Keep It Cash

Keep It Cash

Middlesbrough Town Hall

4.3.2011

I have enjoyed a couple of tribute bands over the last few years but this was the first time I've had the pleasure of seeing 'Keep It Cash', a very fine Johnny Cash tribute act.

The show started with just three of the band on stage and guitarist Dave Holley singing Rodney Crowell's 'I Walk the Line (Revisited)'. Dave Burnham then appeared, to pick up the Johnny Cash section of Crowell's song. It was a good opening to an enjoyable show.

The 'Keep It Cash' quartet was augmented by the addition of 'June Carter' for a couple of numbers in each half of the show.

Highlights of the first half included 'Ring Of Fire', 'Hurt' and Cash's original version of 'I Walk the Line'.

Andy Swift was on the bass.

Dave Holley showed his skill on guitars, Dobro and mandolin.

Dave Burnham - the voice of Johnny Cash.

Drummer Steve Clark kept the beat going all night.

The second half of the show started with the quirky 'A Boy Named Sue' and featured a number of requests from the appreciative audience, including other well known songs such as 'Ghost Riders in the Sky' and 'One Piece at a Time'.

'June Carter' had a new hat in the second half, donated by a member of the audience.

A medley of hits brought the evening to an end. I never saw Johnny Cash live (but I did see Rosanne Cash last year). However, 'Keep It Cash' proved themselves a worthy tribute band over the course of a lively, friendly, feel-good evening and I will be checking their tour dates carefully in anticipation of a return visit.

For further details, pop along to the official Keep It Cash website.

Second Thoughts

Second Thoughts

By Colin Baker

272 pages

Hirst Books

‘It’s all your fault, Dear reader’ begins the author, best known to most of us as the Sixth Doctor Who. However, all Timelords have far more than a single string to their bows and former TARDIS occupant Colin Baker is certainly no exception. Alongside his acting career, he has been many things, including a newspaper columnist for a considerable amount of time.

The 'fault' of the readers has brought about the publication of a new collection of his columns, as he goes on to explain:

‘…enough of you generous and discerning folk have seen fit to purchase Volume 1 of my articles written over a decade the Bucks Free Press, as to persuade Tim Hirst, the publisher, to risk his yacht, private jet and, more importantly, is rapidly growing reputation as a publisher in asking his colleague Louise McDonald to select more of my opinionated ramblings for your entertainment.’

Volume 1, 'Look Who's Talking', was reviewed here. 'Second Thoughts' is more of the same, which is a good thing.

The selected articles are arranged in 21 chapters:

Topical Issues

Baker Towers

Eco Warrior

Colin vs. Public Transport

Doctor Who

Foibles, Friends and Fancies

Little Britain

The Beautiful Game

Abroad Education

Light Relief

More Mundungus

Election 2010

10 Years Ago

It’s ‘’Would have’’ not ‘’Would of!’’

Dicing with Death Wearing a Safety Helmet

Your Call is Important to Us

Wycombe Man Acting Up

Season’s Greetings

The very first of the ‘Topical Issues’ is a somewhat surprising swipe at the anti-BP stance in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster, concluding: ‘All the sabre-rattling and unseemly Brit-bashing comments emanating from certain quarters in the United States are neither helpful nor fair’.

The 'Eco Warrior' returns, two chapters down the line:

'I am not alone in thinking that we humans are often more of a blight on this fragile planet than we are a benefit’.

It's soon back to the more familiar targets, such as the MP expenses scandal:

‘…if they weren’t bright enough to see the potential electorial meltdown ahead of them, then they simply aren’t the right people for the job’.

Colin being interviewed by

Charlie Ross at 'Dimensions 2010'

Elsewhere, there are attacks on other things we all generally agree on, such as the incredible amount of product packaging which has somehow become the norm (a kind endless cardboard Russian Doll, in some cases), abuse and misuse of the English language, queues and, of course, public transport. Forced to sample the delights of buses and trains after a driving ban, Colin discovered terrible truths some of us have known for years. For example, seasoned bus travellers have long been aware that despite the constant leaps in technology and the introduction of various information superhighways, we are still no closer to knowing exactly when our next bus is due.

‘Believe it or not, the departures board is pre-programmed and cannot be changed to reflect actuality, rather begging the question why, given this patent absurdity in a new state of the art bus station, there couldn’t be large notices somewhere explaining that the display board might be telling porkies'.

Doctor Who remains a substantial part of Colin's life. ‘Old Sixie’ himself wrote a nostalgic appeal for a revival of the show, back in 1999:

'...for all those future generations who might just love to surrender to the delicious thrill of terror at Saturday tea-time after the footie results, there is surely still an opportunity for the TARDIS to vwo-orp into life again, with well-constructed, imaginative plots showing that hi-tech effects are not essential for good story telling'.

The revival came, as we all know (complete with the sort of hi-tech effects the show could previously seldom afford).

As they were originally presented in newspapers, all of the articles in 'Second Thoughts' are relatively short (somewhere between one and two pages). This makes it an ideal book for dipping into, whether its a volume for the bedside table or one to read on the bus (if it ever comes).

I suspect the vast majority of the articles will strike a chord with readers. Most of it is firmly in the 'Grumpy Old Man/Victor Meldrew' league, elevated above mere rant by dint of Colin's natural wit, elegant turn of phrase and old-fashioned command of the English language.

'Sometimes I just feel the need to sound off. I am lucky in that I am able to write about the things that make my blood boil and share them with an audience that I fully understand has exactly the same daily battles in their own lives.'

Tim Hirst of Hirst Books has done very well indeed to establish his company as one of the leading publishers in this genre, plus a busy schedule of original fiction. Hirst Books are attractive and thoughtfully produced.

My next review - due early next week - will feature another Hirst Book, this time Matthew Waterhouse's 'Blue Box Boy'.

Game of the Month: March

Peter Lalic has once again produced a fine video presentation for our Mike Closs Memorial 'Game of the Month'.

Sit back and enjoy a typically tactical Sicilian battle from the Mighty Mish.

For the homepage with all of Peter's excellent videos, please click here.

The Mike Closs Memorial site can be found here.

World Book Night: Middlesbrough

The Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art ('MIMA') will be the venue for a special celebratory evening on World Book Night.

A plethora of poets and a medley of musicians will be there to entertain and inspire everyone and there will be book giveaways too.

There's no doubting the quality of the talent the evening will offer:

Poetry: Katie Metcalfe, Nigel Mellor, Jon Glasper, P.A. Morbid, Jules Clare, Shelly Watson and Stanley Johnson.

Music: Andy Broderick, Mimi O'Malley, Ray Legg, Sara Dennis, Daniel Pettitt and Dave Brunskill.

It's free entry and the bar and cafe will be open.

So get along to MIMA (Centre Square, Middlesbrough, TS1 2AZ) this coming Saturday (5 March 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.).

For further information about World Book Night, please pop along to the official website.

The Sniper Revisited

As a companion piece to my review of 'The Sniper', I present a short interview with the book's author - FIDE Master Charlie Storey.

When did you first get the idea of turning your Sniper experiences into a book?

I have played g6 systems my entire life - that is since falling in love with chess at 14 years old. The book idea did not materialise until 2008 where I simply collected my thoughts into a ChessBase printout and used it to try and remember the positions and also try and understand the labyrinth of ECO Codes that make up The Sniper System.

At that point I did not want to turn it into a book as I knew it would help me to win Swiss events as the surprise value did - and still does - reap a high amount of points with Black - crucial to win Swiss events.

I was offered a job with GCHQ and I realised that would be the end of my chess career so I decided to try and leave my 'stamp' on the 'Chess Kingdom' by contributing to modern theory on an unchartered area. As things developed GCHQ decided not to grant me 'Top Secret Clearance' and would not say why and thus I lost my job. I have since taken them to Bristol Employment tribunal, which has now been passed to a Top Secret meeting. My Employment tribunal case may or may not be held in secret - it depends on the result of the Tariq vs Home Office Case which went to the Supreme Court in January 2011 - I am awaiting judgement on that - I will then know if my employment tribunal case scheduled for May - will be held in secret, and whether or not they 'tell me the reason' - I find it hard to believe in this day and age a Court Case can be held in this manner - especially with our signing up to The European Court of Human Rights (which is there to prevent any government from being abusive to its own people!).

Either way that has caused me an enormous amount of stress over the past three years and I am looking forward to recycling my discrimination payout of anything up to £5million into developing Junior Chess through my 'The National Chess Syllabus & Bandana Exam System' see www.CharlieChess.com

Incidentaly, 'The National Chess Syllabus' was my first book and I self published it through Trafford. I upgrade it every two years. It has now been used by many schools in The UK and the Bandana Exams are available to take online (and are used in many schools).

Go to http://www.wcoengland.com/tncs/ if you would like to try a Bandana Online Test with Automatic certificate release if you pass! I mention it because if any publisher would like me to take its next evolution and future evolution I would be open to any good offers.

Were Everyman keen on the project from the start or were you required to take a ‘hard sell’ approach?

When I approached Everyman, GM John Emms was quite enthused with the idea, I had been given a role as England Under 16 Olympiad Coach and had just defeated GM Keith Arkell (with The Sniper) at the 2009 ECF National Championships. This was just enough leverage to get the seal for The Sniper Project.

How long did the book take to write?

I already had the ChessBase printouts but if I could use an analogy that was simply the Bones of the Human Being, I had no idea the Nervous System, Muscular System, The Brain, The Soul and The Spirit were going to take 14 long hard months after that! I had imagined it would have taken four months maximum when I signed the contract in November 2009.

The reason the book is as good as its (in my humble opinion) is mainly down to John Emms critiquing it from every vector, although I found this extremely frustrating I had decided to take the approach of 'whatever John says goes - so fix it!' In simple hours I would say approximately ten hours per week x 60 weeks = 600 hours. It took so long because I checked every line - many 10-15 moves deep with Rybka/Fritz. The many variations that aren't in the book took up a considerable amount of time too.

There can be a temptation for to keep back a few secrets when writing about one’s favourite chess opening. How did you resist such a temptation, knowing that to reveal all of your secrets could lead to trouble over the board?

I wanted The Sniper to be able to stand 'The Test of Time' in the critical evaluation sense - there was no getting around it as many of the creative solutions were simply necessary to circumvent White from getting an edge and when I tried to hold back GM John Emms sensed it and immediately told me to find better solutions to the variations! There's no getting past John - we could do with him in goal for Arsenal!

You make reference to your private Sniper database in the bibliography. How many Sniper games have you played?

I have played over 3000 Sniper Games - mainly at ICC Speed chess and long games - my 4/4 at The National Champs in 2009 was the moment I knew I had something very special - I often play 2nd Class variations of The Sniper to enable its camouflage for when I play real games, although I still critique them professionally at my Monthly Sniper Update site http://www.wcoengland.com/wp-login.php?action=register

Are you still developing The Sniper or have you moved on since the completion of the book?

The Sniper Monthly Update gets updated on the first of every month and is £20 for a year - I maintain, develop and add all content myself putting my Computer Graduate skills to good use. There will be analysis of all main Sniper games, analysis of my own and members' experiences with The Sniper, video training, a free Sniper email chess server and 1-1 Sniper training facility. Users can also post their comments and I will be adding much more content as we develop new technologies - including a Sniper Mind Map!

I enjoy the simuls that I do across the country, it gives me a chance to meet real chess enthusiasts and sign a few books, to spice things up I offer a my fee challenge. It works like this: £50 is paid to my travel expenses, then my fee of £150 is shared amongst all winners in The Sniper Simul. Its good for organisers who can easily get 20 players to pay £12. This pays for my fees, motivates all players to 'Take Out The Sniper' and puts a few quid in the organisers pocket. Its a great event and I do them on Sundays 1pm-6pm. I prefer to do them at good venues - typically at football stadiums such as the one I did at Hull City F.C. which was organised excellently by Mike Butt and the Yorkshire Chess Federation.

If there were two Charlie Storeys who played each other at chess and the game featured the Sniper, would you back White or Black to win?

Great question! The Sniper can be played with White by starting 1.a3 - to date I have a 240 ECF rating performance with this move - I just don't like playing it because the opponent thinks I am being disrespectful. I'm not - I just haven't had time to prepare as I organise a lot of Kiddies Chess activities! I believe that would be a draw as both sides would play The Sniper - when this happens the position remains level for an extended period of time.

Is there another book project in the pipeline?

I have been working on my Black repertoire now for 16 months - it's ready for International Testing at GM level, as a consequence my White repertoire needs a bit of patching up but I would like to write the following books and start as soon as possible - if any publishers are listening;

1. The White Sniper (1.a3 or 1. g3 pending research)
2. Tactics for Children
3. 1.e4 Busting Black with the Initiative
4. 1.d4 Busting Black with the Initiative.
5. Transferring The National Chess Syllabus & Bandana Exam System to a main stream publisher.

Further details and contact information for FM Charlie Storey:

Fide Master Charlie Storey Informatics Forensics BSc (Hons)

England Under 16 Olympiad Chess Coach 2009

Coaching programmes - £20 per Hour + a meal! - School Teaching £25 per Hour

Order The Signed Sniper --> £20 includes U.K. Shipping - Order and Pay via Paypal --> storey@charlieCHESS.com

Order The National Chess Syllabus --> £20 includes U.K. Shipping - Order and Pay via Paypal --> storey@charlieCHESS.com


More Info? www.CharlieChess.com mobile U.K. 0771-90-70-349

Chess Reviews: 173

The Sniper

By FM Charlie Storey

175 pages

Everyman Chess

I have known FIDE Master Charlie Storey for a long time. We first played each other back in 1987. I was very pleased to find out that he was writing a book on a system he had been developing over a number of years. Now the book is available and the message is loud and clear: ‘Play 1…g6, …Bg7 and …c5!’

One of the first things to note is that a new name has entered the catalogue of chess openings:

‘Incidentally, I’ve called this system ‘The Sniper’ because the f7-, g6- and h7-pawns look like the ‘V’ support for a Sniper gun as used by British and American militaries. Furthermore, the g7-bishop and its influence on the long diagonal represent the gun part, combining with the c5-pawn to attack the d4-point.’

As fans of The Lion will tell you, a catchy name can encourage a certain dedication and develop a minor cult following. Charlie has certainly been devoted to The Sniper and easily passes one of the big tests of those aspiring to create a worthy opening book – does the author practice what he preaches? Not only does Charlie habitually play the first three moves in question, he does so at all levels. Achieving 4/4 – and a rating performance of 2600 – at the 2009 British Championship was a particularly noteworthy milestone.

The material is presented over the course of seven chapters:

Main Line 1: Queenside Knight – 3 Nc3 c5!

Main Line 2: Kingside Knight – 3 Nf3 c5!

White Plays 3 c3 – The Deferred Sniper

White Grabs the Centre with 3 f4

Other 1 e4 Lines for White

White Plays d4 and c4

Miscellaneous Lines

A big shot in The Sniper comes after the Bishop on g7 gets a clear view of the Knight on c3. This is an attempt to overturn stereotypical thinking; it’s not so easy to think about trading the Bishop after it has gone to g7, as practitioners of the Sicilian Dragon and King’s Indian Defence will doubtless confirm. Yet playing the unusual, the unexpected is a trademark of Charlie’s. In the specific case of …Bxc3(+), White’s pawns are shattered and opponents, with some sort of inherent race memory flagging up that Black’s plan suffers from a bad reputation, can become confused when thrown back on their own resources.

Can White merely avoid the unknown and transpose into main line openings? Chapter 1 addresses the issue of how to avoid heading into the main line Sicilian Dragons. A key illustrative game shows one of Charlie’s junior students confusing a Grandmaster and picking up a valuable win.

S. Ter-Sahakyan – Y. Zhou

World U-16 Olympiad 2009

17 …h5!

‘17 moves in and Black has pressured the centre and expanded on the queenside. The pressure of the extra attacking move gained by not castling has actually had an exponential effect on Black’s queenside counterplay and could be held responsible for ‘wasting’ the knight’s time moving from c3-e2-g3, thus engineering a major strategical error in White’s plan which in turn brings about Black’s eventual win.’

Black did eventually castle - on move 20 – and won on move 45 with his King enjoying much more safety than is the Dragon norm.

There are a couple of other ways to avoid the pure Dragon, which can be found in the book. There’s also a special section looking at the Dragon skills of Magnus Carlsen.

There’s no doubt that the author has worked hard on his system and has shown admirable diligence to re-examine older games to unearth improvements. Watch out for a very interesting piece of analysis on the old Pterodactyl (1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 g6 3 d4 Bg7 4 Nc3 Qa5), pioneered by GM Raymond Keene and IM Lawrence Day.

Readers are encouraged to appreciate the differences in two possible move-orders for Black, namely 1 …g6, 2 …Bg7, 3 …c5 and 1 …c5 2 …g6 3 …Bg7. White has extra options depending on which method is adopted by Black.

Against 1 d4 2 c4, players, there are two main ideas of interest. One recommendation is for Black to play the ‘Bermuda Triangle versus the White Arrow’.

Black has a number of plans here, including the pawn breaks …f5 and …b5 (after suitable preparation).

Another surprising line which has hitherto managed to slip between the cracks of theory is included in the Sniper’s store of ammunition.

4 …Bxc3+ ‘I love this move!’

Black will follow up with …Qa5 and …f5. Unprepared players with the White pieces will have a hard time sorting out the best way to proceed when they are caught off balance by 4 …Bxc3+. Indeed, the surprise element is a key factor for snipers. I like the unexpected pawn sacrifice which occurs in this position…

Black is now advised to break the bind with a pawn sacrifice, 8 …b6. Charlie makes a great case for this idea in the book, comparing it to the Benko Gambit. It reminds me more of a line from the Advance Caro-Kann…

…in which 11 …b6 has similar intentions.

There are 70 illustrative games, some of which have avoided being included on well-known databases. Themes and ideas are giving greater priority than the desire to detail a move-by-move repertoire. Indeed, players wanting to forge The Sniper into an all-embracing Black repertoire will still find they have some work to do. For example, coverage of the English Opening is confined to a single game snippet and there are one or two more divergences from the book’s material which will require independent analysis.

It is clear that FM Storey has worked very hard on The Sniper (both the opening and the book). It looks set to be one of the most interesting opening books of 2011.

With The Sniper currently flying high in various ‘best seller’ lists, apprentice marksmen are advised to get up and running as quickly as possible to avoid being left behind.

It’s important to remember that The Sniper as a concept is still a ‘work in progress’. The development of the system should accelerate now that Charlie’s analysis is out in the open. I was in the fortunate position of being able to ask The Sniper’s chief Commanding Officer about his manual and future plans. Tune in again tomorrow to read all about them in our exclusive interview.

Meanwhile, for further details of 'The Sniper' and all other Everyman Chess books, pop along to their official website.

Up Pompeii

Up Pompeii

Middlesbrough Theatre

25.2.2011

As a fan of British comedy, I jumped at the chance of seeing a live version of 'Up Pompeii'. I was quite prepared to get my titters out and it's just as well, because it proved impossible to keep them in for very long at all.

The script, by Miles Tredinnick, was faithful to the style of Talbot Rothwell (the writer of the original series, plus numerous 'Carry On' films). Character names included 'Kretinous', 'Suspenda', 'Nausius' and 'Ludicrous Sextus'. 'Senna the Soothsayer' ('...a little of her goes a long way...') was another familiar character from the old series.

The plot, such as it was, revolved around the bawdy misunderstandings in a typical Roman household, all held up by an everlasting supply of double entendres.

Household slave Lurcio, the Up Pompeii linchpin, was played by Damian Williams (a familiar face from last year's tour of Hi-de-Hi, as was Ben Roddy as 'Corneous'). Instead of trying to imitate the great Frankie Howerd, Williams went his own way and this proved to be a good decision. He has enough comic personality of his own to be the front man of the show and his constant asides to the audience - often under the guise of trying to impart the prologue - kept things moving along at a terrific pace. On numerous occasions his facial expressions resulted in his fellow actors corpsing. In a show like this, it didn't spoil things at all.

The only thing missing was the occasional song, which would have been useful, at least for the start and finish of the show. (it worked for Hi-de-Hi last year).

We could all do with more laughs. Let's hope there are more of these revival plays on the way and that Damian Williams is again involved.

Salute!

For further details, including tour dates, please click here.