General Chit Chat

[Gary the Enfield]

watching Game of Thrones alot - always gets me wondering how the hell those burning torches work in medieval times, those firey sticks that never go out???

Animal fat, lasts around 15 mins orso

I seem to recall it being cloth dipped in tallow and wrapped around a stick. I say recall, it's not from personal experience you understand.

[Gooner Girl]

watching Game of Thrones alot - always gets me wondering how the hell those burning torches work in medieval times, those firey sticks that never go out???

Animal fat, lasts around 15 mins orso

I seem to recall it being cloth dipped in tallow and wrapped around a stick. I say recall, it's not from personal experience you understand.

You sure about that? Surely you must remember from back when you were a boy?

[Gooner Girl]

The local police attending the fracking demos near me have set up their rest and food station next door to our athletics track. Ran through their camp today. BBQ on, sky sport in the nearby rugby club bar and according to one sign some kind of police ball at the weekend. Clearly having a hard time of it...

[plymouth wanderer]

watching Game of Thrones alot - always gets me wondering how the hell those burning torches work in medieval times, those firey sticks that never go out???

Animal fat, lasts around 15 mins orso

I seem to recall it being cloth dipped in tallow and wrapped around a stick. I say recall, it's not from personal experience you understand.

That's is another way GTE yes

[CrazyHorse]

I had to take a drug and alcohol test yesterday. I had hoped this would entail me downing as many cans of Kestrel as I could and proving I was proficient in joining up rizlas but the reality was more about me pissing in front of a South African nurse.
Which was nice.

[TANGODANCER]

Dujon wrote:

Ostentatious beggars aren't they, TANGO? I wonder of what the chassis consists? Probably RSJs given the span.

How did the young'n's wedding go? Best if you answer in the chit-chat thread.

All went well Dujon. Quietish family type affair, Mearhall for the wedding, Red Lion at Four Lane Ends for the meal and everybody piled back to our place for a few. The car was an American Lincoln and I must say, the height of luxury (and comfort) inside including a lit up bar area with champage flutes and wine-glasses etc, donated by the bride's father. We went in one before when we went to see the eldest lad who lives in L.A. and they really are flash on wheels. I'm quite used to travelling in large vehicles, but they're called buses.

[Athers]

Look at this absolute YOOF watching me play. Bet he wants to play in school but is scared of what his yoof mates would think.

[Montreal Wanderer]

Well, Athers, it looks like Black has responded to P-K4 with the King's Fianchetto defence but has departed from the book by playing P-QR3 instead of the standard B-N2 at the second move. However, what a YOOF is and who is representing Britain I do not know. Do you have long or short hair?

[mrkint]

That's some old school notation monty!

YOOF refers to the chap on the right in the hat, who looks an unlikely player.

How did ye do Athers? What were it for? Started playing again recently, I have forgotten lots

[Montreal Wanderer]

That's some old school notation monty!

YOOF refers to the chap on the right in the hat, who looks an unlikely player.

How did ye do Athers? What were it for? Started playing again recently, I have forgotten lots

I absolutely hate algebraic notation!
Thanks for identifying the YOOF - now which one is Athers? - presumably playing White, as Black is in for a hiding.

[mrkint]

Aye Athers is on the left as white. A very handy player iirc

[Athers]

The girl had a sign in the middle of Manchester's busiest shopping street that she is playing to raise a bit of money to fly home to see her mother, who is dying of breast cancer. I watched her wipe the floor with a couple of chaps who didn't know what they were doing so it was hard to judge her strength.

Monty as black she actually played the accelerated dragon variation of the Sicilian Defence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_D ... ted_Dragon" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, which is something they used to teach us to play as kids but I never really took to.

I was a pawn up after about 30-35 moves but lost on time in what was a 3 minute blitz match. I was never a blitz player in my junior career anyway and I'm way too rusty - had to think through things I used to know. Pleased with how it went though. Might stop by tomorrow to have another crack.

[thebish]

That's some old school notation monty!

YOOF refers to the chap on the right in the hat, who looks an unlikely player.

How did ye do Athers? What were it for? Started playing again recently, I have forgotten lots

I absolutely hate algebraic notation!
Thanks for identifying the YOOF - now which one is Athers? - presumably playing White, as Black is in for a hiding.

bit early for that kind of prediction!!

[thebish]

got my hair cut this afternoon...

[Montreal Wanderer]

The girl had a sign in the middle of Manchester's busiest shopping street that she is playing to raise a bit of money to fly home to see her mother, who is dying of breast cancer. I watched her wipe the floor with a couple of chaps who didn't know what they were doing so it was hard to judge her strength.

Monty as black she actually played the accelerated dragon variation of the Sicilian Defence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_D ... ted_Dragon" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, which is something they used to teach us to play as kids but I never really took to.

I was a pawn up after about 30-35 moves but lost on time in what was a 3 minute blitz match. I was never a blitz player in my junior career anyway and I'm way too rusty - had to think through things I used to know. Pleased with how it went though. Might stop by tomorrow to have another crack.

In the photo I didn't notice her QB's pawn was missing and that she had used the Sicilian. Didn't even know she was female - sometimes hard to tell - I thought it might have been an old photo of Bish's son. Blitz matches are not a true test of chess skill IMHO and kneeling on the road not the most relaxing stance.

[Athers]

Absolutely, even at 9 years old I played four hour games. Personally though I always performed better in long play than rapidplay (30 minutes each), and my blitz was the worst of the lot. I was always cautious and positional, trying for grinding wins rather than spectacular attacks, so it makes sense.

Just a bit of fun anyway. I was pleasantly surprised there were about 50 people watching us.

[Dujon]

[TANGO] Great, mate. I hope He and Her survive long term.

[Chess] The best war game ever invented. As a youngster I absolutely loved it and borrowed books from the library to study the various gambits and end games employed by the 'masters'. I have no idea as to my chess skill level as I didn't compete other than in the school chess club (there were about six of us) and a couple of inter-school dos - one of which was a walk over as the other mob didn't turn up even though for them it was on home territory.

I haven't picked up a chess piece for over forty years and suspect that if I did so this evening I would find that the hard earned knowledge of yesteryear has evaporated.

[bwfcdan94]

I will admit I play quite a lot of chess despite being a "yoof". I am always very very defensive and will do anything to avoid losing a piece which means I rarely play a game that lasts less than 90 mins.

[Athers]

Good on you Dan

I am a big advocate of the theory that the game trains people's concentration skills and I would at least teach the basics to all kids in school at a very young age.

Perhaps at Mummy's free school.

[mrkint]

It's a very engrossing game...I never really played it until uni, when i did it do avoid revising etc...soon became a bit obsessed with it. It's quite beautiful. Looked at joining a couple of clubs down here but in the end didn't have the time to commit. Got a book on endgames on the shelf which i've started going through again, really good.