English Chess Forum

My own experience puts me, to my chagrin, much too often in the position of being the player who blunders and loses due to trying too hard to win an unwinnable game, and that is often in cases like you describe where I ought to repeat position and draw. I am particularly liable to do this if I had a...

Possibly clearer, and simpler, is "open to all born on or after [insert preferred date]". I endorse this. The potential for confusion with the use of age in years is already clear from the discussion above. And if you're expecting any entrants from South Korea, there could be yet more confusion! ht...

If you invest £10,000 in asset A and £10,000 in asset B and then sell asset A for £15,000 and asset B for £5,000 is it fair that you are taxed on those transactions when you've gained nothing overall? From a pure taxation perspective: yes. Those who have more money than they need for their day-to-d...

The main aim, as I understand it, of the "write off against taxes" ability is to ensure people aren't unduly penalized for trying to increase their income. Yes, but if you are both (1) trying to increase your income from a position in which you are already very comfortable, and (2) doing nothing at...

Those are excellent points about the risk of libel lawsuits which those in authority would have been taking if they had taken the action which, with all the benefit of hindsight, was so necessary. And another factor of which the importance should not be underestimated is that both Brian Eley and Cyr...

Keith Arkell wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 7:07 pm

Ah yes, the game which prompted my palindrome: 'Tara's partner entraps a rat'

This is quite brilliant.

Instead of thinking of the probability of winning against an equally strong opponent, think of the probability of not winning. I.E. drawing or losing. This is apparently also 50% when the advantage is +1. Then think of a factor K to multiply that probability by whenever you add one more point to tha...

An alleged "contribution" from GMRDKOBE: https://www.thearticle.com/unnatural-acts-chess-paedophilia-and-brian-eley Correct me if I am wrong, but this article appears to contribute exactly zero that is not already known about BRE. There was certainly a lot in the article that I didn't previously kn...

These days the "extremists" are arguably those who still claim to believe that RDK is a basically good guy who has done nothing wrong. Maybe they're 'moderates' who just happen to be extremely mistaken. Yes, hoodwinked by the establishment. Or in a few privileged cases they are themselves members o...

I think the point is that, if it makes you feel good to be the most extreme proponent of a certain position, you can hardly be upset to discover that the average person's position is more moderate than yours. An "extreme proponent" of a position would be someone who, by definition of extreme, is no...

It's funny how here and in a few other places, input from chess consultants has clearly been sought and used but then got mangled in the editing of the film. Is that the film where the seconds following the game feel obliged to press a clock every time a move comes through or when they are making a...

The film is being shown tomorrow night on BBC2 from 11.15pm to 1.00am. Watch out for the huge dramatic moment in one game at Reykjavik where Spassky opens 1.d4 and Fischer replies, to the utter astonishment of his backing team, 1...Nf6. "<Gasp> The Benoni! He's playing the Benoni!" It's funny how h...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkd1Q0Ntt9s from "LegalEagle" Interesting legal analysis, but is the guest speaker ("one of Youtube's resident chess experts") whom this legal expert chooses to feature in the video quite such an authoritative source? When I listened to "Gotham Chess", who I understa...

I would be very happy to partake in such an experiment, but there is a caveat: we are better at detecting when cheating has taken place by our own opponent rather than in another game about which we only have access to the moves, but no other information. You see there is the rhythm and tempo of th...

Years ago (a 2017 blog) I submitted a mandatory playing jacket to FIDE but received not reply. [...] I love it! Was it in response to the incident in that same year where Anton Kovalyov was approached by an arbiter at a tournament and asked to change because he was wearing shorts? The player replie...