Old Mag, Chess is not Fun, Bent Larsen.

[b]
No1 posted an OTB game with the Budapest gambit
and somehow it stirred a fading memory cell.

I'm a little squirrel me. I never throw anything away.
I have boxes and boxes full of chess junk.

I recalled a chess magazine that said Marshall had
a hand in inventing the Budapest Gambit and writing
'Budapest' on the cover.

That was 1981. So I dived into the boxes and found it.




















Blown up a bit.












The analysis refers to something else inside the mag
I needed to look at. (some John Nunn analysis.)

Odd how the mind works.
Of course I must have seen it a few times when rooting
about for something else I was looking for.

I sent off the mag to No1 addressed thus:


















Interesting thread Thread 133835 asking
if a strong players still found playing chess fun.

Are games more fun as you get better?

A lot of players are saying not yet because they are still
weak (their words) and don't understand the game.

I enjoyed it more when I really knew nothing.

When I was looking for that mag for No1 I found something
that reminded me of this thread.
(odd how the mind works, well mine anyway).

There I was, a happy worry free chess playing guy
and loving every minute of it.
My only chess knowledge was taken from opening traps,
short games and an undying belief in development and
tactics all the way.

OTB 1800 something and rising.

Some unimaginative muppet advised I learn some
openings and I bought my first Latvian book.

Why I'll never know, I had already beaten a 2200
player with it OTB what was there to know.

I saw an advert for a 1977 book on the Latvian.



















This is the book that I found when I was looking for
that mag for No1. (the cover has long since gone).

This thing scared me witless. All the duff lines
I played (and yet won with) were really losing
and this book was showing me how.

I was never the same after that.

Chess stopped being fun. The boy was gone.
Still obsessed by the game but something died that day.
I had lost my imaginary friend.

Sometimes he pops up and gives me a little whisper,
"Go on Geoff, play it, he won't see it, play it."
but he longer sits on my shoulder.

Also when you get good you see the end coming a long time
before the weaker player.

Weaker players play on with hope in every move.
They do not know they have lost.

A stronger player in a lost but not yet resignable position
playing another strong player has in front of him an hour
of OTB pure misery and he knows it.

(In C.C. Chess this can last for days....weeks...months...Years).

Don't get strong, stay away from opening books
and Chess will always be fun. 😉

This is me pre-book knowledge.
Tactics, errors, unsound sacs. and more tactics.
All my OTB games were like this.

T. Ransley - G. Chandler, Edinburgh Club Minor, 1979




Sad news that Bent Larsen has passed away.















When a new mag arrived you always played over any Larsen game.
Wonderful games. I recall in 1979 him beating Karpov with the then
unfashionable Scandinavian. 1.e4 d5.

This had me playing the Scandinavian for a few years.

He must have been a nightmare to prepare against.
One day he would take the old ‘bust’ openings and play them against
the world’s top players.
The next day he would match them move in the latest theory.

But he not all about openings.
His middle game creativity was his strength and he left behind some
stunning masterpieces.

If you can get your hands on his selected games written by himself
then I heartily recommend it. I at one time had three copies.
I sent one as a Christmas present to Paulmanfromfics last year.
He must have read it by now. Ask him for it.