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| Dec-25-13 | | Nina Myers: Uncle Rich, the storyteller. |
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Dec-25-13
 | | mjmorri: Richard, You're really showing your age. |
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Dec-26-13
 | | perfidious: Having some age under one's belt is not all bad, despite society's never-ending attempts to marginalise older people, whilst relieving them of their bankrolls. |
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Dec-26-13
 | | Richard Taylor: <perfidious> Good points! <mjmorri> Thank you. But I see you and I hear you and you are dead. When you are 10 you know not much but at 20 you think you are getting old. It is quite a good feeling (sometimes) then as you get to 30,40,50,60,70,80...in a mere blink of time...you know how absolutely brief say 100 years of life is. Read 'The Dead' (a story by James Joyce in his 'The Dubliners' and watch the movie of it by John Huston his last film made as he was dying. It is possibly the best one also... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_De...(1987_film) |
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Dec-26-13
| | Richard Taylor: But the age thing is interesting as - in 2010 my rating went up 160 points. This was for various reasons but in fact in the years from 2006 to 2011 I played some of my best games of Chess beating a number of NZ best chess players. I did terribly in 2011 to now and am about to play in the Major Open at the NZ Chess Congress (in 2011 I played for the first time at the age of 63 in the NZ Champs). In 2010 I had won a lot of A grade games partly because of some serious openings study, tactics practise and analysis of online games on YouTube etc It seemed though that due to the disastrous results of 2011 I was a bit "downcast" and while I had winning or at least = positions in my games in the ACC (NZ's strongest Chess Club) A Grade Championship I was making inexplicable blunders. In one game I had a forced win against a player who is now 2300 rating and 9th in NZ (he is 16). Now in all my games I had good positions and blew them. But the point is, I think I can be proud of keeping relatively mentally active and aware and healthy (despite the usual problems of age): and the point of that is how others who are around my age will or can feel about being "old". I had quite disheartening results after 2011 (with some exceptions) and I did in fact stop playing at my club. I considered stopping competitive chess altogether but this year the Congress is near me as well as the Seniors. So I can see how I go.
But all of us face aging and inevitable death. Sometimes that death is long drawn out and quite terrible. Sometimes it is quick: but it is inevitable. You are all getting older by the second. Compared to the age of the Universe, compared to eternity, if one can conceive of such a thing, your life is like the click of a finger or something in fact infinitely trasitory. Thus: you are dead. Be ready to be dead for a near infinite time. And if you are young, you are lucky if you get to my age, but you WILL suffer depletion of strength, you WILL get uglier, lose hair, eye acuity will decline, and nature or whatever has much more in store for you. You can believe in a benevolent god of some kind if you wish but don't bet on it being true or if it is that the great thing in question gives a @#$% about you. I see you, I hear you, so you are dead. |
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Dec-26-13
| | Richard Taylor: "transitory" Infinitely transitory.
But that said, I am in many ways happier or as happy as ever, as I approach death - or to put it another way, in this "late" stage of my life I have many things that I am glad about and mostly I feel very happy. But remember: happy or not: I see you and you are dead. |
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Dec-26-13
 | | Domdaniel: The sage of Na Zillun has spoken. |
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Dec-26-13
| | Richard Taylor: <Domdaniel> Art thee of The Faith? !!
I used to say to this old(er) old chap at my chess club re ideas discussing his games "Be of the faith, X." [Not X actually but his name] when I suggested a "wild" line or idea in post mortems. Talking of Technology (or not as the case may be) this fellow not only has only old chess books, and no computer, but he doesn't have a telephone! |
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Dec-26-13
| | Richard Taylor: Interesting this "six degrees thing" as I am linked to Alekhine. In the 60s i made a silly joke to Rodney Phillips, who had had a draw with an IM or GM at the time who had beaten Tal (who was then or about then the World Champion): so my silly schoolboy joke was that I, who had managed a draw or beaten someone Philips had drawn with, was thus better than the World Chess Champion! |
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| Oct-01-15 | | TheFocus: From a simultaneous exhibition in Scarborough, England at the Gambit Chess Rooms on June 8, 1928. Alekhine scored +4=1-1.
Two of the games were played blindfold by Alekhine.
See <British Chess a Magazine 1928>, pg. 290. |
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Mar-14-17
 | | fredthebear: Chess Axiom: "A knight on the rim is dim; it's chances are slim." This game both confirms and refutes such a notion! (White's accurate calculation conquers such rules of thumb, although Black's violation makes it all possible by smothering his own king.) Fabulous queen sacrifice and winding windmill finish by the great Alexander Alekhine!! |
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| Mar-15-17 | | thegoodanarchist: Great GOTD title here. |
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Jul-01-17
 | | Jonathan Sarfati: <Richard Taylor:> I see you knew a lot of the strong Auckland players of an earlier generation. I never played Alan Fletcher, but he did beat Russell Dive when he was up-and-coming. The tragic Rodney Phillips was before my time, but a number of the previous generation of Wellington players reminisced about him. |
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Jul-03-17
| | Richard Taylor: Yes. I played Alan. Also he knew my father. He was a rather avuncular fellow who liked to smoke a pipe and lived in Mangere East. I met Rodney but he was older. I played in a simul against him. He of course was much better than I. I recall noting the way he took the pieces off with one movement which I liked! I really don't know what happened about Rodney he had great potential and his father Tom Phillips was a force in the admin of chess. Not sure how strong a player he was. I also met a lot of the "characters". Bury who was once NZ School Champ used to be a mysterious person who, at the then Auckland Chess Club would set up problems. He did this with such a style that I feared to even attempt to solve them! Ralph Hart also recalls some of those fellows such as Arian Lenz not that these players were or were not strong but they were keen. Chess was also a kind of haven for many. Fred Foulds, ex NZ Champion used to turn up to the Dominion Road Chess Club. He was quite a comic man in some ways and used to move one along by moving himself beside (me). I didn't see him play much but one of his games is in a book of short brilliancies by Heidenfeld.... |
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Jul-03-17
| | Jonathan Sarfati: <Richard Taylor:> I knew a lot of the Wellington players a few decades older, but there are not many left now unfortunately. Sarapu's books are a connection with NZ Chess of the 50s to the 90s. His first book that came out in 1978 was the first time I realized how strong these older players were at their peak. But the current generation were born after he passed. I think <Benzol> has been submitting a lot of the old NZ games. |
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Jul-03-17
| | Jonathan Sarfati: <Richard Taylor:> I suppose a lot of Kiwis are linked to Alekhine, Capablanca, and Lasker by only three degrees: we have played Sarapu who beat Bogolyubov who won games from Lasker and Alekhine, but not Capa. Sarapu also played Spassky (draw), Fischer, and Kasparov. |
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Jul-04-17
| | Richard Taylor: Ortvin told me about his games with Fischer and Kasparov. The Fischer incident was amusing with Fischer moving the board around for a better place. And Kasparov was pacing up and down like a fierce tiger, often in front of Sarapu's board. He said afterwards to Ortvin that: "He was caulculating variations right into the endgame for practice!" |
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| Feb-17-24 | | stone free or die: The event header is misleading here - this was a hybrid exhibition - 2 of the 6 boards were played blindfold. Perhaps a better designation would be <6b (2blind)> or somesuch. See <ILN (Jul 7, 1928) p42> https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt... |
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| Feb-17-24 | | stone free or die: <
At the Gambit Café, in Budge Row, Dr. Alekhin engaged simultaneously four of London's strongest players, with a "side line" of two blindfold games. We give one of the games for its typical Alekhin finish. Mr. A. Fletcher, who is at present champion of Surrey, is much too good a player not to have seen his fate after the Queen sacrifice, but allowed the champion's catherine - wheel to revolve down to its innermost spiral, for the benefit of the onlookers we presume. Good sportsmanship this, reminiscent of the old days of the Divan, now a high - class restaurant in which a chessboard would cause nearly as much astonishment as a harpoon! >
(ibid) |
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| Oct-01-24 | | Mathematicar: Very beautiful finish by the great Alexander Alekhine. He is not as strong as Capablanca or Lasker positionaly, but this kind of combionations only he could create. An elegant rose bursting with blaze. |
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Oct-29-24
 | | Korora: My Little Windmills are rare enough, given the ♘'s limited range. But also a My Little Windmill that ends in checkmate! |
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| Dec-06-24 | | Mathematicar: I thought this was a tournament game. A very brave desicion from Mr. Fletcher to play such defense as Benoni against attacking madman as AAA. Kingcruscher has a good analysis of the game in his, if I rember it correctly, Evolution of style series. |
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Dec-06-24
| | perfidious: <Mathematicar: I thought this was a tournament game....> Alekhine played no serious chess in 1928 and one small event in 1929. |
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| Dec-07-24 | | Mathematicar: <perfidious>, thanks for reply. I never felt much sympathy for Alekhine's style, altough I appreciate it more as I grow as a player. This lack of a deeper insight is way I don't know much about Alekhine. Being a Nazi supporter doesn't help, altough I'm interested what's the reason behind it. Is there a book on Alekhine you can recommend? |
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Dec-07-24
| | perfidious: <Mathematicar>, someone with greater knowledge of the modern literature can probably serve better. My books were: Reinfeld's <100 Instructive Games of Alekhine>, which covers many played through St Petersburg 1914, and Alekhine's own collections, covering 1908-37. |
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sac: 26.Qxe4