Alan's Green Thoughts

I not only enjoy playing chess, but also analysing and studying chess games of ages past. If both sides play well in a chess game, then the only outcome can be a draw, logically speaking, irrespective of the fact White always moves first. Chess players only win because of their opponents making mistakes and them being able to react swiftly and correctly in response to said mistakes, many of which are bad enough to be called blunders. These particular mistakes lose a lot of material or lose the game altogether by permitting a forced mate when either none was apparent or where it was overlooked. Here is a list of what I believe to be the 10 worst chess blunders ever played in tournament play, with those clearly caused by time trouble excluded from the list: 10. Chandler vs. Polgar (1987).  Murray Chandler was clearly winning, with a king, bishop and two united pawns playing against just a king and knight. However, Zsuzsa Polgar (her sister Judit is a chess grandmaster as well, ...

Amanda Baggs, aka Mel Baggs and Amelia Baggs, a well-known activist for the rights and wishes of autistic people especially those who could not speak, sadly died last week as a result of coronavirus. Amanda first came to prominence in 2007 via a YouTube video entitled "In My Language"   showing her life as a largely non-verbal autistic person. It garnered attention throughout her native USA and helped her become a famous autistic blogger, particularly via her blog Ballastexistenz, for the next decade.  Through her blogs and videos, she proved to be an effective, strong advocate for autism acceptance and autistic people reliant on facilitated communication.  So farewell, Amanda/Mel. We will continue your cause in your memory and ensure all autistic people worldwide can obtain the respect they need. In memory of Amanda Baggs, born August 1980, who departed this life on 11 April 2020, aged 39 years.

There have been millions of films made over the last century-and sadly not all of them are wonderful and memorable a la Citizen Kane and Casablanca. In fact, some of them are the worst jumbled-up nonsense ever to disgrace cinemas around the world. Almost everyone has a list of top 10, top 50, or top 100 worst films of all time, even if only in their mind, and so do I even though I have not seen as many films as some of my generation and generally manage to avoid viewing the obviously poor quality films. I have selected this list not only because they are so poor but also because of what they teach about how to, or rather how not to, make films. Please note that IMDb ratings are not, generally speaking, factored into choosing the films for this list. 1. Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966). Many   people cite the 1959 science fiction film  Plan 9 From Outer Space , ineptly directed by infamous "Z movie" director Ed Wood, as the worst film ever made, but ironically it is not bec...

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the South Korean parliamentary election of 2020 still went ahead (albeit with some necessary social distancing measures in place for hygiene reasons), since South Korea is not on lockdown although they have asked many people to self-isolate, given that they are testing 25,000 people every day for COVID-19. This election was a resounding win for South Korea's ruling party, the Democrats, who won 163 of the 253 constituency seats available; South Korea uses a combination of parallel voting and mixed member proportional representation for its elections. Its satellite party which only contested the 47 PR seats, the Together Citizens' Party, won 17. Unusually only 30 of the PR seats are compensatory seats as featured in MMP systems; the other 17 are by parallel voting meaning the constituency results do not affect these 17 seats (this compromise was necessary due to the opposition trying to blockade voting lobbies in protest against the elect...

The new Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has announced his full Shadow Cabinet which marks a radical shift from the old Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn. The major changes involve replacing those on the Corbynista left with moderates. John McDonnell has been replaced by Anneliese Dodds (MP for Oxford East since 2017) in the post of Shadow Chancellor, Nick Thomas-Symonds (MP for Torfaen since 2015) has replaced long-time firebrand Diane Abbott in the post of Shadow Home Secretary, Emily Thornberry has moved from Shadow Foreign Secretary to Shadow International Trade Secretary and as a concession to his opponents, Sir Keir has appointed Lisa Nandy to Ms Thornberry's old post, and Rebecca Long-Bailey has moved from Shadow Business Secretary to Shadow Education Secretary. Richard Burgon, Shadow Justice Secretary and the key candidate of the hard left in Labour for deputy leader, has been replaced by David Lammy in that post. The departure of Barry Gardiner from the Shadow Cabinet is a...

This month is Autism Awareness Month, but as I have said before it should in fact be Autism Acceptance Month. Which takes me to the topic of undiagnosed autistic people from the past. Robert "Bobby" Fischer (1943-2008),World Chess Championship from 1972 to 1975, was coincidentally born in the same year Leo Kanner first coined the name autism. According to "Bobby Fischer's Greatest Chess Games" (, Bobby only wanted to make friends with neighbourhood children who could play chess to any reasonable standard. Whether he was autistic has been speculated not only by chess players but also by psychologists, including Roy Grinker III (whose older daughter is autistic) as it is widely believed Bobby is the unnamed autistic person Dr Grinker refers to in his book "Unstrange Minds".  But let us look at it from both sides of the story: Arguments for Bobby Fischer having been autistic: He had an intense fascination with and an extraordinary talent with ches...

Edward "Red Ted" Knight, a former Labour leader of Lambeth Council known for his resistance to Margaret Thatcher's rate-capping of local councils, died two days ago, aged 86. Ted Knight first came to prominence when he became leader of Lambeth Council in 1978, holding that position for almost eight years (for a brief period in 1982, the Conservatives controlled Lambeth Council on the Mayor's casting vote). During that time, Lambeth Council became one of the most radical councils in that country, although this did make it a target for the conservative press for some time. He was most notable for his prominent role in the "rate-capping rebellion", where Lambeth Council and 17 other councils, most of them Labour-controlled (except Brent and Portsmouth) either intended to set an excessive rate or no rate at all, although all except Lambeth and Liverpool set a capped rate after less than one year. Lambeth Council refused to set a rate in protest of the fact tha...