Darlington chess club have managed to secure some space in our local paper. A number of local players intend to publish various articles each week bringing chess to the masses of Darlington. Below is an example article from a North East chess great Norman Stephenson.
board and set for not much more than a tenner and annual fees for local clubs aren’t much more.
Playing skills and knowledge are acquirable from the usual sources - books/CDs/DVDs/internet
(as well as talking to other players) - and, like many other pastimes, the game can be enjoyed at
any level. For those who might wonder about getting to be a really strong player, the good news
is that chess talent is scattered pretty randomly throughout the population; the best ever British
player (who reached World No 4 ten years ago) came from out-of-the-way Truro, while the 2nd strongest ever (who was World No 3 twenty years ago and played for the World Title in 1993) was brought up in Atherton, Lancs. In neither case is there any evidence of any chess-playing strength
in their families.
Perhaps the first really great player in the world by modern standards was Paul Morphy, born in
New Orleans, who learned the game as a 4 year-old just by watching his father and uncle playing.
Paul lived in the mid-1800s and toured the US and Europe, beating all the best players of the age
and laying down the standard for how to play the game.
8-+-+-mKlmk
7+-+-+-zpp
6-+-+-+P+
5+-+-+-+-
4-+-+-+-+
3+-+-+-+-
2-+-+-+-+
1+-+-+-+R
xabcdefghy
White to play and give checkmate on his second
move … this is the only chess problem that Paul
Morphy was known to have composed. It was
published in The New York Clipper in June 1856.
SOLUTION: White begins 1 Rh6 when either 1 – gxh6 2 g7 or 1 – B anywhere 2 Rxh7 are both checkmate |
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Morphy was indeed a genius, and I couldn't resist using this opportunity to share his famous opera box game.Play chess online
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