BCN sends IM Malcolm Pein best wishes on his 61st birthday.

Malcolm Bernard Pein was born in Liverpool (South). South Lancashire and his mother’s maiden name is Max. (Gaige, Felice and chessgames.com all incorrectly have Malcolm L. Pein).

This was written about Malcolm aged 19 just prior to the 1979 Spassky vs the BCF Junior Squad simultaneous display :

” London University and Liverpool, Rating 199. British under-18 co-champion, 1977. Currently No.1 player for London University.”

Malcolm studied Chemical Engineering at University College, London entering in September 1978. He won The University of London championship in February 1979. The runner-up was John Upham also from UCL.

He became an International Master in 1986 and is a FIDE Delegate (for England) and an International Director.

Malcolm’s peak rating was 2450 in January 1992 at the age of 32.

With the white pieces Malcolm prefers the Queen’s Gambit almost exclusively with 1.e4 rarely seeing the light of day scoring 62%

As the second player, Malcolm champions the Pirc, Modern and Grunfeld defences scoring 49% which MegaBase 2020 claims is “above average”.

Malcolm plays for 4NCL Wood Green and Liverpool.

[pgn]
[Event “Manila op”]
[Site “Manila”]
[Date “1992.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Pein, Malcolm”]
[Black “Valdes, P.”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “E25”]
[WhiteElo “2445”]
[Annotator “Pein,Malcolm”]
[PlyCount “53”]
[EventDate “1992.??.??”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “PHI”]
[SourceTitle “CBM 030”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1992.10.01”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1992.10.01”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,53,16,28,27,-16,-9,4,4,-78,-50,-91,-47,-47,-29,-14,41,9,10,8,23,12,34,
27,55,5,-11,12,10,9,9,20,20,32,32,38,147,186,22,66,85,82,123,47,3,-17,-18,-12,
29987,29988,29989,29990,29991,29992,29993,29994]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4
4. f3 d5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 c5 (6… O-O 7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. e4 Nxc3 9. Qb3 Qxd4
10. Bb2 Qe3+ 11. Be2 Nd5 12. Qxe3 Nxe3 13. Kf2 Nd5 14. exd5 exd5 15. Rc1 $16)
7. cxd5 Nxd5 {[#]} 8. Qd2 {According to ECO this move has not been played for
20 years! In comparison with Qd3 the queen is not exposed on a6 f1 diagonal
but the Bc1 is restricted} f5 (8… Qa5 9. e4 $1 Nxc3 (9… Qxc3 10. Rb1 Qxd2+
11. Bxd2 Nc7 12. dxc5 Nd7 13. Bb5 {White is slightly better}) 10. Bb2 cxd4 11.
Ne2 {White regains one pawn and gets an attack} e5 12. Nxc3 dxc3 13. Bxc3 Qc7
14. Bb4 Nc6 15. Bd6 Qd8 (15… Qa5 16. Qxa5 Nxa5 17. Bxe5) 16. Bb5) 9. e3 O-O
10. Nh3 $146 {This is a theoretical novelty the old move was 10.Bd3 intending
Ne2 but after Black plays Nc6 and e5 he stands well.} b6 11. Bb2 cxd4 (11…
Ba6 12. c4 (12. Bxa6 Nxa6 13. O-O Nac7 14. e4 {Is also good}) 12… Nf6 13. Nf4
{With advantage to White so Black switches plans}) 12. cxd4 Nc6 {Now 13..Na5
is going to be annoying so White gets going} 13. e4 $1 (13. Bd3 Na5 14. Rd1 Bd7
{With lots of play on the white squares}) 13… fxe4 14. fxe4 Nf6 (14… Qh4+
15. Nf2 Rxf2 (15… Nf4 16. g3 {Wins}) (15… Nf6 16. g3) 16. Qxf2 Qxe4+ 17.
Qe2 {Black has insufficient compensation}) 15. Nf2 Na5 16. Qe3 Bb7 17. Bd3 Rc8
18. Qh3 $1 {Black finds the only defence} Qe8 19. O-O {Now both e5 and d5 are
threatened} (19. e5 Nh5) 19… Nh5 {It was very tempting to play 20.Ng4 but it
does not quite work} 20. e5 {Threat g4} (20. Ng4 Nf4 21. Rxf4 Rxf4 22. e5 Be4
23. Nh6+ Kh8) 20… Nc4 21. Bc1 h6 {[#]} (21… g6 22. Bh6 Nf4 23. Bxf4 Rxf4
24. Bxc4 Rxc4 25. Ng4 {Nf6+ will win material}) 22. Bxh6 $1 {Winning} gxh6 (
22… Rxf2 23. Rxf2 gxh6 24. Raf1 {Winning}) (22… Qc6 23. Be4) 23. Ng4 {
Threatening 24.Rxf8+} Qc6 (23… Nf4 24. Qxh6 Nxd3 25. Rxf8+ Qxf8 26. Nf6+) (
23… Rc7 24. Nxh6+ Kg7 25. Qg4+ Kxh6 26. Rxf8) (23… Ng7 24. Nxh6+) 24. Nxh6+
Kh8 25. Nf7+ $1 Kg8 26. Bh7+ Kg7 (26… Kxh7 27. Qxh5+ Kg7 28. Qh6+ Kg8 29.
Qh8#) 27. Qg4+ 1-0
[/pgn]

In addition to his newspaper column and magazine editorial, Malcolm has written a number of chess books and booklets, including :

The Exchange Grunfeld [with Adrian Mikhalchishin] (Everyman, 1996) – ISBN 978-1857440560]

Malcolm won the ECF President’s Award in 2017:

“Malcolm Pein’s contribution to English Chess is well known. He is CEO of Chess in Schools and Communities, has been largely involved in the organisation of the London Chess Classic and is currently the ECF’s Delegate to FIDE and International Director. On top of all that he is also an IM, writes the ‘Daily Telegraph’ Chess Column, and edits CHESS Magazine.”

Malcolm is also owner (and a director) of the London Chess Centre (a company incorporated on May 1st 1997) which has relocated to 44, Baker Street, former home of the British Chess Magazine retail premises. This was purchased from Stephen Lowe and Shaun Taulbut in 2010 when the leasehold on the Euston Road premises expired. Another director is Henry Gerald Mutkin who is the main organiser of the annual Varsity match.

Here is his Wikipedia entry

Malcolm has a son, Jonathan who is a strong player and he resides in London, NW7.

In 2021 Malcolm stood as an alternative to Mike Truran in the contested election for CEO. On October 9th 2021 following “detailed and amicable discussions”  with Mike a away forward was agreed and Malcolm agreed to remain as International Director of the ECF and Mike remained as CEO.

Here is his Developing Chess web site.