English Chess Forum

Have tried to find the ship. Nothing yet. Oh, a myth, busted by Edward Winter: On August 9, 1936, the Batavier IV, a Dutch passenger/cargo steamer traveling from Rotterdam, was involved in a maritime accident on the River Thames. Despite rumors of a catastrophic disaster, contemporary British newsp...

Translate two stone go handicap into chess terms. AI Overview "A two-stone Go handicap translates in Chess to pawn and two moves odds or a rating difference of roughly 200–300 Elo points." AI goes on to tell us "Pawn and two moves: The weaker player plays Black, removes White's f7-pawn (or b7-pawn d...

Back on topic, the problem with FPTP was that there could be tactical voting The problem with FPTP is that you get results like this: https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/50385/election_2026_-_results_by_ward/3260/tyseley_and_hay_mills_ward_candidates_2026 The problems being that: 1. Six candidates g...

By far the most common way for seniors to retain their rating, for a couple of years at least, is to stop playing.

John Clarke wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 08, 2026 11:18 am

From the latest Guardian cryptic: Every man on board has to try with all at sea (6-3).

I regularly do the Times crossword, so when clues are posted here I've usually done them. It's much more difficult when you have no way of even guessing any of the letters. Took me a while, but THIRTY-TWO.

Interesting that some people think grades are too volatile as a basis for team selection, and some that they are not volatile enough. I think grade must be the start point, and it's whether you can justify to yourself the reasons for over-riding that. It's probably only the bottom board or two where...

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 31, 2026 11:17 am

Why 'bullets' instead of 'a bullet.'

"Ammunition" could be BULLET, could be BULLETS, could be lots of other things as well. In this case it's BULLETS because we need it to be a word that can go round CHES to give the required answer.

Bullet Chess - must be, Che is the rebel and bullet the ammo and very brief. (though did think first of all along the lines of 'double-check' - rebel etc as Che is always popping up. 'round a double, double shotgun... then suddenly it landed.) Yes, but not exactly the way you say. Clues should be v...

A useful way of considering cryptic clues is to think of them like mathematical equations where brackets, plusses and equals have been omitted. You just have to put them in the right places.

(City) = (pioneering) + (move in game)

Simon Brown wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 18, 2026 4:21 pm

Yesterday’s Jumbo Cryptic. “Knock over a preferred piece in castling (7)” Hard clue

Most clues in this thread have a veiled reference that requires some knowledge of chess. This is rather the opposite. Despite appearances, it's nothing to do with chess.

Johnny Giles usually got the blame, perhaps unfairly as nobody seemed to see what happened. Remember the 1974 Charity Shield? Everyone saw what happened there. First time the match had been played at Wembley, Leeds and Liverpool the two best teams in the league, led out by new managers in Clough an...

There's a pretty well-known trap in the Albin Counter Gambit where black acquires a third knight. I don't think a bystander supplying that knight unasked before the promotion could be construed as anything other than giving advice.

IM Jack Rudd wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 20, 2024 1:47 pm

I'll go with "less" on the grounds that it's being treated as a time period rather than as sixty individual seconds.

I agree. It took me fewer than one minute to come to this opinion.

Although I don't think it's practical for the laws to be enforced as strictly in leagues as in tournaments, leagues do have one advantage. If you're cheating regularly you'll find it very hard not to raise the suspicions of your team-mates.

In the unlikely event that a local league had a bookstall I would be unhappy if my opponent were looking at a book, but my point is that there is not felt to be a need for a specific law against it. But there is a law against it. I think a bookstall qualifies as a 'source of information'. "11.3.1 D...