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CHESS
BEAST NEEDS YOU!!!
Tell us...
* The worst chess venue you ever played in
* Bad loser stories
* Your maddest opponent
* Your one-line chess book reviews
* A chess joke that actually makes you laugh
* Strange things you take to tournaments
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Competition
Win Prizes!
Live life to the full!
We
have a crispy fresh copy of the latest Kingpin Chess Magazine to give away. To
win it simply complete the following sentence...
"If
chess computers ruled the world...."
Email
entries, including your address (!), to:
pawnpusher
Closing
date for entries is 26th September 2002. The winning entry, and the best of the
rest, will appear here next month.
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Thought
for the day
"If
fingers can ever be said to salivate, these fingers do"
Harold C Schonberg - 'Grandmasters of Chess'
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The
Mating Game
'Checkmating'
- A short film on AtomFilms.com, which features a woman who judges her suitors
by playing them at chess.
If she really wants a man who can beat her then she needs to stop dating male
models and try that carpet-haired, snap-toothed tramp waving his arms about in
the park. You know the one - stained string vest, cardboard socks, drinks petrol
from a milk bottle.
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An
Alternative History of Chess
Occasional extracts
Marshall
v Capablanca - The Innovation
Taken from Frank Marshall's diary
[Background
- After Capablanca convincingly won their first encounter, Marshall worked on
a devilish improvement to one of the lines used. He kept it a secret, waiting
several years before he finally got his chance to spring this on the Cuban genius]
"Here
it was, the postion I had reached a thousand times in my study, and in my prayers
and dreams.
A wave of calm power washed over me. Here was to be my greatest hour, a victory
so comprehensive and inevitable as to forever mark me as one of the greats of
world chess - a legend!
I also sensed, in this moment of glory, a chance to draw a line under my mortal
rivalry with the great Capa. Perhaps we could even become friends over time -
comrades, sparring partners, two explorers alone in the great uncharted expanses
of chess theory...
I shook myself free of these reflections and steadied my hand to deliver the fatal
blow. A fingerslip now would be a personal catastrophy!
Extending my arm, I carefully grasped the black-squared bishop, my Excalibur!
I fixed my opponent with a steely gaze.
Did he now sense the terrible, crushing end?
Did I detect the rock-solid foundation of his confidence begin to crumble?
No.
It crossed my mind that perhaps I had given him too much credit after all, undue
respect. He was mortal and fallible as the next man.
Without further delay I swung the bishop across and captured his king's pawn -
a devastating, devilishly complex sacrifice from which there was no other course
of action but resignation.
I sat back in my chair, folded my arms and waited for the inevitable.
Mr Capablanca's eyes watered slightly. I expected a dry death-croak to pass his
now trembling lips.
Instead, he looked at me with something resembling pity and concern, replaced
my bishop on its previous square and said softly,
"eet ees my move meester Marshall"
Postscript:
Next time they met, Marshall had prepared a new innovation - one which led to
him being forcibly ejected from the tournament, and to Capablanca requiring false
teeth.
| One
Line Chess Book Reviews |
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Simple Chess
by Michael Stean
Reduced the game to basic concepts, and made me feel even more stupid for losing.
BCO2 (Batsford
Chess Openings 2), Batsford
Apart from the typos and missing pages, very thorough
My 60 Memorable
Games by Bobby Fischer
Contains 60 games, just like it says, but i can't remember any of them
My System
by Nimzowitsch
Not enough pictures
Improve Your
Chess NOW! by Jonathan Tisdall
Very nice, until half the pages fell out (true!)
1...b6!
by Kosteniuk
2. Why?
Think Like A
Grandmaster by Kotov
Die like a dog
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| Amazing
and Untrue Chess Facts |
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Unlike
such stars as Sting and Lennox Lewis, who only ever sit next to a chess board
if they want to look 'deep' in photos, superstar actress Marilyn Monroe was an
avid chess player. She never went anywhere without her pocket set and piles of
books on the latest theory. In fact, her closest friends nicknamed her "wooden
head".
Unfortunately,
the studios felt that this could compromise her dumb stunner image, so they banned
her from ever playing in public.
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