End of an era

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JustinHorton
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Re: End of an era

Post by JustinHorton » Fri Jan 07, 2022 2:01 pm

Geoff Chandler wrote:
Fri Jan 07, 2022 1:30 pm
. Regarding his off the board activity and alleged financial misdoings I am not at all bothered.
This is always the hallmark of somebody whose opinion needs to be respected
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: End of an era

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Fri Jan 07, 2022 4:22 pm

Kevin Thurlow wrote:
Thu Jan 06, 2022 11:11 pm
"It happens in all walks of life of course, and the Prime Minister is an obvious example, but its not a healthy or attractive feature of society, so we probably shouldn't simply shrug shoulders or this sort of thing will continue to blight us."

The current Prime Minister or the one who has just been knighted, or both?
Think of Johnson as somebody who has lots of Blair's vices (sometimes more so) without so many of his virtues.
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

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Joey Stewart
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Re: End of an era

Post by Joey Stewart » Sun Jan 09, 2022 5:22 pm

Boris has arguably a much harder job. With the country being so divided right now every decision he makes will end up aggravating half of us and so to try and compensate he has to resort to lying to try and cover himself. If we could somehow geographically split all the remainers/leavers and all those who want total virus protection Vs those who want everything back to normal with no restrictions into their own little states then Boris could manage any one of those with full public approval.
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

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JustinHorton
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Re: End of an era

Post by JustinHorton » Sun Jan 09, 2022 5:33 pm

Joey Stewart wrote:
Sun Jan 09, 2022 5:22 pm
so to try and compensate he has to resort to lying to try and cover himself
This is I suppose no more remarkable than some of the efforts Ray's advocates have used to cover his misdeeds.

(One recent effort I had in mind was Timman's recent New In Chess review where he suggested pressure of deadlines as a reason for Ray's enormous plagiarism, though thinking on it, he may have said he didn't think it was the entire explanation.)
"Do you play chess?"
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Jon Tait
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Re: End of an era

Post by Jon Tait » Sun Jan 09, 2022 8:41 pm

Boris Johnson doesn't need any justification for lying. He simply doesn't care whether or not what comes out of his mouth is true.
blog inspired by Bronstein's book, but using my own games: http://200opengames.blogspot.co.uk/

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Re: End of an era

Post by Geoff Chandler » Wed Jan 12, 2022 3:36 pm

Jon Tait wrote:
Sun Jan 09, 2022 8:41 pm
Boris Johnson doesn't need any justification for lying. He simply doesn't care whether or not what comes out of his mouth is true.
Hi Jon,

I think we will soon be witnessing the 'End of an era' for Boris.
The SNP will be sad to him go, their support has really taken off due to his term in office.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: End of an era

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Wed Jan 12, 2022 5:36 pm

Not really, it "took off" after the Independence referendum in 2014. Though he certainly hasn't done their cause any harm.
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

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JustinHorton
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Re: End of an era

Post by JustinHorton » Wed Jan 12, 2022 5:45 pm

Well, to get back to our original subject rather than get away from it, if Johnson resigns there will be a lot of people who apparently only just noticed what he is, when they could have seen that clearly at any point in the past several decades but unaccountably failed to say so, and does that remind anybody of anything closer to home?
"Do you play chess?"
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JustinHorton
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Re: End of an era

Post by JustinHorton » Fri Jan 14, 2022 2:33 pm

Heh, on a whim I checked out the Tony Buzan site, which is still running and frequently updated even if the Brain Trust is not, and I was pleased to learn that "Prince" Marek Kasperski is now being referred to as Professor Marek Kasperski, or even Professor Prince Marek Kasperski if you scroll further down. Congratulations to the Professor Prince on his new status, which according to his personal site was
bestowed...by the Tony Buzan academy
"Do you play chess?"
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Re: End of an era

Post by Roger Lancaster » Sat Jan 15, 2022 12:38 pm

Geoff Chandler wrote:
Wed Jan 12, 2022 3:36 pm
Jon Tait wrote:
Sun Jan 09, 2022 8:41 pm
Boris Johnson doesn't need any justification for lying. He simply doesn't care whether or not what comes out of his mouth is true.
Hi Jon,
I think we will soon be witnessing the 'End of an era' for Boris.
The SNP will be sad to him go, their support has really taken off due to his term in office.
Some previous Prime Ministers, and I won't get bogged down in a political argument by naming names, haven't exactly been regarded as scrupulously honest either. Of course, many have argued - particularly in the case of war or catastrophe - that the end justifies the means.

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Re: End of an era

Post by Geoff Chandler » Sat Jan 15, 2022 2:12 pm

Roger Lancaster wrote:
Sat Jan 15, 2022 12:38 pm
Some previous Prime Ministers, and I won't get bogged down in a political argument by naming names, haven't exactly been regarded as scrupulously honest either. Of course, many have argued - particularly in the case of war or catastrophe - that the end justifies the means.
Hi Roger,

You are in trouble, this is Justin's thread dedicated to Ray Keene and we went off topic so it was all moved too;

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=12431&p=277758&hil ... sh#p277758

Hopefully Jack or Carl will move it there before Justin notices.

(wait till Scotland gets Independence it will no doubt be RDK's fault and we can all come back here again.)

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Re: End of an era

Post by Roger Lancaster » Sat Jan 15, 2022 2:46 pm

Geoff Chandler wrote:
Sat Jan 15, 2022 2:12 pm
You are in trouble, this is Justin's thread dedicated to Ray Keene and we went off topic so it was all moved
Whoops, forgot that - unless we're interested in continually discussing RDK's shortcomings - this thread is off limits.

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Re: End of an era

Post by James Plaskett » Sat Jan 15, 2022 5:37 pm

Further to the sequence with which this thread begins of six consecutive journalists other than RDK writing The Spectator chess column, I also recall seeing one column written by the late Andrew Whiteley. (Think it featured a Basman game...)

Apropos the 1981 Ashes, the only Test match I ever visited in my life (indeed the only cricket match I ever visited of First Class level or higher since I don´t think any of the games played on Sundays at The British Chess Championships should count!) was at Edgbaston in 1981 when I personally watched Botham take five for one.
I was the Columnist at The New Statesman. Byron Jacobs took over from me.
Never knew of the chap called Fraenkel though... and before me came Miles and then, after something of a hiatus, came G.S. Botterill.

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JustinHorton
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Re: End of an era

Post by JustinHorton » Sat Jan 15, 2022 6:50 pm

Roger Lancaster wrote:
Sat Jan 15, 2022 2:46 pm
Geoff Chandler wrote:
Sat Jan 15, 2022 2:12 pm
You are in trouble, this is Justin's thread dedicated to Ray Keene and we went off topic so it was all moved
Whoops, forgot that - unless we're interested in continually discussing RDK's shortcomings - this thread is off limits.
This doesn't particularly strike me as a good week for the proposition "it is clever to ignore the ethical transgressions of prominent people" but I guess some people don't learn. So just to reiterate that continually ignoring RDK's shortcomings has been the rule rather than the exception in English chess, and that community ought to have the honesty and gumption to ask itself why.

Perhaps part of the the reason is that as a community, we're pretty short on honesty and gumption.

(Maybe spare me the humbug about how he's all in the past, by the way. We had that last year - matter of fact, we've been hearing it for twenty years - and in between then and now his book was promoted in New In Chess. Oh yeah, also the humbug about everybody being bored with it, as if that were true the people who were bored would just go and read something else, instead of trying to shout it down in the frankly creepy way they always do.)
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

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Geoff Chandler
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Re: End of an era

Post by Geoff Chandler » Sun Jan 16, 2022 12:03 pm

Hi Justin,

Roger posted in the wrong thread, I suggested, as you requested, it was moved to it's correct place.

As for people being bored with it (the RDK affair) so why read it. The forum has been pretty quiet of late so
anything new is a treat and Roger's posts are always worth reading. He just happened to post it in the wrong place.

I've not read the review in NIC but often a time pressed reviewer does not give the book in question a full going over and hedge their
bets by saying it's OK. (Did someone not do that elsewhere and then 'apparently' realised it was not up to scratch and pulled their review.)

I would get too upset about it. Edward Winter's reviews carry more weight and he has panned and slammed it.
That should suffice, in him we trust. (I've not yet seen a copy in a charity shop. )

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