BCN wishes Happy Birthday to Dinah Norman on August 21st
Dinah Margaret Dobson was born on Wednesday, August 21st 1946 in Exeter, Devon. Her parents were Leslie and Barbara Dobson (née Hayward).
She was taught to play Chess by her late father at the age of 9. Started playing seriously when she attended Rickmansworth Grammar School and Watford Chess Club. Her first tournament was the London Girls Championship which she won in 1962. Dinah was coached by Leonard Barden and Bob Wade.
Dinah’s tournament successes were as follows :
1962 London Girls’ Champion
1963 Southern Counties (SCCU) Girls Champion
1963 Southern Counties (SCCU) Ladies’ Champion
1964 Joint British Girls Champion (three way tie with Gillian Moore and Marcia Syme)
Dinah played as 1st reserve for England in the third FIDE Women’s Olympiad in Oberhausen, Germany in 1966 and in 1969 she played board 1 in Lublin, Poland.
1967 and 1969 Joint British Lady Champion shared with Rowena Bruce after a 4 game playoff
1968 British Lady Champion
1970 American Open Ladies Champion
1975 Winner of first ever Female Grand Prix (as Dinah Wright)
1976 Winner of second Female Grand Prix
Dinah became a WCM in 2002.
She was 9th in the World Over 65 Ladies Championship held in Bled in November 2018.
She is current holder of the Gibraltar Cup.
According to chessgames.com : “Dinah Margaret Norman Dobson is a WCM. She was British champion (w) in 1967 (=Rowena Mary Bruce, Oxford), 1968 (Bristol) and 1969 (=Rowena Mary Bruce, Rhyl).”
[pgn]
[Event “Major Open”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “1997.07.12”]
[Round “1”]
[White “Norman, Dinah M”]
[Black “Thiruchelvam , Thiru Murugan.”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “D05”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “43”]
[SourceTitle “Dinah Norman email”]
{[%evp 0,39,22,15,22,22,22,8,22,12,15,2,7,1,-2,-33,-2,-38,5,4,13,16,13,1,1,-15,
20,-14,29,29,88,75,129,109,184,59,215,213,1510,1939,29999,-30000]} 1. d4 d5 2.
Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 e6 {very popular} ({but} 3… c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Bd3 Bg4 {is a
better way to go for Black}) 4. Bd3 Be7 {the bishop is better on d6 to allow
e5 to be played by Black.} (4… c5 5. c3 Nc6 6. O-O Bd6 7. Nbd2 O-O 8. dxc5
Bxc5 9. e4 {is a critical modern (2020) main line.}) 5. Nbd2 c5 6. c3 O-O 7.
Ne5 (7. O-O Nc6) 7… Nc6 8. f4 Nd7 (8… cxd4 9. exd4 Bd7) 9. O-O Ndxe5 10.
fxe5 f6 11. exf6 Rxf6 12. Rxf6 $146 (12. Nf3) 12… Bxf6 13. Nf3 c4 $6 {
anti-positional} (13… Bd7 $11) 14. Bc2 $14 Qd6 (14… b5) 15. e4 $16 {
White has a typical Colle initiative} Qc7 $2 (15… e5 $1 {was the standard
response when White threatens e5}) 16. e5 $18 {White is winning.} (16. Ng5)
16… Be7 17. Bg5 (17. Ng5) 17… Bxg5 18. Nxg5 {[#]} h6 $2 {anti-positional
and losing but White was a lot better anyway.} (18… g6 $18) 19. Qh5 $1 Qe7 (
19… hxg5 20. Qe8#) 20. Rf1 Bd7 21. Qg6 $1 {and Black resigned} hxg5 22. Qh7#
1-0[/pgn]
English Chess Champion Dinah Dobson Playing Against Two German Boys During Lunch-break At Chess Competition In Hastings. Mandatory Credit: Photo by ANL/Shutterstock
She played in the 1968 Anglo-Dutch match on the Ladies board, which, at that time, did not count in the overall match result.
Now (1971) living in Northwood, Middlesex, she married Danny Wright in Westminster and in 1983 she married Ken Norman in Richmond.
[pgn]
[Event “Basingstoke”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “1992.06.07”]
[Round “5”]
[White “McShane, Luke”]
[Black “Norman, Dinah M”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “B01”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “96”]
[EventDate “1992.??.??”]
{[%evp 0,96,34,9,23,42,71,72,58,58,62,60,85,66,78,56,51,55,75,50,44,45,48,37,
48,48,56,28,18,18,18,-2,26,-23,-32,-22,13,15,33,-5,15,-6,-34,-34,-37,-30,-31,
-72,-31,-28,-30,-98,-39,-77,-69,-61,-42,-43,-43,-36,-28,-53,-29,-18,-24,-118,0,
-18,13,13,16,16,0,0,0,0,22,-101,-106,-133,-136,-168,-168,-264,-269,-269,-269,
-289,-220,-295,-307,-347,-339,-416,-325,-350,-331,-366,-357]} 1. e4 d5 2. exd5
Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bc4 c6 6. O-O Bg4 7. a3 ({More main stream and
sensible is} 7. Re1 e6 8. d4 Be7 9. h3 Bh5 10. Qe2 Nbd7 $14) 7… e6 8. h3 Bh5
9. d4 ({Superior is} 9. d3) 9… Nbd7 10. Bf4 (10. Re1) 10… Be7 11. Re1 O-O
12. Bd3 Bg6 (12… Nd5 13. Nxd5 cxd5) 13. b4 Qd8 14. Bxg6 hxg6 15. b5 Nd5 16.
Nxd5 cxd5 17. a4 a6 18. Qd3 Nf6 19. Ne5 Nd7 20. Nxd7 Qxd7 21. b6 Bd6 22. Bd2
Rfc8 23. g3 Rc4 24. a5 Rac8 25. Rec1 (25. c3) 25… Qc6 26. Qe3 Ra4 27. h4 Rxa1
28. Rxa1 Qc4 $15 29. Kg2 Re8 30. Bc3 Bb4 31. Bxb4 Qxb4 32. Rh1 f6 (32… Qxa5
33. h5 Qxb6 34. hxg6 fxg6 35. Qd3 e5) 33. Qf4 Rc8 34. Qg4 Kf7 35. h5 g5 36. h6
g6 37. h7 Rh8 38. Qd1 $6 (38. Qf3) 38… Qxa5 $17 {[#]} 39. Qd3 Kg7 40. Qe3
Qxb6 41. Qc3 Rxh7 42. Rxh7+ Kxh7 43. Qc8 Qxd4 44. Qd7+ Kh6 45. Qf7 f5 46. Qf8+
Qg7 47. Qd6 Qf7 48. Qe5 Kh7 0-1
[/pgn]
Dinah has been a member of Crowthorne Chess Club and has played in the Berkshire League. She has represented 4NCL Iceni and Guildford in other competitions.
According to Megabase 2020 her highest FIDE rating was 2085 in July 1990 at the age of 44. However, it would have been higher than this in the late 1960s and 1970s had ratings been established then.
With the white pieces she has essayed the Colle-Koltanowki Opening for many years and as the second player she has played the Caro-Kann, Smyslov Variation and the Semi-Slav Defence.
