[BrianWall-ChessList] The Mighty Jonathan O'Connor from Leinster, Ireland on great Chess books
Brian Wall
brianwallchess3 at taom.com
Wed Dec 16 10:51:10 MST 2009
I have 8 younger brothers and a son. All Irishmen are mighty.
I always felt bad my father never made it to Ireland because he knew so many
songs and so much history. My father was too busy supporting his 9 sons till
the day he died. At 77 he was still in the top 10 stock market forecasters in
the world. In his last month I heard his heavy breathing in his sleep as he
cried out, " Sell that stock, Ellie, sell. " Trying to understand the universe
and provide for his family till the very end, even in his sleep.
If an old friend called to see how he was doing his answer was,
" I don't even buy green bananas any more. "
Dad kept his sense of humor till the end.
If you started a song he would finish it.
If you started a poem, he would finish it.
If you mentioned a word, he always knew the definition.
The youngest Bishop in the nation gave him last rites minutes before he died.
We watched Charlie Chan movies like we used to.
Three of my brothers made it to Ireland. Jack kissed the blarney stone. Pat
found the old farm where the Walls used to live and the marriage certificate of
our great, great Grandfather Walter Wall, my grandfather's grandfather.
Irish toast
Let us drink to the thought that
where'er a man roves
He is sure to find something blissful
and dear,
And that when he is far from the lips
that he loves,
He can always make love
to lips that are near.
Let those love now who never loved before,
Let those who always loved now love the more.
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Irish toast
Of all the lands beneath the sun
Old Ireland is the dearest one.
My green robed, meek eyed mother,
And though there's trouble on her now.
Though pain and sorrow mark her
brow.
Where is there such another?
I love each hill and flowery dale
That decks my own fair Innisfail,
I love her sparkling waters
I love her ruins, grey and old,
I love her sons so true and bold
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Irish toast
To each — to all, — I'm ever true,
To God — to Ireland — and to you.
Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen,
Here's to the widow of fifty,
Here's to the flaunting extravagant
queen.
And here's to the housewife that's
thrifty.
Let the toast pass.
Drink to the lass,
I'll warrant she'll prove an excuse
for the glass.
And — don't I love her daughters!
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Irish toast
Your glass may be purple, and mine
may be blue,
But while they are fill'd from the
same bright bowl.
The fool, who would quarrel for
difference of hue.
Deserves not the comfort they shed
o*er the soul.
Drain the cup —
Friend, art afraid?
Spirits are laid
In the Red Sea.
Mantle it up ;
Empty it yet;
Let us forget.
Round the old tree.
Fill the bumper fair ;
Every drop we sprinkle
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Irish toast
The best of all ways
To lengthen our days
Is to steal a few hours from the night,
my dear.
The fountains drink caves subterrene,
The rivulets drink the fountains dry ;
Brooks drink those rivulets again,
And then some river gliding by ;
Until some gulping sea drink them,
And ocean drinks up that again.
Of ocean then does drink the sky;
When having brewed it into rain,
The earth with drink it does supply.
And plants do drink up that again.
When turned to liquor in the vine,
'Tis our turn next to drink the wine.
By this who does not plainly see
How into our throats at once is
hurled —
Whilst merrily we drinking be —
The quintessence of all the world?
Whilst all drink then in land, air, sea,
Let us too drink as well as they.
The four drinks — the drink for
thirst, the drink without thirst, the
drink for fear of thirst, and the drink
at the door.
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My father used to quote this one
Irish toast
Pat may be foolish, and sometimes
very wrong,
Pat has a temper, which don't last very
long,
Pat is full of jollity,
that everybody knows.
And you'll never find a coward,
where the shamrock grows.
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My father used to sing this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr7bBaC86pY
Wild Colonial Boy- Mick Jagger
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My father used to sing this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13MQFCfCYdQ
Sinead O'Connor & the Chieftains- The Foggy Dew
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Brian Wall
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----- Forwarded message from Jonathan O'Connor <ninkibah at eircom.net> -----
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:59:43 +0000
From: Jonathan O'Connor <ninkibah at eircom.net>
Reply-To: Jonathan O'Connor <ninkibah at eircom.net>
Subject: Re: [BrianWall-ChessList] The Mighty Jonathan O'Connor from Ireland
on Pandolfini
To: Brian Wall <brianwallchess3 at taom.com>
Brian,
I had to laugh at your title. The way I'm playing at the moment, I feel
anything but mighty. You can find comments to some of my better recent
efforts at http://leinsterchess.com/blog This is a site I set up for the
Leinster Chess Union (Leinster, for those not au fait with Irish
geography is the east province in Ireland). Although I'm the blog admin,
I am happy to give anyone connected with leinster chess an account, and
they can then post here. For a chess website, I think this is pretty
novel, and its slowly starting to take off.
As to books, my all time favourite is a little translation of a book by
Kurt Richter on tactics, "Chess Combination as a fine Art". The authors
are listed as Golz and Keres, but 95% of the text comes from chess
columns written by Richter. You'd love it, Brian. He introduces
positions often with quotations from Shakespeare and the German poets,
Schiller, Goethe, Rilke, etc... My copy is extra special, as I got
Kasparov to sign it, after he lost to Rublevsky in 2004. Boy, was he
fuming. He physically radiated anger and frustration at his loss, and I
can only imagine how intimidating it must be playing him.
Another tactics book I totally recommend is "Understanding Chess
Tactics" by Martin Weteschnik. He's an FM from Germany, who started
playing in his late teens, and so he has a better idea of how normal
club players think. In his book, he deconstructs the different elements
of tactics, showing what makes up a pin, fork, skewer, etc... It's
almost scientific how he explains this, and it helped me enormously.
As ever, keep the emails flowing, and as my old boss used to say, F***
the begrudgers!
Jonathan
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On 16/12/2009 05:53, Brian Wall wrote:
I think Keene wrote a book on Stein that was pretty good.
BW
----- Forwarded message from Jonathan O'Connor<ninkibah at eircom.net> -----
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:04:43 +0000
From: Jonathan O'Connor<ninkibah at eircom.net>
Reply-To: Jonathan O'Connor<ninkibah at eircom.net>
Subject: Re: [BrianWall-ChessList] Pandolfini
To: Brian Wall<brianwallchess3 at taom.com>
Brian,
to be fair to Pandolfini, very few people had computers back in 1991, so
I wouldn't blame him for that. For sloppy analysis, yes!
As to Keene, most of his books are rotten, but his book Nimzowitsch a
Reappraisal is superb.
Ciao,
Jonathan
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On 15/12/2009 19:17, Brian Wall wrote:
I hate Pandolfini. He's not a bad guy, I never heard a bad word against him,
just hate his pedantic way of teaching Chess. I cannot play Chess without
analogies, I see them everywhere. I've never detected a drop of imagination
n
any of his writings. I am sure Josh Waitzkin would have a second opinion.
Somehow although I am sure I would not spend a penny buying a Pandolfini
ok
except maybe on a desert island, I have many of them. Other Chessplayers
ust
give them to me. I can't even remember discussing a Pandolfini book.
OK so this morning I pick up More Chessercises:Checkmate because I have read
everything else in my bookcases 20 times and randomly look at position 224
nd
find a mate in 3. The solution given is a mate in 4.
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Pandolfini
Positio 224
More Chessercises:
Checkmate
[FEN "r3k2N/ppp3pp/5n2/2qPp3/1PBn2b1/8/P1PP1KPP/RNB2Q1R w KQkq - 0 1"]
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Disgusted I put the book down. Copyright 1991.
He didn't even computer check his 300 diagrams.
'nuff said.
Reinfeld and Schiller get a lot of abuse but I always enjoy their books.
Keene can write some real rubbish.
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