about chess related matters in this forum.
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Joey Stewart
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Time Changer...

Post by Joey Stewart » Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:55 pm

You know how in films people sometimes go back in time and change things for the better (sometimes worse)...

Well I wondered if you applied it specifically to chess - what moment in chess history would you like to see changed for the better?

For this exercise you can assume there will be no consequences, other then the altered timeline, so feel free to maim, kill and crush peoples dreams if that is your wish.

It could be a huge change such as preventing alekhines assas.... I mean accidental death, or it could be something small and petty like teaching an old chess enemy a lesson when he was a junior and putting him off playing the game at all!

I think for myself I would like to go back to the days when they discussed doing adjudications and pointing out all the flaws in their system, then introducing a chess clock years ahead of its time so that we dont have the rediculousness of the modern day in british leagues...
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

Dan O'Dowd
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Re: Time Changer...

Post by Dan O'Dowd » Mon Sep 03, 2012 9:31 pm

Easy.

Fischer - Karpov '75. The resultant chaos of Fischer at his peak, Karpov having to deal with clear aggressive crystal 10 years earlier, and Kasparov having to deal with both of those, would be priceless to see.

Michael Jones
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Re: Time Changer...

Post by Michael Jones » Mon Sep 03, 2012 10:13 pm

The misplayed endgame which cost me a win against a 190 in the Lincolnshire schools championships in 2001, at a time I was graded about 70 myself.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Time Changer...

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Tue Sep 04, 2012 12:04 am

Paul Keres and his family manage to make it across the Baltic to Sweden in the early 1940s.......
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

Alan Burke

Re: Time Changer...

Post by Alan Burke » Tue Sep 04, 2012 1:11 am

A certain person pulls out a suit and a t-shirt from his wardrobe ... and decides to wear the suit !

Geoff Chandler
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Re: Time Changer...

Post by Geoff Chandler » Tue Sep 04, 2012 3:27 am

Tell Staunton that he must play Morphy else his name
will be mud for for the next 150 years.

Get Dad to teach me how to play Chess 5 years earlier.

Actually now I am thinking about it....

...Get Dad not to teach me Chess at all and teach me about banking instead.

Have all the guys who were in on developing chess playing programs fail.
These things have destroyed postal play and ruined chess analysis in books.
The fun there was diving in to find a 'wrong un' or go down a fantasy path.
You were actually looking at the analysis, studying it, improving yourself.

Now days you don't even look at the analysis, it's cut and pasted, cold and unimaginative,
blunder free garbage that a non player could re-produce with the flick of a wrist.

Somehow get Chigorin to spot that brilliant missed win in his game with Schiffers
(The Damiano Defence missed brilliancy) The saddest unheard melody in chess.

Emmanuel Schiffers - Mikhail Chigorin, Petersburg 1897


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John Clarke
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Re: Time Changer...

Post by John Clarke » Tue Sep 04, 2012 7:45 am

How long have I got? Here's a few.

Rubinstein gets backing for a match against Lasker, c1912.
Pillsbury doesn't get syphilis.
The Turk doesn't get destroyed in that fire in 1854.
England draw with Spain at Dubai Olympiad & end up taking gold.
Last edited by John Clarke on Tue Sep 04, 2012 9:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
"The chess-board is the world ..... the player on the other side is hidden from us ..... he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance."
(He doesn't let you resign and start again, either.)

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JustinHorton
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Re: Time Changer...

Post by JustinHorton » Tue Sep 04, 2012 9:07 am

Let us imagine an alternative history where Ray does not fall out with his tutor, continues with his studies in German literature and opts for a career in academia rather than chess. Instead it is Bill Hartston who goes on to be the longstanding and highly-regarded chess correspondent of the Times. Jonathan Penrose still suffers a fainting fit at the 1970 Olympiad but continues in the tournament and goes on to win his last Championship in 1971 at Blackpool. Michael Stean never becomes Viktor Korchnoi's second. The Modern Defence fails to catch on in English chess and the Petroff becomes fashionable instead. David Levy goes on to become the country's leading chess entrepreneur, though his habit of writing instant books irks many people. The 1993 World Chess Championship match is held in Manchester.

Meanwhile Ray networks his way to the top of academia, surviving several ethics investigations along the way. He is now Vice-Chancellor of a leading London university where although widely distrusted, he is admired for his fundraising talents and the quality of his entertaining. He is a noted Tweeter and close friends with Michael Gove.
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

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Jonathan Bryant
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Re: Time Changer...

Post by Jonathan Bryant » Tue Sep 04, 2012 3:41 pm

JustinHorton wrote:... Michael Stean never becomes Viktor Korchnoi's second.

If Keene and Stean not working for Korchnoi could easily have changed the result in the Korchnoi - Spassky Candidates' final of 1977/78. That would have meant no Karpov-Korchnoi match in Baguio, no yoghurts, no yogis and no falling out between Keene and Stean.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Time Changer...

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Tue Sep 04, 2012 10:00 pm

I'd quite like to have seen how a still-active Kasparov would have coped with the current crop of chess players, and whether he'd still be world number one or not, or even have regained his title. He chose to retire when he did, which was always going to be his prerogative, but it will always be one of those unanswered questions (what would have happened if Kasparov had not retired when he did?).

John McKenna

Re: Time Changer...

Post by John McKenna » Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:44 am

On 30th Aug. 1918 Lenin is killed (instead of being seriously wounded) by the two shots of F. Kaplan that strike him. Trotsky and Stalin - already at odds - fail to unite Bolsheviks and the Soviet state is strangled at birth by the White Russians and foreign intervention. Finally, a constitutional monarchy is restored.
There is no chess for the masses and Russia slowly becomes a strong but not dominant force in chess between the wars.
Yes, there is still a WWII but Russia is defeated, and Germany dominates.

Warren Kingston
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Re: Time Changer...

Post by Warren Kingston » Wed Sep 05, 2012 12:13 pm

Let's go way back, back to the beginning, when those chess inventors decided the rules of the game. Wish they made it a damm sight easier for me to understand.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Time Changer...

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Wed Sep 05, 2012 10:17 pm

The chief flaw in that account is maybe the 1984/85 K v K match - Karpov tired himself out *because* he was obsessed with getting a 6-0 shutout at all costs. Had he gone for the kill earlier, he might have dropped a game or two - but such a defeat would still have been an intensely deflating experience for Gazza and it would have been truly fascinating to see how he dealt with it (especially since the USSR chess establishment would surely have remained solidly behind Karpov then) :?:
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

Jonathan Bryant
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Re: Time Changer...

Post by Jonathan Bryant » Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:01 pm

Paul Cooksey wrote:Somewhat rusty after a long period of inactivity...

... Paul Cooksey posted on the EC Forum.

Jonathan Bryant
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Re: Time Changer...

Post by Jonathan Bryant » Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:34 pm

Paul Cooksey wrote:
Jonathan Bryant wrote:
Paul Cooksey wrote:Somewhat rusty after a long period of inactivity...
... Paul Cooksey posted on the EC Forum.
I'm surprised S&B have time to mock me ....
Wasn't mocking old chap, but welcoming you back. As for the post you cite, I didn't write it so feel free to disagree :wink:

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