English Chess Forum

In the Dubai open today (Rd I noticed that the top board pairing was Romain Edouard against the magnificently named Anuar Ismagambetov, a Grandmaster from Kazakhstan. Mr Ismagambetov is a (relatively) lowly rated 2493 but is having a great tournament as befits a man with a great name.

In an infamous LCL match between London Central YMCA and Hendon a home player called U. Avbinconned played for CentYMCA (not sure which board).

Allegedly Mr. U. Avbinconned was working out in the weights room before Hendon showed up to play a home team which had not arrived.

It was certainly quite amusing to see the Hendon player write U Avebincond's name on his scoresheet as the clock ticked down to the inevitable default win.

Vladimir Kalashnikov seems well up there in the pantheon of top chess player names.

Can you really beat Stuart Conquest?

'Can you really beat Stuart Conquest?'

Must be an old chestnut, but I guess Ken Norman must have had White against him.

We're on to Potty Pairings now (cf now defunct Chess Addicts column in 'Chess'). One of my best as organiser of a school chess club was Wade-Anker. Also Little-Meaney and Singleton-King.

I have captained an Almond-Tart encounter.

If you want your male baby to be a good chessplayer, change your last name to Garcia and name him John or Jonathan. Rodriguez is the runner-up.

Paul Habershon wrote:'Can you really beat Stuart Conquest?'

Must be an old chestnut, but I guess Ken Norman must have had White against him.

Yes, in the Isle of Man one year.

Sadly, to the best of my knowledge, that pairing has never happened at Hastings.

I will raise you Maria Mate from Cowley Chess club.

American player Sylvester Smarty is a pretty good one

Back in 1977 SCCU U18 Champs, I celebrated winning best game prize against my present boss with a bottle of Chan-Pein.

Almost had Chin-Chan in Harrow match against Hackney...except Frank was Black.

My musical eye was caught by 'Forsa, Elise' in the list for the forthcoming e2.e4 tourney

I'll add to the pairings: Neil Homer v Derek Simpson in an e2e4 at High Wycombe a few years ago.

And this guy in the grading database.

Nevil Chan wrote:Back in 1977 SCCU U18 Champs, I celebrated winning best game prize against my present boss with a bottle of Chan-Pein.

Prizes were less appropriate for junior tournaments in those days?!

I have captained a White v White game.