English Chess Forum

"I'd also like to think I'm better at my job than chess. But there is a chance I'm just in a smaller field and objectively mediocre at that too. I'd have been happier if Kevin hadn't brought it up and made me consider it." Oh - sorry about that. I guess I would be about 2700 at naming chemicals at m...

Somerset Council's mismanagement has been so great that they appear to be bankrupt. I suppose they thought if they used someone else's money for chess tables, that the victims, excuse me, "Council Tax payers" would riot in the streets of Taunton. The spread of tables does look a bit odd, but if thos...

"I often wondered who came up with them, did you not find that those iupac naming systems start to break down very quickly once the molecules start to branch out and reach any level of complexity?" Yes! I did a talk on our procedures at an IUPAC meeting, knowing that the audience included most of th...

In answer to Chris, I used to do (and occasionally compile) crosswords, now I rarely do them, but try to do sudoku - there are various YouTube channels for sudoku. "Cracking the Cryptic" tends to have difficult ones - a three-hour solve just appeared, but they do feature easier ones. "Bremster" and ...

Thanks John - the found trophy doesn't look like that apparently, so puzzlement continues. The one you mentioned sounds much more splendid.

In this case, I'm inclined to believe the "translation error" exists!

''Niemann's performance is out of this world, but we have no definite proof that he is cheating. We have some indications, but we don't know if anyone wants to report him.''

I'm no legal expert but I suspect that's defamatory enough for HN to take legal action. What are the indications?

I've spent some time trying to get my head round (as the modern youth argot has it) the concept of "bringing the game of chess into disrepute". No, not managed yet. I think Gary makes fair points - do we know if the junior were annoyed by the game? He might well have thought nothing of it - as junio...

I did wonder if it were Jim Slater. I may have the appropriate "Chess" magazines in storage. Now Leonard has reminded me, I recall that when JS got involved in Spassky-Fischer, his name was familiar to me. I did play in the BPCTC, which merged with another event in 2004 (so maybe the trophy became r...

Yes, we even had a Civil Service trophy disappear, when we asked the winner to return it and he said he had never taken it away... I am no longer a fan of trophies, as if you're an organizer, they are a nightmare to track down, and if you win one, you're committed to returning it at a probably incon...

Is participation by juniors "progress"? If more kept playing when they got older, that would be progress, surely?

I am not arguing with what they measured, more what they are calling it.

It seems this was presented for the British Postal Chess Team Championship(?). Somebody has just found it...

Any info on its history would be gratefully received!

"However, I do feel, as I walk to the newsagent every day, that newspapers nowadays are bought mainly by the old." Maybe - I used to get the Telegraph at the station every morning to read the chess column, and start to do the crossword on the way to work (and occasionally finish it before I arrived)...

Allegedly it was rugby... https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/story/_/id ... ky-get-nil

Fred would have said, "I don't know what's going off there - I really don't."

"The Challengers line up is decent too: Korobov, Niemann, Yilmaz, Saleh, Santos Latasa, l'Ami, Mendonca, Dardha, Maurizzi, Vrojlik, Harika, Beukema, Deshmukh, Roebers." Indeed - Roebers played some lively games last time. Am I the only one hoping for Niemann to qualify for the top group next time...?