2022, Biographies, Games Analysis, History, Minor Pieces, Player, Richard James

Minor Pieces 35: William Ward Part 2

June 29, 2022 Richard James 1 Comment

Last time we left William Ward at the time of the 1901 census, where he was staying overnight with one Isidore Wiener.

As we know he played for Richmond at the end of 1902, was he living in our part of London at that time?

But before that, in April 1902 William Ward played a match against rising American star Frank Marshall, who was visiting London at the time. The two players had met the previous year in the Anglo-American Cable Match, where Ward was successful. In this match, however, Marshall won four games to Ward’s two. The American was noted for his attacking skills but in this game he had no answer to his opponent’s kingside attack. (As usual, you can click on any move and a pop-up window will appear, enabling you to play through the game.)

[pgn]

[Event “Match Marshall-Ward +4-2=0”]
[Site “London”]
[Date “1902.??.??”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Marshall, Frank James”]
[Black “Ward, William”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “D55”]
[Annotator “Tactical Analysis 5.2 (1s)”]
[PlyCount “82”]
[EventDate “1902.??.??”]
[EventType “match”]
[EventRounds “6”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2002”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2001.11.25”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2001.11.25”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Nf3 Nbd7 6. e3 O-O 7. Rc1 b6 8. cxd5
exd5 9. Bd3 Bb7 10. O-O c5 11. Bb1 Ne4 12. Bf4 {D55: Queen’s Gambit Declined:
4 Bg5 Be7: Lines without …h6 and 6…h6 7 Bxf6.} Rc8 13. Qc2 $146 ({
Predecessor:} 13. Qe2 Bf6 14. Rfd1 Re8 15. Qd3 g6 16. Nb5 a6 17. Nd6 Nxd6 18.
Bxd6 c4 19. Qd2 b5 {1/2-1/2 (29) Tarrasch,S-Burn,A Vienna 1898}) 13… f5 14.
Rcd1 {White is slightly better.} Ndf6 (14… g5 $5 15. Be5 Nxc3 16. bxc3 g4 $15
) 15. dxc5 (15. Qa4 $5) 15… Bxc5 (15… bxc5 $5 16. Qb3 Qb6 $11) 16. Nd4 Bxd4
17. exd4 Nxc3 18. bxc3 Ne4 19. Bd2 {Loses the game.} Ba6 20. Rfe1 Qh4 21. g3 $2
(21. f3 {was the only chance.} Qf2+ 22. Kh1 Nxc3 23. Bxc3 Qxc2 24. Bxc2 Rxc3
25. Ba4) 21… Qh5 $19 {aiming for …f4!} 22. Qb2 $2 (22. c4 Bxc4 23. Rc1)
22… Be2 ({And not} 22… Qf3 23. Be3 $17) 23. Rc1 {[#]} Nxf2 $1 {( -> …Qf3)
} 24. h4 Qf3 25. Kh2 Qg4 (25… Ng4+ $142 26. Kh3 Nf2+ 27. Kh2 Nd3 28. Rg1 Nxb2
29. Bf4 Nd3 30. Bxd3 Bxd3 31. Rg2 Be4 32. Rcc2 Bxc2 33. Rxc2 Rfe8 34. Be5 Qd1
35. Rg2 Rxc3 36. Rg1 Rc2+ 37. Rg2 Rec8 38. Bf4 Rxg2+ 39. Kxg2 Rc2+ 40. Bd2
Rxd2+ 41. Kh3 Qh1#) 26. Bf4 {Black is clearly winning.} Qh3+ (26… Rce8 $142
27. Rxe2 Rxe2 28. Qxe2 Qxe2) 27. Kg1 {[#]} Bf3 $1 28. Kxf2 Qg2+ 29. Ke3 Qxb2
30. Kxf3 Rxc3+ 31. Rxc3 Qxc3+ 32. Re3 Qxd4 {Hoping for …Qd1+.} 33. Bc2 Rc8
34. Bxf5 Rc3 35. h5 Rxe3+ 36. Bxe3 Qd1+ 37. Kf4 Qxh5 {Strongly threatening …
Qh6+.} 38. Be6+ Kf8 {…Qh6+ is the strong threat.} 39. Bg4 Qf7+ 40. Ke5 Qc7+
41. Kf5 g6+ {Weighted Error Value: White=1.26/Black=0.64} 0-1

[/pgn]

This season also witnessed William Ward’s first success in the City of London Chess Club Championship. It appears that he and Thomas Francis Lawrence shared first place, but that Ward won the play-off.

In the summer of 1904 Ward played a match in London against George Edward Wainwright, winning by a score of 5½-3½.

In this game Wainwright had the better of the opening, but, playing too fast, perhaps, miscalculated on moves 30 and 31, giving Ward the chance of a crisp finish.

[pgn]

[Event “Ward v Wainwright match”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “1904.08.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Wainwright, George Edward”]
[Black “Ward, William”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “B73”]
[Annotator “Tactical Analysis 5.2 (1s)”]
[PlyCount “70”]
[SourceVersionDate “2022.06.29”]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 g6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Bg7 6. Be3 d6 7. Be2 Nf6 8.
O-O O-O 9. h3 Bd7 10. Qd2 Nxd4 11. Bxd4 Bc6 12. Bf3 {[#]} Ne8 $146 {B73:
Sicilian Dragon: Classical System without 9 Nb3.} ({Predecessor:} 12… Qc7 13.
Rfe1 Rfd8 14. Nd5 Bxd5 15. exd5 Ne8 16. Bxg7 Nxg7 17. c3 e5 18. dxe6 fxe6 19.
Re3 Rd7 20. Bg4 {1-0 (64) Tarrasch,S-Von Popiel,I Monte Carlo 1902}) 13. Rad1
e5 14. Be3 f5 {White is better.} 15. Bc5 Rf6 16. Ba3 Bf8 17. Nd5 Rf7 18. exf5
gxf5 19. b3 Qh4 20. Kh2 {Hoping for g3.} ({Don’t take} 20. c4 Nc7) 20… Bh6
21. Qe1 Bg7 22. g3 Qh6 23. Bc1 Qe6 24. c4 Nf6 25. Nxf6+ Rxf6 26. Bd5 Bxd5 27.
Rxd5 f4 28. gxf4 {Threatens to win with Qe4.} Raf8 (28… Rh6 $2 29. f5 Qxf5
30. Bxh6 Bxh6 31. Rg1+ (31. Rxd6 Kf7 $16) 31… Kf7 32. Qf1 (32. Rxd6 Bf4+ 33.
Rg3 Rf8 $16)) 29. Rg1 {Qe4 is the strong threat.} Kh8 30. Be3 {[#] Black must
now prevent fxe5.} Bh6 31. fxe5 $2 {Now White is beyond hope.} (31. f3 $11)
31… Rf3 $19 32. Rg3 Bxe3 33. fxe3 Rf1 34. Qc3 R8f2+ 35. Rg2 Qg6 {Weighted
Error Value: White=0.81/Black=0.16 (very precise)} 0-1

[/pgn]

The inaugural British Chess Championships took place in Hastings in 1904, giving masters an amateurs alike the chance for a two week summer chess holiday. William Ward didn’t play that year, but was selected for the Championship in Southport the following year.

Ward started slowly, losing his first three games, followed by a draw with Blackburne, before winning six in a row, finishing with a draw against Atkins, who ran out the clear winner on 8½/11. Ward’s score of 7 points was enough for a share of second place with another forgotten player, Charles Hugh Sherrard.

In this game he again demonstrates his affinity with the Queen’s Gambit.

[pgn]

[Event “British CF-02 Championship”]
[Site “Southport/ Merseyside”]
[Date “1905.08.21”]
[Round “7”]
[White “Ward, William”]
[Black “Wahltuch, Victor Leonard”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “D55”]
[Annotator “Tactical Analysis 5.2 (1s)”]
[PlyCount “69”]
[EventDate “1905.08.14”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “11”]
[EventCountry “GBR”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2017”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2016.10.25”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2016.10.25”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3 Be7 6. Nf3 O-O 7. Bd3 b6 8. cxd5
exd5 9. Ne5 {White is more active.} Bb7 {Prevents Nc6. D55: Queen’s Gambit
Declined: 4 Bg5 Be7: Lines without …h6 and 6…h6 7 Bxf6.} 10. f4 Ne4 {
[#] …Nxe5 is the strong threat.} 11. Bxe7 Qxe7 {White has an edge.} 12. O-O
f5 $146 ({Predecessor:} 12… c5 13. Bxe4 dxe4 14. Nxd7 Qxd7 15. dxc5 Qc6 16.
cxb6 Rfd8 17. Qe2 Qxb6 18. Rfd1 Rd3 19. Rxd3 exd3 {1-0 (25) Pillsbury,H-Von
Gottschall,H Munich 1900}) 13. Rc1 Nxe5 14. dxe5 {Hoping for Bxe4.} Nxc3 15.
bxc3 ({Reject} 15. Rxc3 g6 $11) 15… c5 16. h3 Rac8 17. Kh2 Rc6 18. Be2 {
[#] Strongly threatening Bf3.} Rh6 19. Bf3 Rd8 20. Qc2 Bc8 21. g3 {aiming for
Rcd1.} c4 22. Rcd1 Qc5 23. Rd4 Rc6 24. Rfd1 {White is clearly winning.} Be6 25.
e4 fxe4 26. Bxe4 dxe4 (26… h6 $142 27. f5 Bf7) 27. Rxd8+ $18 Kf7 28. Qxe4
Qf2+ 29. Qg2 Qxg2+ 30. Kxg2 {KRR-KRB} Rc5 31. g4 g6 32. Kf3 Ra5 33. R1d2 Ra3
34. Ke4 Rxc3 35. f5 {Black got outplayed after the opening. Weighted Error
Value: White=0.24 (precise) /Black=0.56} 1-0

[/pgn]

The 1905-6 edition of the City of London Chess Club Championship was another big success for William Ward, his score of 10½/13 putting him two points clear of the field.

By now he had developed notable skill in building up a slow attack from a closed position. He missed the chance of a brilliancy in this game, but his opponent gave him another, simpler, opportunity a few moves later.

[pgn]

[Event “City of London CC Championship”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “1906.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Shoosmith, Hector William”]
[Black “Ward, William”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “D60”]
[Annotator “Tactical Analysis 5.2 (1s)”]
[PlyCount “86”]
[SourceVersionDate “2022.06.10”]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3 Be7 6. Nf3 O-O 7. Bd3 (7. Rc1 a6
8. cxd5 exd5 9. Bd3 Re8 10. O-O c6 11. h3 Ne4 12. Bf4 Ndf6 13. Ne5 Bf5 14. Ne2
Nd6 15. Nxc6 bxc6 16. Bxd6 Bxd3 17. Bxe7 Bxe2 18. Bxd8 Bxd1 19. Bxf6 {0-1 (72)
Shoosmith,H-Ward,W Southport/ Merseyside 1905}) 7… a6 {[#]} 8. c5 $146 {
D60: Queen’s Gambit Declined: Classical: Unusual White 7th moves.} ({
Predecessor:} 8. Qc2 dxc4 9. Bxc4 c5 10. dxc5 Qa5 11. O-O Bxc5 12. Rfd1 b5 13.
Bd3 Bb7 14. Bxf6 Nxf6 15. Ne4 Bxe4 16. Bxe4 Rac8 17. Qb1 Qb6 {0-1 (55)
Nachtikal,F-Sika,T Prague 1905}) 8… Re8 9. O-O c6 10. h3 {White is better.}
Nf8 11. Ne5 N6d7 12. Bxe7 Qxe7 13. f4 f6 14. Ng4 e5 15. fxe5 fxe5 {White
should prevent …e4.} 16. b4 e4 ({Worse is} 16… h5 17. Nf2 $11) 17. Be2 Qg5
{Against Rf5. Strongly threatening …h5.} 18. Qd2 Ng6 19. Rf2 h5 20. Nh2 Nf6
21. Kh1 Nh4 22. Rg1 Nf5 23. Nf1 Rf8 24. g3 Bd7 25. a4 Rf7 26. a5 Raf8 {White
must now prevent …h4.} 27. Nd1 h4 (27… Qg6 $19 {is more deadly. Hoping for
…Nh6.} 28. Rgg2 Ne7) 28. g4 $17 Ng3+ 29. Nxg3 hxg3 30. Rfg2 (30. Rxg3 $11 Qh4
31. Rfg2) 30… Qh4 31. Rxg3 Nh5 32. Qe1 {[#]} (32. gxh5 $14 {was forced to
keep a grip.} Bxh3 33. Bxa6 $1 Bf5+ 34. Qh2 Qxh2+ 35. Kxh2 bxa6 36. Nf2) 32…
Nxg3+ $2 $40 {Black has strong attack.} (32… Bxg4 $1 $19 {and Black stays
clearly on top.} 33. Kh2 (33. Bxg4 $2 Rf1 $19) 33… Nxg3 34. Bxg4 Nf5 35. Qxh4
Nxh4) 33. Qxg3 Qh6 34. Kg2 {Prevents Rf3.} Rf3 35. Bxf3 Rxf3 36. Qh2 (36. Qb8+
$11 {and White stays safe.} Kh7 37. Rh1) 36… Qh4 $19 37. Rh1 $2 {[#]} (37.
Qb8+ $15 Kf7 38. Qh2) 37… Bxg4 $1 {Black is clearly winning.} 38. Qb8+ Rf8
39. hxg4 {[#]} Qxh1+ $1 40. Kxh1 Rxb8 41. Kg2 Rf8 42. Nc3 Rf3 43. Nd1 Kf7 {
Weighted Error Value: White=0.82/Black=0.56} 0-1

[/pgn]

At some point round about 1905 Ward seems to have moved to North London, joining the Hampstead Chess Club, for whom he played successfully in the London League in the 1905-6 season. You can see him here, second from the right in the row of gentlemen seated on chairs.

The summer of 1906 was quiet: perhaps he was too busy with his legal work to take part in the British Championships in Shrewsbury. In the 1906-7 City of London Championship he failed to repeat the previous year’s success, sharing 3rd place behind the runaway winner George Edward Wainwright, with Hector William Shoosmith in second place.

William Ward didn’t have far to travel for the 1907 British Championships, which took place in Crystal Palace, but he failed to repeat his success of two years previously: this time he only managed 3½/11, sharing the tournament basement.

The 1907-8 championship of the City of London club provided a hat trick for players associated with Richmond Chess Club. Thomas Francis Lawrence won, with Ward and Wainwright taking the places.

In this game Ward experimented with what would much later become known as the Taimanov Variation of the Sicilian Defence, winning when his opponent failed to refute his unsound combination.

[pgn]

[Event “City of London CC Championship”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “1908.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Mongredien, Alfred Wornum”]
[Black “Ward, William”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “B40”]
[Annotator “Tactical Analysis 5.2 (1s)”]
[PlyCount “60”]
[SourceVersionDate “2022.06.10”]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Bd3 Nc6 6. Nxc6 {[#]} dxc6 $146 ({
Predecessor:} 6… bxc6 7. O-O d5 8. exd5 exd5 9. Bf4 Bd6 10. Bxd6 Qxd6 11. Nd2
O-O 12. h3 Re8 13. c3 Qf4 14. Re1 Rxe1+ 15. Qxe1 Bd7 16. Nf1 Re8 {1/2-1/2 (26)
Jacob,F-Blackburne,J Ostend 1907}) 7. O-O e5 8. Bg5 h6 {B40: Sicilian: 2…e6,
Unusual lines.} 9. Bh4 Bc5 (9… g5 $5 10. Bg3 Bd6 $14) 10. Nd2 Qe7 {The
position is equal.} 11. h3 g5 12. Bg3 g4 13. Bh4 Rg8 $36 {Black has the
initiative.} (13… gxh3 $2 14. Qf3 hxg2 15. Rfe1 $18) 14. Kh2 gxh3 15. gxh3
Bxh3 $2 {Black has more active pieces.} 16. Kxh3 $4 (16. Qf3 $18
) 16… Qe6+ $19 {Black is clearly winning.} 17. Kh2 {[#]} Ng4+ $1 18. Kh1 {[#]
} Nxf2+ $1 19. Rxf2 Bxf2 20. Qf3 {Inhibits Qh3+.} Bxh4 21. Bc4 Qd7 {Strongly
threatening …0-0-0.} 22. Rf1 O-O-O 23. Nb3 Rg3 24. Qf5 Qxf5 25. Rxf5 f6 26.
Kh2 Re3 27. Bd3 Rg8 28. Nd2 Bg3+ 29. Kh1 Bf4 30. Bf1 {Prevents Rh3+.} Reg3 {
Weighted Error Value: White=0.66/Black=0.38} 0-1

[/pgn]

The 1908 British Championship took place in Tunbridge Wells, and, despite his result the previous year, he was again selected for the championship itself.

In the first two rounds Ward scored 2/2 with the Sicilian Dragon. It’s clear from this, admittedly not entirely accurate, game that he was well aware of the latent power of the fianchettoed bishop.

[pgn]

[Event “British CF-05 Championship”]
[Site “Tunbridge Wells/ Kent”]
[Date “1908.08.10”]
[Round “1”]
[White “Michell, Reginald Pryce”]
[Black “Ward, William”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “B75”]
[Annotator “Tactical Analysis 5.2 (1s)”]
[PlyCount “88”]
[EventDate “1908.08.10”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “11”]
[EventCountry “GBR”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2017”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2016.10.25”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2016.10.25”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. Nxd4 g6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 d6 7. Qd2 Nf6 8. f3
Bd7 9. Nb3 $146 {B75: Sicilian Dragon: Yugoslav Attack, Miscellaneous.} ({
Predecessor:} 9. Nd5 O-O 10. Be2 Nxd5 11. exd5 Ne5 12. h3 Qc8 13. b3 Be8 14.
O-O Nd7 15. Rad1 Nf6 16. c4 Bd7 {1/2-1/2 (56) Krause,O-Moller,J Copenhagen 1907
}) 9… O-O 10. Nd5 Ne8 11. c4 {White is better.} e6 12. Nc3 f5 13. exf5 gxf5
14. O-O-O Ne5 15. f4 Ng4 16. h3 Nxe3 17. Qxe3 Qf6 18. Kb1 Bc6 19. Nd4 e5 20.
fxe5 dxe5 21. Nxc6 bxc6 22. c5 Rb8 {Threatens to win with …Kh8.} 23. Bc4+ Kh8
24. Bb3 a5 25. Rd7 e4 26. Rhd1 Rb4 (26… Bh6 $5 27. Qf2 Bg7 $14) 27. Ra7 f4
28. Qf2 Qf5 29. Rxa5 Nc7 {White must now prevent …f3.} 30. Qc2 Ne6 {Hoping
for …Nd4.} 31. Bxe6 (31. Ra4 $14 {stays ahead.} Rxa4 32. Bxa4) 31… Qxe6 $19
32. Ra7 Qc4 $2 (32… f3 $19 33. a3 Rb3 34. Rxg7 Kxg7 35. Nxe4 Rfb8 36. gxf3 (
36. Ng5 $2 Rxb2+ 37. Qxb2+ Rxb2+ 38. Kxb2 Qe2+ 39. Kc1 Qe3+ 40. Kc2 fxg2 $19)
36… Rxa3) 33. Na4 $2 {[#]} (33. a3 $11 {and White has nothing to worry.} Rb3
34. Rdd7 $1 Qxc3 35. Rxg7 Qxc2+ 36. Kxc2) 33… Rfb8 $2 (33… f3 $1 $19 34.
gxf3 exf3) 34. Qxc4 $11 Rxc4 35. Rdd7 Bf8 36. Rxh7+ Kg8 37. Rab7 $2 Rxb7 $19 {
Black is clearly winning.} 38. Rxb7 Rxa4 {Endgame KRB-KR} 39. Rc7 Ra6 40. Rc8
Kf7 41. h4 Bxc5 42. h5 Bd4 {And now …f3 would win.} 43. h6 Kg6 44. Re8 e3 {
Weighted Error Value: White=0.93/Black=0.90} 0-1

[/pgn]

British Championship, Tunbridge Wells, round 7, 17 August 1908: from left to right Isidor Gunsberg, vs Francis Lee (W), William Ward (W) vs Henry Atkins, and Joseph Blackburne vs Reginald Michell (W). Photo from BCM, Sept 1908, p372

This was the game which, in some ways, defined William Ward’s life. He exceeded the time limit on move 19 (the first time control was, strange as it might seem by today’s standards, on move 20) in a clearly better position. Atkins eventually won the title, finishing on 8/11, with Ward in second place on 6½/11. If he’d won the game, the title would have been his. Unlucky: perhaps he was distracted by the photographer!

The 1908-9 City of London Championship gave Ward his third title with an impressive score of 15/17 (no draws!), including wins over his nearest rivals, Blake, Wainwright and Edward Guthlac Sergeant, all players connected at some time in their lives with the Kingston area.

The 1909 British Championships took place in Scarborough: Atkins and Blake shared first place on 8½/11, with the Leicester born schoolmaster Atkins winning the tie-break. William Ward took third place a point behind, again, losing a game on time on move 19, this time against Blake. Admittedly on this occasion he stood rather worse. One wonders what was the reason for his problems with clock handling in these games.

Here’s a long and exciting game against the young Fred Yates, in which he opened 1. e4 with White and met 1. e4 with e5 rather than the Sicilian.

[pgn]

[Event “British CF-06 Championship”]
[Site “Scarborough/ North Yorkshire”]
[Date “1909.08.17”]
[Round “8”]
[White “Yates, Fred Dewhirst”]
[Black “Ward, William”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ECO “C87”]
[Annotator “Tactical Analysis 5.2 (1s)”]
[PlyCount “144”]
[EventDate “1909.08.09”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “11”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2006”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2005.11.24”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2005.11.24”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 d6 7. d4 Nd7 8. c3
O-O 9. Nbd2 {C87: Closed Ruy Lopez: Steinitz-type lines after 6 Re1 d6.} Bf6
10. Nf1 (10. d5 Ne7 $11) 10… Nb6 $146 ({Predecessor:} 10… Ne7 11. Ng3 Nb6
12. Bb3 Bd7 13. Nh5 Ng6 14. Nxf6+ gxf6 15. Bh6 Re8 16. h3 Qe7 {1-0 (75) Jacob,
F-Shoosmith,H Ostend 1907}) 11. Bc2 {White is better.} Bg4 12. d5 Ne7 13. Ne3
Bd7 14. b3 Kh8 15. h3 g6 16. Kh2 Ng8 17. Qe2 Bg7 18. Ng1 f5 19. c4 f4 20. Nd1
Nf6 21. b4 g5 22. g4 h5 23. f3 Rf7 24. a4 Bf8 25. Nf2 Rh7 {Hoping for …Nxc4!}
26. Bb2 (26. a5 $5 Nc8 27. Kg2 $15) 26… Qe8 27. Rec1 Bxa4 (27… Nxa4 28.
Bxa4 Bxa4 29. Kg2 $17) 28. Bd3 Bd7 29. c5 Nc8 30. Ra3 Qg6 31. c6 bxc6 32. dxc6
Be6 33. Bxa6 Nb6 34. Bd3 Rxa3 35. Bxa3 Qh6 36. Kg2 hxg4 37. Nxg4 Qg7 38. Bb2
Nh5 39. Bc3 Qf7 40. Be1 Ng7 (40… Ng3 $6 41. Bxg3 fxg3 42. Qe3 $11) 41. b5
Bxg4 42. fxg4 Ne6 43. Bf2 {Active counter play!} f3+ 44. Qxf3 Nf4+ 45. Kf1 Be7
$2 (45… Qa2 $16) 46. Be2 Bd8 47. Bxb6 cxb6 48. Ra1 {Prevents Qa2.} Bc7 49.
Ke1 Kg7 50. Bf1 Qe7 51. Qa3 Kg6 52. Rd1 Rh8 53. Rd2 Rf8 54. Bc4 Qf6 55. Kd1 Rd8
56. Rf2 Qh8 57. Ra2 {aiming for Qf3.} Qg7 $2 (57… d5 $16 58. Bxd5 Nxd5 59.
exd5 e4) 58. Bd5 Rf8 59. Bc4 Qf6 60. Rf2 Qh8 61. Qa7 Qg7 62. Rd2 {Against d5}
Rh8 63. Rh2 $2 (63. Qa3 $18) 63… Rd8 {[#] …d5 is the strong threat.} (63…
d5 $5 64. Bb3 (64. exd5 e4 $17) (64. Bxd5 Nxd5 65. exd5 Qf7 $11) 64… Qe7 $11)
64. Rd2 {Against d5. Threatens to win with Qa3.} Rh8 65. Rf2 $2 (65. Kc2 $18)
65… Rd8 (65… d5 $5 66. Bb3 (66. exd5 e4 $17) (66. Bxd5 Qe7 $11) 66… Qe7
$11) 66. Ne2 {Strongly threatening Bd5. The board is on fire.} d5 $1 {The
position is equal.} 67. Nxf4+ exf4 68. Bxd5 Qd4+ 69. Rd2 Qg1+ 70. Kc2 {[#] And
now Qa3 would win.} Qc5+ 71. Kb1 Qxb5+ 72. Kc1 Qc5+ {Decoy. A wild game.
Weighted Error Value: White=0.49/Black=0.54} 1/2-1/2

[/pgn]

As we move towards 1910 we can summarise William Ward’s chess career up to this point.

Now 42 years old, he was generally recognised as one of the strongest players in the country, having represented his country in five Anglo-American cable matches, having played four times in the British Championship, finishing in second place twice and in third place once, and having won the prestigious City of London Chess Club Championship on four occasions.

He played regularly for Middlesex, and occasionally for other counties, his home county of Hertfordshire, and also appearing on occasion for Kent and Sussex. As well as playing regularly for City of London he represented a number of other clubs: Richmond, Hampstead and West London, for example, as well as the National Liberal Club: was that an indication of his political views, I wonder?

He was increasingly being called upon to give talks and simultaneous displays, so seems to have been a well respected member of the chess community as well as a formidable player.

Rod Edwards’ retrospective 1909 rating list makes interesting reading: the leading English players, according to his calculations (and excluding the English-born Horatio Caro, who played most of his chess in Germany) were:

21. Atkins 2508
28. Burn 2485
56. Ward 2428
66. Richmond 2411
69. Blackburne 2405
79. Yates 2392
88. Blake 2384
92. Thomas 2379
101. Lawrence 2375
102 Gunsberg 2374
104 Shoosmith 2371
108 Wainwright 2362
120 Griffith 2354
123 Wahltuch 2353
131 Michell 2350

The veterans Burn, Blackburne and Gunsberg had been world class players in their day, but their peak had been back in the 1880s. Yates and Thomas, on the other hand, would only reach their peak in the 1920s.

The unfamiliar name here might be George William Richmond, at this point about to move to Scotland, who was strong but played in very few competitions.

Join me next time to find out what happened next to William Ward in the last of this series of articles.

Acknowledgements:

ancestry.co.uk

findmypast.co.uk

BritBase

EdoChess (Ward’s page here)

British Chess Magazine

The City of London Chess Club Championship (Roger Leslie Paige): thanks to Paul McKeown for the book.

Graham Stuart for information on Ward’s games against Hampshire.

2022, Reviews, Richard James, Thinkers Publishing, Tournament

Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021

June 28, 2022 Richard James 2 Comments

From the publishers’ blurb:

“That such a fine achievement should be immortalized, is beyond dispute. But who will pick up the gauntlet? We live in a volatile world where the Internet is dominant and when a tournament is over, the next one is already at the door. No time for reflection and historical awareness? Yet there was someone who had followed the tournament with great interest. The English grandmaster Daniel Fernandez, who also publishes for ChessPublishing came up with the idea of thoroughly examining all the games from this tournament. He did not take any chances in doing so. In addition to the various sources he found on the Internet, he of course used the strongest engines available at the moment. He also had engines in the cloud patiently calculate various positions. Together with his source research and his own insights, he has created a unique compilation of chess-technical material that is unprecedented.

In doing so, Fernandez has painted a fantastic picture of the opening variants that were on the board in this tournament. He has done a thorough research of the ins and outs of the various variants and placed them in a broader perspective. And it must be said that the organization was kind to him by providing an interesting field of players who gave it their all every round. This resulted in many nice confrontations with extremely interesting opening theory! That Fernandez did not get away with the middle game and the many fascinating endgames was clear from a first estimate of the amount of material when it had to be converted to the format of this book. Initially, we ended up with almost 900 pages! That is far too much and therefore drastic cuts had to be made. Hundreds of (analysis) diagrams have been dropped, small side notes are no longer in the book and sometimes – pain in the heart – the trees of variations had to be cut back. That only happened, by the way, when the ingenious structure became so extensive that it would be hard to follow for “mere mortals”. It is being considered whether this can be made available digitally at a later date, and the moment that it is, we will of course put Fernandez’s entire analytical work on offer! IM Herman Grooten, December 2021 ”

GM Daniel Fernandez (born 1995) is an English grandmaster with a slightly unusual approach to chess: at once mischievous and hardworking, and equally comfortable in tactical positions or dry endgames. His style fits the Modern perfectly and he has played it with success for almost a decade. He is a past holder of the British under-18 and under-21 titles, and the winner (or joint winner) of many open tournaments, such as Paracin 2017, Pula 2018, Ghent 2019 and the New Zealand Open 2020. Daniel also writes and commentates frequently, and is a columnist of the 1.e4 section on ChessPublishing.com. This is his third book for Thinkers Publishing, the Modernized Caro-Kann and Modern Defense were his first two and world wide acclaimed as the best you can get.

GM Daniel Fernandez, 2019 British Championships, Torquay. Courtesy of John Upham Photography

Chess book collectors will look back with fondness on the days when competitions between leading players were often commemorated by tournament books. Hastings 1895. New York 1924. The 1953 Candidates’ Tournament. Everyone with a passion for chess literature will have books such as these on their shelves. From time to time they’ll open them again, not just to admire the games but to relive the excitement of the event. Like me, they’ll regret that this tradition seems to have gone out of fashion.

Is this book a worthy addition to an almost forgotten genre of chess literature?

With 750 pages, trimmed down from an original almost 900, one can only admire Daniel Fernandez’s industry in compiling the book, in producing several pages of detailed analysis, often focused on modern opening theory, for almost every one of the 91, invariably hard-fought games produced by some of today’s leading Grandmasters.

The author has made an unexpected and seemingly unexplained decision in ordering the games by the player of the white pieces. So we start with all the White games of Alexander Donchenko, who eventually brought up the rear, through to those of Jorden van Foreest, the rather unexpected tournament winner.

I guess this makes sense if the main reason you’re reading the book is to study you heroes’ opening repertoires, but from my perspective as a humble club player it seems rather eccentric. Why not group the games by the player of the black pieces instead? Or, better still, why not group them by opening so that we can see all the Sicilian Defence, for example, games together? If, like me, you’re not especially interested in opening theory, you’d probably prefer a more conventional format, especially given that the book also includes the round summaries taken from a Dutch chess news website. So we get a Round 1 report, Donchenko’s white games, a Round 2 report, MVL’s white games and so on, which creates, at least for me, a rather disjoined effect.

The opening analysis is, for many games, extremely detailed. Take, for example, Esipenko’s win over Carlsen in round 8. We get five pages of notes about the latest trends in the Sicilian Najdorf, which I’m sure is deeply fascinating to anyone playing that opening with either colour at master level, but of only passing interest to someone like me who finds the opening far too difficult for comfort.

[fen]r3k2r/1b1nqp1p/p1npp1p1/1p6/3NPP2/P1N1Q3/1PP1B2P/1K1R2R1 w kq – 0 17[/fen]

Esipenko sacrificed a pawn in the opening, reaching this position where he gained a winning advantage: 18. Ncxb5+ axb5 19. Nxc6 Qxc6 20. Qc3: a familiar enough sacrifice but with an unusual follow-up. The queen fork regains the piece and the World Champion eventually succumbed.

50 or more years ago, when I was young and innocent enough to look at opening theory, the Sicilian Najdorf was all the rage. It’s still popular now, although most of it looks very different from the days when we eagerly awaited the news of Bobby’s latest games. One line that’s still popular, and hasn’t changed all that much, is the Poisoned Pawn variation. To the best of my knowledge it’s still, in general, standing up well for Black, but it’s very easy to go wrong and lose quickly, as MVL found out against Caruana.

[fen]r1b1kb1r/5ppp/p1pp4/3pP1B1/5P2/q7/P1PQB1PP/1R2K2R w Kkq – 0 14[/fen]

Black plumped for the wrong pawn capture on d5, and now White continued 14. e6!! A crushing breakthrough. After 14 moves Black is essentially lost against good play!, according to Fernandez, who provides some beautiful variations against various Black tries here.

As you’d expect, the tournament produced its fair share of fascinating endings. I found this position, from Wojtaszek – Anton Guijarro, particularly instructive.

[fen]4k3/2R2p2/8/4PP2/5K2/8/8/r7 b – – 0 58[/fen]

Here Black played 58… Rg1!. Fernandez comments: Black shows alertness and does not allow the half-point to slip away. There are only a few dangers for Black in this position, and foremost among them would be allowing the enemy king into f6. Hence 58… Ra2?? loses, because Black now has to go very passive to prevent the infiltration.

He then goes on to give a lot of analysis demonstrating how White can always, at worst, reach the Lucena position.

The analysis of the remaining moves (59. Rb7 f6 60. e6 and so on) is also informative as to how this very typical position should be played.

At one level this is a magnificent, monumental book. You get 91 top level games, all deeply annotated, all hard fought, with profound opening play, often exciting middlegames and sometimes intricate endings. Fernandez has put in an enormous amount of work to ensure that readers are informed about the latest opening theory in lines currently popular at top GM level (although I guess it’s all 18 months out of date now!), and that all the analysis has been thoroughly checked for accuracy using the most powerful engines. The production values are high, with many excellent photographs and lots of interesting background material. I spotted a few typos, but not enough to spoil the book.

And yet, writing as a fairly strong club player, it’s sadly not a book for me. It’s just much too heavy, in more ways than one. Picking it up made my arms hurt and reading it made my brain hurt.

Give me a 250-300 page tournament book rather than 750 pages, and I’d be happy. I’d want the games in round order, annotated in a user-friendly (but not patronising) way, with opening theory and computer-generated variations only included where necessary, with helpful tips on how I could learn and improve my game and perhaps some reader interaction such as quiz questions. Indexes of openings and endings would also be welcome.

If you’re an ambitious 2200+ player, this book will, I’m sure, be ideal for you. If, like me, you’re an unambitious under 2000 player, you may well think it’s too much of a good thing.

I sometimes get the impression that there are a number of grandmasters who write books for themselves and their friends rather than considering the nature of their target market. For me this book, praiseworthy and outstanding though it undoubtedly is, falls into that category.

I’d advise you to make up your own mind whether this is a book for you. If you click here you’ll be able to download a teaser.

Richard James, Twickenham 28th June 2022

Book Details :

Softcover: 750 pages
Publisher: Thinkers Publishing; 1st edition (14 Feb. 2022)
Language: English
ISBN-10:‎ 9464201428
ISBN-13:978-9464201420
Product Dimensions: 17.02 x 4.57 x 23.62 cm

Official web site of Thinkers Publishing

Books, Everyman Chess, Middlegame, Reviews

Dynamic Defence

June 20, 2022 Tony Williams Leave a comment

Here is the publishers blurb from the rear cover :

“Every chessplayer, from beginner to world champion, loves to win a game with a brilliant attacking display. However many, if not most, attacks that end in victory do so due to inaccurate defence. This may be due to simple tactical miscalculation or perhaps a more fundamental misunderstanding of the important principles of defence. Furthermore, many attacks that are launched are simply unsound but succeed because many players feel uncomfortable when forced to defend, get flustered and make mistakes.

In this book, highly experienced chess author and coach, Neil McDonald addresses these issues. Defensive skill is crucial in chess. Good, accurate defence can win a game just as well as a fine attacking display can, so expertise in this department is essential for any player wishing to improve their game. With thorough explanations, questions, and exercises, this book provides fascinating material to enable you to hone your defensive skill and not feel intimidated when your opponent hurls pieces at your king.”

About the author :

Neil McDonald is an English GM, an active player, a FIDE Trainer and a coach to the England junior teams. Neil has authored thirty-seven books for The Chess Press, Batsford and, most recently, Everyman Chess. One of his most recent works, The King’s Indian Attack : Move by Move, impressed considerably.

We have reviewed titles from Neil such as Coach Yourself: A Complete Guide to Self Improvement at Chess and Your Chess Battle Plan.

As with every recent Everyman Chess publication high quality paper is used and the printing is clear. Each diagram is clear as is the instructional text. Figurine algebraic notation is used throughout. The usual and reliable formatting from Brighton-based typesetter IM Byron Jacobs is employed.

The diagrams do not have a “to move” indicator or any kind of caption so you will need to work out for yourself how they relate to the text that they are embedded in. However, this is fairly obvious.

Everyman Chess (formerly known as Cadogan Chess) is a major publisher of Chess books. Other reviews on this site have covered the production quality and typesetting so i am not going to repeat that here. Figurine algerbraic notation is used throughout although the book is laid out in a single column format, a departure from the double column format normally used for chess books. Like other Everyman books the diagrams do not have a “to move” indicator or caption but it is easy to work out which player is to move when going through the games. The book does contain an Index of Openings and an Index of Games at the end of the book. Virtually all the games featured in this book are recent having been played in the 21st Century. Virtually all of the games included in the book were played by strong Grandmasters with several games featuring the worlds leading players. Magnus Carlsen features in 6 of the games in the book and Anand, Aronian Caruana, Giri & Mamedyarov , are also well represented here. One notable omission is that there are no games featuring Sergi Karjakin who is considered to be one of the best defensive players in the world.

The Chapters are as follows:

1 The Power of Centralisation

2 Keeping Out the Queen and Rooks

3 Knight versus Bishop: Caution or Counterattack

4 Resisting Raking Bishops

5 Challenging a Mighty Knight

6 Opposing an Advanced Pawn

7 Using the King as Bait

8 Fighting to Survive in a Bad Endgame

The subject of defence is neglected in chess literature, there are many books filled with best games and how to attack but very few that are devoted to the topic of defence. Everyone loves to attack when they are playing chess and don’t like having to defend. The book contains 60 games all of which are analysed in depth with some games spanning 7/8 pages. The analysis mainly consists of detailed explanations by the author supported by analysis. This is not book containing lots of detailed computer analysis trying to show that there are defensive resources available to players that they would not ever find over the board. At critical points in the games the author poses questions to the reader. Each game featured in this book is a battle between elite players and offer an insight in the dynamic nature of attack and defence.

The great defensive players of the past allexcelled in holding inferior positions and then slowly outplaying their opponents. Anatoly Karpov at his best is a prime example of this, often going on to outplay and eventually beat his opponent from inferior positions. Today the game has evolved so has defensive technique and players are a lot more enterprising in how they go about defending positions. Defenders now will look at how they coordinate their pieces, cover focal squares, overprotect, and generate counterplay rather than playing passively. In this book the author takes this even further and puts forward the concept of dynamic defence as a method of stealing the initiative from the attacking player. It is still necessary to defend well by playing patiently and being aware of the tactical resources available to your opponent. The author assumes that players are familiar with the principles of static defence and are looking to improve their defensive technique.

Here is a summary of the key principles from three chapters in the book.

1 The Power of Centralisation: Triumph of centralisation against a wing attack. Good centralisation can compensate for structural weakness or a lack of defenders around the king . But if the situation in the centre is bad and the kingside is weakened in some way then the defender is in big trouble

3 Knight versus Bishop: Caution or Counterattack: When facing an attack a crucial decision in whether to play according to the dictates of dynamic defence – that is – to try an seize the initiative – or to quietly strengthen the defensive line.

7 Using the King as Bait: An extreme method of provocation whereby a player will leave his king in the centre of the board and invite his opponent to attack trusting in his skills as a defender or where a player will try and goad his opponent into sacrifice material to expose their king. In doing so you are creating complications and trying to make your opponent overpress.

It is possible just to play through and enjoy the games in this book but in doing so you would miss out on many valuable lessons from an expert coach. I think that it is much harder to defend than it is to attack. if you have the initiative you can often have any good options at your disposal and can choose which one to analyze in depth. However as a defender you do not have the luxury of that option. Often you have to analyse and assess all the options available to your opponent which takes up considerable more time and often have to play precisely and find the ‘only’ move to keep you in the game.

The concepts put forward in this book are difficult and not immediately obvious to understand. This is a book that deserves close study and will ultimately earn you a lot of points, as you will be developing the skills to save inferior and even lost positions. Also, as you gain in confidence you will be more willing to take risks knowing that you have ‘dynamic defence’ to fall back on.

Tony Williams, Newport, Isle of Wight, 20th June 2022

Book Details :

Paperback : 348 pages
Publisher:Everyman Chess (1 Dec. 2021)
Language: English
ISBN-10:178194590X
ISBN-13:978-1781945902
Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 1.7 x 23.8 cm

Official web site of Everyman Chess

2022, Biographies, English, History, Player, Richard James

Minor Pieces 34: William Ward Part 1

June 17, 2022 Richard James 2 Comments

Here’s some hot news from Redhill Chess Club, just 120 years ago.

There are a few interesting things to note here. At this time, Surrey League matches, just like the London League today, took place at central London venues, rather than on a home and away basis.

You’ll also spot that, as so often in their matches at this time, Richmond failed to field a full team. They frequently either had a couple of absentees at the bottom or a couple of nominated players who failed to turn up.

The impression I get is that the club was very ambitious, choosing to play in the Surrey Trophy against stronger opposition rather than the calmer waters of the Beaumont Cup. Their administrative skills, though, didn’t seem to match their ambitions. Chess clubs (and, no doubt most other clubs as well) are as good as their organisers, not as good as their players.

Regular readers will already have met Thomas Etheridge Harper and Charles Redway, and heard a brief mention of club founder Horace Lyddon Pring, but there are other members of this team who are of interest.

In particular, there’s a new name playing on top board, although he was probably losing his game against Leonard Percy Rees, one of the most important figures in early 20th century English chess and one well worth a future Minor Piece.

In the first decade of the 20th century there were a lot of strong British amateurs with retrospective ratings round about 2300-2400, so, by today’s standards, FM to IM strength. They rarely if ever played in major international tournaments so, except for those of us who spend much of our time in the dusty recesses of old books and magazines, or perhaps visiting BritBase, their names are largely forgotten today.

As it happens, many of these players had links with our area, West and South West London. You’ve already met George Edward Wainwright here, here, here and here. Now I must introduce you to William Ward.

Researching him isn’t so easy. Cursed with one of the most popular male first names of his day, no middle names and a very common surname, any search for W Ward will turn up much of no relevance. In addition he came from a small family which has been little researched by genealogists: the few online trees I’ve been able to find don’t mention any chess connection and, if they give it at all, get his mother’s maiden name wrong.

Our William, 35 years old at the time of the above match, was born on 3 March 1867 in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, just north of Watford and now a large commuter village, and baptised there on 18 April the same year.

The 1871 census finds the Ward family there. William Ward senior is aged 27, a farmer of 184 acres employing 4 men and a boy, Ann (née Barford) is aged 26 and their two sons are William (4) and Mark (1). The family also have two servants. The parents were both born in Hatfield (the enumerator incorrectly recorded their sons as having been born there as well) and must have moved to Abbots Langley after their marriage. A third son, George Langton Ward, would be born early the following year. The family would later move to the Luton area, first to the small village of King’s Walden, and then to Lewsey, now a Luton suburb alongside the M1.

By 1881 young William is at boarding school in London: he’s recorded at 7 Highgate Road Kentish Town along with a Schoolmaster and a lot of other boys, including, exotically, three brothers from Quito (none of them, sadly, named Amos).

While his brothers followed in their father’s footsteps, pursuing a career in farming, William took a different route. The 1891 census finds him, now aged 24, living in a boarding house at 50 Finsbury Park Road in North London, not all that far from Kentish Town, and working as a solicitor.

At some point in the mid 1880s, then, he must have studied Law, and perhaps, at the same time, taken up the game of chess. We first find him in 1890 playing in the 3rd class in a handicap tournament at Simpson’s Divan, which tells us he wasn’t a strong player. No child prodigy, then, but a young man who was attracted to the game, and, over the next few years, would discover a real talent.

Ward made rapid strides during the 1890s, soon playing matches for the famous City of London club (in their 1894-5 championship he reached the final stages) and taking part in representative matches for the South of England against the North.

His first external tournament was the Southern Counties Chess Union (SCCU) Championship in Southampton in 1897. Henry Ernest Atkins was a convincing winner on 8½/10, while William’s score of 4/10 was relatively modest, but no disgrace for a newcomer to chess at this level.

In the 1897-8 edition of the City of London Championship Ward finished in third place behind Thomas Francis Lawrence and Lucien Serraillier: by now he was clearly one of the capital’s strongest players.

In this game he demonstrates excellent opening knowledge, capping a fine performance with some sparkling tactics to force through a passed pawn. (If you click on any move in any game in this article a pop-up board will magically appear, enabling you to play through the game.)

[pgn]

[Event “City of London CC Championship”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “1897.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Jones, Edward Owen”]
[Black “Ward, William”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “D55”]
[Annotator “Tactical Analysis 5.2 (1s)”]
[PlyCount “92”]
[SourceVersionDate “2022.06.10”]

1. d4 {ChessBase} d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. Nf3 b6 7. cxd5
exd5 8. Bd3 Bb7 9. O-O Nbd7 10. Rc1 c5 11. Re1 {[#]} Ne4 $146 {D55: Queen’s
Gambit Declined: 4 Bg5 Be7: Lines without …h6 and 6…h6 7 Bxf6.} ({
Predecessor:} 11… c4 12. Bb1 a6 13. Ne5 b5 14. f4 Re8 15. Qf3 Nf8 16. Ne2 Ne4
17. Bxe7 Rxe7 18. Bxe4 dxe4 19. Qg3 {1-0 (52) Pillsbury,H-Tarrasch,S Hastings
1895 MainBase [ChessBase]}) 12. Bf4 Nxc3 13. bxc3 c4 {White has an edge.} 14.
Bb1 Nf6 15. Ne5 Ba3 16. Rc2 (16. Bg5 {looks sharper.} Qd6 17. Bxf6 Qxf6 18. Nd7
) 16… b5 17. Rce2 $2 (17. Bg5 $16 {keeps the pressure on.}) 17… Ne4 $17 18.
Bxe4 dxe4 19. Qb1 Qd5 {Hoping for …f6.} 20. f3 f6 ({Much weaker is} 20…
exf3 $6 {[#]} 21. e4 $1 Qd6 22. gxf3 $11) 21. fxe4 Qxe4 22. Nf3 Bc6 {A strong
pair of Bishops.} 23. Nd2 Qd3 {& Black is much more active.} 24. Qxd3 cxd3 25.
Rf2 Bd5 26. e4 Bc4 ({Don’t take} 26… Bxa2 27. Ra1 $16) 27. Nxc4 bxc4 28. Rb1
$2 {Now White is beyond hope.} (28. h4 $17 {is a better defense.}) 28… Rae8
$19 29. Rb7 $2 (29. e5 Rf7 30. Kf1) 29… Rxe4 {Black is clearly winning.} 30.
Rxa7 {[#]} Rfe8 $1 31. Bd2 {[#]} (31. g3 Re1+) 31… Re1+ $1 32. Rf1 R1e2 33.
Rd1 Bb2 {And now …Rxd2! would win.} 34. Rc7 {[#]} Rxd2 $1 35. Rxd2 Bxc3 {
Endgame KRR-KRB} 36. Rd1 d2 {…Re1+ is the strong threat.} 37. Rxd2 Bxd2 38.
Rxc4 {KRB-KR} Be3+ 39. Kf1 Rd8 40. Ke2 Bxd4 41. a4 Rd7 42. Kd3 Bb6+ 43. Ke4 Kf7
44. Rc6 Rd4+ 45. Kf3 Ba5 46. Ra6 Rxa4 {Weighted Error Value: White=0.64/
Black=0.22 (precise)} 0-1

[/pgn]

The following year, the SCCU Championship in Salisbury was a very different story from the previous year. William shared 1st place with Joseph Henry Blake on 7½/10, with strong players such as Gunston, Bellingham, Loman and Sherrard trailing in their wake.

In this exciting drawn game, against the Dutch organist Rudolf Loman, both players displayed extensive awareness of contemporary theory in the very sharp Max Lange Attack. Ward had the better of the early exchanges but, in a very complex middlegame failed to make the most of his chances. The knight ending was still difficult for both players, and here Loman missed an opportunity.

[pgn]

[Event “SCCU Championship Salisbury”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “1898.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Loman, Rudolf Johannes”]
[Black “Ward, William”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ECO “C56”]
[Annotator “Tactical Analysis 5.2 (1s)”]
[PlyCount “102”]
[SourceVersionDate “2022.06.10”]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5
4. O-O Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. e5 d5 7. exf6 dxc4 8. Re1+ Be6 9. Ng5 Qd5 10. Nc3 Qf5
11. Nce4 Bb6 (11… gxf6 12. g4 $1 Qg6 13. Nxe6 fxe6 14. Nxc5 $16) (11… O-O-O
$5) 12. Ng3 {Pair of Knights! C56: Two Knights: 4 d4 exd4 5 0-0 Nxe4.} Qg6 {
Strongly threatening …0-0-0.} (12… Qxf6 $2 13. Nh5 Qg6 14. Nxe6 $18) 13.
Nxe6 {& White is more active.} fxe6 14. Rxe6+ {White is clearly better.} Kd7 {
[#]} 15. fxg7 $146 ({Predecessor:} 15. Nh5 Rhe8 16. Nf4 Qf7 17. Qf3 Rad8 18.
Bd2 gxf6 19. Rae1 Rxe6 20. Nxe6 Re8 21. Ng5 Rxe1+ 22. Bxe1 {1-0 (31) Chigorin,
M-Charousek,R Budapest 1896 EXT 2018 [Tartakower/du Mont/Chigorin/Bogoljubow/
Maroczy]}) 15… Qxe6 16. gxh8=Q Rxh8 17. Bd2 Rf8 18. f4 Kc8 19. Kh1 c3 $36 {
Keeping White busy.} 20. bxc3 dxc3 21. Bxc3 Rxf4 22. Qh5 Qg6 23. Qd5 Qh6 $2 (
23… a5 $19 {and Black stays clearly on top.} 24. Qd1 (24. Rd1 Kb8 $17) 24…
Rf2) 24. Nf5 (24. Rd1 $2 {gets mated.} Qxh2+ $3 25. Kxh2 Rh4#) 24… Qf8 {
Prevents Qg8.} 25. Qe6+ Kb8 26. Ng3 a6 27. Re1 h5 $2 (27… Ka7 $19 {And now ..
.Rf2 would win.} 28. Bd2 Rf2) 28. Qg6 $2 (28. Qe8+ $11 Qxe8 29. Rxe8+ Ka7 30.
Re4 Rxe4 31. Nxe4) 28… Qc5 29. Bd2 Rf8 30. Be3 {Prevents Qf2.} (30. Bh6 Qa5
31. Rd1) 30… Qc3 (30… Qb4 $19 {has better winning chances.} 31. c3 Qxc3)
31. Rf1 $17 Rxf1+ ({But not} 31… Qxe3 32. Rxf8+ Ka7 33. Rf1 $14) 32. Nxf1
Bxe3 33. Qe8+ Ka7 34. Qxe3+ Qxe3 35. Nxe3 $11 {Endgame h4 is the strong threat.
KN-KN} Nd4 36. h4 {aiming for g4.} Kb6 37. g4 hxg4 38. h5 Ne6 $1 39. Nd5+ {
White has compensation.} Kc6 {[#]} 40. h6 $1 Ng5 (40… Kxd5 $2 41. h7 $18) (
40… Nf8 $5 41. Nf6 Kd6 $11) (40… Nf8 41. Nf6) 41. Nf6 a5 42. Kg2 {Hoping
for Kg3.} Nf7 {[#]} 43. Nxg4 {[#]} (43. h7 $1 $18) 43… Nxh6 $1 44. Nxh6 $18 {
KN-K3P} Kc5 45. Nf5 Kb4 46. Ne3 a4 47. Nd5+ Ka3 {Black is slightly better.} 48.
Nxc7 Kxa2 49. Kf3 Kb2 50. Nb5 Kxc2 51. Ke3 Kb2 {Never resign too early!
Weighted Error Value: White=0.50/Black=0.44} (51… Kb3 $5 52. Kd4 b6 $11)
1/2-1/2

[/pgn]

The 1898-9 City of London Championship proved a slight disappointment when he narrowly failed to make the final pool, but the 1899-1900 edition, held again as an all-play-all, was a different story. Lawrence was the winner on 14½/17, with Ward just half a point behind and the rest nowhere.

In 1900 William made his international debut, being selected to play in the 5th Anglo-American Cable Match, where he drew his game against Charles John Newman.

Rod Edwards’ retrospective ratings for 1900 put him on 2397, ranked 74th in the world.

A few days later he took part in an invitation tournament run by the City of London club, in which their members took on a bunch of international players based in London at the time. As you’ll see here, he scored an outstanding 8½/12, just behind Teichmann (9½), Mason and Gunsberg (9). While the winner hadn’t yet reached his peak and the runners-up were past their best, they were all genuine grandmasterly players. He was particularly devastating against the weaker competitors.

By now he was using the increasingly popular Queen’s Gambit with the white pieces, an opening which suited his style of controlled aggression perfectly.

Here he found himself with an IQP position out of the opening: understanding this pawn formation is still of vital importance to all serious competitive players today.

[pgn]

[Event “London City Club Invitation”]
[Site “London”]
[Date “1900.04.10”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Ward, William”]
[Black “Lawrence, Thomas Francis”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “D40”]
[Annotator “Tactical Analysis 5.2 (1s)”]
[PlyCount “71”]
[EventDate “1900.04.05”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “13”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “HCL”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1999.07.01”]
[SourceVersion “2”]
[SourceVersionDate “1999.07.01”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 c5 5. e3 dxc4 6. Bxc4 cxd4 7. exd4 Nc6 8.
Nf3 Be7 9. O-O O-O 10. Rc1 h6 11. Be3 Nb4 12. Bf4 a6 13. a3 {D40: Queen’s
Gambit Declined: Semi-Tarrasch with 5 e3.} Nc6 (13… b5 $5) 14. Ba2 {& White
is more active.} Qa5 15. Bb1 {aiming for Ne5. White is clearly better.} Rd8 16.
Qd3 Qh5 17. Bc7 Rd7 18. Bg3 g6 19. Ne2 {[#] Threatens to win with Rxc6!} Bd6 {
Loses the game.} 20. Rfd1 Bxg3 21. Nxg3 Qg4 22. Qe3 {Inhibits Qf4. Black must
now prevent h3.} Nh5 23. h3 ({Not} 23. Qxh6 Nxg3 24. fxg3 (24. hxg3 Rd5 $16)
24… Rd5 $18) 23… Qf4 24. Nxh5 Qxe3 25. fxe3 gxh5 26. e4 {And now d5 would
win.} Rd8 27. Rc5 e5 $2 (27… Bd7 28. Rxh5 Kg7) 28. d5 $18 {White is clearly
winning.} f6 29. Ba2 Kg7 30. Rdc1 Ne7 31. Rc7 Kf8 32. Rf1 Ng6 {[#]} 33. Ng5 $1
{White threatens Nh7+ and mate.} f5 (33… Rd7 34. Rxf6+) 34. Nh7+ Ke8 35. Nf6+
Kf8 36. d6 {Weighted Error Value: White=0.49/Black=0.94} 1-0

[/pgn]

Against the artist and pianist Thomas Physick (from a family of sculptors) he chose a delayed exchange variation: another pawn formation which still plays a critical role in 21st century chess.

[pgn]

[Event “London City Club Invitation”]
[Site “London”]
[Date “1900.04.30”]
[Round “11”]
[White “Ward, William”]
[Black “Physick, Thomas”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “D55”]
[Annotator “Tactical Analysis 5.2 (1s)”]
[PlyCount “91”]
[EventDate “1900.04.05”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “13”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “HCL”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1999.07.01”]
[SourceVersion “2”]
[SourceVersionDate “1999.07.01”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Nf3 O-O 6. e3 h6 7. Bxf6 Bxf6 8.
cxd5 exd5 9. Qb3 c6 {D55: Queen’s Gambit Declined: 4 Bg5 Be7: Lines without …
h6 and 6…h6 7 Bxf6.} 10. Bd3 Qb6 11. Qc2 Na6 {aiming for …Nb4. The
position is equal.} 12. Qd2 Nb4 13. Bb1 a5 14. a3 Na6 15. O-O Bg4 16. Bd3 Rfe8
17. Rac1 Qd8 18. Bxa6 Rxa6 19. Na4 Ra8 20. Nc5 Qe7 21. Nd3 Bf5 22. Nf4 Qd6 23.
Nh5 Bd8 24. Ng3 Bh7 25. Ne5 f6 26. Nd3 Bc7 27. Nc5 Qe7 28. Rc3 f5 29. f4 a4 30.
Qd1 {& White is more active.} Ba5 31. Rd3 b5 32. Qf3 Bb6 33. Rc1 Qa7 34. Nf1 {
Pair of Knights!} Re7 35. Rdd1 {And now Nd3 would win.} Rae8 36. Kh1 Qa8 37.
Nd3 Rc8 38. Ne5 {Rxc6! is the strong threat.} Rec7 39. Rc3 c5 40. dxc5 $1 Bxc5
(40… Rxc5 41. Rxc5 Bxc5 42. Rxd5 $16) 41. Rxd5 {Black must now prevent Rcxc5!
} ({Not} 41. Qxd5+ Qxd5 42. Rxd5 Kh8 $16) 41… Qa7 {[#]} (41… Bb6 42. Rxc7 (
42. Rxb5 Rxc3 43. bxc3 Qxf3 $16) 42… Bxc7 43. Rxb5 Bxe5) 42. Rcd3 (42. Rdxc5
$142 $1 Rxc5 {[#]} 43. Qd5+ $3 Kh8 44. Nf7+ Kg8 45. Nxh6+ Kh8 46. Nf7+ Kg8 47.
Nd6+ Kf8 48. Nxc8 $1 Rxd5 49. Nxa7) 42… Bf8 $2 (42… Qa8 {was called for.}
43. Qh5 Bf8) 43. Rd8 $18 {White is clearly winning.} Rc5 {Against Qd5+} 44.
Rxc8 Rxc8 45. Qd5+ Kh8 46. Nf7+ {Weighted Error Value: White=0.41/Black=0.52}
1-0

[/pgn]

William Ward was again amongst the medals in the 1900-01 City of London Championship. Lawrence won again, with Herbert Levi Jacobs taking the silver and Ward the bronze. Edward Bagehot Schwann, coming to the end of his short life, was among the also-rans.

By now it was time for the census enumerator to call again. What we find is rather intriguing. William was in Kenley, Surrey, east of Coulsdon and south of Purley, visiting Isidore Wiener, a 41-year-old unmarried Hide Merchant’s Factor born in Holland but a British Subject. Also in the household were a housekeeper and a servant.

I’ve recently become interested in the significance of the word ‘visitor’ in census returns. Your census address is where you’re staying overnight. If you’re being paid to be there you’ll be described as a ‘servant’ or something similar. If you’re paying to be there you’ll be a ‘boarder’ or a ‘lodger’. A ‘visitor’ will often be a family member, but there might be other reasons. I can find no evidence that Isidore was a chess player, so perhaps he had some complicated legal business which required his solicitor to stay overnight. Perhaps they were just good friends. Who knows?

Anyway, in 1906 Isidore married 40-year-old Annie Sonnex (interesting surname) from Lancashire, continuing to live, now with his wife, in Kenley. A very late first marriage for both partners. They had their only child, a daughter named Albertine, a year later. In 1918, like many families with Germanic surnames at the time, they changed their name from Wiener to Winner. Albertine became a Winner in more ways than one, as you’ll see here.

And then we reach 1902, when we find William playing for Richmond Chess Club against Redhill. Had he moved to the Richmond area? Or did he have friends in the club who invited him to join and play in matches in central London? At present I don’t know.

It looks like he never owned his own property, living in lodgings and moving round various parts of London. I can find no further reference to Ward in association with Richmond Chess Club, but it’s quite possible that there may be more information online once the Richmond & Twickenham Times is digitised.

You’ll find out what happened to William Ward after 1902 in my next Minor Piece.

Sources:

ancestry.co.uk

findmypast.co.uk

MegaBase 2022 (analysis by Stockfish 15)

Britbase

EdoChess (William Ward’s page here.)

The City of London Chess Club Championship (Roger Leslie Paige 2005)

Other websites referenced in the text.

2022, Books, Middlegame, New in Chess, Reviews, Richard James

Attacking Strategies for Club Players: How to Create a Deadly Attack on the Enemy King

June 10, 2022 Richard James Leave a comment

From the publisher:

“Attacking your opponent’s king is not just a shortcut to victory, it’s also one of the most enjoyable and gratifying experiences in chess. If you want to win more games you should become a better attacker. Studying typical attacking motifs and ideas easily brings dividends while you are having a good time. Michael Prusikin presents the prerequisites and the rules for a King attack in a lucid and attractive manner. In 15 thematic chapters he teaches you how to assess the nature of the position, identify the appropriate offensive patterns, find the preliminary moves and conduct your attack in a clear and effective way. Battering rams, obstructive sacrifices, pawn storms, striking at the castled position, sacrificing a knight on f5, Prusikin demonstrates the most important patterns of attack with lots of clear and well chosen examples. Next, Prusikin tests your newly acquired insights and your attacking intuition with exercises covering all the themes and motifs. You will find that studying Attacking Strategies for Club Players is both entertaining and rewarding.

Michael Prusikin is an International Grandmaster and a FIDE Senior Trainer from Germany. In 2009 he was the co-winner of the German Championship. Several times he has been voted German Chess Trainer of the Year. He writes the tactics column in the German magazine SCHACH.”

In his foreword to this book, GM Alexander Khalifman explains that the subject of attack on the enemy king has been the subject of many recent books, many of which suffer from a combination of defects: lack of originality, exaggerated sensationalism, complication and subjectivity. I wouldn’t disagree in principle, but who doesn’t love any book featuring ferocious attacks, brilliant combinations and beautiful sacrifices? Khalifman believes this book is different because it explains how to set up an attack.

Here’s what Prusikin has to say in his introduction:

… the theme of this book is not basic attacking motifs. I assume you are already familiar with these or I would recommend that, if so inclined, you read the classic The Art of Attack by Vladimir Vukovic or its modern counterpart Essential Chess Sacrifices by David LeMoir. In this book we shall address the strategic requirements for a successful attack on the king and some lesser-known attacking motifs, though no less relevant in practice. I hope this will be both interesting and useful for players with an Elo rating between 1500 and 2300.

Chapter 1 is just two pages long. We learn the prerequisites for successfully attacking the king: lead in development/uncastled opposing king, space advantage in the vicinity of the opposing king, few defensive pieces near the opposing king, and weakened pawn protection. Then we have some tips for carrying out a successful attack: use all your pieces, open lines, don’t be afraid to sacrifice and don’t waste time.

Chapters 2 to 16 each feature a different attacking idea, with some brief instructions and some examples from play.

Chapter 2: King in the centre.

Here’s an extract from a game which particularly impressed Prusikin, between a 17-year-old Egyptian and a higher-rated 16-year-old Iranian (Fawzy – Maghsoodloo Abu Dhabi 2017).

[fen]r3k1nr/3n1pbp/p1q1p1p1/3pP1N1/Pp1B1P2/2N5/1PP3PP/R2Q1RK1 w kq – 0 16[/fen]

16. Nb5!!

An astonishing sacrifice, the idea of which doesn’t reveal itself until you have seen White’s 19th move.

16… axb5 17. axb5 Qb7 18. Rxa8+ Qxa8

And now what? Why has White actually given up the piece?

19. f5!!

The next hammer blow, a left-right combination in boxing parlance.

19… Nxe5

A) 19… gxf5 20. Qh5 +-

B) 19… exf5 20. e6! +-

C) 19… Bxe5 20. fxe6 fxe6 21. Nf7+-

20. fxe6 f6 21. Bxe5 fxe5 22. Rf7 Bf8 23. Nxh7

23. Qf1 Bc5+ 24. Kh1 Ne7 25. b6 Qc6 26. Qf6! Rg8 27. Rxe7+ Bxe7 28. Qf7+ Kd8 29. Qxg8+ Qe8 30. Nf7++– was the alternative solution.

23… Bc5+ 24. Kh1 Ne7

Fawzy would have had to demonstrate similar, perhaps even more beautiful motifs after the defensive move 24… Be7 25. b6! Kd8 (25… Nh6 26. Nf6+ Bxf6 27. b7 Qb8 28. Qxd5 Nxf7 29. Qd7+ Kf8 30. Qxf7#) 26. Qf1 Nh6 27. Qb5 Qb7 28. Rf1!! (Wonderful geometry: the rook swings to the a-file!) 28…Rxh7 29.Ra1 Bf8 30.Ra7 Nf5 31.Rxb7 Rxb7 32.Qxd5+ Nd6 33.Qc5 and White wins.

25. Qf1!!

Threatens 26. Rf8+ but at the same time ‘eyes up’ b5 – the queen in all her glory!

25… Nf5 26. b6!! Qc6 27. b7 Ba7 28. Qxf5+!

Not the only way to win, but certainly the most spectacular and at the same time the most convincing solution!#

28… gxf5 29. Nf6+ Kd8 30. e7+

Black resigned

What a game! The modern-day ‘Immortal’!

(A few comments on this extract: 1) I’ve omitted a couple of diagrams from the book 2) Prusikin doesn’t mention that Black could have held the position by playing 17… Rxa1, which he might have found had he foreseen 19. f5! and 3) if you have MegaBase you’ll find the same annotations (in German) there.)

Chapter 3: Obstructive sacrifice: a sacrifice to impede your opponent’s development: for instance White playing a pawn to e6.

Chapter 4: Attacking the king without the queen: attacks in queenless middlegames or even in endings.

Chapter 5: Pawn storm with opposite-side castling.

Chapter 6: Pawn storm with same-side castling.

Chapter 7: Using the h-pawn against a fianchetto.

I was very struck by this miniature: Gomez Sanchez – Otero Acosta (Santa Clara 2017). I’ll pick up the game with Black about to play his 9th move in this very typical Réti Opening.

[fen]r2qk2r/pp1n1ppp/2pbpn2/3p4/2P3b1/1PN2NP1/PB1PPPBP/R2Q1RK1 b kq – 0 8[/fen]

8… h5!

The first game of this chapter, Steinitz – Mongredien, was probably the first time that the fianchetto, rather unusual at the time, had been attacked in such a daring way. Here too, the Steinitz attack seems to pose considerable problems for the Réti set-up.

9. d3

(There’s a long note here, concluding that 9. cxd5 is probably White’s best move here, which I’ll omit from this review.)

9… h4 10. Nxh4?

The beginning of the end. Once again, the only feasible defence was to open the centre: 10. cxd5! exd5 11. e4, although even here White would have had some difficult practical problems to solve, for example: 11… hxg3 12. hxg3 d4!? 13. Ne2 Qa5! with the idea of switching to h5. Black gets a dangerous attack.

10… Rxh4! 11. gxh4 Nh5 12. Qe1?

The final mistake. 12. f4 Nxf4 13. Qe1 would still have offered resistance, although Black would have had a clear advantage.

12… Bf3!!

Blocks the f-pawn; 12… Qh4? 13. f4.

13. Bc1 Qxh4 14. h3 Nf4 15. Bxf3 Qxh3 0-1

I suppose Prusikin might have mentioned that the idea behind Black’s 12th move is well known from, for example, a famous Fischer – Benko game.

Chapter 8: Using the g-pawn to destroy your opponent’s king protection.

Chapter 9: The nail in the coffin: a pawn on f6 or h6 in front of an opposing castled king.

Chapter 10: Doubled g-pawns, which can be used as an attacking weapon, or, on the other hand, can weaken the king’s defence.

Chapter 11: Using pieces to attack the castled position.

Chapter 12: The Grand Prix Attack: attacking a king behind a fianchettoed bishop with f4-f5, Qe1-h4, Bh6 etc.

Chapter 13: The knight on f5: sacrificing a knight on this square where it can be captured by a pawn on g6.

Chapter 14: Long bishop on b2: how a fianchettoed queen’s bishop can help your kingside attack.

This example is taken from Zsuzsa Polgar – Chiburdanidze (Calva Ol W 2004)

[fen]rn1q1rk1/pb3p1p/1p1p2p1/2p1pBP1/1PP2n2/P1Q2N2/1B1PPP1P/R3K1R1 w Q – 0 14[/fen]

Here we join the game at its culmination: the dark-squared battery is already set up, the g-pawn has chased away the knight on f6 and with her last move … g7-g6 Black has carelessly weakened the long dark diagonal. In spite of all this, achieving the said culmination is anything but easy.

14. Nxe5!! Nxe2!

Was the Georgian former World Champion relying on this counter-attack?

A) 14… Qe7 15. Be4!! dxe5 16. 16. Bxb7 Nxe2! 17. Kxe2 Qxb7 18. Qxe5 f6 19. Qe6+ Qf7 20. Qxf7+ Rxf7 21. Bxf6+-

B) 14… dxe5 15. Qxe5 f6 16. Qxf4 gxf5 17. gxf6+ +-

15. Nxf7!!

If the first knight move was obvious, now comes the real ‘hammer blow’!

After 15. Kxe2? dxe5 16. Bc2 (16. Qxe5?? Re8) 16… Nc6 the advantage would have switched to Black.

15… Nxc3 16. Nh6+ Kg7 17. Bxc3+ Rf6 18. Bxf6+ Qxf6 19. gxf6+ Kxh6 20. Be6+-

Black could have resigned here but struggled on until move 39.

Chapter 15: Interference: specifically here playing a minor piece to the opponent’s back rank to block out an opposing rook.

Chapter 16: Breakthrough on the strong point: sacrificing on a square which appears to be very well defended.

At the end we have the seemingly obligatory quiz: 50 puzzles for you to solve. While some involve finishing off your attack, others require you to find a plan to put your attack in motion. You’re not told which is which.

You’ll see from the extracts above that, at one level, this is a lovely book crammed full of dashing attacks on the enemy king and beautiful sacrificial play. The expertly annotated examples are conveniently grouped by theme and with some helpful snippets of advice on how to identify when an attack of this nature would be appropriate, and how to carry it out.

As such it will, as the author suggests, appeal to anyone from, say, 1500 to 2300 strength. The themes won’t be new to stronger and more experienced players but they’ll still benefit from seeing them in action. While the author points out that the explanations at the start of each chapter are short to allow more space for games, they sometimes seemed rather perfunctory to me.

I’m also not sure that the book is entirely free from the flaws Khalifman has noted in other volumes of this nature. Yes, it’s a bit different from other books in the way it’s organised, and, while many of the games, including quite a few from Prusikin’s own games, were new to me, there were also some frequently anthologised chestnuts.

I’m also not convinced that the book is free from exaggerated sensationalism. The annotations, and sometimes the exclamation marks, perhaps tend towards the hyperbolic. As Khalifman rightly points out, ‘you don’t learn anything abut physics or chemistry by watching a fireworks display’, but the examples do tend to be firework displays rather than the more mundane attacks that are more likely to occur in your games.

It’s a large and complex subject, and, to do it full justice based on 21st century chess knowledge, you really need 400 or 500 pages rather than the 192 pages we have here.

The book was originally published in German and has been competently translated by Royce Parker, so the language problems sometimes apparent in books from this publisher don’t arise here. The production standards are high, and there’s a refreshing lack of typos.

It’s an entertaining and instructive book which will be enjoyed by a wide range of readers, but is it an essential purchase? Probably not.

Richard James, Twickenham 9th June 2022

Book Details:

Softcover: 192 pages
Publisher: New In Chess (31 Dec 2021)
Language: English
ISBN-10:9056919741
ISBN-13:978-9056919740
Product Dimensions: ‎17.02 x 23.11 cm

Official web site of New in Chess

2022, Biographies, English, Games Analysis, History, Minor Pieces, Player, Richard James

Minor Pieces 33: Charles Redway

June 1, 2022 Richard James 3 Comments

If you’re travelling by train to visit the Chess Palace you’ll alight at Whitton station and turn left from where it’s a fine and fancy 20 minute walk – or you can take the crosstown bus if it’s raining or it’s cold.

If you turn right instead you’ll find yourself in Whitton High Street, with a turning into Bridge Way (named after the railway bridge, not the card game) on your right. If you walk along Bridge Way you’ll find two turnings on your left, Cypress Avenue and Short Way (not named after Nigel, but because it’s a short way), which leads into Redway Drive. Not many of its residents will be aware that it’s named after a chess player.

Much of what is now Whitton was built up in the interwar years on land which had previously been farms and market gardens. Twickenham’s international rugby stadium was known informally as Billy Williams’ Cabbage Patch because a man of that name had grown vegetables there. This explains the name of the Cabbage Patch pub opposite Twickenham Station, well known both as a rugby pub and a music venue.

The exception was the land adjacent to the Hounslow Gunpowder Mills, which is where you’ll find the Chess Palace, but that’s another story.

In this aerial photograph from 1931 you can see the railway line, the newly opened Whitton Station, the first shops in the High Street and, in the centre, Short Way, leading to Redway Drive, with trees behind it. It meets Nelson Road on the left and, at the junction with Short Way, curves to the right where it would, by 1933, meet the A316 Great Chertsey Road. The rugby ground can be seen in the distance.

Mr Redway gave his name not just to the road but to the whole estate, as you can see from this photograph from a few years later.

Here’s the road itself: typical 1930s suburban architecture, newly planted trees and a notable shortage of cars.

Here’s a cutting from, I guess, the mid 1930s: found on Facebook without attribution but probably from the Richmond & Twickenham Times. Typically, the local press got Mr Redway’s middle initial wrong: he was Charles Percy Redway (1885-1953).

Redway was a stockbroker by profession who had presumably bought up the land speculatively and sold it for housing. Perhaps the proceeds had enabled him and his family to move from St Margaret’s Road Twickenham to Grove House, Hampton in 1927. Very nice too. Lucky chap!

Back in his teens, Charles Percy was a chess player, but as with many young players, life got in the way. In 1904 he was a member of Richmond Chess Club, taking part in matches between the residents of East Sheen and the rest. Here’s an example in which he was successful.

These, I’d imagine, were more social events than serious matches: the players on the higher boards were also seen in competitive matches against other clubs, but the lower boards, such as young Charles Percy Redway, gained experience from events such as this. His opponent here may have been Herbert Ereault, a bank clerk from Jersey, only three years his senior.

But Charles Percy Redway isn’t the real subject of this article: his father, plain Charles Redway, was a much stronger player, from a family involved in various chess related activities.

Charles Redway senior had been born in Paddington in the fourth quarter of 1861. His father, another Charles, had been born in Teignmouth, Devon and his mother, Mary Ann Richardson, near Corby in Northamptonshire. It looks like they had met while working in service in London. We can pick up our protagonist in the 1871 census: the family are living in Chelsea where his father is working as a butler. He is the second of five children at home: a sixth child would arrive later. By 1881 the oldest Charles is buttling for Scottish poet, biographer and translator Sir Theodore Martin in Onslow Square, Kensington, while Mary Ann is in the family home in Bywater Street, a 15 minute walk away, along with her father and six children: George, the eldest is a Publisher’s Assistant while Charles is a clerk and the only daughter, Mary Jane, a dressmaker.

The Redway family was clearly bookish as well as chess playing. Did this come from within the family or was their love of books inspired by Sir Theo? Where did the family’s love of chess come from?

Charles married Emily Jones in 1884 and by 1891 they were living in Elm Road, Mortlake, just round the corner from where you’ll now find the East Sheen branch of Waitrose, along with their four young sons (Charles Percy was the oldest), a 14-year-old domestic servant and Emily’s younger sister Ida. Charles’s occupation is given as an Assurance Clerk: he was employed by the Prudential Assurance Company.

At some point in this decade he joined the young and ambitious Richmond Chess Club. His first sighting in the chess world seems to be in an 1896 match over 100 boards between teams representing the North and South of the Thames. Charles was on board 38, winning his game against a reserve, T A Bedford.

Here he is playing board 2 behind Thomas Etheridge Harper in a Surrey Trophy match against Battersea in 1898. Richmond were well beaten, not helped by a default, something that was only too common in their matches at this time. Their ambition in taking on top clubs like Battersea in the Surrey Trophy, when they could have opted for less demanding opposition in the Beaumont Cup, seems not to have been matched by their competence in making sure all their players turned up.

You’ll find an excellent article about the Battersea board 3 William Philip Plummer here on their club website, and more about their club history here.

The 1901 census is interesting. Charles is still in the same job, living with his wife, six sons and a daughter, along with a domestic servant. Charles Percy is working as a Jewellery Merchant’s Clerk. They’ve moved along the road towards Richmond, though: their address is given as 134 Sheen Road (here on Google Maps, assuming the house numbers haven’t changed).

There, at the top of the same page, are Philip and Harriet Harper, and the previous page reveals that they’re the children of Thomas Etheridge Harper, who was living just round the corner from Charles Redway.

Perhaps it was Thomas who introduced Charles to Richmond Chess Club. You’d imagine they’d have got together to play chess on a regular basis, maybe, as was the habit in those days, over a glass of brandy and a fine cigar.

Over the next few years, he continued to play for Richmond on a high board, sometimes even on board 1, as well as being recorded turning up to club AGMs.

Here’s a game from the 1903 Surrey County Challenge Cup (presumably the county individual championship) against the artist Sir Wyke Bayliss. The opening was interesting: a Fried Liver Attack with an extra move for White. Black was able to play an immediate c6 so it’s not entirely clear whether or not White benefitted from the extra tempo. Anyway, Redway misplayed the attack and lost fairly quickly. (If you click on any move, a pop-up window will appear enabling you to play through the game.)

[pgn]

[Event “Surrey County Challenge Cup”]
[Date “1903.??.??”]
[White “Redway, Charles”]
[Black “Bayliss, Wyke”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “C41”]
[Annotator “Tactical Analysis 5.2 (1s)”]
[PlyCount “48”]
1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3.
Nf3 d6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5 $2 {[%mdl 8192]} (5… h6 $15 {keeps the upper
hand.} 6. Nf3 e4) 6. Nxf7 {C41: Philidor Defence.} Kxf7 7. Qf3+ Ke6 $1 {
Hoping for …c6.} 8. Nc3 {[%mdl 1024] White has strong compensation. White is
better.} c6 {[#] And now …Qf6 would win.} 9. O-O $146 {aiming for Re1.} ({
Predecessor:} 9. d4 Bb4 10. O-O Bxc3 11. bxc3 Qf6 12. Qe4 Qf5 13. f3 Re8 14.
Bd2 Kd6 15. Bxd5 cxd5 16. Qxf5 Bxf5 17. dxe5+ {0-1 (37) Weir-O’Donovan
Telegraph 1863}) 9… Bc5 10. Re1 $2 (10. Ne4 $16 {and life is bright.} Qf8 11.
Ng5+ (11. Nxc5+ Qxc5 12. b3 Qd4 $15) 11… Kd7 12. Bxd5 cxd5 13. Qxd5+ Ke8 14.
d4 (14. Qxe5+ Be7 $11) 14… Bxd4 15. c3) 10… Rf8 $17 {[%cal Bh8f8,Bf8f5,
Bf5e5][%mdl 32]} 11. Qg4+ {[%mdl 8192]} ({Avoid the trap} 11. Bxd5+ $2 cxd5 12.
Qh3+ Kd6 $19) (11. Rxe5+ $17 Kxe5 12. d4+ Ke6 13. Bf4) 11… Kf7 $19 {[%cal
Be6f7,Bf7g8,Bg8h8][%mdl 32]} 12. Qh5+ Kg8 13. Ne4 {[#]} Rf5 $1 14. Qe2 (14. Qd1
Bb6) 14… Bd6 (14… Be7 $142 15. d3 Nd7) 15. d3 $2 (15. d4 exd4 16. Bg5)
15… Kh8 16. d4 exd4 {Threatens to win with …Bf4.} 17. Bg5 Qf8 (17… Rxg5
$2 18. Nxg5 Qf8 19. Bxd5 cxd5 20. Qh5 $18) ({Not} 17… Bxh2+ 18. Kxh2 Qf8 19.
Kg1 $14) 18. Bd3 $2 (18. Nxd6 Qxd6 19. Bd3) 18… Re5 19. f4 Nxf4 20. Bxf4 Qxf4
21. Rf1 $2 {[#]} (21. Nxd6 Rxe2 22. Rxe2) 21… Rxe4 $1 22. Bxe4 (22. Qxe4
Qxh2+) 22… Qxh2+ {Black mates.} 23. Kf2 Bg3+ 24. Kf3 {[#]} Qh5+ $4 {[%mdl
40960] Black took control after the opening. Weighted Error Value: White=1.33/
Black=0.69. Loss on time!?} (24… Bg4+ $1 {mates} 25. Kxg4 Qh4+ 26. Kf5 Na6
27. Qc4 Qh5+ 28. Ke6 Qe8+ 29. Kf5 Qg6#) 0-1

[/pgn]

The British Championships took place for the first time in 1904, giving many amateurs the opportunity for a two week chess playing summer holiday. Charles took part in the First Class B tournament in Southport in 1905, scoring 4½/11, a pretty respectable result. He tried again at Tunbridge Wells in 1908, but his result in the First Class A tournament was a disappointing 2½/11. (Note that the A and B tournaments were parallel and of the same strength.) To be fair, this was a pretty strong tournament: the winner was Georg Schories, a German master resident in England who wasn’t eligible for the championship, and the young Fred Dewhirst Yates shared 4th place.

Earlier in 1908, Charles had taken part in a simultaneous display at Surbiton Chess Club against World Champion Emanuel Lasker, emerging with a highly creditable draw.

[pgn]

[Event “Simul: Surbiton”]
[Date “1908.05.??”]
[White “Lasker, Emanuel”]
[Black “Redway, Charles”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ECO “B20”]
[Annotator “Tactical Analysis 5.2 (1s)”]
[PlyCount “78”]
1. e4 c5 2. b4 e5 3. Nf3 ({Predecessor:} 3. f4 d6 4. Nf3 Bg4 5. Bc4 Nc6 6.
O-O Nd4 7. Nxd4 Bxd1 8. Bb5+ Ke7 9. Nf5+ Ke6 10. Nc3 cxb4 11. Nd5 Nf6 12. Nxg7+
Bxg7 13. f5# {1-0 (13) Bird,H-NN London 1895}) 3… Qc7 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Nb5 Qc6
6. Nxe5 {B20: Sicilian: Unusual White 2nd moves.} Qxe4+ 7. Qe2 Na6 {Inhibits
Nc7+.} 8. bxc5 (8. Qxe4 $18 {and the rest is easy.} Nxe4 9. Bc4 Nxb4 10. Bd3 (
10. Bxf7+ Ke7 $14) 10… Nxd3+ 11. cxd3) 8… Bxc5 $16 9. d4 Be7 10. Nc4 {
& White is more active.} O-O {[%cal Oe4c6]} 11. Qxe4 Nxe4 12. Bd3 Bb4+ 13. Kf1
d5 {[%cal Oe4c5]} 14. Ne3 {[%cal Bc4e3,Be3d1,Bd1c3,Bc3e2][%mdl 32]} Be6 15. Rb1
f5 {[%cal Bf7f5,Bf5f4][%mdl 32]} 16. Nc7 Nxc7 17. Rxb4 f4 18. Nd1 b6 19. f3 Nd6
20. Nc3 {[#] Threatens to win with Ne2.} Rf7 21. Ne2 Raf8 22. Kf2 g5 {[%cal
Bg7g5,Bg5g4][%mdl 32]} 23. Rb1 g4 24. Ba3 Rd8 25. Rhe1 Nc4 26. Bxc4 dxc4 27.
Bc1 gxf3 28. gxf3 Nd5 {Against Rb4} 29. Rg1+ Kh8 30. Bd2 Bf5 {[%cal Oc4c3]} (
30… c3 $5 31. Nxc3 Nxc3 $15) 31. Rb5 ({Of course not} 31. Bxf4 Nxf4 32. Nxf4
Rdf8 $17) 31… a6 (31… Bxc2 32. Nc3 Nc7 33. Rh5) 32. Rb2 Bg6 33. Nc3 b5 34.
Rg5 Rf5 35. Rxf5 Bxf5 36. Nxd5 Rxd5 37. Bxf4 a5 38. Be5+ Kg8 {[#] Hoping for ..
.c3.} 39. c3 $2 ({Only move:} 39. a3 $1 $16) 39… b4 $1 {Weighted Error Value:
White=0.33/Black=0.42} 1/2-1/2

[/pgn]

EdoChess estimates his rating as round about 2000: a strong club player but not of master standard.

One of their sons, Montague, had died in his teens in 1906, and, the following year, the family moved to Dryburgh Road, Putney, very close to Marc Bolan’s Rock Shrine. They’d remain for the rest of their lives. He continued to play up to the mid 1920s, for Ibis Chess Club in London, and in county matches for Surrey. The Ibis Chess Club was part of the Ibis Sports Club, for employees of the Prudential Assurance Company and particularly noted for its rowing. There are very few records concerning Richmond Chess Club available for this period (we should find out more once the Richmond & Twickenham Times is digitised), but perhaps he continued playing for Richmond as well.

He didn’t play in the 1912 British Championships in Richmond, but he did take part in a simul against visiting American champion Frank Marshall, winning his game.

Very little competitive chess took place during the First World War, but he returned to the board in 1919, playing in a 40-board simul against Capablanca in Thornton Heath. His club affiliation was given as Richmond rather than Putney, confirming that, in spite of moving out of the immediate area, he was still a member of Richmond Chess Club.

In 1934, with their family name now famous in Whitton, Charles and Emily celebrated their Golden Wedding. The report in the local press provides some interesting detail about Charles’s wide range of interests.

It’s sad that Charles was unable to take part in the festivities. He died just over a year later, on 7 March 1935. Emily survived another 21 years, into her 90s, outliving four of her sons and remaining at home until the end.

Charles wasn’t the only one of his siblings interested in chess, although he appears to have been the only active player.

Readers of a certain age may recall a London chess book shop called Frank Hollings. One of Charles’s brothers, William Edward Redway (1865-1946), ran the business for about 40 years until his death, selling and occasionally publishing chess books. Edward Winter provides some information in this fascinating article.

Another brother, George William Redway (1859-1934), was also a bookseller and publisher, specialising in books on the occult. An announcement was made in 1895 that he was going to publish Lasker’s book Common Sense in Chess, but the arrangement, if indeed there was one, seems to have fallen through. The American edition was published by the New Amsterdam Book Company in 1895 and the European edition jointly by Bellairs & Co London, Mayer & Müller Berlin and the British Chess Company the following year.

You might wonder whether any current residents of Redway Drive are aware of the Redway family and their chess connections. Perhaps two of them are: when visiting the Chess Palace a few years ago, noted chess historian Jimmy Adams told me that his sister and her husband lived in Redway Drive (her husband is a rugby fan and wanted to be near Twickenham Stadium).

Here’s what the road looks like in 2022.

It’s a bit different, 90 years on from the photograph at the beginning of this article.

Here you have it – the road, and estate, named after Charles Percy Redway, whose father was one of our great predecessors in the early years of Richmond Chess Club. Join me again soon for some more Richmond Chess Club members from the first decade of the last century.

Acknowledgements and sources:

ancestry.co.uk

findmypast.co.uk

‘Whitton Memories’ Facebook group

Wikipedia

Twickenham Museum website

britainfromabove.org.uk

chessgames.com

BritBase

EdoChess

Chess Notes (Edward Winter)

Lyrics from At the Zoo (Paul Simon)

British Chess News

Monthly Archives: June 2022

Minor Pieces 35: William Ward Part 2

Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021

Dynamic Defence

Minor Pieces 34: William Ward Part 1

Attacking Strategies for Club Players: How to Create a Deadly Attack on the Enemy King

Minor Pieces 33: Charles Redway

We focus on the British Chess Scene Past & Present !