😁👍

The mini match thing is just a load of rubbish really, isn't it!! Cut straight to the playoffs and then tell everyone it was a 'classical time control' event all along. Or try having the play-off games first, then someone will have to try and win the longer games.

Boo wubby wubby meez hubby bubby do does. Wubby wobbly woo woo.

Happy gravy day George mate!!

On all that, I got some respect points this week - they have brought in a falconer at work to control the seagulls, and I correctly identified the bird as a Harris Hawk. Magnificent birds!

I think he's a chess lover.🤣

He's a fast flyer! He was in my garden this morning!!!

Top players today calculate unbelievably well, but understand positions less well than previous generations imho. Part of the change in how players work and train these days. And, curiously, modern engines like thevery old fashioned opening principles of the Tarrasch school. Space and mobility.

GOTD. A bit of chess madness - I hate to think what the engines would make of it - whilst I am looking at Spielmann. 1912 was Rubinstein's great year - Spielmann held him to 2-2 - Black winning every game!

I actually solved the problem!!!🤣

It's a pretty idea👍

...Rxd4; Rxd4 Qb6.

GOTD. Let's get back to doing this stuff. A blog in progress on Spielmann. This has been my favourite game of his for about 45 years!! A little chess joy.

In his first column for that newspaper he made the point of saying you should make newspaper columns enjoyable for everyone.

A Closer View of Earth & Moon Captured 11 Minutes Ago From Space 🌍🌕

Just updated the official car park terms & conditions.
Seems fair. Fully enforceable.

Now we wait…

Correction - Manchester Evening News.

While he was there he also wrote a chess column in the Manchester Guardian, which contains the last reference to Henry Bird that I know of whilst he was still alive. Iirc, his columns are on chessarch.com

Everyone should know that one - it's actually an important endgame idea!

Fun stuff. The idea of Botvinnik doing the Charleston has always been an amusing thought🤣. Fun fact. Brian Cox always mentions Einstein and Manchester University in his lectures. Lasker links the two. He shared a house with Einstein at one time and was an associate lecturer at Manchester University.

Bulletin No.46 – The world champions & what you may not know! – Part 1 Steinitz to Tal – Dorset Chess

A couple of light articles I wrote in 2021 on the the lives of the World Chess Champions from Steinitz to Carlsen. A few broken links but still readable.

www.dorsetchess.co.uk/bulletin-no-...

www.dorsetchess.co.uk/bulletin-no-...

#chess #chesspunks

It has a bar. Good venue!!

rtchessclub.com/2026/04/10/n...

An illustrated report of our first evening at Cambridge Park Bowling Club, our new Thursday evening venue.

Minor Pieces 102: Harold Francis Davidson Aleister Crowley’s co-star in the first pages of The Complete Chess Addict to be written, Harold Francis Davidson, was an almost exact contemporary. Davidson was just three months older, born…

minorpieces.uk/2026/04/08/m...

My latest Minor Piece spotlights the eccentric Harold Davidson, the chess-playing rector who was (not exactly) eaten by a lion.

Tom Lehrer - So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III) - with intro - widescreen YouTube video by The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel

Remembering way back when I posted this when he first got elected
youtu.be/yrbv40ENU_o?...

A small orange figure emerged from the shadows…

Making my way back as if I haven’t just been inspecting things I had absolutely no authority to inspect.

* Just a tiny marmalade traveller making his way home from whatever nonsense he’s been up to

I found it!!🤣👍

Chess Puzzle of the Week (385): Solution Monday’s position came from a simul game between Emanuel Lasker and Benjamin Leussen, played in The Hague on 9 May 1908. Thanks to my virtual friend Neil Blackburn (simaginfan): I took this f…

rtchessclub.com/2026/04/03/c...

Did you find Black's best move in Monday's pawn ending?

Cheers mate. Apologies for the lack of endgames in that one.

Benjamin Leussen. Another Of The Forgotten. Part Two. Good afternoon everyone. back with part two. As said, I have not posted everything I have and still more to find, but you have to stop somewhere. That's the thing with doing proper primary source rese...

www.chess.com/blog/simagin...