Four years ago, playing in an inter-club team competition, I admitted to a non-chess playing friend that I had been beaten by a twelve year-old girl. “Ooh! That's embarrassing,” she said. “Not when it's this twelve y... Read more »
Yesterday, when one of my opponents replied to 1.e4 with ...Nf6 I said , "Alexander Alekhine would have approved of that move." And he said, “Who's that?” Goodness me! Don't they teach 'em anything ... Read more »
Hang glider pilots know that it is better to be sitting on the hill wishing you were flying than to be flying in dangerous conditions, wishing you were sitting on the hill. Sometimes the King's Indian Defence is just like that, and there hav... Read more »
This morning one of my opponents manoeuvred his knight into a position where it was about to become a game-winning advantage then, instead of moving to the square I feared, he forked my king and rook. The problem with that was that I played PxN ... Read more »
During my triathlon days a guy was trying to sell me a bicycle computer that showed speed, distance travelled and cadence. About the only thing it didn't do was play Waltzing Matilda. When I declined he said, “Don't you want to kn... Read more »
When should you resign a chess game? Certainly not when you have a forced mate on the board. The Man from Ironbark just wouldn't have understood that at all. Banjo Paterson (1864-1941) was Australia's most loved bush poet and wrote suc... Read more »
Somebody once quipped that fear is the first time you can't do it the second time, and panic is the second time you can't do it the first time. And the chess equivalent? For me, fear sets in when I'm a piece down without compensati... Read more »
On line today, Phil_from_Blayney, an Australian chess player who promotes chess in his district, asked what would make would make a tournament attractive to me or my friends. Competitive chess in the Land of Oz attracts a tiny group of people. ... Read more »
Although the idea of registering an email address at chess.com was attractive I didn't realise how useful it could be until I'd actually done it. After all, I've had my existing email address for about six years and everybody who nee... Read more »
Chess upsets are always entertaining, more so for the upsetter than the upsettee, but once in a while there's an upset of such magnitude that it gets attention way beyond the tournament itself. So it was in the 2000 Malaga Open when a 14... Read more »
DozyAustralia
You won't find any advanced chess analysis here, but there'll be plenty of stories about chess and chess players -- often with an off-beat twist.
Feel free to add your comments (pro or con, I don't mind which) or drop me a message.
View complete profile
The following chess stories appear on my personal web page, Tomorrowland. Some of them have already been published on chess.com, others have not. Click on the links to read them.
A Kind of Immortality
Chess for Grasshoppers
Chess Genie
Chess on the Internet
Chess with Mother Goose
It's About Time
Logic: The Knight's Tour
Maroczy Chess Club
New South Wales Open
Starting a Chess Club
Sweet and Sour Chess
Sydney Simuls
Xmas 2004: Natural Ability
Xmas 2005: The Santa Gambit
Xmas 2006: Die Götterdämmerung
Xmas 2008: Santa's Mate
Yogi Berra, Chess Guru
Mating Positions & Traps
The best selection of Mating Positions and Opening Traps I've seen anywhere can be found in Le Blog de la Batgirl.
They're well worth a visit.
To play through them, click on the link and locate them in the sidebar box at the right of her blog.