English Chess Forum

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 25, 2021 1:23 pm

New competition:
Anagram of 'Off The Board Chess'

typed 'Off The Board Chess'
into https://www.wordplays.com

Hours of harmless entertainment to be had fiddling with options, which threw up:

Off heads botchers
He affords botches
Crashes off hotbed
Broth fed chess oaf
Ecf doth sob afresh

My brain was in scrabble mode above. Nothing is intended to refer to Andrew's book!

Well done Roland.

Crashes Off Hotbed!

I am interested in the two books 'Off the Board Chess' and 'Memorable Games of British Chess' by Neil Hickman.
(I'm sure the club has a copy of the latter.) I'll see if Chess and Bridge gets copies of 'Off the Board'.

My Scrabble set was stolen...I'm now lost for words. (Bob Monkhouse)

Bob Monkhouse: They laughed when I said I wanted to be a comedian. Well, they're not laughing now.

You don't even have to be much of a fan, to recognise that as one of the best jokes ever

Andrew, I'd like to buy your book. How much UK postage and where to send my old cheque?

James

James Pratt wrote: ↑

Fri May 14, 2021 11:27 pm

Andrew, I'd like to buy your book. How much UK postage and where to send my old cheque?

James

H
Hi James,
Thank you for your interest. Apologies for delay - I have only just seen your message. In actual fact, the books were delayed and only arrived today. They were being printed and shipped from the EU and the post 1/1/21 Brexit rules required some new procedures. In answer to your question :
Its £19.95 + £3.95(P&P) = £23.90
44 Furlong Road, Bourne End, Bucks, SL8 5AA
(07962 580349) or if you want to pay online by bank transfer, just email me ([email protected]) and I will give you the details.
Regards
Andrew

Hi Andrew

I'd like to buy your book as well. I will send you an email.

Off the Board Chess by Andrew Smith is now on the Chess and Bridge website with good reviews and a downloadable sample:

https://chess.co.uk/collections/new-che ... drew-smith

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 25, 2021 1:23 pm

New competition:
Anagram of 'Off The Board Chess'

Geoff's competition didn't seem to take off but I will have a last go:

Oh dab chess effort

I don't like to be picky, and I'm sure the rest of Andrew's book is excellent, but this paragraph from page 13 of the preview could have done with some editing...

Chess is both a ‘Sport’ because of it’s competitive nature usually establishing a ‘winner’, and an ‘Art’ because of it’s beauty! There is no doubt that an individual chess game can be appreciated hundreds of years later in the same way that a painting or a poem can! Yes! In my opinion, a chess game really can be a work of Art!

The apostrophes are wrong, the single quotation marks unnecessary, and exclamation marks at the end of every sentence is ever so slightly hysterical.

As they say, there is really only one rule when it comes to the exclamation mark: don’t use it.

Nah, using it *very sparingly* - so that when employed it actually means something - is absolutely fine.

(the same applies to chess notation IMO - liberally spraying around !!!s and ???s is also a turn off there)

What about the ellipsis?

It seems such a long time ago when we were blessed with regular postings infested with ...

Has this morphed into the pedantry thread?

For what it's worth I put exclams in the same category as swearing: effective if used sparingly.

There's some advice I've seen attributed to Michael Frayn on the subject of editing your own scripts, which went along the lines of take out all the jokes unless you're absolutely sure they're funny, then go through it one more time and take out those ones too. Something like that, only for exclamation marks.

Roland Kensdale wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 30, 2021 4:40 pm

Geoff's competition didn't seem to take off but I will have a last go:

Oh dab chess effort

Thought we had a winner pages ago, still waiting on a PM to get the address to send them Harry Bingo!

Hoping to go down to London to see the O's v Spurs. I'll pop into the shop to pick up a copy
based on other good reports and seeing 28...Rf6+!!! in the PDF sample.

Exclams are a matter of choice, I try to be liberal, too many and the really good moves get overshadowed.

I think the book I have seen with the most !? and ?! is Kevin Wicker's '200 Modern Brilliancies.'
A good book will some excellent well chosen games but IMV a bit much with the ?! and ?!
In one game there are 10 in the first 14 moves.

But do not be put of by that, me and that book spent many happy hours together.

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 25, 2021 1:23 pm

New competition:
Anagram of 'Off The Board Chess' I will send 'The Passion of Harry Bingo' by Peter Ross
to the winner (It has chess in it. Myself and Jonathan Rowson amongst others get a mention.)
Andrew, you can be the judge.

Off heads botchers
He affords botches
Crashes off hotbed
Broth fed chess oaf
Ecf doth sob afresh

Off the Board Chess by Andrew Smith is now on the Chess and Bridge website with good reviews and a downloadable sample:

https://chess.co.uk/collections/new-che ... drew-smith
Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑Sun Apr 25, 2021 1:23 pm

New competition:
Anagram of 'Off The Board Chess'
Geoff's competition didn't seem to take off but I will have a last go:

Oh dab chess effort
Hi Roland,
Thank you for your efforts to kick start Geoff Chandler's anagram competition. I would be happy to judge entries and give an opinion as to the winner but maybe Geoff's prize has been utilised elsewhere ? With my usage of the English language, the anagrams generated would probably slot in relatively un-noticed in the text of my book !