And now you suffer ......

When I first discovered these forums, I found a post from some guy that had a link to The Jam's "A Bomb in Wardour Street". Bloody brilliant!

Can't remember who it was, or what thread, but if you're lucky it'll still be here somewhere. Or you can just go on YouTube and find it yourself. Anyway, it sowed the seed .....

I've created this thread to inflict upon you all some of my favourite music. True classic tracks and vids, if you will. Likely, if you have any sense, you won't.

The criteria will not be great. They will have to be songs I like, they'll have to be available on YouTube (pretty much), and I've decided rather abitrarily that they'll have to be at least ten years old. Not really "classic" otherwise.

Now, you may be tempted to add your own favourites to this thread, but there's no need to overdo it. As it is I only plan to add one song a week (at most). From time to time I may say something about them, but often I'll just post. For most of you, you'll be well familiar with these tracks so they'll just serve as a reminder of happy times. Or you won't have heard of them, and have no wish to waste your bandwidth on them.

Finally, knowing me, this will be my first and last post on the subject. This is once of the more amusing music vids I can remember, plus it's a wicked track to listen to. So without further ado, I summon up the power of Banana Klan!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDWgtB_MD24&feature=related

Has it been a week already? Just past actually. Righto ......

So, I was thinking, are there any classic songs about chess? Seeing I'm on a chess site and all. The answer is "probably not".

When I was a kid I seem to remember a video by the Bay City Rollers that had chess pieces in it. ("A Game"?) I'm not about to post "One night in Bangkok" up here, unless I get horrendously drunk. The song's not that good. Not terrible I suppose, but ......

No, I think the idea is that there should be the most tenuous link to chess for the song to qualify. Like in "Heroes" by Bowie, where he says "I will be King, and you will be Queen", and that kind of thing. Because it says King and Queen.

I can remember playing Bughouse in my youth, when George Benson's "Gimme the Knight" was rather popular. And a little after that a lot of damage was being done to my opponent's position by Jimmy Cliff's "Reggae Knight". However, in both cases I think I've taken a liberty with the spelling.

The problem really is, the song has to be good, and there'll have to be something on YouTube. Well, I think I have it .........

I love the video for this too. There's a recent cut out now of the old German movie Metropolis. If you've ever seen it then this may look familiar. And a throwback to Bowie while we're at it. You're the queen and I'm the king. Nothing else means anything ......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9BfvPjsXXw

As a chess coach, I often hear that the reason a student lost is "then I just blundered". Though, on inspecting the critical position, it can be pretty obvious that the position was already "trending downwards" at that stage.

Why do players drift into bad postions that they believe are still quite good, or at least equals? Clearly it's a question of judgement, but more than that, it's more often than not a question of prejudice.

For example, materialistic players will tell themselves that they're a pawn up, so as long as they deal with the immediate threats they'll be able to convert the win. Attacking players will tell themselves that they have more active pieces, and being a pawn behind is of no consequence. Sometimes these points of view are correct, and sometimes they aren't. When the judgement is proven to be incorrect it's almost always too late.

Prejudice is a difficult thing to deal with. Naturally if we were aware of our own prejudices we'd probably strive to eliminate them. It's a theory. Learning how to be objective is important not just in chess, but in our whole lives. One thing that can be helpful is trying to see things from another viewpoint.

A friend and I often play games against each other where we sit on the opposite side of the board. So when I'm White I'll sit with the black pieces in front of me, and move towards myself. Although this feels odd at first, you start to see far more possibilities for your opponent than you normally might. A different perspective can do wonders for you if you're a person who is quite fixed in their views, and we're all guilty of that from time to time.

This song is about prejudice. You may not identify with the protagonists in it at all, but that's OK. Mostly this should fill you with a sense of gratitude. In "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" William Blake observed that there can be no perception without experience. And yet we can be so quick to make judgements without any experience at all. When we do this in life we can continue on our way, blithely ignorant of our own ignorance. When we do this in chess we tend to get found out over and over again.

If you're a pawn grabber, try sacrificing them from time to time. If you constantly throw material away, then have a go at holding onto it. Try things from a different point of view, and see if you feel your original judgements becoming modified. And if an opening variation you like is bringing you poor results then try playing against it. After all, " You know where it ends, Yo, it usually depends on where you start".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z9f9Eybv4I&feature=fvst

Been a bit busy clearly, what with winning chess games and all, :). But still, I would've thought I'd have added something to this in the last six months. Actually, I'm chuffed to find that this thread still exists!

So, nothing much to say, which is no surprise as it's an Autumn Sunday afternoon. I can hear that the neighbour's got the lawn mower going. Possibly I should be doing the same. Oh, there was a wedding the other day. It was on the telly and everything. I had loads of comments about it on my Facebook page. Mostly saying stuff like "Well, who cares?"

Obviously "You" do, if you're going to such an effort to post about it. I'm not a total royalist or anything, but they seem like a lovely young couple to me, so good luck to them. And if they eventually become King and Queen, well, they're be like chess pieces innit, which makes it more than acceptable to mention.

I guess there should be a chess link to anything I put in here, however tenuous, and that last comment obviously qualifies. I wonder if any of the royals play chess, or are any good at it? I've seen things in the past talking about all the celebs who play chess, but not for awhile. Maybe someone will start one of those on this site at some point. Anyway, I've made more of an effort with this video. It's probably the best one I could think of that featured chess, even if I don't really know what the hell's going on. Something dodgy and sinister from the looks of it, but that's all I can tell you. The chess positions look almost normal, and keep an eye out for the classic reflective sunglasses effect. The song's quite good as well. Reasonably popular in it's day I believe .....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxOWuKlz_8o

Lol am chuffed to see the thread too... Merry Xmas.

Problem is that none of the you tube links still work :(

Newsboys--Breakfast A Christian rock song that is very entertaining.

 Where are you buddy?

Come back....