Incredible life of chess players

  

Back to forum


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-12)
Incredible life of chess players...

Sometimes I'm simply stunned by the players informations I can read... :)

http://www.ficgs.com/display_informations.php?member=1065


That's great to welcome players from all horizons... and ages !


Don Groves    (2006-11-13 06:26:54)
Wow...

... and I thought I was an old guy. Salutations and congratulations to Mr. Macarsindale! Oh, and welcome also :-)


Dinesh De Silva    (2006-11-13 07:41:10)
Re:

Yes, the informations regarding Mr Macarsindale is very interesting! I did some quick research & found out that he speaks quite a number of languages.......English,French,German,Dutch,Portugese.......


Arthur Alfred Macarsindale    (2006-11-14 11:16:06)
Thank you

To all of you who have taken the trouble to read my very very mini auto biography. If I 'pop my socks' tomorrow I can honestly say it was not a boring life!


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-14 12:44:39)
A story of chess...

'not boring', at least :)

Hello again & welcome ! .. I'm so curious, I would have number of questions (regarding to chess, of course :)), like first at what age did you begin to play chess (maybe correspondence chess)... You probably know chess stories that nobody knows. But I don't want to take your time.

All the best, Thibault


Arthur Alfred Macarsindale    (2006-11-14 13:22:07)
Story Of Life and Chess

Often closer linked than people may think! Ask me anything you feel you want to please.Chess or otherwise.I can only answer or not answer! I was taught chess by a relative who was a rather fine player when I was aged 9 in 1921. He died when I was 12 years old and so I lost a playing partner. I was married in 1932 and, seeing the ghastly goings-on in Germany in 1930s knowing that the whole show was starting again as it had in 1914 ,I vowed to ensure that a group of thugs and criminals would not be taking a foot on the shores and shires of Great Britain and bringing along some new age of butchery and lunacy . And so the RAF was my home for the next 15 years from 1938. I revisited chess principally in 1940 and that was hot summer's days outside playing cards,chess and other games waiting for the phone to ring and 'scramble'. Unfortunately two of my chaps who I played often with were shot down and killed over Kent in August 1940. I miss them both to this day. Then I did not play for years until the advent of correspondence chess in the 1960s and 1970s through the postal mail. And since 1998 the Internet. There you have it!


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-14 13:49:08)
Story Of Life and Chess

Yes, a story of life and chess ! ..

In my ICCF database, the oldest archived correspondence chess games have been played (at first sight, I may be wrong) in 1989, did you kept your first correspondence chess games ? It would be great to see some from this period... In which organizations did you play before ? Thanks for your answers :)


Arthur Alfred Macarsindale    (2006-11-14 14:07:49)
Answer

I do not have them.I am sorry. I think it was 1996 when i first played on the Internet.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-14 15:59:48)
First chess servers

1996... the very beginning of internet. Was there another way to play chess online than FICS (not FICGS :)) through Winboard on Unix system ?!


Arthur Alfred Macarsindale    (2006-11-15 11:31:26)
1996

It was a straightforward email chess akin to postal but by email.I am afraid my knowledge does not extend to Unix (?) and so on!!! So one had a boars set up and the moves came through by email.Primitive by today's standards but it served a purpose.


Arthur Alfred Macarsindale    (2006-11-15 11:43:50)
this site and others

may i say what a joy this site is to play on.Nice people,etc. I play also at GameKnot and the reason I chose that is because the chess board graphic is excellent and clear. No criticism of yours at all but for old eyes that one is wonderful.


Arthur Alfred Macarsindale    (2006-11-15 11:45:41)
this site and others

Oh yes friends. also QueenAlice. Again because the graphics are so clear! Please do not construe my comments as criticism.They are not intended that way. BUT a nice GameKnot or QueenAlice board on here would be nice. Hope my comments are taken as they are intended.


Marc Lacrosse    (2006-11-15 12:08:49)
Early web chess

Hi Thibault In 1989 I affiliated to Compuserve.
This was an international online system with chats, forums ...
... and an active community of chess players playing slow-timing chess!
You had to connect to a national server through dialup modem connection and then they relayed all-over-the world. Early interfaces were character-based under DOS ...
A few years later Compuserve began to interact with the "real" internet and so I was among the 100 earlier private persons to have internet access in Belgium...
So you see that server-chess is not that new!




Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-15 12:56:07)
1996 + this site and others

So you played email chess since 1996 ! .. in a particular organization ?

About the boards here, you're right, they are quite small according to screen resolution. That's why I just implemented (at last) the possibility to change the board size & set in Preferences. Is it too small yet ? .. Anyway I have to improve it... All feedbacks are welcome :)


@ Marc : Thanks for info ! ;)