Monthly Archives: September 2019

2019, Biographies, Birthday, Endgame, History, Studies

Best Wishes Richard Kenneth Guy

Richard Kenneth Guy
Richard Kenneth Guy

We send best wishes to Richard Kenneth Guy on his 102nd birthday, this day (September 30th) in 1916

From Wikipedia :

Richard Kenneth Guy (born 30 September 1916) is a British mathematician and professor emeritus in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Calgary.[1] He is known for his work in number theory, geometry, recreational mathematics, combinatorics, and graph theory.[2][3] He is best known for co-authorship (with John Conway and Elwyn Berlekamp) of Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays and authorship of Unsolved Problems in Number Theory.[4] He has also published over 300 papers.[5] Guy proposed the partially tongue-in-cheek “Strong Law of Small Numbers,” which says there are not enough small integers available for the many tasks assigned to them – thus explaining many coincidences and patterns found among numerous cultures.[6] For this paper he received the MAA Lester R. Ford Award.[7]

From 1947 to 1951 Guy was the endings editor for the British Chess Magazine.[40] He is known for almost 200 endgame studies. Along with Hugh Blandford and John Roycroft, he is one of the inventors of the GBR code (Guy–Blandford–Roycroft code), a system of representing the position of chess pieces on a chessboard. Publications such as EG magazine use it to classify endgame types and to index endgame studies.[41]

Richard Kenneth Guy
Richard Kenneth Guy
2019, Congress, Reports, Tournament

Third Keith Richardson Memorial : September 14th 2019

Camberley Baptist Church
Camberley Baptist Church

A glorious Saturday (the 14th) in September was the date and Camberley Baptist Church was the location of the third tournament in memory of correspondence Grandmaster Keith Bevan Richardson.

Keith Bevan Richardson (1942 -2017)
Keith Bevan Richardson (1942 -2017)

A field of thirty-two gathered at the home (since 1982) of Camberley Chess Club for a six round rapid-play event (R20′ + 10″) that was free to enter raising money by donations to The Cure Parkinson’s Trust. Players were invited to choose books from Keith’s library

Charity Bookstall
Charity Bookstall

and donate to charity in return.

The Cure Parkinson's Trust
The Cure Parkinson’s Trust

Top seed was recently qualified IM Adam C Taylor (ECF230)

IM Adam C Taylor
IM Adam C Taylor

whose chances were dented by losing in round 4 to Clive Frostick (Farnham) who, like Keith, was a highly successful correspondence player (a SIM : Senior International Master)

Clive Frostick
Clive Frostick

Other pre-tournament favourites were FM Andrew P Smith (IRE and Bourne End)

FM Andrew Smith
FM Andrew Smith

and FM Richard M Webb (Crowthorne)

FM Richard Webb
FM Richard Webb

along with WFM Louise Head (Crowthorne)

WFM Louise Head
WFM Louise Head

Following three rounds we stopped for lunch (in some cases liquid only) and on 100% were Adam, Clive and Andrew so round four could well be a key decider. Clive beat Adam with the white pieces whereas Andrew and Richard drew a hard fought Sicilian Dragon. In round five Clive breathed a sigh of relief to survive a “dodgy” position against Colin Purdon in one of the candidate games for the “Best Swindle” Prize.

Colin Purdon
Colin Purdon

The drama continued into the final round as Adam beat strong junior Ranesh Ratnesan
and everything hinged on Clive’s game with Richard Webb. After a long and interesting struggle the game was drawn and the tournament was decided.

The award for Best U-150 player went to rapidly improving Jessica Mellor (Guildford)

Jessica Mellor
Jessica Mellor

the award for Best Junior went to Radesh Ratnesan (Surbiton)

Ranesh Ratnesan
Ranesh Ratnesan

and the title of Camberley Chess Club Champion (highest placed local player) went to Colin Purdon

Ken Coates & Colin Purdon
Ken Coates & Colin Purdon

In overall first place with 5.5/6 was Clive Frostick :

Overall winner : Clive Frostick
Overall winner : Clive Frostick

The event collected more than £300 for the Cure Parkinson’s Trust and we are sure Keith was looking down from above and was pleased with what he observed.

Keith Bevan Richardson (1942 -2017)
Keith Bevan Richardson (1942 -2017)

Past Winners of Keith Richardson Memorial :

2017 : Julien Shepley
2018 : Ken Norman
2019 : Clive Frostick

Full results may be found from UTU Swiss

Camberley Chess Club would like to thank :

Camberley Baptist Church, Berkshire Junior Chess Association, Ken Coates and Christine Coates.

The organiser was John Upham.

2021, Biographies, Birthday, Correspondence, Writers

Happy Birthday IMC Frank Boyd (16-ix-1935)

Leave a comment

He was British Correspondence Champion in 1972 and awarded the IMC title in 1981.

According to Kings Indian I Attacking Systems :

“British Correspondence Champions 1971/72. Placed second in an ICCF master tourney 1973/76. A member of the British team in the 9th Olympiad 1977/80. Gained the IMC title in the European Team Championship 1978/81.”

According to Chessbase Correspondence Database 2020 Frank achieved his highest (ICCF) rating in January 1991 of 2410.

Incomplete crosstable from the European Championship, 1973.
Incomplete crosstable from the European Championship, 1973.

As White Frank would play the Queen’s Gambit via a 1.Nf3 move order. He did not play 1.e4

As the second player he would defend the closed Ruy Lopez and the Nimzo-Indian Defence.

King's Indian I by Frank Boyd, Chess Praxis, 1981
King’s Indian I by Frank Boyd, Chess Praxis, 1981
2019, Blitz, Events, Reports, Tournament

British Blitz Championship Qualifier : Bristol

Leave a comment
GM Matthew Turner (SCO)
GM Matthew Turner (SCO)

Sixty-four (!) players entered the South-West qualifier for the British Blitz Championship 2019 held at Bristol Grammar School for a fifteen round tournament employing a 3′ + 2″ FIDE approved time control.

GM Keith Arkell (ENG)
GM Keith Arkell (ENG)

The entry was headed by GM Matthew Turner (SCO) scoring 13.5/15 and gaining a mere 8.8 FIDE Blitz rating points drawing quickly with Keith Arkell and losing to FM Lewis Martin (ENG).
Paignton based “local” GM Keith Arkell (ENG) took runner-up spot with 12/15 losing 15 rating points having drawn with Lewis Martin but losing to in-form IM James Cobb (WLS) and IM Malcolm Pein (ENG). Malcolm’s son Jonathan elected to play in the much weaker Belfast qualifier which was probably a good move.

IM James Cobb
IM James Cobb

Highest placed lady player (and therefore qualifier) on 8.5/15 was University of Warwick student and reigning English Ladies Champion, WFM Louise Head (ENG) who was supported by her Crowthorne team mates FM Richard Webb, Colin Purdon and Mark Taylor.

WFM Louise Head
WFM Louise Head

Surprise performance (perhaps?) was from FM Lewis Martin (title awarded in 2018) who beat Matthew Turner, Malcolm Pein, Richard Webb and Louise Head of the titled players to earn a 64.8 rating increase.

FM Lewis Martin (ENG)
FM Lewis Martin (ENG)

Full results may be found at Chess Results . com