We remember Reginald Broadbent who passed away on October 29th 1988.

Reginald Joseph Broadbent was born on Friday, August 3rd 1906 (the year of the San Francisco earthquake) in Durban, South Africa. His father was Joseph Edward Broadbent (born 1879) who married Alice Cook on January 4th, 1903 in Durban.

According to the 1911 Isle of Man Census (FindMyPast, Richard James; thanks!) the Broadbent family (sans father) stayed at a guest house in Onchan on the night of February 2nd 1911. Reg (aged 4) was a boarder together with mother Alice (33), brother Roland (1) and sister Laura (4). Since Reg and Laura are both recorded as 4 years old it is reasonable to suppose that they were born as twins. We think that Reg had an additional sibling who had passed away and that the name is not recorded. Reassuringly Steve Mann agrees with this conclusion.

He married Catherine H Broadbent (née Crawford, born 19th September 1895) and were recorded as living (in 1939) in “Cheadle and Gately”, Cheshire. His profession was as a “Telephone Traffic Superintendent, Class II, Post Office Telephones” which was a a civil service occupation. Catherine carried out “unpaid domestic duties”.

They resided at 72, South Park Road, Gatley, Cheshire :

According to Steve Mann in his excellent Yorkshire Chess web site :

“At some time in 1946 or 1947, Broadbent moved down south to live in the general vicinity of East Grinstead, at Far End, Limes Estate, Felbridge, 2 miles NW of East Grinstead, and later at Southway, Priory Road, Forest Row, 3 miles SE of East Grinstead”

Reg was eight times Northern Counties Chess Union (NCCU) Champion in 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936. 1937, 1938, 1945 and 1946.

The British Chess Magazine, Volume CVIII (108, 1988), #12 (December), p. 553 records this brief death announcement :

“Reginald J. Broadbent, British Champion 1948 and 1950 died on October 29 at the age of 82. He was a member of Manchester and Bradford Chess Clubs in his day, and was famous for his remarkable record in Anglo-Dutch matches.

After he moved to London around 1950 he was less free to play due to his senior post with the Post Office. A fuller notice will appear next month.”

As advertised in the British Chess Magazine, Volume CIX (109, 1989), #1 (January), p. 27 we have :

“Reginald Broadbent (3 viii 1906-29x 1988) was born at Durban and was British Champion in 1948 and 1950. In the latter content he actually won his last six games in a row to reach a score of 8.5 points, ahead of Klein, Penrose and Milner-Barry. He was often spoken of as “playing himself into form” in the first half of a contest as his work as a civil servant (the GPO) did not allow him the chance to practise regularly against strong opposition.

He was a member of the Manchester and Bradford clubs before the war when he built up a fine record in Anglo-Dutch matches and Northern Counties champion on many occasions.

Brian Reilly recalls that Broadbent was selected for the BCF Olympiad side in 1954, but was forced to turn down the invitation due to the exacting nature of his work in London, and thereafter his main connection with the game was a chess column in a West of England newspaper (The Western Morning News*) . He was a subscriber to BCM right up to his death.”

*Thanks Gary Lane.

With the white pieces Broadbent was a die-hard 1.e4 player who allowed the Marshall Attack against the Ruy Lopez.

As the second player RJB defended the Nimzo-Indian Defence and played Open games.

In the March issue of CHESS for 1963, (Volume 28, Number 427, pp.147-155)  William Winter wrote this:

R. J. Broadbent’s one weakness

R. J. Broadbent I consider to be typical of the best type of English amateur the Atkins type. A civil servant by profession he wins the Championship title, then retires to his country home in Surrey where he happily spends his time in gardening till the next championship comes along. Occasionally he is dragged out to play in a County match but he takes a lot of dragging. As a player he has great natural attainments and a temperament for the game, but he handicaps himself by the paucity of his opening knowledge. This compels him to start thinking almost from the word ‘go’ and the result is that he invariably gets on bad terms with his clock.

One of his great assets is his endgame in which he is perhaps superior to any practising British player. His skill in this department has rescued him from many a grim position. If he had studied the openings, and played in more tournaments, he might have gone far. As it is he is, and I fear will remain, just a first class British amateur. Probably he prefers it that way.

Here is one of his best games :

[pgn]
[Event “British CF-35 Championship”]
[Site “London (Bishopsgate)”]
[Date “1948.09.08”]
[Round “9”]
[White “Broadbent, Reginald Joseph”]
[Black “Aitken, James Macrae”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “C79”]
[Annotator “Reginald Joseph Broadbent & BCN”]
[PlyCount “57”]
[EventDate “1948.08.30”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “11”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2008”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2007.11.25”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2007.11.25”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,57,19,31,34,19,13,4,13,-2,34,38,27,12,9,-7,4,-13,-6,-8,-7,-6,-6,-6,-6,
-1,4,-34,45,20,32,15,13,9,11,12,25,18,23,26,31,-7,34,17,60,59,98,31,63,72,224,
312,646,699,974,978,1026,1013,29995,29996]} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4.
Ba4 d6 5. Bxc6+ {At this point White has several good moves. The text suits
players who like a solid and clear-cut position with possibilities of enduring
pressure, slight though that pressure may be.} bxc6 6. d4 exd4 7. Nxd4 c5 {
It is important to attack the knight quickly – that is, before any advantage
can be obtained from Nf5.} 8. Nf3 Bb7 9. Nc3 Nf6 10. O-O Be7 11. Re1 O-O 12.
Qd3 (12. Bg5) 12… Nd7 {White plays to utilise his superiority in space by
rapidly mobilising his pieces and then opening up the game by e5. Black must
strive to prevent e5 or, failing that, to minimize its force.} 13. Bf4 {[#]}
Kh8 $6 $146 {Preparing for the next move, which certainly prevents e5 for a
long time, but at the same time cramps Black’s position.} (13… Re8 {however,
seems playable, to be followed by …Bf6.} {If then} 14. e5 dxe5 15. Nxe5 Nxe5
16. Bxe5 Qxd3 17. cxd3 Bd6 {Black would then have two powerful bishops in
compensation for his weak pawns.}) ({Black no doubt disliked, if} 13… Bf6 {
the continuation} 14. e5 dxe5 15. Nxe5 Nxe5 16. Bxe5 {after which is Q-side
pawn position would have become noticeably weak.}) 14. Rad1 $14 f6 15. Nd2 {
White plans to fix the Black K-side by advancing his pawns to f5 and then to
mass his pieces for a mating attack. At the same time he has to prevent, if
possible, any freeing manoeuvre by his opponent.} Ne5 16. Qe2 a5 17. Nd5 Ba6
18. c4 Re8 19. Bg3 Nc6 20. f4 Bf8 21. f5 (21. Nf3) 21… Bc8 22. Qh5 {[%cal
Gd5c7,Gh5e8]} Ra7 {White had threatened Nxc7} 23. Bh4 $16 Nb4 $2 {[#]} (23…
Ne5) 24. Nxf6 $1 {A break-through combination which allows White to bring all
his pieces into effective play.} gxf6 25. e5 Rxe5 ({If} 25… Bg7 26. exf6 {
wins} Rxe1+ 27. Rxe1 $18) (25… fxe5 26. Bxd8 (26. Ne4) 26… Rxd8 27. Ne4 $18
) ({if} 25… dxe5 26. Ne4 {wins the Queen.}) 26. Rxe5 Be7 (26… fxe5 27. Ne4
{wins}) ({If} 26… dxe5 27. Ne4 $18 Qxd1+ 28. Qxd1 {followed by Qd8 or Qg4
according to circumstances with an easy win – CHO’D Alexander.}) 27. Rxe7 (27.
Bxf6+ Bxf6 28. Re8+ Kg7 29. Qg4+ Kh6 30. Qh3+ Kg7 31. Qg3+ Kh6 32. Rxd8 Bxd8
33. Rf1 $18) 27… Qxe7 28. Re1 Qd7 29. Bxf6+ {Source: BCM, Nov 1948, p401 An
excellent example of the new champion’s style. I (CHO’D A) should like to take
this chance of voicing what I know to be the general opnion of the
Championship competitors : that Broadbent unquestionably deserved his victory,
and is in every way a worthy champion.} 1-0
[/pgn]

For an element of déjà vu here is RJBs obituary from the 1989 – 1990 BCF Yearbook, page 14 :

(The Yearbook editor was Brian Concannon and it would appear standard practise, at the time, not to credit or attribute sources for obituaries.)

A detailed biography (from Steve Mann)  may be found here

[pgn]
[Event “Staunton Memorial”]
[Site “Birmingham”]
[Date “1951.??.??”]
[Round “2”]
[White “Broadbent, Reginald Joseph”]
[Black “Bogoljubow, Efim”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “C87”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “61”]
[EventDate “1951.05.26”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “15”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “MCD”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1999.07.01”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1999.07.01”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,61,19,38,41,14,14,9,9,7,7,7,25,-5,24,-2,18,22,27,-18,0,0,0,0,11,2,1,8,
6,3,-1,-13,-21,-13,0,0,62,13,107,100,103,82,100,100,167,87,83,115,171,212,169,
241,205,214,437,29988,29989,29990,29991,905,29987,1375,29993,29994]} 1. e4 Nc6
2. Nf3 e5 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O d6 6. Re1 Bd7 7. c3 Be7 8. d4 O-O 9. Nbd2
exd4 10. cxd4 Re8 11. Bb3 Bg4 12. Nf1 $146 (12. h3) 12… d5 13. e5 Bb4 14. Re3
Ne4 15. Ng3 Ng5 16. Rd3 Bxf3 $6 17. gxf3 Ba5 18. f4 $18 Ne4 19. Qf3 Nxg3 20.
hxg3 Bb6 21. Be3 Rb8 22. Kg2 Qd7 23. Rh1 g6 $6 (23… Ne7) 24. g4 Rbd8 25. f5
gxf5 26. gxf5 Kh8 27. Rxh7+ $1 Kxh7 28. Qh5+ Kg8 29. Bh6 Ne7 30. e6 (30. Rg3+
Ng6 31. fxg6 f5 32. exf6) 30… Nxf5 31. Rg3+ $18 1-0
[/pgn]