They say that to attract more readers to your weblog, you have to try to send them away!!
Ok here goes. There are more possible games of chess, than atoms in the observable universe!!
Think about that. I used to as a kid, when I read my Guinness Book of
Records, which had that fact as the intro to Chess records.
My Dad taught me at about aged 6, and I took to it straight away.
I'm dyslexic, can't write, struggle to spell, have a spatial mind,
and was great at maths as a kidd. Perfect for being a great chess
player!! My Dad was great to play until I kept beating him, but unfortunately there
weren't any other good chess players around to really take me to the
next level with openings, and tactics, and end games.
So I drifted away a bit. Also the school where I was at, seemed a
bit strange with their selection for many of the sports teams including
the chess team. The teachers had an amazing talent for not being
able to spot talent!! I saw it so often in all the sports I
played, observing who the really talented players were, rather than
those who looked good.
It wasn't until I was 15, that my chess was ignited again for a very
brief period when a guy called Ken Hughes joined our class. He
wasn't academic in the conventional sense so he didn't last long, but
I'd met a guy who was in a dream-world of spatial games. His was a
spatial talent, and not an academic one. Someone I could talk
openings with for hours, and he knew what the hell I was talking
about. The other great thing in the UK which ignited my interest
again was "The Master Game". A BBC chess tournament, 1 game per
week with commentary by the players as they play!!
You saw inside the mind of a master or Grand Master. Deep
tactical theory and idea for where to place the pieces for later on in
a game.
Oh shit!!! I hate it when I'm writing a blog and go search Google
for a link, and find that someone has died a few years ago that I
didn't know about. It's just happened again. Tony Miles, Britain's first Grand Master died aged 46 in 2001!! I just read the obituary and I'm close to tears.
Many Brits were on the Master Game, John Nunn, Tony Miles, Nigel Short, as well a series of eccentric nice players, not quite in the top niche, until Karpov arrived at the BBC, and I think Kasparov also played. It was amazing every week to see inside a Grand Master's brain.
And Bill Hartston, a great and witty writer would commentate, but this never came out in his commentary which was a bit dull. I loved his book when I was a teenager, "How to Cheat at Chess".
Are you bored yet? Oh well, at least my passion has been revived!!
I think I've reduced my readership to one!
yeah I'm still here buddy. Not only are there more combinations in a game of chess than all of the atoms of the universe, but also more that all of the atoms in the universe PLUS all of the seconds that have transpired since the Big Bang. Nice, huh.
Also, a great book, is Nigel Lawson's book on the Short-Kasparov world championship, "End Game" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0517598108/002-8002731-5516026?v=glance&vi=reviews).
Posted by: Cameron Reilly | Tuesday, December 21, 2004 at 09:45 PM
Yep I remember it and it was inspiring, now it's all phone in quiz's for idiots to win £1000 for finding a clue a 3 year old could find :-(
Anyone got any YouTube footage of The master game?
Posted by: chris N | Thursday, September 13, 2007 at 07:58 PM