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DTSTART:20190101T000000
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200113
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200114
DTSTAMP:20230213T142309Z
CREATED:20200417T141944Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230213T142309Z
UID:4742-1578873600-1578959999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Geoffrey Diggle (06-xii-1902 13-ii-1993)
DESCRIPTION:Death Anniversary of Geoffrey Harber Diggle (06-xii-1902 13-ii-1993) \nHere is his Wikipedia entry
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-geoffrey-harber-diggle-06-xii-1902-13-ii-1993/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Journalist,Player,Remembering,Writer
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201212
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201213
DTSTAMP:20201212T190642Z
CREATED:20200407T103614Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201212T190642Z
UID:4127-1607731200-1607817599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of David Pritchard (19-x-1919 12-xii-2005)
DESCRIPTION:We remember David Pritchard who passed away on Monday\, December 12th\, 2005. \nDavid Brine Pritchard was born on Sunday\, October 19th\, 1919. On this day the first US Distinguished Service Medal was awarded to a living female recipient\, Anna Howard Shaw. \nHe was born in Wandsworth taking his mothers’  Winifred maiden name of Brine (as was customary in those days). His father was Arthur Pritchard (DoB : 4th January 1890) and he was the managing director of an Engineering Company. Arthur and Winifred married in Maidenhead\, Berkshire in 1917. \nAt the time of the 1939 census David was a chiropodist and recorded as single and living in Munee Cottage\, Main Street\, Bedford. Main Street appears to have been renamed to Main Road which is in Biddenham. It is likely DBPs cottage was something like : \n48 and 50 Main Road Biddenham\, Bedford\, Hertfordshire\nDuring the second world War David joined the Royal Air Force and was stationed in the Far East and following the war\, he switched to intelligence work also for the RAF. He attained the rank of Squadron Leader and played much chess during this period of his life. \nIn 1950 David completed his first book : The Right Way to Play Chess\, Elliot Right Way Books\, 1950\, ISBN 1-58574-046-2 \nThe Right Way to Play Chess\, Elliot Right Way Books\, DB Pritchard\, 1950.\n(Ed : This was the first chess book of this article’s author and was thoroughly consumed!) \nOn page 224 of said book David wrote : \nChessplayers – and this must be whispered – are generally an egotistical\, ill-mannered crowd. If they conformed to common rules of decorum these words would not have to be written \nfollowed by \nI once carried out a private survey at a well-known chess restaurant where a large number of ‘friendly’ games are always in progress. In less than 30 per cent of those observed was resignation made with a good grace. In two-thirds of the games the loser either knocked his king over\, abruptly pushed the pieces into the centre of the board\, started to set up the men for a fresh game\, or got up and walked away without saying a word to his opponent. \nHe married Elaine Saunders in 1952. \nElliot Right Way Books was an excellent choice of publisher for David and only 36 minutes by car from his new home in Godalming. \nHe won the Singapore Championship in 1954 and the Malaysian Championship in 1955. \nVisiting https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter97.html you will find two images of David and Elaine playing chess in Singapore. \nDavid and Elaine had a daughter\, Wanda on March 21st 1958. She became Wanda Dakin who was also a chess player. Wanda attended Guildford High School for Girls and then Royal Holloway College\, Egham. \nDavid was Southern Counties (SCCU) champion for the 1958-59 and 1965-66 seasons. \nFrom the British Championships\, 1959 in York we have this sparkling game with Frank Parr : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nBy now David had developed an  interest in chess variants and board games in general. \nHe played in and won (several times) the Battle of Britain Chess Tournament : DBP was the organisations President. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nIn 1970 he brought out his third book :  Begin Chess\, David Pritchard\, Elliot Right Way Books\, 1952 \nBegin Chess by David Brine Pritchard\, Elliot Right Way Books\, 1970\nBegin Chess by David Brine Pritchard\, Elliot Right Way Books\, 1970\nDavid became President of British Chess Variants Society and wrote many books on variants and indoor games. \nHere is an interview compiled by Hans Bodlaender about David’s Encyclopedia of Chess Variants : \nEncyclopedia of Chess Variants\, DB Pritchard\, GAMES & PUZZLES PUBLICATIONS\, 1994\nParticularly interesting was this Q&A : \nDo you think computers and the Internet will have effect on chess and on chess variants? If so\, in what way? \nI think that the Internet will inevitably introduce chess to more players but I forsee chess variants\, because of their novelty\, benefitting in particular from publicity on the net. I expect variants to gain more and more adherents in the future. \nDavid was preparing a second edition before he passed away. This was completed and made available on-line by John Beasley. \nThe Pritchard family lived at Badgers Wood\, Hascombe Road\, Godalming\, Surrey\, GU8 4AA in an idyllic location : \nBadgers Wood\, Hascombe Road\, Godalming\, Surrey\, GU8 4AA\nand here is the exceptional interior with games room : \n  \nBadgers Wood\, Hascombe Road\, Godalming\, Surrey\, GU8 4AA\nAt the time of his passing he had five grand children. \nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXVI (126\, 2006)\, Number 2 (February)\, page 76 : \n“David Brine Pritchard (19 x 1919 Streatham\, London – 12 xiii 2005\, London) has died following a fall . He was a strong amateur player and a successful author of books on chess and other games. \nDavid Pritchard was a Squadron Leader in the RAF during the war and later rejoined it to work in intelligence. Whilst serving with the RAF he won the Malayan Chess Championships in 195\, and he was also instrumental in the running the UK event known as Battle of Britain Tournament which attracted a strong field in its heyday and generated revenue for the RAF Benevolent Fund. \nHe was a dangerous. attacking played who scored a number of notable scalps in the British Championship including Penrose and Miles\, without ever achieving the consistency required to challenge for the leading positions.  He won the Southern Counties championships in 1959 and 1966. \nAs an author\, Pritchard’s most successful book was The Right Way to Play Chess (Elliott\, 1950\, with numerous reprints). which is still to be found for sale in many British bookshops. \nHe will also be remembered as a leading authority on chess variants : he was reported to be in the process of preparing a second edition of The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (1994) at the time of his death. He was also a very good correspondence player\, an inventor composer of chess puzzles of all sorts (some of which appeared in BCM) and his interest in Fairy chess dated back to the 1940s. \nHis wife Elaine Pritchard\, the leading woman player of the 1950s and 1960s\, and their daughter Wanda (who also played competitive chess) survive him. We send them our condolences on behalf of BCM and its readers.” \nDavid Pritchard (19-x-1919 12-xii-2005)\, Passport photograph\nHe was a leading member of Godalming Chess Club and played in the Surrey Border League. \nThe David Pritchard Shield from the Surrey Border League\nHere is David’s Wikipedia entry \nThe Family Book of Games\, DB Prichard\, Brockhampton Press\, 1994
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-david-brine-pritchard-19-x-1919-12-xii-2005/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player,Variants,Writer
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/David-Parlett-and-David-Pritchard-when-asked-who-is-the-better-and-most-prolific-gamebook-author.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201211
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201212
DTSTAMP:20210804T171641Z
CREATED:20210125T154414Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210804T171641Z
UID:13467-1607644800-1607731199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Richard Griffith (22-vii-1872 11-xii-1955)
DESCRIPTION:Death Anniversary of Richard Griffith (22-vii-1872 11-xii-1955) \nSee Chess World\, Volume 11\, Number 6\, June 1956\, page 128. \nHere is his Wikipedia entry.
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-richard-griffith-22-vii-1872-11-xii-1955/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,History,Player,Writer
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201211
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201212
DTSTAMP:20201211T135933Z
CREATED:20191211T101420Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201211T135933Z
UID:2290-1607644800-1607731199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of FM Peter Clarke (18-iii-1933 11-xii-2014)
DESCRIPTION:PH Clarke\nWe remember FM Peter Clarke who passed away on Thursday\, December 11th\, 2014 whilst living at Chapel House\, Bude\, Cornwall\, EX23 9SQ \nPeter Hugh Clarke was born on Saturday\, March 18th 1933 in West Ham\, London. His mother’s maiden name was Ekblom. \nFrom The Modest Master of Morwenstow by James Pratt (sadly\, as yet\, unpublished) : \n“Peter Hugh Clarke was born in London on 18th March\, 1933. At the age of eight or nine he taught himself the game from ‘The Book of Knowledge’ and played friendly games with his cousin\, who was about a year older. Peter’s father supported his game for many years. PHC was a student at St. Bonaventures School and London University. World War II\, and its even longer aftermath\, robbed him of a number of playing opportunities. It is surprising that he had no childhood heroes\, although later the play of Botvinnik\, Keres and Smyslov impressed him.” \nPeter Clarke with father\, Courtesy of Keverel Chess\nFrom British Chess (Pergamon\, 1983) written by George Botterill : \nChess correspondent of The Sunday Times\, Clarke played for England in the Olympiads of 1954\, 56\, 58\, 60\, 62\, 66 and 68. He has never won the British Championship but has come 2nd on 5 occasions. \nA fine writer. His best books are Mikhail Tal’s Best Games of Chess \nMikhail Tal’s Best Games of Chess\, PH Clarke\, Bell\, 1961\nand Petrosian’s Best Games of Chess 1946-1963 both published by Bell. \nPetrosian’s Best Games of Chess 1946-1963\, PH Clarke\, George Bell & Sons Ltd\, 1964\nThe most remarkable thing about Clarke’s chess career was they way in which he became transformed\, in about 1968-9\, into the most drawish of players. In British tournaments he has become notorious for correct but dull solidity.” \nPeter was Southern Counties (SCCU) Champion for the 1945-55 season. \nPeter was England’s third Correspondence Grandmaster (CGM) in 1980 after Keith Richardson and Adrian Hollis. \nPeter at the dinner table\nFrom BCM / ECF : \n“FIDE and British Master P.H. Clarke will be best remembered as biographer to Tal and to Petrosyan\, but he was so much more. The young Clarke played for Ilford CC in the London League and for Essex at county level. Doing national service he was to learn the Russian that was to so shape his writings. \nThe 1964 England Olympiad (Tel Aviv) Team : Owen Hindle\, Čeněk Kottnauer\, Peter Clarke\, Michael Franklin\, Norman Littlewood & Michael Haygarth\nFor a brief period in the late 1950s\, and early sixties\, he was the number two player in England\, ahead of the vastly more experienced Alexander and Golombek. He played\, of course\, below Jonathan Penrose\, a partnership that bore fruit when preparing openings; latterly they both became Correspondence Grandmasters.” \nPeter Clarke at the 1963 Ilford Whitsun Congress. Source : British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXXIII\, Number 7 (July)\, page 194\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nFM Peter Clarke\n“At the British Championships itself he finished second on his first appearance; he was to tie for silver medal on no less than five occasions\, appearing\, almost without a break for thirty years\, a run that ended in 1982. He represented the BCF – as it then was – in eight Olympiads\, playing on top board in 1966. \nBorislav Ivkov playing Peter Clarke at the 1960 Leipzig Olympiad. The game was a QGA which was drawn\nThe Clarke family moved to the West of England in the late Sixties. PHC played in thirteen WECU Championships\, and lost only twice. As a player he could be cautious\, agreeing too readily to draws. Accuracy and respect meant more to him than ambition. The biographer became a journalist as illness cut short his playing career. In his time he beat Larsen\, Penrose and Szabo. \n \nIn 1962 he married BH Wood’s daughter\, Peggy. They had three daughters. In 1975 my mother happened across Peter and Peggy on Morecambe prom. ‘Never’ she was later to tell me\, ‘have I seen a couple more in love.'” \nPeter Clarke & Peggy Wood in 1962\, Courtesy of Keverel Chess\nWe are grateful to James Pratt to allow us to quote from the the sadly unpublished “Modest Master from Morwenstow” as follows : \nPHC by John Littlewood : \n“Peter had a relatively short career at the top and it is interesting to comment on his style. In essence\, his great strength lay in positional understanding which backed-up his defensive skills rather than helped his ability to create wins; in other words\, he won games in which his opponents over-pressed or opted for dubious positional moves. \nAfter doing well in English chess\, he was perhaps pushed into international chess too early for him to develop his own personal creative style. Playing for England and meeting strong players\, he tended towards a rather negative approach that may have been necessary for the team but was not good for his own personal progress\, as shown when he later met English opponents who outstripped him in their positive will-to-win. His friendship with Penrose (a far stronger player) led to far too many draws which did neither of them any good. \nMikhail Tal’s Best Games of Chess\, PH Clarke. Bell\, 1961\nTo be fair\, Peter was not an easy player to beat but\, on the other hand\, he was not too hard to draw against if you felt so inclined. His forte lay in his knowledge of the game and his excellent writing skills\, where he was at his happiest; there is hardly a book of his that I haven’t enjoyed.” \nPetrosian’s Best Games of Chess 1946-1963\, PH Clarke\, Bell\, 1971\nWriting in BCM 04/64\, John Littlewood called PHC a self-style non-tactician and disagreed with Clarke’s belief in the inner logic (‘I have made no mistakes and therefore my position is OK.’) of positions where tactics are to the fore. \nFM Peter Clarke\nPHC by Leonard Barden : \n“Peter’s contribution to British Chess was important as a player and even more so as a writer. His best period was 1956-61. He\, Penrose and myself used to stay in the same hotel during the British Championships and prepare and analyse together\, although we played hard when actually paired. Peter was the solid man in the English team\, gradually taking over the role of Golombek. It was important that we did reasonably well in this period which provided a bridge between the Alexander/Golombek era and the rise of Keene/Hartston. \nPeter was always a good friend to me and his family gave me hospitality each year during the Ilford Congress. Peter’s books\, especially the one about Tal\, were real works of scholarship in an era where there were no computers to facilitate the job. He could have achieved more as a player if he had been able to concentrate fully on that\, but the economic climate then was poor for professionals.” \nPeter and life long friend\, Jonathan Penrose\, Courtesy of Keverel Chess\nPHC by Bernard Cafferty : \n“Right up to that point of his illness in the 1980’s he had worthily defended the reputation of the older generation in the British Championship\, as the last survivor\, still active at that level\, from the Penrose era. I first saw Peter at the 1951 British Championship at Chester and first played him at the 1952 Bristol Universities individual contest. \n24th USSR Chess Championships\, PH Clarke\, British Chess Magazine\, 1959\nHe left the University of London before taking his degree (study of chess rather taking over his life)\, but then had the good fortune to go on to study Russian while doing his National Service\, around 1954-55. Or was he still in the Army when the Moscow 1956 Olympiad took place? He certainly did well there\, perhaps less affected than other Westerners by the strangeness of the place that was just recovering slightly from the depths of Stalin’s baleful influence. \n  \nVV Smyslov – My Best Games of Chess\, edited and translated by PH Clarke\, Routledge and Kegan Paul\, 1958\nI do recall that for a couple of years Peter changed his cautious style. This was around 1957-58 when he scored one of his two wins against Penrose. Was it at Ilford? I remember that the game appeared with notes by B.H. Wood in ‘The Illustrated London News’ column. \nCien Miniaturas Rusas\n  \nI used to see Peter regularly at the Paignton and Hastings Congresses in the 1990’s but not in the last couple of years. His health seems restored.” \nPeter with Brian Reilly observing playing ? with ? in the background.\nPHC by Ken Harman : \n“I am very pleased to hear about your book about Peter Clarke; not sure I can contribute much as I wasn’t a friend of his so only knew him through seeing him and Margaret at chess tournaments. He was a quiet spoken gentleman who played such quiet positional chess that I would call it ‘monastic chess’. I think Clarke thought chess a search for spiritual truth\, only to be found in the cloisters of spiritual truth\, only to be found in the cloisters of contemplative life – ‘The Thomas Merton of Chess’\, if you like. Of course\, I have no idea if he was a spiritual man in real life but his chess always struck me as if he was reaching for heaven and found hell in a doubled pawn. He seemed like a nice man and I suspect his wife Margaret was the dominant one. I have his book on Mikhail Tal’s Best Games of Chess (Bell 1961) which is signed by him and may well have been his copy\, because as you open the book – there is a small newspaper clipping and a photo of Clarke sellotaped which is rather unusual being that the book is about Tal\, and not him. ” \nPeter plays Erich Gottlieb Eliskases at the 1960 Leipzig Olympiad\nPHC by Alan P. Borwell (ICCF Honorary President) : \n“I first met Peter at the 1959 BCF Congress in York when I was a member of local organising committee and then at Paignton and when York played & won the National Club Championship in 1964/5. \nIn 1966 I played Peter in the British Chess Championship in last round in Sunderland.” \nPeter analyses “al fresco” with ?. Possibly from Hastings ?\nand from Wikipedia : \nPeter Hugh Clarke (18 March 1933 – 11 December 2014) was an English chess player\, who hold titles FIDE master (FM) and International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster (1980)\, FIDE International arbiter (1976)\, Chess Olympiad individual silver medal winner (1956). \nPeter Clarke started playing chess at the age of six. He twice won the London Boys’ Chess Championship (1950\, 1951). He was British Chess Championship multiplier participant where five times won silver medal. \nSince 1959\, Peter Hugh Clarke has been working as a chess journalist in the newspaper Sunday Times and magazine British Chess Magazine. He known as the biographical book’s author of Mikhail Tal (1961) and Tigran Petrosian (1964). Thanks to his good knowledge of Russian language\, he translated the book about Vasily Smyslov in 1958. In 1963 he wrote a book 100 Soviet Chess Miniatures. \nPeter Clarke played for England in the Chess Olympiads : \nIn 1954\, at second reserve board in the 11th Chess Olympiad in Amsterdam (+2\, =2\, -3)\,\nIn 1956\, at reserve board in the 12th Chess Olympiad in Moscow (+7\, =5\, -0) and won individual silver medal\,\nIn 1958\, at fourth board in the 13th Chess Olympiad in Munich (+2\, =10\, -3)\,\nIn 1960\, at third board in the 14th Chess Olympiad in Leipzig (+4\, =7\, -3)\,\nIn 1962\, at second board in the 15th Chess Olympiad in Varna (+3\, =10\, -2)\,\nIn 1964\, at second board in the 16th Chess Olympiad in Tel Aviv (+2\, =8\, -2)\,\nIn 1966\, at first board in the 17th Chess Olympiad in Havana (+2\, =10\, -1)\,\nIn 1968\, at third board in the 18th Chess Olympiad in Lugano (+0\, =7\, -1).\nAlso he played for England in the World Student Team Chess Championship (1954\, 1959)and in the Clare Benedict Chess Cup (1960-1961\, 1963\, 1965\, 1967-1968) where won team silver medal (1960) and 4 bronze medals (1961\, 1963\, 1967\, 1968). \nIn later years\, Peter Clarke active participated in correspondence chess tournaments. In 1977\, he won British Correspondence Chess Championship. In 1976\, Peter Clarke was awarded the International Correspondence Chess Master (IMC) title and received the International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster (GMC) title four years later.
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-fm-peter-hugh-clarke-18-iii-1933-11-xii-2014/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Correspondence,Death Anniversary,History,Player,Writer
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/IMG.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201211
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201212
DTSTAMP:20201216T163810Z
CREATED:20190822T155314Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201216T163810Z
UID:985-1607644800-1607731199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Joseph Blake (11-xii-1951)
DESCRIPTION:We remember English player Joseph Blake who passed away on Tuesday\, December 11th\, 1951. \nJoseph Henry Blake was born on Thursday\, February 3rd\, 1859 in Farnborough\, Hampshire. His parents were Joseph Denner and Eliza Blake (née Early). In 1871 Joseph (aged 12) had a brother Frank (aged 10)\, sisters Annie (8)\, Elizabeth S (7)\, Eliza E (1) and a servant\, Kate Longman aged 18. The family lived in Lydia Cottage\, Hewitts Road\, Millbrook\, South Stoneham\, Hampshire. \nAccording to the 1861 census Joseph was two years old and living with his parents and Frank in Rotten Row\, Yeovil\, Somerset. \nIn 1881 the family has upped sticks again and moved to 2 St. Lawrence Road\, Saint Mary\, Eastleigh\, Hampshire. This address is also given as the South West Telegraph Office. Eliza was now the head of the household and a widower. Apart from Eliza E aged 11 everyone worked for the railway. \nIn 1891 Joseph had become Head of the Household (aged 32) and they had acquired a servant (Anna M Cornell) and a blacksmith (Francis Cornell) from Braintree in Essex. \nIn 1900 Joseph married Alice New in Cheltenham\, Gloucestershire. They lived at 24\, Barton Road\, Eastleigh\, Hampshire. Tragically\, Alice passed away in 1903. \nJoseph Henry Blake\nBy 1911 Joseph was 52 and had retained his career as a Railway Clerk. He lived at 33\, Broomfield Road\, Tolworth\, Surrey : \n33\, Broomfield Road\, Tolworth\, Surrey\nHe is recorded as the head of a household of one and a widower. \nIn 1939 Joseph was living at 10 Springfield Court\, Springfield Road\, Kingston Upon Thames\, Surrey. He was now retired. \nNo doubt there would have been other addresses not captured by the census records. \nAccording to The Encyclopedia of Chess\, (Batsford\, 1977)\, Harry Golombek OBE : \n“A leading British player in the 1890s and for many years editor of the Games Section of the British Chess Magazine between the two world wars. Blake’s best tournament performance came at the age sixty-three when\, at Weston-super-Mare in 1922\, he came 1st ahead of Maróczy\, Kostić\, Sir George Thomas and Yates. \nThe remarkable feature about Blake’s chess career is that he retained his skill and his comprehension of the game for a much longer period that most chess players. This extended from 1887 when he was 1st at the Counties Chess Association tournament at Stamford ahead of Bird and Pollock\, a performance he was to repeat in 1891 at Oxford\, to 1909 when he tied with H. E. Atkins for first place in the British Championship\, to 1923 when he won the Weston-super-Mare tournament\, right into the 1930s when he was principal annotator for the British Chess Magazine.” \nChess Endings for Beginners\, JH Blake\, George Routledge First Edition (1900)\nand according to The Encyclopedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1970 & 1976)\, Anne Sunnucks : \n“One of the leading British players at the end of the last century and the beginning of the present century. Born on 3rd February 1859. Represented England in the Anglo-American cable matches in 1902 and 1909. His best results were 1st in the Counties’ Chess Association Tournament 1887\, ahead of Bird and MacDonnell; =1st with HE Atkins in the 1909 British Championship\, but lost the play-off for the title; 1st at Weston-super-Mare 1922 ahead of Maroczy\, Kostich\, Sir George Thomas and Yates\, and winner of the brilliancy prize for his game against Sir George Thomas; 2nd in the international correspondence chess tournament organised by Le Monde Illustre in 1895. \nBlake was President of the Southern Counties Chess Association in 1911 and President of the Hampshire Chess Association from 1910-1912 and from 1927-1929. He was also Hon. Secretary of the City of London Chess Club for some years.” \nAccording to Tim Harding in the excellent Correspondence Chess in Britain and Ireland\, 1824-1987 : \nRailway clerk Joseph Henry Blake\, the leading English correspondence player of the 1890s; also a strong OTB amateur player. He was a regular contributor to British Chess Magazine from the 1880s to the late 1930s. \nIn British Chess Magazine\, Volume XXXIX (39\, 1919)\, Number 3 (March) we have the following from Julius du Mont : “I presume it relates more particularly to chess professionals in this country\, at any rate\, it does not seem to me that the jews hold rank amongst first-class amateurs in proportion to their numbers. \nIn London there are very few if any of the class of RC Griffith\, GA Thomas\, JH Blake\, HG Cole\, EG Sergeant\, and many others to say nothing of the younger recruits \, W.Winter and RHV Scott.” \nFrom the 1949 British Chess Magazine (written by RN Coles) we have this : \nJH Blake is Ninety \nAfter an absence of ten years I looked in recently on the Kingston and Thames Valley Chess Club. There were many new faces and a number of familiar ones\, among the latter one of rosy countenance\, trim beard and twinkling eyes\, none other than JH Blake\, more vigorous than ever and attaining his 90th birthday on the 3rd February. \nTwenty years ago in this same club I (RN Coles) was learning the game\, now middle age approaches. Blake was an elderly man in those days\, who had retired from all competitive play because of the strain it imposed; now\, so far from showing the weight of years\, he is back in competitive chess again.  He won the club championship last year and is in a fair way to repeating his victory this year. Of all the ‘Grand Old Men’ of chess\, few have still been champions in their 90th year. \nOlder readers of the BCM will remember him as their Games Editor for many years\, but few memories will cover the whole series of his successes beginning with a 1st at Stamford in 1887. Even 1922 must seem a distant year to the generation of today. That was the year that Maroczy and Kostic were invited to Weston-super-Mare to meet such rising young English masters as FD Yates and Sir George Thomas. And the first prize amongst those talented players was won by JH Blake\, who had been born just when Morphy returned to England after his Paris Victory over Anderssen ! \nAll readers of the BCM and all players everywhere will wish Britain’s oldest master continued health and increasing vigour\, and those who knew him today will be surprised if he does not continue his attack for another decade at least. \nBesides winning the first prize at Weston Blake also won the brilliancy prize with the following game : (#10\,229) \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXII (72\, 1952)\, Number 2 (February)\, pp.44-46 contained an obituary with articles from MDB* : \n*(Careful investigation by Richard James suggest that MDB is Mabel Dorothy Barker\, JHB’s niece in 6th Cross Road.) \nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXII (72\, 1952)\, Number 2 (February) pp. 44 – 46\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXII (72\, 1952)\, Number 2 (February) pp. 44 – 46\nand EG Sergeant : \nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXII (72\, 1952)\, Number 2 (February) pp. 44 – 46\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXII (72\, 1952)\, Number 2 (February) pp. 44 – 46\n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcSXOFgU7Mc[/embedyt] \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nFor more on this game and its often mis-reported continuation see this article from Edward Winter. \nFrom Wikipedia : \n“Joseph Henry Blake (3 February 1859\, Farnborough\, Hampshire – 11 December 1951\, Kingston-upon-Thames) was an English chess master. \nBlake won many tournaments played in England toward the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. He won at Stamford 1887\, Oxford 1891 (joint)\, Brighton 1892\, Cambridge 1893\, and Salisbury 1898 (joint). He also took 5th at Manchester 1882\, tied for 3-4th at Birmingham 1883 (Section B)\, took 4th at Bath 1884\, tied for 6-8th at London 1889 (Henry Bird won)\, took 2nd at Cambridge 1890\, tied for 3rd-4th at Woodhall Spa 1893\, shared 2nd at Craigside 1895\, took 3rd at Hastings (Amateur) 1895\, took 2nd\, behind Henry Ernest Atkins\, at Bristol 1896\, and won at Folkestone 1901. \nHe took 2nd in an international correspondence tournament organised by Le Monde Illustré in 1895\, shared 1st in the 1909 British Championship in Scarborough but lost to Atkins the play-off\, and shared 1st at London 1911. He was British correspondence champion in 1922. \nBlake represented England in cable matches against the United States in 1902\, 1909 and 1910. \nHis best achievement was victory\, ahead of Géza Maróczy\, George Alan Thomas\, Fred Yates and Boris Kostić\, at Weston-super-Mare 1922. He shared 2nd at London 1922 (Major Open)\, tied for 7-8th at Hastings International Chess Congress 1922/23 (Akiba Rubinstein won)\, took 2nd\, behind Thomas\, at London 1923\, took 5th at Liverpool 1923 (Jacques Mieses won)\, tied for 7-8th at Hastings 1923/24 (Max Euwe won)\, tied for 6-7th at Weston-super-Mare 1924 (Euwe won)\, took 2nd\, behind R.P. Michell\, at London 1925\, took 4th at London 1926 (Victor Buerger won)\, and tied for 7-9th at Weston-super-Mare 1926 (Euwe won).” \nHe is the author of Chess endings for beginners (London 1900). \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-joseph-henry-blake/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player,Writer
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201208
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201209
DTSTAMP:20211208T155947Z
CREATED:20191208T001021Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211208T155947Z
UID:3679-1607385600-1607471999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of John Fuller (12-v-1928  08-xii-2004)
DESCRIPTION:We remember John Fuller who passed away aged 76 on Wednesday\, December 8th 2004. His death was recorded in the district of Lancaster. At the end of his life he lived in Carnforth\, in Lancashire. \nJohn Arthur Fuller was born in Hendon\, Middlesex on Saturday\, May 12th 1928. His parents were Horace Arthur Fuller (a Bank Officer) and Phyllis Fuller (née Gooch). \nJohn had three brothers: Julian Frederick who was two years older\, Nigel Anthony who was three years younger and Adrian Easterbrook who was six years younger. \nThey lived at 12\, High View\, Pinner in Middlesex. \n12\, High View\, Pinner\, Middlesex\, HA5 3PA\nOn August 26th 1939\, aged eleven\, John (described as a scholar) departed from Liverpool on board the SS Ceramic (part of the Shaw Savill & Albion Company shipping line) and duly arrived one hundred and twenty days later in Sydney\, New South Wales. \nThe family returned to Liverpool in March 1945 on board the Athlone Castle which was of the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company Ltd. John was now sixteen years old. \nAccording to ancestry.co.uk he is survived by a son\, Robert. The family tree indicates that John had two sons and two daughters but his wife is marked as Private and so her name is not visible. We speculate that it may be Ann Fuller (née Dent) but this is awaiting confirmation. \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1972 & 1976) by Anne Sunnucks : \n“British Master\, British Boy Champion in 1946 and British Correspondence Champion from 1953-1955. Born on 12th May 1928 Fuller learned to play chess when he was 11. In 1946 \, the year in which he won the British Boys Championship\, he also tied for the London Boys Championship. He went on to win the Middlesex Championship three times and the Warwickshire Championship twice. Fuller played for England in matches between Scotland and the Netherlands and in the Clare Benedict International Team Tournament. He also had the best British score in the Premier Tournament at Hastings in 1949 and 1955. \nHe was a design engineer.” \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsfords\, 1977) by Harry Golombek: \n“British master and design engineer by profession. British Boy Champion in 1946. Fuller was a player of great promise with a fine understanding of the game. But a serious illness disturbed the even flow of his chess career and\, though he recovered and made some more appearences in the chess world\, he eventually withdrew from chess on an international and national level. \nFuller played twice in the Hastings Premier tournament: =5th 1949/50 and 6th in 1955/6.” \nThe Oxford Companion to Chess is silent on JAF. \nThere has been considerable discussion of JAF in another place. \nBCN would like to acknowledge help received from Richard James\, Leonard Barden\, Rob Fuller and John Upham in putting this article together. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nSubsequent to this post being published our attention was kindly drawn by John Saunders to the obituary in BCM\, Volume 125 (2005)\, #5 (May)\, page 247. Here is the article: \nJohn Fuller (12 v 1928 – 8 xii 2004\, Carnforth) was a British Master and British correspondence champion in 1954 and 1955. Having spent some of the war years in Australia\, he quickly made his mark in junior chess on his return to Britain. He shared first place with Leonard Barden in the 1946 London Boys’ Championship and went on to win the British Boys’ Championship in 1946 with 5/5 in the final section\, ahead of Gordon Crown and Leonard Barden. He beat an off-form Crown in nine moves in the last round (see game above) He played a number of correspondence games with Crown\, himself a richly gifted player\, who w0as to die tragically young in 1947\, and it was reported that Fuller had the better of these encounters. \nFuller became a design engineer\, but his business and chess careers were both affected by a serious bout of tuberculosis when he was a young man. He won the Hastings Premier Reserves ‘B’ with 8/9 in 1947/48 ahead of Alan Phillips and Arthur Winser\, and in 1949 Leonard Barden remembers playing off with him for a place in the 1949/50 Hastings premier after the two of them had made similar scores at the 1949 British Championship. \n“We played the match at Sir George Thomas’s flat in autumn 1949… and John crushed me in that. Not sure of the score\, I think it was 2.5- 0.5.” \nHe played in the Hastings Premier in 1949/50 and again in 1955/56\,and made the best British scores on both occasions – 4/9 and 3.5/9 respectively. He also represented England in matches against Scotland and the Netherlands\, and in the Clare Benedict team tournament. He only appeared three times in British Championships\, scoring 6.5 in 1949\, 5.5 in 1950 and 6.5 in 1958. He ranked in the top ten of the British Chess Federation Grading List on six occasions\, with a best place of third equal in 1958. He seems to have dropped out of over the board competition chess shortly after being awarded the (now defunct) British Master title in 1963/64. \nHarry Golombek referred to Fuller in The Encyclopaedia of Chess (1977) as a player of great promise with a fine understanding of the game”. Alan Phillips told BCM that he was “one of the most promising players of his generation… he slaughtered me three times”. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nLeonard Barden had the following memories of John Fuller: “He was a member of West London Chess Club\, which was historically significant as his good friend and fellow member (both living in Harrow) was Jim Slater\, who 25 years later told me that knowing John was one of the factors which kept his interest in chess up to the point where he became our Maecenas… John was a tall redhead\, outgoing and friendly\, and a natural talent who also worked on theory. With the better opportunities available to later generations I’m sure he would have reached IM strength.”
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-john-fuller-12-v-1928-iii-2005/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201203
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201204
DTSTAMP:20211202T104020Z
CREATED:20200323T140601Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211202T104020Z
UID:3698-1606953600-1607039999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of A(lfred) Christopher Reeves (19-ii-1939 03-xii-2012)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Dr. A(lfred) Christopher Reeves who passed away on Monday\, December 3rd\, 2012 in St. Agnes\, Cornwall. His probate record (#4073868) is dated December 3rd\, 2012 being recorded in the Bristol registry. \nAlfred Christopher Reeves was born in Wharfedale\, Yorkshire on Sunday\, February 19th\, 1939. His mother’s name was Tomlin. \nAlfred detested his first name to the extent that he asked people to call him Christopher and\, when asked\, told them that the A was for Arthur. For this reason much of the chess literature uses Arthur whereas public records use Alfred. \nIn British Chess Magazine\, Volume 133 (2013)\, Number 1 (January)\, page 2 we have this obituary from James Pratt: \n“Alfred Christopher Reeves (Leeds\, 19 ii 1939 – St Agnes?\, 3 xii 2012). Chris Reeves was a FIDE Master of Composition. He toyed with entering the priesthood but became a child psychotherapist. He started composing (“…my solace and diversion …”) in 1960\, largely specialising in the orthodox two move field. Though not a prolific composer\, his work was known worldwide.\nHe was Sub-Editor of The Problemist” \nFrom the The Encyclopaedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977)\, Harry Golombek OBE\, John Rice writes: \n“British problemist\, output consists of skilfully constructed two-movers in the modern style.” \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1970 & 1976)\, Anne Sunnucks wrote: : \n“Problem composer. Since 1960 he has composed about 70 modern-style two movers\, and is considered to be one of the most talented British composers. His originality and technique enable him to build into tangible form what would be no more than a passing idea for most composers. He has edited the problem section of Correspondence Chess\, and he controlled BCF tourneys and International Team matches.” \nFrom British Chess (Pergamon Press\, 1983) Botterill\, Levy\, Rice and Richardson we have this: \n“I was born on February 19th\, 1939\, the second son of a doctor who practised in a busy Yorkshire coal-mining town. As a youngster I acquired a taste for chess problems as soon as I learnt the moves of the game. \nI owe my initiation to the admirable column which DM Davey used to run in the weekly review The Tablet and to the enterprise of one of the masters of the boarding school to which I was sent when still quite young. Davey’s column catered for novice chess problemists like myself by conducting graded solving tournaments with modest handicaps. \nThese tournaments ran conveniently the length of the school term\, just long enough to sustain a young person’s enthusiasm\, The teacher in question used to put the week’s problem up on the school noticeboard and dozens of small schoolboys participated as a result. The Tablet column was not only a boon for beginners like me. It had a very discriminating band of solvers who were given ample space to express their views on each week’s problems. This had the additional effect of making it a popular forum for budding composers who need the stimulus and encouragement of audience response in what is\, after all\, a very solitary sort of pastime. \nMy fascination with chess problems soon diverted my energies away from the game itself. I was eight when I began solving. Another 13 years elapsed before I seriously tried my hand at composing. My immediate inspiration was the example of the then young trio of British composers\, Barry Barnes\, Michael Lipton and John Rice. Their latest work incorporating\, try-play\, and often exploiting complex patterns of relationships between mates\, was regarded as unacceptably\, ultramodern\, in some quarters but found ready appreciation with the solvers of Davey’s column. \nOther sorts of problems I had enjoyed; these I wanted to emulate. The powerful attraction their work had on me has made me chary ever since of the strictures of self-appointed guardians of chess problem ‘taste’\, who suggest that the modern two-mover cannot hold the same interest for the solver as the more traditional type. It certainly did not have a negative effect on me. \nProblem I was one of my earliest compositions\, in fact the first to gain any sort of award. At the time I was a theological student destined for the priesthood. I recall having felt some scruples about indulging in the frivolous pastime of chess problem composition not that it prevented me from becoming thoroughly addicted! \nI have found that a bad conscience makes a good chess problem\, and the greatest spur for composition is the feeling that one should really be busy doing something else. The problem shows a duel between the white queen and the black knight on d5\, each of whose eight possible moves feature as a unique defence against one of the white queen tries. Solvers have often found the key to this problem’ quite elusive. \nProblem I \nThe Tablet\, 30th June\, 1962 \n3rd Honorary Mention BCPS Ring Tournament \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nWhite to play and mate in 2 \n1.Qa1?…Nc7!\n1.Qa4?…Nb6!\n1.Qb1?…N5b4!\n1.Qc1?…Nc3!\n1.Qe1?…Ne3!\n1.Qf1?…N5f4!\n1.Qg4?…Nf6!\n1.Qg1?…Ne7! \nKey! Qb3! \nThe 1960s were my golden period of problem composition. They were my solace and diversion as I passed by way of theological studies through an Oxford degree to the foothills of a different career from the one I had originally envisaged\, not the ‘cure of souls’ but the management and treatment of emotionally disturbed children and their families. By the end of the decade I was\nalready engaged in working as a Child Psychotherapist. Since then I have found that human problems have tended to displace my former involvement with problems of the chess pieces. Whereas\nbetween 1960 and 1970 I composed seventy problems\, in the subsequent decade I could manage only a dozen more. The reason for this slowing down in production\, however\, has not only been the demands of personal\, family and professional life. \nAs a composer I have concentrated almost exclusively on the orthodox two-move field\, one which if not yet exhausted nevertheless presents a major challenge to the composer to find something new to say or some new way of saying it. It is no accident (though I admit to a slight feeling of regret) of heterodox problems has expanded enormously in the past few years. \nOf my eighty or so problems\, fifty have been honoured in tournaments\, ten with First prizes\, ten with other prizes and the rest with Honourable Mentions and Commendations. My ambition is to\nreach a respectable century of compositions\, though I being to wonder whether I shall ever make the mark. I would also like to reach the FIDE Master norm for problem composition. I have\nhad twenty of my problems included in the triennial FIDE Albums so far\, a few of them joint compositions. Here again\, however\, my productivity (or lack of it) may eventually tell against me. \nStill\, the problemist must always keep the business of honours in perspective. Composing problems is an essentially private business. Your opponent is the power of the pieces\, not a fellow sitting opposite Vou. Unlike the chess player\, one can keep one’s defeats to oneself when one puts the pieces away after a fruitless evening pondering over a board\, so it seems only fair that\none’s successes likewise should be modestly recorded. \nBy a coincidence two of the three problems which I have selected to round off this brief note about myself and my compositions are ones which got no recognition from the tournament judge\nat the time\, although I count them amongst my best works. \nI have chosen a trio of problems all roughly on the same theme\, namely\, the four possible moves of the pawn from its starting square. In chess problem parlance this is called the BP4M* theme when applied to the Black pawn\, and the Albino theme when applied to the White pawn. \nII and III show two ways in which four mates can be provided to meet each of the BP4M moves\, only to be changed in the next phase of play. In II\, the change is between mates set before the key and those operative after it; in III\, the change is more radical\, involving the transfer of the WR from one position to another\, thereby creating two separate but related (or ‘twin’) problems. Incidentally\, a good way to begin to get a taste of what composing involves is to take a problem like III and try to express the theme in full (here the changed BP4M) without resorting to the twinning device. \nMy last example\, IV\, shows a duel between white and black pawns\, with the four Albino tries being met by the four possible BP4M defences. \n(* BP4M is BCNs replacement for a word starting with p now considered by some as offensive.). \nWhilst the player may rejoice in a victory soundly accomplished I can think of few pleasures to compare with the satisfaction which comes from accomplishing the sort of task which IV entails\, especially when one is fairly sure that it has not been successfully achieved before. For me\, at all events\, this is what two-mover chess problem composition is all about: its is the ‘art if the all-but-impossible’!” \nProblem II \nDie Schwalbe August\, 1965 \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nWhite to play and mate in 2 \n1…dxc6+ 2. Bxc6\n1…d6 2.Nd5\n1…d5 2.Qb4\n1…dxe6 2.Bc8 \nKey 1.Qxe5! (2.exd7) \n1…dxc6 2.Nxc6\n1…d6 2.Qf6\n1…d5 2.Qc7\n1…dxe6 2.Qxe6\n1…Rd5+ 2.Nd5 \nProblem III \n1st Prize  \nProblemist Twin Tournament 1966-67 \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nWhite to play and mate in 2 \nProblem IV \nProbleemblad\, May\, 1965 \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nWhite to play and mate in 2 \nClearly Chris was a hugely popular figure in the problem world. Here is a collection of tributes from the BCPS.
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-alfred-christopher-reeves-19-ii-1939-3-xii-2012/
CATEGORIES:Composer,Death Anniversary,History,Problemist,Remembering
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201129
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201130
DTSTAMP:20210514T084840Z
CREATED:20190823T190915Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210514T084840Z
UID:1126-1606608000-1606694399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of IM Robert Wade OBE (10-iv-1921 29-xi-2008)
DESCRIPTION:We remember IM Bob Wade OBE who was born 100 years ago today on Sunday\, April 10th 1921 \nIn 1979 Queen’s Birthday Honours List\, Civil Division Bob Wade was awarded the OBE. The citation read simply : “For services to Chess” \nHe won the BCF Presidents’ Award in 1986. \nIn the Foreword to the 2009 ECF Yearbook\, President Gerry Walsh wrote : \n“As I started this report I had just heard the sad news that IM Bob Wade had died aged 87. I first met Bob at one of the Whitby Congresses and in 1972 he played in the Teeside GM Tournament where I recall he beat the three Hungarian players Portisch\, Bilek and Sax (ed : aged 51).” \nGeurt Gijssen wrote in Chesscafe.com : \n“I received the sad news that Bob Wade passed away at the age of eighty seven. He played his last tournament in London in August. When I was young I read about his exploits as a chess player\, and he was the arbiter in many important chess events. I met him in 1993 when I was the organizer of the first part of the match Karpov – Timman\, played in The Netherlands in three different cities: Zwolle\, Arnhem\, and Amsterdam. He was the only member of the Appeals Committee and Bob was always present watching the games in the playing hall. He gave me invaluable advice about all elements of the match venues. It was very clear that he was an experienced chess player and arbiter\, and I learned many things from him. May he rest in peace.” \nFrom the 1952 Ilford Congress (30 May – 2 June) and originally published in BCM\, July 1952\, page 187. (l-r) : Harold Israel\, Alan Phillips\, Bob Wade\, Otto Friedman\, Abe Yanofsky\, Alfred William Bowen and Harold Meek. Thanks to John Saunders and Leonard Barden\nWade was Southern Counties (SCCU) champion for the 1956-57\, 1957-58 and 1964-65 seasons. \nFrom the Preface of The World Chess Championship : 1951 by Lionel Sharples Penrose we have : \n“Mr. Wade is also passionately devoted to the game. Before coming to Europe\, he was three times champion of New Zealand. He had played in tournaments in England but his chief successes have been on the Continent. At Venice in 1950\, he obtained a high place in a very severe contest in which some of the strongest Russia\, Czech\, Dutch\, French\, Italian\, North and South American players took part. Much of his time is occupied in chess organising and teaching. He is an acting vice-president of the F.I.D.É and in this official capacity he attended the match in Moscow\, which is the subject of this book.” \nIM Bob Wade\nPaul McKeown researched (and Simon Spivack asked permission to reproduce his words) the earliest part of Bob’s life as follows: \n“On May 20th\, 1919\, Thomas Graham Wade\, aged 27\, Sergeant in the NZ Expeditionary Force\, repatriated with honour from war-time service in Egypt\, Gallipoli and France\, married Amy Lilian Neave\, aged 21\, in South Dunedin. A New Zealander of Scots and English descent\, his family was Graham from Montrose. The family name\, Wade\, came from Marshall George Wade\, the soldier and engineer who led the Hanoverian forces against the Scots at the time of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion and was immortalised in the original third verse of the British national anthem: \nLord\, grant that Marshal Wade\,\nMay by thy mighty aid\,\nVictory bring. \nMay he sedition hush and like a torrent rush\,\nRebellious Scots to crush\,\nGod save the King. \nIM Bob Wade\nRobert Graham Wade\, known in the Scots manner to his family as Robin\, and later to his many friends as Bob\, was their first child\, born April 10th\, 1921\, at Dunedin. Over the next few years he was joined by sisters\, Lilian\, Agnes\, Betty\, June\, his brother Ted and finally by his youngest sister Amy. The family lived for a number of years at Portobello. \n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wITe3tNjnfs[/embedyt] \nAt that time\, Portobello was a scattered community of about 150 people with three shops and a pub on the Otago Peninsula. Bob attended Portobello Primary School\, a small country school\, finished “dux” or top of class\, and then attended the King Edward Technical High School at Stuart Street in Dunedin.” \nIM Bob Wade\nIn The Oxford Companion to Chess (OUP\, 1984 & 1996)\, Hooper & Whyld: \n“Wade Variation\, 147\, also known as the Modern Variation\, in the Queen’s Gambit Declined\, Meran Variation\, from Bogoljubow-Wade\, Oldenburg\, 1949; \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n1239 in the French Defence\, introduced by Wade in a match against Schmid in 1950. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nHooper & Whyld go on to write : \n“New Zealand-born Robert Graham Wade (1921- ) won the championship of his homeland three times before moving to England as a young man\, He won the British Championship twice and trained many English players.” \nAside from the two variations mentioned by Hooper & Whyld there are other Wade Variations : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nwhich Jim Plaskett dubbed the “Sidestep Variation” \nand \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nwhich is the Pytel-Wade Variation of the Scandinavian Defence. \nAnne Sunnucks wrote in The Encyclopaedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1970 & 1976) : \n“International Master (1950 Ed: actually 1954)\, International Judge (1958)\, New Zealand Champion three times and British Champion in 1952 and 1970. \nBob Wade was born in New Zealand on 10th April 1921 and is a professional chess player. He has lived in England for many years and has played regularly for the British Chess Federation team in Chess Olympiads. He has played a prominent part in coaching schemes for juniors and is largely responsible for recent successes of English juniors in international events. \nBob Wade v. Aldecoa of the Philippines from the 1958 Munich Olympiad played on October 9th 1958. The game was won by Bob in 60 moves. From the collection of David Jarrett with many thanks.\nHe is chess correspondent of Associated Newspapers and Independent Television News and editor of a series of books on Contemporary Chess Openings published by Batsford. \nAuthor of a number of books on the game\, his publications include books on the World Championship of 1951\, 1957 (ed : this book was\, in fact\, by Golombek) and 1963\, the first in collaboration with W. Winter; The Closed Ruy Lopez (Batsford\, 1970) in collaboration with LS Blackstock and PJ Booth: World Chess Championship (Batsford\, 1972) in collaboration with Svetozar Gligoric; Games of RJ Fischer (Batsford\, 1972) in collaboration with KJ O’Connell and Soviet Chess (Neville Spearman\, 1968). \nWade was a member of the FIDE Laws Commission from 1950 to 1952.” \n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RKIcwmE8IU[/embedyt] \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977)\, Harry Golombek OBE : \n“International Master who was born at Dunedin\, New Zealand\, but came to live In England in 1946 and has represented both countries on different occasions. He has nearly always done well in British Championships and won the title in Chester in 1952 and again at Coventry in 1970. He had played for the British Chess Federation at the Olympiads of 1954\, 1956\, 1958\, 1960 and 1962\, winning the shortest game of the Varna Olympiad in that year in nine moves against Anton Kinzel of Austria \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nHe played for the New Zealand team at the 1970 Olympiad at Siegen but returned to the BCF team at Skopje in 1972. \nHis best individual international results were a fifth place at Venice 1950 and again fifth at the Masters section of the Capablanca Memorial at Cienfuegos in Cuba in 1975. Possessor of a sharp clear-cut style of play\, he once drew a match with the West German grandmaster Lothar Schmid with neither side drawing a game\, though this was before Schmid received the grandmaster title. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nHe has done much valuable work in England teaching the young\, and was responsible for the text of a highly successful television series in 1975. \nHis main books are : Soviet Chess\, London\, 1967; Botvinnik-Bronstein Match 1951 (in co-operation with W. Winter)\, London\, Toronto 1951; Match Petrosian-Botvinnik\, London\, 1963; Sousse 1967\, The Chess Player\, Nottingham\, 1968.” \nFrom British Chess (Pergamon Press\, 1983) we have this article from George Botterill : \n“In the Birthday Honours list of 1979 Bob Wade was awarded the OBE for his services to chess. Few rewards can have been more thoroughly earned. For some reason\, Bob has always been held in greater esteem abroad than in the country for which he has done so much. But the many players who have turned to him for advice or who have simply enjoyed his hospitality\, which is always ungrudgingly available to fellow chess players\, know the measure of his dedication to the game. \nTheodore Tylor vs Bob Wade at Paignton 1953. Bob held TT to a draw to secure first place\nWade was born in Dunedin\, a third generation New Zealander of Scots and English ancestry. He started a a career as a civil servant in the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Having won the New Zealand Championship in 1944 and 1945 he was sent over to participate in the British Championship of 1946. The result was not exactly a success – a mere 3.5 points out of 11. But Bob was not to be disheartened so easily. Feeling he was capable of better things\, he took leave of absence in 1947 and did the circuit\, such as it then was\, of chess tournament in Europe and North America. \nBob giving a simul in Leeds in the 1950s\nWhen he returned to New Zealand he found that he had been transferred to another department in a civil service reorganisation. The new job was not so congenial. He stuck it out for 6 months – during which time he won the New Zealand Championship for a third time – and then handed in his resignation to take up the precarious life of a chess professional. \nIM Bob Wade\nSettling in Britain he soon gained the IM title (ed : 1954). But even in those days when still a young man Wade did not concentrate exclusively on his own playing career. In 1949 he went to the FIDE congress and was one of the five people – the others were BH Wood\, Ragozin\, Zubarev and Rogarde – who collaborated on the writing of the official rules for the game. \nBob Wade OBE\, Murray Chandler MNZM and David Anderton OBE at the 1986 Dubai Olympiad. Photograph by Frits Agterdenbos\nHe also served as a member of the commission that determined who the original holders of international titles would be. When you consider that Wade was also on the 1950 commission that decided the composition of the World Championship Interzonals\, it becomes apparent that this man played a significant part in the shaping the structure of modern international chess. \nBob at a CentYMCA event with Neil Carr\, Mike Wills\, Aaron Rose and Jon Ady\nAlthough rarely at the top in international tournaments\, Wade was always a very dangerous player\, capable on his day of beating anybody in the world. He won the British Championship twice at Chester in 1952 and at Coventry in 1970. \nBob playing Kick Langeweg at IBM 1961.\nIn recent years Wade has put his main energies into junior training and organisation and also into his work as the editor of Batsford’s highly productive and extremely successful series of chess books. \nBob with John Nunn and Boris Spassky at the GLC Masters\nIt is hard to say in what department one should place Wade’s greatest contributions to British Chess. Living through what is retrospect look to have been the Dark Ages of British chess – the 1950s and 1960s – he has demonstrated that even in a social and cultural environment that made playing chess economically ‘impossible’ profession to follow it was still possible to dedicate a life to chess\, if one had the determination. \nLeonard Barden\, Henry Mutkin\, Adrian Hollis and Bob Wade observe Nick Ivell vs Ken Regan at the 1983 Varsity match\nDuring those years he was really the only British Player who regularly active in international tournaments. Since then he has been constantly active as an author\, editor and adviser\, always working to transform Britain into a country more congenial to good chess. \nBob at the demo board at London Central YMCA chess club.\nBut we suspect that he might regard this role as trainer and coach as the most important thing of all. He is\, quite appropriately the British Chess Federation’s Chief National Coach. \nBob doing one of the things he loved best : teaching. He was discussing a position at Havana 1965. Dr JR Capablanca\, son of the former world champion\, on the right\, interpreted.\nIf one had to choose a single best game from Wade’s whole tournament career\, it would probably be this one. \nGeorge Botterill \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nDr. Fazekas (left) playing Bob Wade at an Ilford Congress\, photographer unknown\nIn the January 2009 issue of British Chess Magazine John Saunders wrote a ten page obituary as follows : \nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nLeonard Barden wrote this obituary \nHere is Bob’s Telegraph obituary. \nJohn Saunders interviewed Bob at his Blackheath home and wrote this extensive article for the 1999 British Chess Magazine. \nHis detailed results in Olympiads\, from olimpbase.org\, follow. \nAmsterdam 1954\, England board 4\, 6/12 (+4−4=4);\nMoscow 1956\, England board 3\, 6½/14 (+2−3=9);\nMunich 1958\, England 1st reserve\, 7/14 (+5−5=4);\nLeipzig 1960\, England 2nd reserve\, 6/11 (+4−3=4);\nVarna 1962\, England 2nd reserve\, 6/12 (+4−4=4);\nSiegen 1970\, New Zealand board 2\, 9/15 (+7−4=4);\nSkopje 1972\, England board 3\, 7½/14 (+4−3=7).\nWade won several middle-strength Master events in the British Isles: Ilford 1957 and 1968\, Paignton 1959\, Dublin 1962\, and Southend-on-Sea 1965. \nWade was generally no more than a middle-ranking player in strong international tournaments. His other highlights against high-standard international-level competition include: \ntied 4–5th at Haifa/Tel Aviv 1958 on 7½/13 (winner Samuel Reshevsky);\n3rd at Bognor Regis 1959 on 7/10 (winner Erno Gereben);\n5th at Reykjavík 1964 on 7½/13 (winner Mikhail Tal);\ntied 4–5th at Málaga 1966 on 7/11; (winners Alberic O’Kelly de Galway and Eleazar Jiménez);\n6th at Briseck 1971 on 7/13 (winner Gideon Barcza);\n5th at Cienfuegos ‘B’ 1975 on 10/17; (winners Julio Boudy and Amador Rodriguez);\ntied 7–12th in the World Senior Championship\, Bad Woerishofen 1992\, on 7½/11 (winner Efim Geller).\nWade was the only British player to have faced Bobby Fischer in tournament play (outside of Olympiads). They met three times\, with Wade drawing one game and losing the other two. \nHis detailed Wikipedia entry may be found here \nBob was an active author and wrote (or co-wrote) around 22 books as follows : \nThe World Chess Championship\, W.Winter & RG Wade\, Turnstille Press\, 1951\nHastings Chess Congress 1955-56\, RG Wade & W. Ritson Morry\, En Passant Chess Publications\nChess Tactics for Beginners\, RG Wade\, Bott and Morrison\, 1960\nThe World Chess Championship: 1963 Botvinnik vs Petrosian\, Wade\nSoviet Chess\, RG Wade\, Neville Spearman (UK) & David McKay Company\, Inc\, New York\, 1968\nSousse 1967 : International Chess Tournament\, RG Wade\, The Chess Player\, 1968\nThe Velimirovic Attack\, Sozin Sicilian\, TD Harding and RG Wade\, Chessman Publications Ltd.\, 1969.\nThe Closed Ruy Lopez\, Wade\, Blackstock and Booth\, Batsford\, 1970\nPalma 1970 : Interzonal Chess Tournament\, RG Wade and LS Blackstock\, The Chess Player\, 1970\nThe Games of Robert J. Fischer\, Robert Wade and O’Connell\, Batsford 1972\, 2nd ed. 1972\, reprinted 1973\, First limp edition 1981\, Reprinted 1985\, 1981\, 1989\, Second edition (The Complete Games of Bobby Fischer) 1992\nWorld Championship Interzonals\, Wade\, Blackstock and Kotov\, Batsford\, 1974\nThe World Chess Championship\, Gligoric and Wade\, Batsford\, 1974\nThe Marshall Attack\, Wade & Harding\, Batsford\, 1974\nPlaying Chess\, RG Wade\, Batsford/TVTimes\, 1974\nSicilian Lasker-Pelikan\, 1978\, Batsford\, Wade\, Speelman\, Povah and Blackstock\n44th USSR Championship Final Moscow 1977\, RG Wade\, LS Blackstock and HC Thomas\, Master Chess Publications\, 1977\n45th USSR Championship Final Leningrad 1977\, RG Wade\, LS Blackstock and HC Thomas\, Master Chess Publications\, 1977\nBugojno\, 1978\, RG Wade\, LS Blackstock and HC Thomas\, Master Chess Publications\, 1978\n46th USSR Chess Championships 1978\, RD Keene\, JDM Nunn\, RG Wade\, Master Chess Publications\, 1978\, ISBN 0 906634 00 8\nTournament of the Stars:~ Montreal 1979\, RG Wade\, LS Blackstock\, AL Hosking\, Master Chess Publications\, 1979\nInterpolis Supertournament:~ Tilburg 1979\, LS Blackstock & RG Wade\, Master Chess Publications\, Chess\, Sutton Coldfield\, 1979\nFighting Chess\, Kasparov and Wade\, Harper Collins\, 1983\nTrends in the Reti\, Volume 1\, RG Wade\, 1992\nBatsford Chess Endings\, Speelman\, Tisdall and Wade\, 1993\nChess for Children\, Ted Nottingham and Bob Wade\, Sterling Juvenile\, 1996\nTrends in the Reti\, Volume 2\, RG Wade\, 1996\nWinning Chess : Tactics and Strategies\, Sterling Juvenile\, 2001\nIn 2007 Ray Cannon published the following tribute : \nBob Wade : Tribute to a Chess Master\, Ray Cannon & Ray Keene\, Impala\, 2007\nHowever\, Paul McKeown remains Bob’s official biographer. \nIM Robert Wade OBE
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-robert-graham-wade-obe/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201125
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201126
DTSTAMP:20201123T173527Z
CREATED:20190823T110243Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201123T173527Z
UID:1078-1606262400-1606348799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary for Anthony Dickins (01-xi-1914 25-xi-1987)
DESCRIPTION:We remember Anthony Dickins who passed away this day (Wednesday\, November 25th) in 1987. \nAnthony Stewart Mackay Dickins was born at 1 Rivers Street\, Bath\, Somerset on Sunday\, November 1st\, 1914. On this day was the Battle of Coronel — The Royal Navy suffered its first defeat of World War I\, after a British squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock met and was defeated by superior German forces led by Vice-Admiral Maximilian von Spee in the eastern Pacific. \n1\, Rivers Street\, Bath\, Somerset\, BA1 2QA\nAnthony’s parents were Frederick and Florence Dickins (née Mackay) Frederick was a Captain in the Royal Artillery and was born on 25th November 1879\, commissioned on May 26th 1900. He became a Colonel on 26th May 1930 and retired November 25th 1936. He was alive in 1972 (aged 92) and living in Bexhill passing away aged 101/102. He was awarded the CIE which is “Companion\, Order of the Indian Empire in 1914”. \nAnthony was baptised on December 29th in Seend\, Wiltshire. Anthony had a brother Frederick James Douglas born in 1907 who married Nellie or Peggie Moist (records are unclear). \nIt would appear that Florence and Anthony (aged 5) travelled to Bombay from Plymouth on board the SS City of York (Ellerman Lines) departing December 26th\, 1919 presumably to visit his father in India. The ships master was J. McKellan. \nAt the time of the 1939 Census Anthony was residing in the Tavistock Hotel in Tavistock Square. His occupation was given as journalist and editor and described as single. \nFrom the Hull Daily Mail (extant and renamed Hull Live) of March 4th\, 1939 we have this part review of a magazine called The Joys of Poetry. Anthony was the editor : \nHull Daily Mail\, 4th March 1939\nHe died in Lambeth Wednesday\, November 25th) in 1987. We have yet to determine where he was buried or cremated. \nFrom http://chesscomposers.blogspot.com/2012/10/november-1st.html : \n“Anthony Dickins wrote A Guide to Fairy Chess (1967) and other books about fairy chess. He edited the column of non-original fairy problems for “The Problemist”. He was specialized in constructional problems and was also an International Judge.” \nAnthony Stewart Mackay Dickins\nFrom British Chess (Pergamon Press\, 1984)\, Botterill\, Levy\, Rice and Richardson : \n(article by JM Rice) \n“Chess first entered my life seriously about 1950 at the well-known Mandrake Social and Chess Club in Meard Street\, Soho\, run by Harold Lommer and Boris Watson. Purely literary connections took me there in the first place\, as it was a rendezvous for the literary fraternity\, such as Dylan Thomas\, David Gascoyne and others. \nAfter the war Harold converted a small wine-vault into a tiny cramped chess-room\, with some dozen tables and boards. Many well-known\npersonalities in the world of Chess were occasional visitors\, such as Grandmasters Ossip Bernstein\, Paul Keres\, Jacques Mieses and Friedrich Sämisch; British Champions Willy Winter\, Bob Wade and Dr. Fazekas; M. J. Franklin\, now a British Master\, and the Problemists\, Dr. E. T. O. Slater and B. J. da C. Andrade. Mieses was then in his late eighties and charged a fee of half-a-crown (12.5 pence) for a game. When his name was mispronounced ‘Mister My-ziz’ he would say ‘I am Meister Mieses\, not Mister My-ziz’. \nSämisch once played fourteen of us blindfold\, defeating all except one\, a very strong Indian player\, Atta\, who obtained a draw. My regular ‘partners’ were Vicki Weiss\, the famous cartoonist\, his brother Oscar\, Richard Crewdson\, Mr Keller (a professional who played sharply for a shifty shilling)\, Brian Mason\, Colin ‘Puffer’ Evans\, (whose strategy was to puff cigarette ash and smoke all over the board to bemuse the opponent) and Bob Troy (who always fell fast asleep immediately after making each move and had to be wakened on his next turn to play). There was a juke-box in the next room constantly blaring forth pop and bop. Most of all I played with Alex Distler\, and with him always’variants of the game’ like Cylindrical Chess\, Rifle Chess\, Progressive Chess\, or the Losing Game. \nIn this colourful and inspiring\, if rather smoky and noisy\, atmosphere I composed my first six chess problems\, helpmates and cylindricals\, though I did not then know of the existence of Problem books or magazines\, nor had I heard of Sam Loyd\, Max Lange\, or T. R. Dawson when the Mandrake closed in the late fifties and Harold Lommer retired to Spain to write his two monumental works on Endgame Studies. \nFor the next 10 years or so I played at the West London and Athenaeum Chess Clubs\, for Middlesex County and at Hastings congresses\, meanwhile regularly solving the problems in the two evening newspapers for practice. \nIn 1965\, in my 51st year\, I discovered chess-problem magazines and the British Chess Problem Society\, and was soon asked by John Rice to join the Fairy\nChess Correspondence Circle\, whose director\, W. Cross\, perhaps the greatest solver of all time\, guided my early footsteps in fairyland. At this point I compiled for my own use a summary of all the usual rules and conventions in Fairy Chess\, as these were numerous and complicated. It occurred to me that a few other people might also welcome such a summary\, so I put it into book form as A Guide to Fairy Chess\, which I published by myself in 1967 under the imprint ‘The O Press’\, a pun on the name ‘Kew’ where I was then living. \nA Guide to Fairy Chess\nTo my amazement it had rave reviews (‘the comprehensive work\, so long awaited’\, ‘more like an encyclopaedia’\, ‘the bible of Fairy Chess’) and sold like hot cakes\, going into three editions\, each one enlarged and revised\, the third produced by Dover Publications\, New York\, in 1971. Two years later I edited Dover’s publication of T. R. Dawson’s Five Classics of Fairy Chess. \nFive Classics of Fairy Chess\, TR Dawson\nIn 1970 I flew to the States to spend a few days in the J. G. White collection in Cleveland\, Ohio\, researching historical material on Fairy Chess. This Ohio collection has the largest chess library in the world\, and to my surprise I found that it contains also ‘every book or article ever written on or about ‘Omar Khayyam and Alice in Wonderland . To find oneself suddenly and unexpectedly transported\, as if by magic carpet\, into a superbly organised library with the most complete collections in the world of the three subjects that happen to be one’s own three principal literary interests is an experience that must approach closely to entering Nirvana\, and I am happy to have had it. This visit enabled me to write A Short History of Fairy Chess (1975) and to give the lecture Alice in Fairyland to the Lewis Carroll Society in London\, published in their journal Jabberwocky and reprinted by myself in 1976 (2nd edn 1978) . \nA Short History of Fairy Chess\, ASM Dickins\nIn 1972 I decided to present my (by then) extensive collection of Fairy Chess books and magazines to my old university library at Cambridge to prevent the possible break-up of the collection as a single unit\, and to ensure that at least one fairly complete Fairy Chess collection was retained in Britain. \nIn 1968 I was invited to open a Fairy Chess section in The Problemist\, organ of the BCPS\, which I handed over to Dr. C. C. L. Sells in 1970\, and from 1974 to 1981 I ran another column in that magazine called ‘Other Types’. This chess journalism has brought me into touch with many problemists\, and made many friends for me\, in foreign countries. \nIn 1967\, on a visit to Mannheim for the Schwalbe annual meeting\, I met Wilhelm Karsch\, then editor of Feenschach\, and in 1968 in Munich I again met Dr. Karl Fabel\, whom I first came to know in London in 1967\, and also Peter Kniest\, one of the two present editors of Feenschach. In 1969\, on a visit to Paris\, a meeting was arranged for me at the late Jean Oudot’s flat\, with Pierre Monr6al\, J. P. Boyer\, F. de Lionnais (author of the Dictionnaire des Echecs) and other French problemists\, and altogether I have attended twenty three major problemist meetings in various countries\, including FIDE meetings in The Hague\, Wiesbaden\, Canterbury and Helsinki. It has been my constant aim to try to encourage and cultivate the practice and study of Fairy Chess and to keep alive the great legacy that T.R. Dawson left to the world when he died in 1951. \nIn recent years I have developed close relations with the younger generation of West German problemists\, who are very active in Fairy Chess\, centred round 29-year-old Bernd Ellinghoven\, who helps Peter Kniest to edit Feenschach and who printed my last booklet\, Fairy Chess Problems (1979)\, containing\npoems as well as problems\, combined in a new kind of fairy technique\, for I believe that Fairy Chess represents in many ways the ‘poetry’ of Chess. \nFAIRY CHESS PrOblems (1979)\nFor\nthe 50th birthday of T. R. Dawson on the 28th November 1939 a certain Dr Lazarus of Budapest wrote in Fairy Chess Review: ‘T. R. D. these three\nletters represent a conception in the Poetry of Chess which is amongst the most ingenious of all its turns\, one of its most strange and interesting phases… Without T.R.D. human culture would lack a factor in its development’. Those people (and there are some) who would banish Fairy Chess altogether from Caissa’s realm resemble the iron-hearted Mr. Gradgrinds who would abolish romance\, mystery\, poetry\, invention\, discovery and imagination from human life. \nFairy Chess Review\nElsewhere I have written: ‘The Game for Murderers\, The Problem for Philosophers\, Fairy Chess for Sufis’\, because the aim of the game-player is to ‘mate’ (kill) the opponent (from Arabic\, mat _ dead)\, while the problemist has no personal opponent to kill\, but merely a philosophical problem to resolve. In Fairy Chess\, however\, the adept is transported to another plane of existence\, to an ‘undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns’\,to new’dimensions’ of thought (as in 3- and 4-dimensional problems) – in short\, to Fairyland\, to Nirvana. \nThe three problems represent my early\, middle and later compositions. The helpmate in three moves (Black plays first in a helpmate) is a miniature culminating in an ideal Mate. C. H. O’D. Alexander was much tickled by what he called ‘the deceptive pawn’ on a2\, which unexpectedly does not promote. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nThe Construction Task with 113 White moves\, all ‘maintaining’ the legal stalemate position in which Black finds himself\, is a standing record that defeated the previous record of 112 such moves obtained independently by six problemists in six countries\, one of them an lnternational Master of FIDE. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nThe Knight’s Tour is one of the oldest genres of Fairy Chess\, dating from the earliest days of chess\, and in TR Dawson’s Fairy Chess Review he published many of them.\, including some that showed the ‘square numbers’ (1\,4\,9\,16\,25\,36\,49\,64) all on one rank – in the present example I have added the extra strict condition that as many as possible of the numbers 1 to 16 must be in the SW corner and as many as possible of the numbers 1 to 32 must be in the W half of the board. \nFor two reasons the perfect ideal in this task cannot be attained\, firstly because of the given position of the number 25\, and secondly because it is not possible to make a Knight’s tour on a 4 x 4 board in the SW corner. \nSolutions : \n1. Helpmate\, Evening News\, 20th February 1957 dedicated to Harold Lommer \nHelpmate in 3 moves \n1. Kd5 Nb1\n2. Kc4 e8=Q\n3. Kb3 Qb5 mate \n2. Construction Task Record\, Feenschach 9341 Sep/Oct 1969 dedicated to Karl Fabel \n113 unforced stalemate maintenances with Promotion in Play (Pawn promotions count as 4 moves) unforced as W has some moves that do not maintain stalemate\, so he is not ‘forced’ to maintain it. \n3. Knight’s Tour Chessics 5(180) July\, 1978 dedicated to D. Nixon. \nKnights tour with\na) All square number on 4th rank\nb) maximum of 1-16 in SW quad\nc) maximum of 1-32 in W half \nKnight’s tour solution from ASM Dickins\n100 Classics of the Chessboard
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-for-anthony-stewart-mackay-dickens/
CATEGORIES:Composer,Death Anniversary,History,Problemist
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201125
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201126
DTSTAMP:20201125T163549Z
CREATED:20190822T163322Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201125T163549Z
UID:998-1606262400-1606348799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Amos Burn (31-xii-1848 25-xi-1925)
DESCRIPTION:We remember Amos Burn who passed away on November 25th\, 1925. \nAmos Burn was born in Kingston-upon-Hull on Sunday\, December 31st 1848 to Amos and Mary Burn (née Webster). His father is recorded as a merchant. Amos and Mary were residents of Bourne Street at the time of the birth. \nOn February 15th 1849 Amos was baptized in All Saints Anglican Church\, Sculcoates\, Kingston-Upon-Hull \nAmos married Martha Ann Jäger in Birkenhead on Dec 27th 1879. They had two daughters Elsie Martha\, born 24th Oct 1880 and Hilda Marian\, born  26th Oct 1881. \nFor further detail of ABs family please consult the excellent Amos Burn : A Chess Biography by Richard Forster \nIn 2006 an article by WD Rubinstein was published in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography \nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess (OUP\, 1984)\, Hooper & Whyld : \n“One of the world’s top ten players at the end of the 19th century. Born in Hull : he learned chess when 16\, came to London at the age of 21\, and rapidly established himself as a leading English player\, A pupil of Steinitz\, he developed a similar style; both he and his master were among the world’s best six defensive players\, according to Nimzowitsch. Not wishing to become yet another impecunious professional. Burn decided to put his work (first a cotton broker then a sugar broker) before his chess\, and he remained an amateur. He made several long visits to America\, and was often out of practice when he played serious chess. \nUntil his thirty-eighth year he played infrequently and only in national events\, always taking first or second prize. From 1886 to 1889 he played more often. In 1886 he drew matches with Bird (+9-9) and Mackenzie (+4=2-4); at London 1887 he achieved his best tournament result up to this time\, first prize (+8—1) equal with Gunsberg (a play-off was drawn +1=3—1); and at Breslau 1889 he took second place after Tarrasch ahead of Gunsberg\, After an isolated appearance at Hastings 1895 he entered another spell of chess activity\, 1897-1901\, The best achievement of his career was at Cologne 1898\, first prize ( + 9=5-1) ahead of Charousek\, Chigorin\, Steinitz\, Schlechter\, and Janowski. At Munich 1900 he came fourth (+9=3—3). His Last seven international tournaments began with Ostend 1905 and ended with Breslau 1912. A comparative success\, in view of his age. was his fourth prize shared with Bernstein and Teichmann after Schlechter\, Maroczy\, and Rubinstein at Ostend 1906; 36 players competed in this five-stage event\, 30 games in all for those who completed the course. \nRetired from both business and play he made his home in London and edited the chess column of The Field from 1913 until his death. A shy and retiring man\, a loyal companion to those who came to know him\, he freely gave advice to young and aspiring players.” \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nThe front cover of the November 1975 issue of the British Chess Magazine featured Amos Burn : \nAmos Burn – See W.H.Cozen’s ‘Half a Century Back’…from the front cover of the November 1975 issue of British Chess Magazine\nFrom British Chess Magazine\, 1975\, November\, pp. 481-483 : \nHalf a Century Back\nChess in 1925\nby W.H. Cozens\n  \nAmos Burn was a very different figure and his career is poorly documented. He is overdue\, not for a reappraisal but simply an appraisal\, He was born (in Hull) in 1848 – an incredible 127 years ago. All the years that could have been his prime as a chessplayer he devoted to business. (Marine insurance was his speciality.) He was based in Liverpool but travelled considerably\, including several crossings of the Atlantic – quite an undertaking in those days. He played some casual chess\, soon overshadowing the Rev. John Owen to become Liverpool’s answer to Manchester’s Blackburne. He also played for the City of London Chess Club; but it was not until he was nearly 40\, presumably with his financial position secured\, that he entered the international chess arena. Between the ages of 38 and 64 he played in 22 international tournaments. At Breslau (1889) he was second to Tarrasch\, above Louis Paulsen\, Blackburne\, Schallop … In Amsterdam the same year he was first\, ahead of Emanuel Lasker. His finest achievement was first place at Cologne 1898\, in front of Charousek\, Chigorin\, Steinitz\, Schlechter et al.\, (16 in all) with a win against Steinitz. The lack of a book on Cologne 1898 is – since the publication of Mannheim 1914′: the biggest gap in tournament literature. \nAt Karlsbad 1911 he defeated not only the winner\, as mentioned above\, but also Alekhine\, whom he steered into a knight versus bad bishop ending. His style was unashamedly modelled on that of Steinitz\, and marked by extreme tenacity. To him is attributed the epigram ‘He who combinates is lost’. He could play a combination when in the mood but he much preferred to let the opponent break his own back by attacking too impetuously. Nimzowitsch wrote: ‘The number of really great defensive players is very small’\, adding that he knew of only six: Steinitz\, Emanuel Lasker\, Burn\, Bernstein\, Duras and Louis Paulsen. \nIn the 1911 Cable Match between G.B. and the U.S.A. Marshall came from San Sebastian straight to London and asked permission for his top board game to be played over the board. When he found that his opponent was to be the 64-year-old Amos Burn he must have smiled\, for he had twice defeated him resoundingly – at Paris 1900 (also having some fun at Burn’s expense in his annotations to the game) and again at Ostend 1905. This time he was in for a shock. Within twenty moves the old man had won his queen for two pieces. Marshall played on\, probably with a red face\, until move 37\, rather than have his loss cabled home too early. Against Burn he might have spared himself the trouble. \nBurn was a superb annotator. His work\, notably in ‘The Field‘ from 1913 on\, sets a standard to which one looks back nostalgically in these days of hieroglyphics. The day before he died\, at the age of 77\,he had been at work on analysis and annotation. Tournaments were now plentiful enough for it to be possible to pick out the band of regular professionals\, and to assess their prowess. Tartakower was placed 2\, 5\, l\, 5; Reti 5\, 5’ 5\,-11; Grunfeld 4\,8\,8\,9; Nimzowitsch was erratic with 1\,2\,9; so was Rubinstein with 1\, 2\, 3\, 12. Marshall was consistent with 3\, 4\, 5. Lasker\, Capablanca and Alekhine appeared once each – with distinction\, of course.” \nThe Burn Variation is a line in the french defence dating from the 1870s\, played regularly by Burn at the tournaments of Hastings\n1895\, Cologne 1898\, and Vienna 1898. More recently it has been favoured by Petrosyan. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1970 & 1976)\, Anne Sunnucks : \n“A leading British player of his day\, Amos Burn was born in Hull on 31st December 1848. He learned the game when he was 16 and an apprentice with a firm of Liverpool cotton-brokers\, but it was not until 1886 that he achieved his first major tournament success by coming 2nd in the London tournament and 1st at Nottingham. These results gained him an invitation to Frankfurt 1887\, which marked the beginning of his career as an international player. \nBurn’s greatest successes were 1st at Amsterdam 1889\, ahead of Lasker\, 2nd at Breslau 1889\, behind Tarrasch but ahead of Mieses\, Von Bardeleben\, Bauer\, Gunsberg and Paulsen; and 1st at Cologne 1898\, ahead of Charousek\, Steiniitz\, Tchigorin and Schlecter. \nAfter the St. Petersburg 1909 tournament\, Burn’s results began to deteriorate and he finally retired from tournament chess after the Breslau 1912 tournament. \nFrom 1913 until his death\, Burn was chess editor of The Field. He died on 25th November 1925.” \nAmos Burn (31-xii-1848\, 25-xii-1925) circa 1920\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977)\, Harry Golombek OBE : \n“British Grandmaster and second only to Blackburne in late nineteenth-century British chess. He was born in Hull and learned to play chess at sixteen\, but devoted little time to the game at first\, preferring to establish himself in a commercial career. \nHe returned to chess in his middle thirties\, his first major national success being first prize at Nottingham 1886 and second prize at London 1886. Within three years he had gained an international reputation by winning at Amsterdam 1889\, ahead of Lasker\, and finishing 2nd to Tarrasch at Breslau 1889. Burn continued to appear in international tournaments until the age of sixty-four\, his most notable triumph being first prize at Cologne 1898 in front of Charousek\, Steinitz\, Chigorin and Schlechter. He was chess editor of The Field from 1913 until his death in 1925.” \nEdward Winter wrote a feature article on the game McDonald-Burn\, Liverpool\, 1910 \nHis Wikipedia article is here \nAccording to Edward Winter in Chess Notes Burn lived at 19 Luxemburg Gardens\, London W6\, England (Amos Burn\, The Quiet Chessmaster by R.N. Coles\, page 7). \nAmos Burn (31-xii-1848\, 25-xii-1925)\nand an excellent article from the Liverpool Museum is here \nAmos Burn (left) and Rev. John Owen circa 1885.\nAmos Burn\, the quiet chessmaster\, RN Coles\nAmos Burn : A Chess Biography by Richard Forster
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-amos-burn/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201124
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201125
DTSTAMP:20201123T173646Z
CREATED:20190823T091032Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201123T173646Z
UID:1058-1606176000-1606262399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Rev. John Owen (08-iv-1827 24-xi-1901)
DESCRIPTION:We remember Reverend John Owen who passed away on the 24th November 1901) \nJohn Owen was born on April 8th\, 1827 to John and Sarah Owen in Marchington\, Uttoxeter\, Staffordshire. \nHe was baptised at Marchington\, St. Peter on April 9th\, 1827 by H. Bennett and their residence was recorded as “Brook House”. His father is recorded as being a gentleman. \nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess (OUP\, 1984) by Hooper & Whyld : \n“English player\, vicar of Hooten\, Cheshire\, from 1862 to 1900. In 1858\, playing under the pseudonym ‘Alter’\, he lost (=2-5) a match against Morphy\, who conceded pawn and a move. (Hoffer attributed this poor result to Owen’s just being married.) Subsequently Owen played better. He drew a match with Kolisch in 1860 (+4-4) and at the London tournament of 1862 took third prize after Andersen (whom he defeated) and L. Paulsen ahead of Dubois\, GA MacDonnell\, Steinitz and Blackburne. \nFrom 1857 to 1898 Owen played in more than a dozen tournaments\, all of them in Great Britain. \nHe liked close openings and often played the Queen’s Fianchetto Defence\, sometimes named after him\, and the Larsen Opening.” \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977)\, Harry Golombek OBE : \nProbably\, the strongest of all the chess-playing reverends of the nineteenth century. Owen came 3rd at Birmingham 1858\, below Löwenthal and Falkbeer\, but ahead of Saint-Amant\, Staunton and Bird; but is should be pointed out that the method of play was still by the old knock-out system. \nHe was also =3rd with MacDonnell in the first congress of the British Chess Association at London in 1862. \nHe also had the distinction of losing matches to Morphy\, Zukertort and Burn\, though he beat Burn in a later match. He drew a match with Kolisch in 1860. \nSunnucks is silent on Owen. \nAccording to The Complete Chess Addict (Faber&Faber\, 1987)\, Mike Fox & Richard James : \n“For the record (and because it’s so impressive) here is the most devout team of all time\, If there is anything in the efficacy of prayer they’d be tough to stop : \n\nFr Ruy Ruy López (de Segura)\nFr William Lombardy\nRevd GA MacDonnell\nRevd J Owen\nHis Holiness Pope Leo XIII\nHis Holiness Pope Innoncent III\nSt Teresa of Ávila (capt.)\nThomas à Becket”\n\nA much fuller biography may be found at the excellent Yorkshire Chess History web site  \n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZlsydt8iqA[/embedyt] \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QBhgUes_dM[/embedyt] \nFrom Wikipedia : \n“John Owen (8 April 1827 – 24 November 1901) was an English vicar and strong amateur chess master. He ranked among the world’s top ten chess players for certain periods of the 1860s. He was a major figure in English chess from the mid 1850s to the 1890s. \nOwen was born in Marchington\, and obtained his early schooling at Repton School\, Derbyshire. In 1850 he graduated from Trinity College\, Cambridge\, and received his M.A. from Cambridge three years later. He was ordained by the Church of England in 1851\, and served as Vicar of Hooton\, Cheshire from 1862 to his retirement in 1900. \nIn 1858 he won a chess game against the young American master Paul Morphy\, the world’s best player\, who was then touring Europe. ” \nThis led to a match between the two. Despite being given odds of pawn and the move (meaning he started the game with an extra pawn and always moved first)\, Owen lost the match 6–1\, never winning a game. \nHis performance in the very strong 1862 London tournament\, the first international round-robin event (in which each participant plays every other) was more impressive. He finished third\, ahead of future world champion Wilhelm Steinitz\, and was the only player to win against the eventual tournament winner\, Adolf Anderssen. Louis Paulsen placed second. This result was arguably Owen’s top lifetime chess achievement. \nOwen continued to play frequently and often successfully in British tournaments into the 1890s\, and performed strongly in several matches against top British players\, who were essentially chess professionals. He never competed outside the British Isles. He died in Twickenham. \nOwen is the eponym of Owen’s Defence\, a chess opening characterised by the moves 1.e4 b6. Owen was the first strong player to play this frequently\, including in his victory over Morphy.” \nAmos Burn (left) and Rev. John Owen circa 1885.
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-rev-john-owen/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201122
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201123
DTSTAMP:20201121T152309Z
CREATED:20191026T200914Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201121T152309Z
UID:1653-1606003200-1606089599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Mary Rudge (06-ii-1842 22-xi-1919)
DESCRIPTION:We remember Mary Rudge who passed away one hundred and one years this day on Saturday\, 22-xi-1919. \nShe was born in Leominster\, Herefordshire on February 6th\, 1842. Her father was Henry Rudge (born 1794 in Gloucestershire) who was a surgeon and General Practitioner. Her mother was Eliza Rudge (née Barrett) who was born in Ledbury\, Herefordshire in 1802. \nMary was part of a typically large household and according to the 1851 census she had sisters Sarah (23)\, Caroline (18)\, Emily H (12)\, brothers Henry (14) and Alfred (10). Assisting Henry with medical matters was Wiliam S Boyce and acting as a “General Servant” was Thomas Rotheroe (18).  Their address is given as “21\, Middle Marsh\, Leominster\, Herefordshire\, England” (HR6 8UP). According to HM Land Registry : “Middlemarsh is in the Leominster North & Rural ward of Herefordshire\, County of\, Herefordshire\, Worcestershire and Warwickshire.” \nBy 1861 the household had relocated to 62\, Broad Street\, Leominster and the servants were James Price (18) whose occupation is given as a Groom and Sarah Gardener (21) who was the House Servant. \nMary moved\, “helpless from rheumatism”\, at some point\, to Truro and then to the British Home for Incurables\, Streatham. She died in Guys Hospital\, London\, on 22 November 1919.  \nEditor of British Chess Magazine at the time of her obituary was Isaac McIntyre Brown who afforded Mary a pathetic three lines.  \nFrom Wikipedia : \n“Mary Rudge (6 February 1842 in Leominster – 22 November 1919 in London) was an English chess master. \nRudge was born in Leominster\, a small town in Herefordshire\, England. She began playing chess in a correspondence tournament in 1872. The first mention of over the board competition is in August 1874 when she played in the second class at the Meeting of the Counties’ Chess Association at Birmingham. After the death of her father\, Henry Rudge\, she moved to Bristol where she started playing chess seriously. \nRudge was the first woman member of the Bristol Chess Club\, which did not allow women to be members of the club until she joined in 1872. She played against Joseph Henry Blackburne\, who gave a blindfold simultaneous display against ten opponents. The following year she played in another blindfold simultaneous display given by Johannes Hermann Zukertort. In March 1887 she played and drew on board six for Bristol against Bath at the Imperial Hotel in Bristol. At the beginning of 1888\, Rudge played and won on board six for Bristol & Clifton against City Chess & Draughts Club. The following year\, she won the Challenge Cup of Bristol & Clifton Chess Club. In 1889\, she became the first woman in the world to give simultaneous chess exhibitions. She won the Ladies’ Challenge Cup at Cambridge 1890\, and won the second class at the Southern Counties’ tournament at Clifton 1896.[1]” \nMiss Stevenson  & Mary Rudge\n“First Women’s International Chess Congress\nShe was a winner of the first Women’s International Chess Congress under the management of the Ladies’ Chess Club of London in conjunction with the Women’s Chess Club of New York. Lady Newnes was president of the Tournament Committee\, and Sir George Newnes\, Baron Albert Salomon von Rothschild\, Mr. Harry Nelson Pillsbury and some others offered prizes. The tournament was played at the Hotel Cecil in the Masonic Hall for six days\, but the final rounds were decided at the Ideal Café\, the headquarters of the Ladies’ Chess Club\, from 22 June to 3 July 1897.[2] Miss Rudge was 55 years old and the oldest of the 20 players\,[3] and had substantial experience playing chess at the time. She was a well-known English player\, ranking in chess strength with the first class of the leading men’s clubs. She won the event with 18 wins and 1 draw\, followed by Signorina Louisa Matilda Fagan (Italy)\, Miss Eliza Mary Thorold (England)\, Mrs. Harriet Worrall (USA)\, Madame Marie Bonnefin (Belgium)\, Mrs. F.S. Barry (Ireland)\, Lady Edith Margaret Thomas (England)\, among others.” \nHere is an in-depth article about this event from Chesscafe.com \nMrs. Bowles (Hon. Sec.); Miss Rudge; and Mrs. Fagan from chesscafe.com\n“Over the next years\, she took part in various competitions\, playing in Bristol and Dublin. In 1898\, she played against world champion Emanuel Lasker in a simultaneous display at the Imperial Hotel. Lasker was unable to finish all the games in the time available\, and Rudge’s was one of those unfinished. He conceded defeat because he would be lost with best play.” \nMary Rudge\nHere is an article from the Bristol Chess Times \nand another from the same source. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nThe International Ladies Congress
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-mary-rudge-02-xi-2019/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201122
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201123
DTSTAMP:20201121T151805Z
CREATED:20190823T185607Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201121T151805Z
UID:1116-1606003200-1606089599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of WIM (Patricia) Anne Sunnucks (21-ii-1927 22-xi-2014)
DESCRIPTION:We remember WIM Patricia Anne Sunnucks who passed away this day\, November 22nd\, 2014\, aged 87 years. \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1983)\, Harry Golombek OBE : \n“International Woman master and British Women’s Champion 1957\, 1958 and 1964. Her best international result was a 2nd in the 1954 Western European Zonal. This qualified her for the 1955 Women’s Candidates tournament\, but as this held in the USSR and she was at the time serving as a Major in the British Army\, the authorities would not give her leave to participate. \nMiss Sunnucks has represented England a number of times in Olympiads and team matches. She has compiled The Encyclopedia of Chess\, London\, 1970.” \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1970 & 1976)\, Anne Sunnucks : \n“International Woman Master (1954) and winner of the British Ladies’ Championship in 1957\, 1958 and 1964. \nBorn on 21st February 1927 Anne learned the moves at the age of 8 but did not take up chess seriously until she was 21\, when she joined the same club as International Master\, Imre König” whose pupil she became. \nIn the 1954 Western European Zonal tournament\, she came 2nd and qualified for the 1955 Women’s Candidates tournament but was unable to compete. \nShe played for Great Britain v. the USSR in 1954 and for the British Chess Federation team in the Women’s Chess Olympiads of 1966 and 1972. She also represented the BCF in the Western European Zonal tournaments of 1963 and 1966.” \nAnne Sunnucks vs Chaudé de Silans (Amsterdam\, 1962)\nThe Encyclopedia of Chess by Anne Sunnucks\nAnne created Camberley Chess Club in 1972. She offered to open her spacious home at 28\, Brackendale Close\, Camberley for weekly club nights and matches. \nAnne Sunnucks (third from left) playing in the 1971 British Ladies Championship in Palatine School\, Blackpool. Courtesy of Lancashire Evening Post.\nAnne was a director of BMS (?\, Mothersill\, Sunnucks) Chess Supplies Ltd. which retailed chess books and equipment which the grateful membership purchased ! \nIn September 1984 in Bracknell\, Berkshire Anne married Richard C Mothersill. \nAnne passed away on November 22nd\, 2014 at a retirement village in Meadow Park\, Braintree\, Essex. \nFrom Brian Towers : It is also worth noting that she was an occasional contributor to the weekly chess ‘Magazine’ programme which was broadcast on the Third Network (the precursor to Radio 3) between Autumn 1958 and Summer 1964. \nAccording to Megabase2020\, her highest Elo rating was 2045 but we suspect it was in reality\, quite a bit higher. \nIn 1972 Anne was awarded with a FIDE Medal of Merit. \nWIM Patricia Anne Sunnucks\nFor much of her early chess life Anne was coached by IM Imre (Mirko) König. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nWIM Patricia Anne Sunnucks\nFull Caption\nFrom Wikipedia :\nPatricia Anne Sunnucks (21 February 1927 – 22 November 2014[1]) was an author and three-times British Women’s Chess Champion (1957\, 1958\, 1964). During her chess career she was always known as Anne Sunnucks. \nShe was educated at Wycombe Abbey School[2]\, Buckinghamshire. Although she learned how to play chess at the age of 8\, she did not play seriously until the age of 21\, when she joined the same chess club as Imre König\, who became her tutor. By finishing tied for second place in the 1953 British Women’s Championship she became one of three British representatives in the 1954 Western European Zonal. \nSunnucks earned the Woman International Master title by placing second in the 1954 Western European Zonal. Although this result qualified her to play in the next event in the Women’s World Championship sequence\, she was a major in the Women’s Royal Army Corps and the authorities would not allow her to travel to the USSR where the 1955 Women’s Candidates tournament was being held. Sunnucks represented England several times in Olympiads and team matches\, including Great Britain vs. USSR 1954\, the Anglo-Dutch match in 1965\, and top board for the British Chess Federation (BCF) team at the 1966 Women’s Chess Olympiad at Oberhausen. She participated in the Women’s World Championship cycle two more times\, representing the BCF in the Western European Zonal tournaments of 1963 and 1966. Sunnucks won both the Army and the Combined Services Championships in 1968\, and was the only woman to compete in either. Sunnucks compiled The Encyclopaedia of Chess (1970\, second edition: 1976). \nHer married name was Anne Mothersill.”
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-patricia-anne-sunnucks/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201119
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201120
DTSTAMP:20210224T131121Z
CREATED:20210224T120404Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210224T131121Z
UID:14503-1605744000-1605830399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of SIM Graham Mitchell (04-xi-1905 19-xi-1984)
DESCRIPTION:Death Anniversary of SIM Graham Mitchell (04-xi-1905 19-xi-1984)
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-sim-graham-mitchell-04-xi-1905-19-xi-1984/
CATEGORIES:Correspondence,Death Anniversary,English,History,Remembering
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201118
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201119
DTSTAMP:20201117T182639Z
CREATED:20190823T184658Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201117T182639Z
UID:1112-1605657600-1605743999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Jim Slater (13-iii-1929 18-xi-2015)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Jim Slater (13-iii-1929 18-xi-2015) \nJames Derrick Slater was born on Wednesday\, March 13th\, 1929. On the same day “Leon Trotsky gave his first interview to the foreign press in his apartment in Turkey\, saying he was writing a book tracing the history of his opposition to Joseph Stalin and expressing a desire to go to Germany because he preferred the care of German physicians.” \nHe was born in Heswall\, Cheshire (Wirral\, Merseyside was the registration district) to Hubert Slater and Jessica Alexandra Barton. \nHe arrived (aged 31) in Southampton on board the Pretoria Castle as a first class passenger whilst resident in 16\, Stafford Terrace\, Kensington and his occupation was given as Company Director. \nHe died on 18th November 2015 in Cranleigh\, Surrey aged 86. He had four children one of which is Mark Slater. \nJames Slater\, Chairman Slater Walker Securities plcDirector\, British Leyland. (Photo by Photoshot/Getty Images)\nJim wrote his chess autobiography as follows : \n(This text was retrieved using the Wayback machine via https://web.archive.org/web/20110909053137/http://www.jimslater.org.uk/views/chess/) \n“As a boy Jim Slater enjoyed playing Monopoly and draughts but his main indoor hobby was chess. He stopped playing chess after leaving school as he found it took too much time and concentration while studying for accountancy. \nIt was not until a colleague asked Jim to teach him to improve his game in the late 1960s that his interest in chess was rekindled. For a short while Jim joined a London chess club (Richard James reveals that this is West London Chess Club as mentioned in their internal magazine) but found he preferred correspondence chess which he could play much more conveniently when he returned home in the evening. Jim did quite well in his correspondence club\, going up a few grades\, until he reached a level at which it became hard work. \n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ces3-UaGDAc[/embedyt] \nJim had maintained a link with Leonard Barden\, who was a British Champion and a chess correspondent. With his help Jim began subsidising the annual Hastings Tournament with a view to expanding it so that leading players would have a chance to qualify as international masters. Other countries would not invite British players to play in their tournaments until they became international masters so they were in an impossible situation. The small amount of help Jim was able to give to Hastings was arranged in a very low-key way and attracted very little publicity. The World Chess Championship would prove to be a very different proposition. \nBritish accountant\, investor and business writer Jim Slater (1929 – 2015) signing documents at a desk\, UK\, 11th May 1965. (Photo by Reg Burkett/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)\nFor the previous two decades the Russians had dominated world chess and then the West produced two exceptional players – Bobby Fischer of the USA and Bent Larsen of Denmark. In particular\, Fischer had fantastic potential but he was handicapped by being extremely temperamental. \nIn the final rounds of the World Chess Championship the players were playing the best of ten games. In the quarter finals Fischer won six games to nil. In the semi-final Fischer was paired with Larsen and also beat him six games to nil. This had never happened before in world chess\, and for the first time it looked as if the Russians were going to get a run for their money. \nPersonalities\, Crime\, pic: 3rd December 1976\, Financier Jim Slater arriving at London’s Mansion House Police Court to face fraud charges involving more than 4\,000\,000 (Photo by Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)\nIn the last qualifier Fischer came up against Petrosian\, a brilliant defensive player. Fischer won the first game but lost the second. The next three games were drawn. It was said by some that Fischer had a bad cold and everyone wondered if he could regain his earlier momentum. After this relapse he won the next four games. This made Fischer challenger to Spassky. Spassky too was a brilliant attacking player and had been a chess genius since early childhood\, so it promised to be an exceptional match. \nWhile preparations were being made for the World Championship in Iceland\, Fischer started to complain about the prize money which he thought should be doubled.\n‘I was driving into London early one Monday morning in mid-July feeling disappointed that after all this build-up Fischer might not be taking on Spassky\, when it suddenly occurred to me that I could easily afford the extra prize money personally. As well as providing me with a fascinating spectacle for the next few weeks it would give chess players throughout the world enormous pleasure for the match to proceed.’ \nJim Slater \nFrom The Complete Chess Addict (Faber&Faber\, 1987) \, Mike Fox & Richard James: \n“Jim Slater\, the financier and children’s author\, was a strong schoolboy player. He gave up chess for finance. This turned out a very good thing for chess\, since he was able to tempt Bobby Fischer (with a £50\,000 increase in stake-money) into playing Boris Spassky for the world title in 1972. Here’s what the young Slater was capable of:” \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nBobby Fischer Goes to War\, Faber&Faber\, 2004\nFrom Bobby Fischer Goes to War \, David Edmonds and John Eidinow\, Faber & Faber\,  2004 we have a fuller account as follows : \n“Driving to work in London early on Monday morning\, 3 July\, Jim Slater was upset by a radio report on the challenger’s non-appearance in Reykjavik. Slater was a businessman who had set up his own company\, Slater Walker Securities\, in 1964\, when he was in his mid-thirties. His partner\, Peter Walker\, had left the business to become a Conservative member of parliament and a government minister under Edward Heath and\,later\, Margaret Thatcher. At the time of the Fischer-Spassky match\, the company reportedly had a controlling interest in 250 companies around the world. Supremely confident\, decisive\, ruthless in business\, Slater had by then amassed a fortune of\, in his own words\,’£6 million and rising’. A gambler by nature\, the one big luxury he allowed himself was to play bridge for thousands of pounds with stronger opponents. \nHe was also a chess fan and supporter of the game\, subsidizing the annual Hastings tournament. In the years following Fischer-Spassky\, he would\, alongside the former British champion and journalist Leonard Barden (who provided the vision and organization)\, transform the state of British chess by channelling funds into junior competition. Now he decided that he could easily afford the money to send Fischer to Reykjavik – or expose the American as a coward. He would double the prize\, putting an additional £50\,000 ($125\,000) into the pot. Arriving at his office that Monday morning\, he passed on his offer through Barden\, who then spoke to Marshall\, giving the US attorney some background details about this championship angel. Marshall then talked to Fischer. Slater says he also telephoned his friend David Frost\, who in turn rang his friend Henry Kissinger’ Kissinger then contacted Fischer. What motivated Slater?’As well as providing me with a fascinating spectacle for the next few weeks\, I could give chess players throughout the world enormous pleasure’ \nSlater’s offer made headlines in London’s Evening Standard and his house was soon swarming with reporters. When he returned from work\, he told his astonished wife\,’I had a good idea on the way to the office.’The good idea was couched in challenging terms: ‘If he isn’t afraid of Spassky\, then I have removed the element of money’ \nHere is the famous headline from the July 3rd\, 1972\, London edition of the Evening Standard retrieved from Edward  Winters‘ https://chesshistory.com/winter/extra/spasskyfischer.html \nLondon Edition of the Evening Standard\, July 3rd\, 1972. Retrieved from https://chesshistory.com/winter/extra/spasskyfischer.html\nIt is not altogether clear how the British offer finally persuaded Fischer. Paul Marshall certainly had a hand\, initially pushing it as the answer to all Fischer’s financial demands.’But he wouldn’t accept it; he says.’His experiences with people promising things had taught him not to believe them\, particularly with money. And he wanted proof. And he said no.’Marshall tried to change his mind. Phoning Barden\, the attorney took his place in the gallery of callers that saved the match.’I said if I were them I would rephrase the offer. Slater should say he didn’t think his money was at risk\, because Fischer was just making excuses. He should say that deep down Fischer was frightened. I said Bobby might be piqued by that challenge – and he was. I knew Bobby was very very competitive and combative and would not like to be thought of as a chicken.’ Slater denies this version of events. He maintains it was always his idea to express his offer as a taunt. He never spoke to Fischer and never received a word of gratitude from him.’Fischer is known to be rude\, graceless\, possibly insane\,’he says.’I didn’t do it to be thanked. I did it because it would be good for chess.'” \nThe match between Fischer and Spassky was a most exciting one and fully up to everyone’s expectations. Fischer won the match. \nA few months later\, in an endeavour to help our young players\, Jim Slater offered on behalf of The Slater Foundation to give a prize of £5\,000 (about £75\,000 in today’s money) to the first British grand master and £2\,500 to the next four. Over the next few years Great Britain went from having no grand masters to twenty and became one of the strongest teams of young chess players in the world.” \nHere is an obituary written by Stewart Reuben \nand here is an obituary from Liberal England \nHere is an item from the Slater Foundation \nand here is his entry from chessgames.com which lists  one game from 1947 : “James Derrick Slater\, better known as Jim Slater\, was an English accountant\, investor and business writer. Slater became a well-known chess patron in the 1970s\, when he stepped in to double the prize fund of the Fischer-Spassky world championship match at a time when Fischer was threatening not to play\, thereby enabling the match to go forward. Afterwards he provided significant financial backing for the development of young British players\, many of whom later contributed to Britain becoming one of the world’s strongest chess countries in the 1980s.” \nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess (OUP\, 1984) by Hooper and Whyld : \n“British chess patron\, financier\, children’s author\, Slater achieved wide fame in the chess world on the occasion of the Spassky-Fischer world championship match of 1972. Fischer showed reluctance to play and apparently decided to do so when Slater added £50\,000 to the prize fund. Slater has also made contributions to many other chess causes and in 1973 set-up the Slater Foundation\, a charitable trust which\, among other activities\, pays for the coaching of young players and provides help for their families if needed. Leonard Barden advises the trust on chess matters. In the 1970s\, partly owing to this patronage\, junior players in Britain became as strong as those in any other country.” \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977) by Harry Golombek: \n“An English financier\, a great patron and benefactor of chess\, both on a national and world level. Passionately devoted to chess from schooldays. He said that on leaving school he hesitated between the alternatives of become a chess master and of going into business\, opting for the latter on the grounds that he was not sure of his chess-playing prowess. \nIt is perhaps a fortunate thing for chess that he did not become a chess-master\, since he offer of a £50\,000 increase to the stake at the match at Reykjavik in Iceland in 1972 may well have swayed Fischer into consenting to play. He established a Slater Foundation Fund which helps young English players to go and play abroad.” \nHere is his Wikipedia entry \nHere is a small item from Dennis Monokroussos \nThe Zulu Principle\, Jim Slater\nInvestment Made Easy\, Jim Slater\nReturn to Go\, Jim Slater\nThe Tricky Troggle\, James and Christopher Slater\nThe Great Gulper\, James and Christopher Slater
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-james-derrick-slater/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,Fischer,History,Sponsor
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201117
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201118
DTSTAMP:20211117T160434Z
CREATED:20190822T164355Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211117T160434Z
UID:1004-1605571200-1605657599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Gordon Crown (20-vi-1929 17-xi-1947)
DESCRIPTION:We remember Gordon Crown who died this day (November 17th) in 1947. \nGordon Thomas Crown was born on Thursday\, June 20th\, 1929 to James Crown (born 18th November 1899) and Hilda M Crown (born 3rd October 1900\, née Sharrott). \nJames was a refrigerating engineer and Hilda carried out unpaid domestic duties. The birth was registered in the district of West Derby\, Lancashire. \nGordon attended Holt Secondary School which is now known as Childwall Sports and Science Academy. \nAccording to the electoral register of 1939 they lived at 8 Ingledene Road\, Liverpool\, Liverpool C.B.\, Lancashire\, England. (This is L18 3HJ in this day and age.) \nAccording to Zoopla : “This 4 bed freehold semi-detached house is located at 8 Ingledene Road\, Liverpool L18 3HJ and has an estimated current value of £581\,000. Ingledene Road has 19 properties on it with an average current value of £492\,220\, compared to an average property value of £325\,035 for L18. There have been 5 property sales on Ingledene Road\, L18 over the last 5 years with an average house price paid of £474\,900. There are currently 108 properties for sale in L18 with an average asking price of £372\,163 and 59 properties to rent in L18 with an average asking rent of £408 pw.” \n8 Ingledene Road\, Calderstones\, Liverpool\, L18 3HJ\nLiverpool Echo 15 April 1946\nBoth Sunnucks and Hooper & Whyld are silent on GTC : surprising! \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977)\, Harry Golombek OBE : \n“Gordon Crown is one the sad might-have-beens of the world of chess. In his short life he had already shown himself to be of master strength and a potentially very great player when suddenly\, at the age of eighteen\, he died during an operation. \nHe learnt chess when aged nine and soon became one of the best players\, first in Liverpool\,\, his home town\, and then in Lancashire\, of which county he won the Junior Championship three years in succession. \nCrown first came into national prominence when he came second in the British Boys Championship in 1946. (Ed : the winner was John Fuller) In the Hastings Congress of 1946/7 he won first place in a strong Premier Reserves Section. \nThe last year of his life even saw him reaching out to international success\, Playing on board 9 for Britain against The Netherlands he scored 1.5 out of 2 against L.J. Tummers. Then he won third prize in the British Championship at Harrogate. As a result of this success he was promoted to board 4 for Britain against Australia in a radio match when he beat Dr. M. Gellis. \nHarry Golombek and Gordon Crown in around 1946-47.\nIn September 1947 he was hurried to hospital suffering from peritonitis and\, being a diabetic\, succumbed under the operation. \nAs a player he excelled in both the opening and endgame phases and possessed a style of play that stamped him as a future grandmaster. As a person he was modest\, clever and a very agreeable companion. This was great loss for British and\, almost certainly\, world chess.” \nWe have reproduced his obituary from British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXVII (1947)\, Number 12 (December)\, Page 387-8 and we assume that this was written by TJ Beach: \n“The tragic death of Gordon on November 17th  after an operation\, will be felt keenly-by chess players throughout the country. Although only l8 years of age he had risen to a high place in British chess circles. Learning the elements of the game in 1938\, he had won the Lancashire Junior Championship in three successive years\, was champion of the Liverpool Chess Club and Merseyside champion with 100 per cent scores last season\, headed his section of the Premier Tournament at the last Hastings Christmas Congress\, and\, filling the vacancy caused by the late withdrawal of R. F. Combe the 1946 champion\, took third prize in the British Championship played at Harrogate in August of this year. \nIn three international team matches he scored l.5 points on Board 9 against Tummers\, of Holland; was one of the two British players to score a full point against the visiting U.S.S.R. team\, sharing honours with Kotov in two finely played games on Board 4; and followed this with a win over Dr. Gellis\, of Victoria\, in the recent radio match with Australia\, despite the earlier loss of the exchange through an oversight. His full match record for the past twelve months in international\, county\, and club matches read: won 16\, drawn 2\, and lost l. (to Kotov). \nHis play was notable for his exceptional knowledge of opening and end-game strategy\, but his prowess was not by any means confined to “book” knowledge. Possessing deep positional insight\, real combinational ability\, and chess experience beyond his years\, his concentration\, tenacity\, and\ndetermination to win had already made him one of the most formidable match and tournament players in the country. Many of us felt that he would become a worthy British champion within the next few years\, and possibly reach even greater heights in the international sphere\, and it is\, perhaps\, not too much to say that many chess players were already looking forward to the day when Gordon Crown would lead British chess to a high place in international esteem: Now those dreams have been rudely shattered\, and the loss to British chess is great indeed. \nGordon Crown was not merely a youthful chess prodigy. Although suffering for many years from the physical disability which has now caused his premature death\, he had a distinguished record at the Holt High School\, Liverpool\, and had entered Liverpool University only a month ago to read for the degree of B.A. Unable to play football and cricket\, in which latter he was deeply interested\, he became a tennis and table-tennis player of well above average ability and was an excellent exponent of billiards and snooker. Among other interests were cycling\, and military history and strategy\, in which he had read and studied widely. \nNo study of Gordon Crown would be complete without reference to his personality quite apart from his ability. Possessed of a quiet assurance and confidence in matters pertaining to chess\, he was modest in victory\, generous in his rare defeats\, and ever ready to help small clubs by means of a lecture or simultaneous display. \nNever too busy to play the humblest novice\, he gave untold pleasure and a new interest in life to many men who had suffered during the war by introducing them to the\nfascination of chess\, and by this means helped materially in the vital task of rehabilitation. With charm and dignity Gordon Crown won a warm place in the hearts and affections of those who were fortunate enough to be counted among his friends\, and whilst our deepest sympathy goes out to his parents in their tragic loss\, they may well ae proud that their son achieved so much that was really worth while within so few years\, for we shall remember Gordon with affection long after his chess exploits are but a dim memory.-T. J. B.” \nThe following is one of the last games\, if not the last; played by Crown in competitive chess. Score and notes from “The Field” \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nand here is the scan of the original article: \nObituary of Gordon Thomas Crown\, part one\nand \nObituary of Gordon Thomas Crown\, Part Two\nWe are grateful to Leonard Barden on the identity of T.J.B. : \n“Thomas John Beach\, wartime RAF navigator with Distinguished Flying Cross\, leading light of Liverpool chess\, regular British championship player for many years\, chairman of BCF junior selectors\, father of a leading Midlands expert\, a good and dedicated man” TJB was the father of Richard Beach who won the British Boys Under 18 title in 1961. \nAccording to the British Chess Magazine\, 1943\, March\, page 56 GTC lived at 8 Ingledene Road\, Calderstones\, Liverpool 18\, England. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nGordon Thomas Crown\, from CHESS\, 1948\, January\, page 86\nOn 17 November 1947 he was admitted to hospital\, complaining of a stomach upset. Diagnosed too late with appendicitis\, complicated by his diabetes\, he died in the operating theatre. \nHis friend (and former British champion) Leonard Barden speculates that had he lived\, Crown would have become at least a strong Grandmaster\, further noting that he was ” … open\, friendly and modest as well as a clear and enthusiastic explainer of his chess ideas; I think he would have been like Keres or Gligoric in their countries\, a model for our young players.” \nHarry Golombek was similarly impressed with Crown’s play\, stating that “In his short life\, he had already shown himself to be of master strength and was potentially a very great player.” \nWe are grateful to be able to use comments from long time friend\, Leonard Barden posted under the nom de plume of Roberts Partner on chessgames.com : \n“As to the circumstances of Crown’s death. The finger of blame must be pointed at the family doctor for failing to make a timely correct diagnosis. On Sunday 16 November 1947 a chess friend visited the Crown home at Ingledene Road\, Liverpool\, and found Crown in bed. He explained that his doctor had diagnosed a stomach upset and had recommended rest. The friend and Crown played and analysed together for several hours\, and Crown did not appear in any physical discomfort. But that night after the friend left his condition deteriorated and he was rushed to hospital where he died in the early morning hours of 17 November. There was also a belief among some Liverpool chess players that the hospital procedures could have been better.” \nand \n“On another thread some CG posters expressed surprise at the Ritson Morry v Crown game where Morry fell into a well-known opening trap. \nThe British championship at Harrogate in August 1947 was played in a spa building where the underfloor heating was still switched on. This coincided with one of the warmest summers on record (it was the year in which Compton and Edrich made their memorable cricket achievements for Middlesex). By the second week of the BCF congress older and overweight players (the latter group including Ritson Morry) were wilting. Ritson also had some long adjourned games\, and by the time of his game with Crown in the final round was exhausted. The game finished in 15-20 minutes so by the time other players went to spectate after their opening moves there was just a reset board with no sign of the players and no indication of what had transpired. Other final round results went Crown’s way so that he finished third outright and thus got selected on a high board for the USSR match.” \nWestern Daily Press 22 September 1947\nand here is an article by ddtru (?) in chess.com : full article \nWe are grateful to renowned chess historian\, Taylor Kingston for supplying these scans of an article from Chess Life in 1947 about Gordon Crown written by Reuben Fine : \nChess Life article about Gordon Thomas Crown\, Part One\nand \nChess Life article about Gordon Thomas Crown\, Part Two\nFrom Wikipedia: \n“Gordon Thomas Crown (20 June 1929 – 17 November 1947) was a promising British chess player who died of appendicitis at the age of eighteen. He is best known for his win against the Russian Grandmaster Alexander Kotov shortly before his death. \nCrown was born in Liverpool in 1929. He finished second in the British under 18 championship in 1946 and improved rapidly\, winning the Premier Reserve section of the 1946/7 Hastings International Chess Congress. This led to his being placed on the reserve list for the 1947 British Chess Championship. Following the withdrawal of the defending champion Robert Forbes Combe\, he was allowed to play in the championship\, where he finished third (Harry Golombek won). \nConsequently\, he was selected to play for the British team in the 1947 Britain-USSR match\, where he caused a sensation by defeating the Soviet Grandmaster Alexander Kotov\, though he lost the return game. He also defeated Max Gellis in a Britain-Australia radio match.” \nInterestingly\, via the EC Forum\, Geoff Chandler pointed out a note by Edward Winter in which Bill Hartston recounts advice from David Bronstein : “Look at the games of Gordon Crown. He really understood chess”. From NOW! magazine\, (6-12 February 1981\, page 80.): thanks Geoff ! \nGordon Thomas Crown
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-gordon-thomas-crown/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201116
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201117
DTSTAMP:20201116T143818Z
CREATED:20190823T184126Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201116T143818Z
UID:1108-1605484800-1605571199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Edward Sergeant OBE (3-xii-1881 16-xi-1961)
DESCRIPTION:We remember Edward Sergeant OBE (3-xii-1881 16-xi-1961) \nEdward Guthlac Sergeant was born on Saturday\, December 3rd 1881 : in the same year British Chess Magazine was founded by John Watkinson. \nHe was born in Crowland\, South Holland\, Lincolnshire. The registration district was Peterborough and the inferred county was Northamptonshire. His father was William R Sergeant (aged 27) and his mother was Frances E Sergeant (aged 25). He had a sister\, Hilda who was one year older. William was a registered general medical practitioner. \nHe was named Guthlac after a monk who “came to what was then an island in the Fens to live the life of a hermit.” \nSignature of EG Sergeant from a Brian Reilly “after dinner” postcard from Margate 1936.\nAccording to the 1891 census EGS was aged 9 and living with his father\, mother\, sister and their domestic servant Margaret A George who was their general domestic servant who hailed from Scotland. They lived at 2\, Gladstone Terrace\, Gateshead\, NE8 4DY. This was in the Ecclesiastical parish of Christchurch. \n2\, Gladstone Terrace\, Gateshead\, NE8 4DY\nIn the 1911 census aged 29 as nephew to the head of the household (5 St Peters Terrace\, Cambridge) EGS is listed as a solicitor who is single. The size of the household in 1911 was relatively modest at 12. He was living with George Edward Wherry (59\, surgeon university professor) and his wife Albinia Lucy Wherry (53). Albinia Lucy Wherry was a nurse and also writer. During WWI she was stationed in Paris at the Gare du Nord where she supported British forces from 1915-18. the sub-registration district was St Andrew the Great. \nAccording to Edward Winter in Where did they live? in April 1916 EGS was living at 39 Chichele Road\, Cricklewood\, London NW2 3AN\, England. EGWs source for this is : Chess Amateur\, April 1916\, page 202. \n39 Chichele Road\, Cricklewood\, London NW2 3AN\n1918 was an important year for Edward when he married Dorothy Frances Carter (born 1887) in Gravesend. In the same year Dorothy and Edward had a son Richard who passed away in 2014 \nTwo years later Dorothy and Edward had a son Lewis Carter Sergeant born on January 30th 1920. The birth was registered in Paddington. Lewis lived at 3 Woodhill Court\, 175 Woodhill\, London\, SE18 5HSL and passed away in 2004 the death being registered in Greenwich. \nOn the 1920 Electoral Roll\, EGS was now living with Dorothy Frances Sergeant at St. Stephen’s Mansions\, 5\, Monmouth Road\, Edmonton. \nIn 1923 they upped sticks and moved to 27. King Edward’s Grove\, Teddington.  \nSadly Dorothy passed away in 1926 at the modest age of 39. \nCoventry Evening Telegraph 10 October 1933\nAccording to the 1939 census EGS was listed as a widowed\, civil servant living at 24\, Gloucester Road\, Kingston Upon Thames\, KT2 7DX. This would be the address that Edward saw out the rest of his life. \n24\, Gloucester Road\, Kingston Upon Thames\, KT2 7DX\nHe shared this address with Edith Carter (born 4th May 1878) who is described as being of “Private Means” and Ada M Wenman (6th August 1881) who is described as being a “domestic”. \nIn 1949 he was awarded the OBE in the Birthday Honours in recognition of his 39 years’ service in the office of the Solicitor to the Board of Inland Revenue. \nAccording to John Saunders : EGS died in the New Victoria Hospital\, New Malden\, Surrey\, on 16 November 1961. His residence at death had been 24 Gloucester Road\, Kingston Hill. Probate (26 Jan 1962) granted to Lewis Carter Sergeant\, a Lieutenant-Colonel in HM Army. Effects £6\,586. \nE.G. Sergeant in characteristic pose v. Miss Vera Menchik at Margate\, 1939\nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977)\, Harry Golombek OBE : \nA British master who had a long and solidly distinguished career in British chess but never quite succeeded in breaking through the barrier to international success. A civil servant by profession\, he was awarded the OBE for his services in the Inland Revenue and Sergeant on Stamp Duties was regarded as an authoritative work. \nSergeant’s earliest performance in the British Championship\, at the Crystal Palace in London 190\, was one of his best. He came =2nd with JH Blackburne. RP Mitchell and GE Wainwright with 6.5 points\, a point below the winner of the title\, HE Atkins. \nHe was 3rd at Edinburgh in 1920 and his best result in the competition came in Brighton 193\, where he came equal second with H. Golombek\, a 1/2 point below the winner\, CHO’D Alexander. \nA stalwart supporter of the City of London Chess Club\, he won its championship in two successive years\, 1916 and 1917. He played for Britain against the USA in the 1908 and 1909 cable matches and also played on a high board for London against various American cities in the Insull Trophy matches in the years 1926-31. \nAs a player he was strongly influenced by the scientific principles of Siegbert Tarrasch and did well during the period when the Tarrasch school enjoyed its heyday. But he was at a loss when confronted with more modern methods.” \nBoth Sunnucks and Hooper & Whyld are silent on EGS : surprising! \nEGS was a cousin of PW Sergeant. \nWe asked  Leonard Barden of his memories of EGS and he was kind enough to reply :  \n“People have different ways of expressing satisfaction with their position. Botvinnik adjusted his tie\, Kasparov put his watch back on\,  Sergeant rubbed his hands together….He liked to counter the Queen’s Gambit Declined in the classical way with a kind of Lasker Defence.” \nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXXII\, March\, 1962\, Number 3\, pages 76 -80 we reproduce an obituary from Bruce Hayden entitled “E.G. Sergeant – An Appreciation” as follows : \n(note the incorrect birth location presumably based on the 1891 census information) \nEdward Guthlac Sergeant\, part one\nEdward Guthlac Sergeant\, part two\nEdward Guthlac Sergeant\, part three\nEdward Guthlac Sergeant\, part four\nEdward Guthlac Sergeant\, part five\nSergeant on Stamp Duties\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nHere is his Wikipedia entry
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-edward-guthlac-sergeant/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,History,Player
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201112
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201113
DTSTAMP:20201224T001323Z
CREATED:20190823T084948Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201224T001323Z
UID:1048-1605139200-1605225599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of GM Anthony Miles (23-iv-1955 12-xi-2001)
DESCRIPTION:We remember one of the most innovative and best loved English players of all time\, Tony Miles. \nFrom British Chess (Pergamon Press\, 1983) by Bernard Cafferty : \n“If one had to forecast at the start of the 1970s the British chess would have a player in the next decade who would win the World Junior Championship\, make plus score against Soviet players in his first years of play against them\, and beat such household names as Geller\, Bronstein\, Larsen\, Gligoric\, Smyslov\, Spassky and Karpov…one would have been called a romantic dreamer. \nEnglish chess grandmaster Tony Miles (1955 – 2001)\, UK\, 6th May 1973. (Photo by Hoare/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)\nIf one had gone further and said that the same grandmaster X would become only the second British player this century to beat a reigning world champion\, and that as Black in an irregular opening (1 e4 a6 2 d4 b5) then incredulity would indeed have been a fitting reaction. \n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGVc_IdcPlU[/embedyt] \nYet all this has come to pass; all the above is fact not fiction\, reality not a day dream. Who is grandmaster X? Where did he develop? \nAnthony John Miles was born on the 23rd April\, 1955\, in Birmingham (his birthplace is incorrectly marked (Ed: as London) on the map in Elo’s book on ratings.) He learned the moves at the age of five\, became seriously interested in the game at the age of nine or ten\, and almost straight away won the Birmingham Primary Schools Championship. \nEnglish chess grandmaster Tony Miles (1955 – 2001)\, UK\, 15th May 1973. (Photo by Adam/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)\nIn 1965 he joined the Birmingham Chess club and the following year became a pupil at King Edward School (KES) (the alma mater of other strong British players\, such as Hugh Alexander and Malcolm Barker\, runner-up to Ivkov in the inaugural World Junior Championship held at Birmingham in 1951.) \nTony Miles\nAt the Birmingham Club he met strong opposition (another grandmaster-to-be\, the postal player Keith Richardson was a member there for a time) since the club’s four teams were all in the higher divisions of the local league. Yet Tony’s school work meant that he could not be called a frequent attender at the club – he turned up for league matches and the club championship\, but rarely for skittles except in the summer. \nTony Miles and possibly (?) Peter Clarke at Birmingham 1973\nSoon he was playing in the Second Division\, by 1968 he was in the First Division\, and in the 1969-70 season he was on top board for one of the Club’s three teams in the top Division. \n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcUDLhFHjRQ[/embedyt] \nTony made his debut in the BCF Congress at Oxford\, 1967\, where he was equal 11th in the under-14 Boys Championship won by another rising star\, John Nunn. Strangely enough when Tony won this title the following year at Bristol Nunn was 3rd equal! \n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiH8TZJJHEY[/embedyt] \nThe Edgbaston player was also a regular competitor in the annual Easter Congress held in the same suburb of Birmingham where he lived. \nTony Miles\nThe breakthrough to national status came when he was a sixth-former at KES. At the BCF Congress\, Blackpool\,\n1971\, he won the under-2l Championship (with Nunn and Jon Speelman equal 2nd and the same year made his international debut in a junior tournament at Nice which he won ahead of various prominent players including the Swiss Hug who was to win the World Junior championship some 4 months later! \nTony Miles and unknown opponent\nIn the 1971-72 Birmingham and District League season he set up a scoring record\, mainly on top board\, that may never be equalled (9.5 out of 10). \nTony Miles\nDuring these school years Tony was a rather taciturn teenager (perhaps to be expected in an only child) but he never fitted in with the conventional image of chessplayer as weedy bookworm. \nTony being presented with the trophy in the photograph below\nHe always had a fine physique\, played rugger at school and later became keen on squash and skiing as a means of keeping fit\, though he is the first to admit that he can be rather lethargic (especially in the mornings!) \nTony Miles\nAt the time I knew one of his teachers professionally\, and heard the occasional report that he was not always up to the best academic standards of KES. My reaction must have seemed heresy at the time\, but subsequent events in the post-Fischer era have confirmed that the ability to play chess to international standard may lead to a more worthwhile career than being a run-of-the-mill university graduate. \nTony Miles at Hastings\nA sign of Tony’s growing understanding of the finer points of the game came when he strolled into the Birmingham Club the day after the first game of the Spassky-Fischer match and pointed out (correctly as was shown later) the reason why Fischer had made his famous Bxh2 sacrifice/oversight. \nTony Miles & Bill Hartston admire a Rolls-Royce\nInternational recognition came in 1973 when he finished 2nd to Romanishin in the European Junior Championship at Groningen\, and Second to Belyavsky in the World Junior at Teeside\, as well as sharing 4-6th place in the British Championship at Eastbourne at only the second attempt. His first game to be published round the world was his victory over Bisguier in the Birmingham Easter tournament which he won ahead of Adorjan and Bisguier in the same year. \nEngland plays Italy at Haifa 1976. Miles played Tatai\, Keene played Toth\, Hartston played Grinza and Mestel played Micheli\nThe main event of 1974\, a break-through for British chess\, was the World Junior Championship played in August in sub-tropical Manila. Here he played one of his finest games\, against Kochiev\, to take the title with a round to spare\, thereby becoming lnternational Master. Tony’s physical strength showed up to good effect here\, not just lasting out the 4 weeks in the baking humidity but coping with the huge load of luggage (on the outward journey huge cases full of Chess Player\, Informator and the like; on the return journey this load reinforced with prizes and souvenirs!). \nTony Miles at Wijk aan Zee 1976. Korchnoi was first. Photo taken by Brian or Freddy Reilly\nGaining the title brought regular invitations to tournaments which could not be fitted in well with the demands of his maths course at Sheffield University. In the summer of 1975 he gave up the course after two years\, while the University authorities showed their recognition of his distinction at chess by the award of an honorary MA degree. \nTony Miles in relaxed mood\nOnce free to concentrate wholeheartedly on his true calling he took the grandmaster title in a rush. The first norm came with first prize\, August\, 1975\, at the London Chess Fortnight ahead of Adorjan\, Sax and Timman. \nTony Miles\nHastings 1975-76 was not too good a result\, but only a few weeks later he was on his way to a great triumph despite\nforced late acceptance of the invitation to the USSR due to lack of finance. He got his visa just in time and went to snowy Dubna\, a scientific centre near Moscow\, to achieve that most difficult feat – a GM norm in a Soviet tournament ahead of eight GM’s and others\njust as strong. \nTony Miles plays Tony Miles : see full caption below\nCaption for above photograph\nThus Tony Miles became the first official British grandmaster (the title dates officially only from 1949\, so excluding the likes of Staunton\, Blackburne and Burn) and took the £5000 Slater prize for the first British GM to add to the £1000 prize for victory in the 1975 Cutty Sark series of weekend and other tournaments. The availability of sponsorship\, it goes without saying\, has done much to encourage Tony on his chosen path as a chess professional\, a far from easy vocation that demands will-power and strong nerves to be successful. \nTony Miles : See full caption below\nFull caption for above photograph\nAccompanying letter for above photograph\n1977 confirmed that here was a genuine grandmaster with first prizes at the Amsterdam IBM and Biel tournaments\, and second prize behind Karpov\nat the first of the new series of Super grandmaster tournaments (Tilburg\, Holland.) \nTony Miles in pensive mood\nAfter his Promotion to the ranks of grandmaster Tony\, with his usual directness\, said that the only thing left to achieve was to have a crack at Karpov. (His fans might react by saying that there were other mountains to climb such as first place at Hastings and in the British Championship\, but then Karpov has not achieved the first either\, and only became Soviet Champion after he had taken the world title!) \nTony Miles and Michael Stean at the FIDE Zonal in Amsterdam\, 1978. (Source: http://gahetna.nl)\nThe first chance for this ‘crack’ came with their meeting in the super tournaments at Tilburg and Bugojno\, as well as in the 1977 BBC2 TV Master Game’ The\nresults went much in favour of the (slightly) older man. Tony had to wait till January\, 1980 before he could celebrate a victory over Fischer’s successor. \nPeter Sowray watching Tony Miles at the Lloyds Bank Masters. Sir Jeremy Morse watches.\nBy this time Tony had failed in his first bid to get to a title match with the Russian when he fell away after a good start in the 1979 Riga Interzonal (the\nsecond stage of the three-part qualifying cycle). It is a pity that our leading professional in Britain still has to accept so many invitations merely to make a\ndecent living. As Botvinnik has commented\, some properly directed study and training at home may be preferable to too frequent public appearances at the board. \nTony Miles and Sergey Kudrin at a Benedictine International in Manchester\nWhat sort of person and player is Tony Miles? He has become a more outgoing person in recent years\, and has even overcome his legitimate aversion to\nmedia representatives who attempt to interview him without any background in the game. \nTony Miles\nHis style has also gone through various changes. At first he was purely a 1 e4 player with a penchant for tricky Nc6 variations of the Four Knights. This repertoire brought him a string of wins\, but once he began meeting masters regularly he had to change his repertoire to include the flank openings and 1 d4 as well as the Sicilian Defence. Some notable contributions to opening theory include Bf4 against the Oueen’s Indian\, the defence 1…b6\, perhaps now 1…a6. \nTony Miles\, now playing under the US flag\nYet his real strength is not in the openings\, and he rarely scores quick knockouts. His strength lies in the ability to play a wide variety of positions\, to have the patience to play on when there is nothing special in the position and then to recognize the crisis (sometimes more psychological than positional). At this point his fitness and energy tell. It is significant that one of his best wins in the Dubna tournament came in a queen and pawn ending that demanded great patience and technical ability. \n10th April 1980: Tony Miles (left) plays 14-year-old Nigel Short in the opening match of the Phillips and Drew Chess Tournament at County Hall\, London. (Photo by Wesley/Keystone/Getty Images)\nAs readers of his weekly column will know he loves to analyse ever more deeply\, and seems happier here than in taking intuitive decisions. In the play of the first British grandmaster we see a confirmation of the fact that modern competitive chess is more of a sport (Denksport as the Germans have it) than\nan art\, more a bitter struggle of strong personalities than an orthodox game.\nBernard Cafferty\n” \n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K35XeuifzXg[/embedyt] \nIn British Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXII (122\, 2002)\, Number 1 (January) pp. 6-13 appeared this wonderful obituary from John Saunders with contributions from Bernard Cafferty\, Colin Crouch\, Jon Levitt and Malcolm Hunt : \nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXII (122\, 2002)\, Number 1 (January) pp. 6-13\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXII (122\, 2002)\, Number 1 (January) pp. 6-13\nTony Miles at Tilburg 1985\nTony Miles at Tilburg 1985\nTony Miles at Tilburg 1985\nBy Bogaerts\, Rob / Anefo – Interpolisschaaktoernooi Tilburg; Miles (met rugklachten) ligt op massagetafel te wachten op zijn tegenstanderDutch National Archives\, The Hague\, Fotocollectie Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANeFo)\, 1945-1989\,Auteursrechthebbende Nationaal Archief\, Nummer toegang 2.24.01.05 Bestanddeelnummer 933-4181\, CC0\, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23134281\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXII (122\, 2002)\, Number 1 (January) pp. 6-13\nTony receives the Leigh Grand Prix award from ?\nTony receives the Leigh Grand Prix award from ? and David Anderton OBE\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXII (122\, 2002)\, Number 1 (January) pp. 6-13\nTony playing under the Union flag\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXII (122\, 2002)\, Number 1 (January) pp. 6-13\nTony Miles reflecting on an adjourned position. Courtesy of Stephanie Bureau.\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXII (122\, 2002)\, Number 1 (January) pp. 6-13\nTony : always popular with the ladies at a Lloyds Bank event\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXII (122\, 2002)\, Number 1 (January) pp. 6-13\nTony at a Lloyds Bank event with Ray Keene\, Yasser Seirawan and Vassily Smyslov\nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess\, (OUP\, 1984 & 1994)\, Hooper & Whyld : \n“English-born player\, International Grandmaster (1976). While an undergraduate he entered and won by a margin of one and a half points the World Junior Championship\, Manila 1974. The following year his university\, Sheffield\, awarded him an honorary MA degree for his chess achievements\, and he left without completing his studies\, to become a chess professional. The successes came quickly; London 1975\, first (+6=3-1); Amsterdam 1976\, first equal with Korchnoi; Amsterdam 1977\, first (+7=7-1); Biel 1977\, first (+ 8=6-l); Tilburg 1977\, second (+5:4-2)\, after Karpov\, ahead of Hort and Hübner; Tilburg 1978\, third (+4=4-3) equal with Dzindzichashvili and Hübner\, after Portisch and Timman; London 1980\, first (+6=5-2) equal with Andersson and Korchnoi; Las Palmas 1980\, first (+6=5) equal with Geller and Petrosian; Baden-Baden 1981\, first (+6=7) equal with Ribli\, ahead of Korchnoi; Porz Koln l98l-2\, second (+8=l-2)\, behind Tal\, ahead of Hort; Biel 1983\, first (+5=6)\, shared with Nunn; Tilburg 1984\, first (+5=6)\, ahead of Belyavsky\, Ribli\, and Hübner; Portoroz-Ljubljana 1985\, first (+4=6-l) equal with Portisch and Ribli; and Tilburg 1985\, first (+6=5-3) equal with Hübner and Korchnoi. \nTony making a getaway !\nAround this time Miles began to feel the strain of ten years at the top. He was the first British player of modern times who could be seen as a possible challenger for the world title\, and in the late 1970s he was well clear of his British rivals. However\, largely inspired by Miles’s success\, a new generation\,led by Short\, was in pursuit\, and by the mid 1980s Miles was no longer top board in the Olympiad side. Successes became fewer\, his marriage ended\, and his confidence was weakened. \nTony enjoyed flamboyant shirts\nDetermined to make a new start\, he transferred his allegiance to the USA in 1987\, and immediately shared first place with Gulko\, who won the play-off\, in the US Open Championship. \nTony Miles\nThe move was not a lasting success. Miles had indifferent results and was not selected for the US Olympiad team in 1988. He had maintained a home in Germany and commuted to play in the Bundesliga and by 1990 he was spending an increasing proportion of his time in Europe. His confidence began to return\, and with it more victories. He was first in two Swiss system events\, Rome 1990\, ahead of Barayev\, Chernin\, Smyslov etc\, and Bad Worishofen 1990 (shared)\, and at Biel 1990 was equal\nthird (+3=9-2) alter Karpov and Andersson.” \nTony Miles\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nFrom Wikipedia :\n“Personal life \nMiles was an only child\, born 23 April 1955 in Edgbaston\, a suburb of Birmingham\, and attended King Edward’s School\, Birmingham.[1][2] He was married and divorced twice\, and had no children.[1] Miles’ first wife was Jana Hartston\, who had previously been married to William Hartston.[2] \nEarly achievements in chess\nHe learned the game of chess early in life and made good progress nationally\, taking the titles of British under-14 Champion and under-21 Champion in 1968[1] and 1971\,[3][4] respectively. \nIn 1973\, Miles won the silver medal at the World Junior Chess Championship at Teesside\, his first important event against international competition. Both he and compatriot Michael Stean defeated the tournament winner Alexander Beliavsky\, but were unable to match the Soviet player’s ruthlessness in dispatching lesser opponents. Miles went on to win this prestigious title the following year in Manila\, while a mathematics undergraduate of the University of Sheffield.[1][2] \nTaking the decision to pursue the game professionally\, Miles did not complete his studies\, but\, in 1975\, was awarded an MA by the University in respect of his chess achievements.[2] \nFurther career highlights\nIn 1976\, Miles became the first UK-born\, over-the-board chess grandmaster\, narrowly beating Raymond Keene to the accolade.[2] The naturalised\, German-born Jacques Mieses was awarded the GM title in 1950\, while Keith Bevan Richardson had been awarded the GM title for correspondence chess earlier in 1975. For his achievement\, Miles won a £5\,000 prize\, put up by wealthy businessman and chess backer Jim Slater.[1][2] \nMiles had a string of good results in the late 1970s and 1980s. He matured into a world class player and won games against high calibre opponents\, such as former World Chess Champions Vasily Smyslov\, Mikhail Tal and Boris Spassky. \nIn 1980 at the European Team Championship in Skara\, he beat reigning World Champion Anatoly Karpov with Black\, using the extremely unorthodox opening 1. e4 a6!?\, the St. George Defence. It is often said that Miles learned the line from offbeat openings enthusiast Michael Basman\, but in his book Play the St. George\, Basman asserts there is no truth to this. Miles beat Karpov again three years later in Bath in a game that was part of the BBC’s Master Game series\, but it was shown only by the (co-producing) German television network\, due to a BBC technicians’ strike at the time of broadcast. \nMiles won the British Championship just once\, in 1982 when the event was held in Torquay. His prime time as a chess player was the mid-1980s. On 20 May 1984 in Roetgen (Germany)\, Miles set a European record in blind simultaneous chess with 22 games (+10−2=10);[5] this record was not broken until 2009. On the January 1984 Elo rating list\, he ranked No. 18 in the world with a rating of 2599. One of his best results occurred at the Tilburg tournament in 1984\, where\, from a strong field\, he emerged sole winner by a clear margin of one and one-half points. The following year\, he tied for first at the same event with Robert Hübner and Viktor Korchnoi\, playing several of his games while lying face down on a table\, having injured his back.[6] \nThe result was controversial\, as many of Miles’ opponents felt they were distracted by the unusual circumstances. A string of good performances culminated in a good showing on the January 1986 Elo rating list\, where he climbed to a best-ever position of World No. 9 with a rating of 2610. During this period\, there was considerable rivalry with Nunn over who was the United Kingdom’s best player\, the two protagonists regularly leapfrogging each other in the world rankings. Nigel Short and Speelman soon added to the competition\, as the English national squad entered its strongest period. \nNever able to qualify out of the Interzonal stages into the Candidates’ series\, Miles eventually lost the race to become the first British Candidate when Short did so in 1985. However\, he retained top board for England at the Thessaloniki and Dubai Olympiads of 1984 and 1986\, helping the team to silver medals at each. \nAgainst Garry Kasparov\, Miles had little success\, not winning a game against him\, and losing a 1986 match in Basel by the score of 5½–½. Following this encounter\, Miles commented “I thought I was playing the world champion\, not a monster with a thousand eyes who sees everything” (some sources alternatively quote Miles as having the opinion that Kasparov had 22 or 27 eyes). \nMiles on a stretcher with back pain\, playing in Tilburg (1985)\nAfter he was hospitalised because of a mental breakdown in late 1987\, Miles moved to the United States. He finished last in the 1988 U.S. Championship\, but continued to play there and had some good results. In 1991\, he played in the Championship of Australia\, but eventually moved back to England and began to represent his native country again. He was equal first at the very strong Cappelle-la-Grande Open in 1994\, 1995\, and 1997\, and caused a shock at the PCA Intel Rapid Chess Grand Prix in London in 1995\, when he knocked out Vladimir Kramnik in the first round and Loek van Wely in the second. His bid to win the event was finally halted in the semifinal by English teammate Michael Adams. \nThere were four notable victories at the Capablanca Memorial in Cuba (1994\, 1995\, 1996\, and 1999). Miles also tied for first in the 1999 Continental Open in Los Angeles with Alexander Beliavsky\, Ľubomír Ftáčnik and Suat Atalık. His last tournament victory was the 2001 Canadian Open Chess Championship in Sackville\, New Brunswick. \nMiles entered and played at the 2001 British Championship in Scarborough\, but withdrew before the final round\, apparently because of ill health. His final two games before his death were short draws in the Four Nations Chess League. Miles played in an extraordinary number of chess events during his career\, including many arduous weekend tournaments. \nThe Miles Variation (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.Bf4) in the Queen’s Indian Defence is named after him.” \nOf course there are numerous articles about Tony for example : \nVlastimil Hort Remembers Tony Miles \nHort stories: Wrong place wrong time \nChess Corner – Original Maverick: Remembering Tony Miles \nBritain’s first chess grandmaster\, he paved the way for today’s international competitors \nTony Miles 1955-2001 \nKingpin \nTony Miles (1955-2001) by Edward Winter \nHow Anthony Miles beat a World Champion (Karpov-Miles\, Skara 1980) \n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIt7McTLy4Y[/embedyt] \nLawrence Trent plays Tony Miles in 2001 at the British Championships in Scarborough\nIt’s Only Me\, edited by Geoff Lawton\nTony Miles : England’s Chess Gladiator\, Ray Keene\, 2006\nTony Miles : England’s Chess Gladiator\, Ray Keene\, 2006\nA Tony Miles memorial
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-tony-miles/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201111
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201112
DTSTAMP:20201111T140324Z
CREATED:20190101T000111Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201111T140324Z
UID:1140-1605052800-1605139199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Fred Dewhirst Yates (16-i-1884 11-xi-1932)
DESCRIPTION:We remember Fred Yates who passed (or\, at least was recorded as passing) on Friday\, November 11th\, 1932. \nFred (not Frederick) Dewhirst (not Dewhurst) was born in Birstall\, Leeds on Wednesday\, January 16th 1884\, the same year as Harry S Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt. \nAn obituary appeared in Volume LII (52\, 1932)\, Number 12 (December)\, pp.525-528 of the British Chess Magazine by PW Sergeant : \n“The chess world has had many heavy bereavements during the year which is coming to an end; but to the British section of it there has been no bereavement like the last\, which robbed it of F.D.Yates\, when still in the prime of his chess career. The circumstances of his end were tragic. On the night of Tuesday\, November 8th\, he gave a very successful exhibition at Wood Green\, only dropping one half-point in 16 games. On the following night he was in the company of a chess friend until fairly late\, and then went back to his room in Coram Street\, Bloomsbury. He was never seen alive again. It was not until Friday morning that anxiety was felt at Coram Street as to what he might be doing; for he was in the habit of secluding himself for many hours at a stretch when busy with work. \n  \nFred Dewhirst Yates\nOn Friday\, however\, when no answer could be got to knocks on the door of his room\, which was locked\, and a smell of gas was noticed\, the door was at last broken open\, and he was found dead in bed. \nIt came out at the inquest before the St. Pancras coroner on November 15 that \, though the gas-taps in the room were securely turned off\, there had been an escape from what a gas companies official described as an obsolete type of fitting attached to the meter in the room. The meter\, it appears\, was on the floor\, and the fitting must have been accidentally dislodged. A verdict was recorded of Accidental Death; and the coroner directed that the gas-pipes from the room should remain in the custody of the court. The body was conveyed to Leeds for burial on the morning of November 16. \nSo prematurely passed away one who may with justice be called one of the finest exponents of British chess\, and an international master whose strength was recognised all over the world. \n  \nFred Yates as drawn by WH Cozens for BCM\nFrederick Dewhurst (sic) was born at Birstall\, near Leeds\, on January 16\, 1884. He did not develop his chess power very young\, at the B.C.F. congress at the Crystal Palace in 1907 only playing in the Second Class\, though he then won first prize in one of the two sections. At Tunbridge Wells next year he tied for fourth place in a section of the First Class. He was admitted to the British Championship at Scarborough in 1909 (in which year he was Yorkshire Champion)\, and there tied with Blackburne for fourth and fifth prizes\, after HE Atkins\, JH Blake\, and W. Ward. \nIn the same event at Oxford in 1910 he again tied with Blackburne\, but this time for second and third prizes\, Atkins being first\, though losing in his individual encounter with Yates. In 1911\, at Glasgow\, Yates still further improved his position\, this time tieing with Atkins for first place; but in the tie-match Atkins won somewhat easily. \nAtkins stood down for the first time at Richmond in 1912; but the success of RC Griffith left Yates second\, in company with the late HG Cole. At last in 1913\, Yates gained his ambition\, and at Cheltenham won the British Championship with the fine score of 9 out of a possible 11\, 1.5 points above J. Mahood and 2 above Blackburne. In the ruined Congress at Chester in 1914 he tied for first place with Blackburne; and\, as Blackburne was unable to play a deciding match\, Yates won his second championship. \nFred Dewhirst Yates\, Jacoby Archive\nSince the War he gained the title again in 1921\, 1926\, 1928 and 1931\, thus making a record of six championships\, second only to Atkin’s record of nine (ed : in 1969 at the Rhyl Congress Jonathan Penrose OBE was to surpass Atkin’s record by one.) \nYate’s six victories were gained in sixteen attempts In addition must be mentioned his success in the Hastings tournament\, in the New Year of 1921\, for holders of the British Championship only. \nFred Yates\nHis other successes in this country\, including his two wins in the in the Anglo-American cable match\, in 1910-11\, need not detain us; for limitations of space demand that we shall come to Yates as an international master. His first essay was at Hamburg in 1910\, on the invitation of the German Chess Federation. Though he did badly\, only getting one win in 16 games\, the win was a remarkable effort\, at the expense of no less a celebrity than Dr. Tarrasch. \n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kABtIdnTRfk[/embedyt] \nAt Pistyan two years later he did a little better. He had to wait until after the War for a third attempt; but it will be best to give what we believe to be a full record of his performances in international event:- (to be added). \nThese lists\, however\, furnish no just view of the strength of Yates’s play\, which always was most fully exhibited against the leading competitors in tournaments. Among his triumphs must be noted his particularly his wins against Alekhine at Hastings\, 1922\, and Carlsbad 1923 (a brilliancy prize game); against Euwe\, Scarborough\, 1928; against Nimzowitsch \, Carlsbad\, 1929; against Bogoljuboff\, London\, 1922\, and Baden-Baden\, 1925; against Tartakover\, Hastings and Kecskemet\, 1927; against Kmoch and Rubinstein\, Budapest\, 1926; against Spielmann and Vidmar\, San Remo\, 1930; and his draws with Alekhine and Capablanca at New York\, 1924. The harder the opposition\, the better his play. Conversely\, against what should have proved easier opponents he was apt. at times\, to show less of his skill. In this\, of course\, he was not peculiar\, even among the experts. \nGenerally speaking\, however\, he was a remarkably tenacious player\, who would not abandon a game while there was the slightest chance of a win or a draw. This was not due to mere obstinacy\, as may sometimes have appeared\, but to the depth of his vision\, which gained for him among the German commentators the title of ein tiefe Denker(ed : a deep thinker) – no small testimony from those from whom it came. With a robuster physique there is no knowing to what a position he might have attained in the chess world. The late Amon Burn always had the highest opinion of is powers\, and always pointed out\, too\, the handicap under which a player labours who has to report the events in which he takes part – equivalent\, he would say\, to giving the other competitors Pawn and move! \nYates was unfortunate in embracing professionalism in an era when the rewards were becoming less and less\, and finally reached a stage when they scarcely provided the means of a bare existence. He was a fine simultaneous player\, whose exhibitions always delighted by their combination of speed\, precision and flashes of brilliance. \nAs commentator he was very good indeed\, and his contributions\, especially to The Manchester Guardian\, where noted alike for their accuracy and for a sense of style. \nHe had a journalistic training\, outside chess. He was not\, in fact\, ‘a mere chessplayer’\, in spite of his intense devotion to the game. It was his extreme reticence which gave such an impression to all but those whom he admitted to intimacy. They at least knew his widespread interest in other things; and W. Winter’s recent tribute to him in the Guardian in no way exaggerates his charm as a companion among those who knew him best. To them his loss is one which cannot be replaced.” \nAn Appeal \nNo doubt all chessplayers in England will have read with sorrow of the death of F.D.Yates at the early age of 46\, and more especially will the circumstances of it be a shock to many. \nAn inquest was held\, as has already been reported\, and was attended by his two sisters\, who have practically no means\, as was the case of Yates himself. Certain chessplayers who attended the funeral agreed to make themselves responsible for the funeral expenses\, but as the body was removed to Birstall in Yorkshire for burial in the family grave\, the expenses were considerably heavier than was anticipates and\, with the money owing to the landlady\, comes to a total of £51 2s and 0d. \nThe Gravestone of FD Yates\, courtesy of Matthew Sadler\nWe feel quite sure that when our readers know\, they will like to show their last recognition of the value which F.D.Yates was to English chess by giving a donation towards the sum. \nThe London Chess League\, whose finances are not in a very satisfactory state\, as in the case of most chess concerns\, has agreed to donate £3 towards this. Their president has given £1 1s 0d.\, and one or two other members have promised donations. We shall be happy to receive any contributions towards this fund\, and will give acknowledgment in future issues.” \nHere is an in-depth article by Edward Winter in Chess Notes on the circumstances of FDYs death. \nHere is a more modern article by Matthew Sadler \nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess (OUP\, 1984) by Hooper and Whyld : \n“English player. British Champion 1913\,1914\,1921\,1926\,1928\, and 1931\, Around 1909 he gave up his profession in accountancy to become a chess professional. Of the many international tournaments in which he competed from Hamburg 1910 to Hastings 1931—2 he made his best results in the B Final\, Kecskemet 1927\, first (+4=2-1) equal with Tartakower\, and at San Remo 1930\, the strongest tournament of the year\, when he came fifth after Alekhine\,\, Nimzowitsch\, Rubinstein\, and Bogoljubow ahead of Spielmann\,\nVidmar\, and Tartakower. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nA tenacious player\, he could be a dangerous opponent. In tournament play he defeated most of the greatest masters of his time on one occasion or another\, and among these victories were two defeats of Alekhine (Hastings 1922\, Carlsbad 1923)\, and three defeats of Bogoljubow (London 1922\, Baden-Baden 1925\, Scarborough 1927) and Rubinstein (London 1925\, Moscow 1925\, Budapest 1926)\, A careful and conscientious writer\, he conducted a chess column in the Yorkshire Post\, was chess correspondent of the Manchester Guardian \, and wrote three books (see foot of article) in collaboration with William Winter (1898-1955). \nGames Played In the World’s Championship Match between Jose Paul Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine\, FD Yates and W\, Winter\, 1928\, Printing Craft Limited\nGames Played in the World’s Championship Match between Alexander Alekhine (Holder of the Title) and E D Bogoljubow (Challenger)\, Printing Craft Limited\, 1930\, FD Yates and W. Winter\nA leak from a faulty gas pipe connection killed Yates while he was asleep. His book One-hundred- and-one of My Best Games of Chess was published in 1934.” \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1970 & 1976)by Anne Sunnucks : \n“International Master and British Champion in 1913\, 1914\, 1921\, 1926\, 1928 and 1931. \nBorn in Birstall\, near Leeds in Yorkshire\, on 16th January 1884\, Yates was 25 before he played in the British Championship for the first time. In 1909\, having won the Yorkshire Championship\, his entry was accepted for the British Championship at Scarborough\, and he tied with Blackburne for 4th prize. The following year he again tied with Blackburne\, this time for 2nd prize\, and in 1911 he tied with Atkins for 1st prize but lost the play-off for the title. In 1913\, he succeed in winning the British Championship for the first time.. During his career he competed in the British Championship 16 times and won the title on six occasions. \nIn International tournaments his record did not do him justice as far as his final placings were concerned. However\, in studying his performance in detail\, his wins were often against the strongest players and his losses against those at the bottom of the tables. This was particularly apparent in the results of the 1926 Budapest tournament. \nCross Table for Budapest 1926\nDuring the course of his career\, Yates beat practically every contemporary Grandmaster\, with the exception of Lasker and Capablanca. His victory over Alekhine at Carlsbad 1923 came at the end of a combination 18 moves deep and won the brilliancy prize\, while his victory over Vidmar at San Remo in 1930 was described by Alekhine as the finest game played since the war. \nOther outstanding wins were against Bogoljubow at London 1922\, against Rubinstein at Budapest 1926\, against Tartakover at Hastings 1927\, against Euwe at Scarborough 1928 and against Nimzowitsch at Scarborough 1929. The stronger the opposition the better Yates played. \nHis losses against weaker players may well have been due to ill-health and lack of necessary stamina to play consistently throughout a long tournament. He was continually troubled by a hacking cough and could not afford to carry out the medical advice that he should go to the Riviera for a cure. \nHe was a professional chess player at a time when it was difficult to make a livelihood out of chess and he was often handicapped by having to report an event in which he was playing. A number of his contemporaries believed that\, had he lived in different circumstances his talent would have placed him among the contenders for the World Championship. \nFor some years Yates ran the chess column for The Manchester Guardian. He was co-author with Winter of Modern Master Play and of books on the Capablanca vs Alekhine and Alekhine v. Bogoljubov World Championship matches. \nModern Master Play\, FD Yates and W. Winter\, 1930\nYates had a great number of interests apart from chess and had a very versatile mind which enabled him to talk on a wide range of subjects. He was extremely modest and rarely kept the scores of his games and never submitted them to the press. \nHe died in tragic circumstances\, On 11th November 1932\, he was found dead in his bedroom from gas poisoning. At the inquest it was established that there was a faulty connection in the gas meter in his room and a verdict of accidental death was returned.” \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977) by Harry Golombek : \n“A British master. Yates trained as an accountant but in 1909 abandoned this career in favour of chess and journalism. In 1911 he tied for first prize with Atkins in the British Championship losing the play-off match. Two years later he won the event – the first of six such victories (1913\, 1914\, 1921\, 1926\, 1928 and 1931). \nIn international tournaments Yate’s results were generally mediocre\, but he was capable on occasion of defeating the strongest opposition and his victims included Alekhine\, Reti\, Bogoljubow\, Tartakower\, Rubinstein\, Euwe\, Nimzowitsch and Vidmar. He was a regular competitor at the Hastings Christmas Congresses\, winning in 1920/1 and finishing in 3rd place on four occasions: 1923/4\, 1924/5\, 1926/7 and 1929/30. \nYates was for many years the chess correspondent of The Manchester Guardian and\, in addition\, wrote Modern Master Play\, London\, Philadelphia 1929 (with W. Winter as co-author) and books of the 1927 Capablanca-Alekhine\, London 1928\, and the 1929 Alekhine-Bogoljubow World Championship matches\, London\, 1930. \nHe died from being accidentally asphyxiated in his rooms by a faulty gas connection.” \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nFrom Wikipedia : (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Yates_(chess_player)) \n“Yates almost won the British Championship in 1911\, when he tied for first place with Henry Atkins\, but lost the play-off. He went on to secure the title in 1913\, 1914\, 1921\, 1926\, 1928 and 1931 \nDespite considerable domestic success\, his record in international tournaments did not do him justice. Often the winner against his strongest opponents\, he would then lose to those at the bottom of the table. This was particularly apparent at the Budapest tourney of 1926. \nHis lack of consistency was attributed to poor health and loss of stamina. A constant hacking cough went unchecked\, as his funds did not stretch to a holiday in warmer climes; the advice given by his doctor. He was also subjected to journalistic pressures\, frequently reporting on the tournaments in which he was playing. Yet\, dedicating himself to the playing side of chess would have earned him insufficient sums to make a living. A number of his contemporaries believed that his talent could have placed him among the world championship contenders\, had his circumstances been different. Nevertheless\, in his time\, he defeated most of his illustrious adversaries\, the most notable exceptions being Emanuel Lasker and José Raúl Capablanca. His victory against Alexander Alekhine at Karlsbad in 1923 won the brilliancy prize\, while his win against Milan Vidmar at San Remo in 1930 was described by Alekhine as the finest game played since the war.” \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nAs a journalist he was the chess columnist of The Manchester Guardian and with William Winter\, the co-author of Modern Master Play (1929). He wrote accounts of two world championship encounters; those between Capablanca and Alekhine\, and Alekhine and Bogoljubow. \nIn team competition\, he played at the first\, third and fourth Olympiads\, representing the ‘British Empire’ team. On each occasion\, he made a plus score and at London 1927\, earned a team bronze medal/ \nHis life ended prematurely\, when a leaking gas pipe caused him to asphyxiate during his sleep. \nAccording to the inscription on Yates’ gravestone\,[7] his birth name was actually Fred Dewhirst Yates. However\, throughout his chess career he was known by the name at the head of this article or simply as F.D. Yates\, both of which featured in his posthumously published\, part-biographical\, ‘My Best Games’ Collection. \nHere is an interesting discussion of Posthumous publications\, part 1. by Michael Clapham \nLetter to BCM from WH Watts of Printing Craft Limited announcing the publication of One-Hundred-and-one of my Best Games of Chess\, by F. D. Yates\, London 1934.\nOne-Hundred-and-one of my Best Games of Chess\, by F. D. Yates\, London 1934.\nOne Hundred and One of My Best Games of Chess\, FD Yates
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-frederick-dewhurst-yates/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201109
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201110
DTSTAMP:20201204T145135Z
CREATED:20191109T140642Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201204T145135Z
UID:1853-1604880000-1604966399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of David Welch (30-x-1945 09-xi-2019)
DESCRIPTION:Just over a year ago today we learnt the sad news that popular longtime Arbiter and Organizer David Welch had passed away at the age of 74 after a long illness : he was being cared for in The Royal Liverpool Hospital. The funeral took place at Landican Crematorium\, Arrowe Park CH49 5LW at 12 noon on Friday 6th December. Following the funeral\, the wake took place at the Grove House Hotel\, Grove Road\, Wallasey CH44 4BT. \nDavid was born on Tuesday\, October 30th 1945 in Brampton\, Chesterfield\, Derbyshire and attended Chesterfield Grammar School (see below). \nHe played for Wallasey Chess Club for many years having initially been a member of Liverpool Chess Club. \nDavid attended Queens’ College\, Cambridge reading Natural Sciences (Chemistry) and (according to John Swain) David served Cambridge University Chess Club as Junior Treasurer\, Librarian and Bulletin Editor. \nIn 1968 David and Peter Purland started teaching at the same Liverpool school (Liverpool College) on the same day and continued their friendship from there. David also ran the college scout troop. \nIn the same year David joined Liverpool Chess Club and became a leading light fairly early on. \nDavid Welch (30-x-1945 09-xi-2019)\, photograph by John Upham at 2012 4NCL\nDavid became a BCF arbiter in the early 1970s eventually becoming the BCFs Chief Arbiter and then the ECFs Chief Arbiter and was heavily involved in many British Championships around the country. \nDavid was curator of ECF equipment for some time and personally funded much of the BCFs and ECFs early equipment stock. \nHe became a FIDE International Arbiter as early as 1977 and was awarded the FIDE International Organizer title in 2010. \nIn 2007 David received the ECF Presidents Award from Gerry Walsh. Here is the citation in full (from the 2008 ECF Yearbook) : \n“David Welch started chess organisation early being captain of the Chesterfield Grammar School team that played both in the school’s league and in the local adult league. He joined the Liverpool Chess Club after leaving University in 1968 and has held various posts with them \, he is now their President. He set-up the Liverpool Chess Congress in about 1978. \nAdditionally\, he was the director of the Liverpool Chess Congress. Although now defunct this was in its day the largest junior event in the UK (perhaps even the world) having 2000 entrants at the time of Spassky-Fisher (sic). He has also been involved in the Liverpool city of culture initiative. \nHe had also had a considerable involvement with the ECF. He is the the Merseyside representative to the ECF. He has been helping run the British Championships since 1981; starting at one of the arbiting team he has been Director/Manager of the congress since 2005. He has been Chief Arbiter of the Federation since about 1992. He also does the arbiting at a number of congresses and is\, in particular\, the Chief Arbiter of the 4NCL.” \nDavid Welch receives FIDE Arbiter Award\nDavid shared the exact same date of birth as long time friend and fellow arbiter\, Peter Purland. \nHere is an excellent tribute from John Saunders \nHere is a tribute from Liverpool College \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nin 2016 David received recognition from FIDE for his long service as an International Arbiter. David was the third English arbiter to receive the honour\, following Stewart Reuben and Gerry Walsh in 2014. \nWe send our condolences to all of his many family and friends. \nDavid Welch\, photograph by John Upham
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-david-welch-30-x-1945-09-xi-2019/
CATEGORIES:Arbiter,British Championships,Death Anniversary,History,Official
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/JEU8944.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201109
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201110
DTSTAMP:20201030T105554Z
CREATED:20190823T175611Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201030T105554Z
UID:1086-1604880000-1604966399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Charles Edward Kemp (09-xi-1986)
DESCRIPTION:Death Anniversary of Charles Edward Kemp (09-xi-1986)
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-charles-edward-kemp/
CATEGORIES:Composer,Death Anniversary,History,Problemist
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201106
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201107
DTSTAMP:20201106T195846Z
CREATED:20190823T183359Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201106T195846Z
UID:1106-1604620800-1604707199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Jacob Sarratt (?-?- 1772 06-xi-1819)
DESCRIPTION:We remember Jacob Henry Sarratt who died 201 years ago today (November 6th) in 1819. \nChess historians will\, of course\, be familiar with JHS but the name is (probably) not well known outside these exalted circles. \nPossibly his most obvious contribution to chess in England was in 1807 when he influenced the result of games that ended in stalemate. You may not know that in England prior to 1807 a game that ended in stalemate was recorded as a win for the party who was stalemated. JHS was able to encourage various major chess clubs so that the result be recorded as a draw. Much endgame theory would be different if it wasn’t for JHS ! \nOutside of chess\, JHS was an interesting chap : \nThe content below has been copied (and we have corrected a number of typos along the way) from http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/Sarratt.html \nAlso\, http://billwall.phpwebhosting.com/articles/Sarratt.htm is worthy of consultation. \n“Jacob Henry Sarratt\, born in 1772\, worked primarily as schoolmaster but was much better known for his advocations which\, of course\, included chess. \nAfter Philidor’s death\, Verdoni (along with Leger\, Carlier and Bernard – all four who co-authored Traité Théorique et Pratique du jeu des Echecs par une Societé d’ Amateurs) was considered one of the strongest players in the world\, especially in England. Verdoni had taken Philidor’s place as house professional at Parsloe’s. He mentored Jacob Sarratt until he died in 1804. That year Sarratt became the house professional at the Salopian at Charing Cross in London and most of his contemporaries considered him London’s strongest player. \nThere he claimed the title of Professor of Chess while teaching chess at the price of a guinea per game. \nBy any measure Surratt was not a particularly strong player\, but he was able to maintain the illusion that he was by avoiding the stronger players as he lorded over his students who didn’t know better. \nSarratt’s most important contribution to chess was that he mentored William Lewis who in turn mentored Alexander McDonnell. \nSurratt had a strange notion that chess culminated in the 16th century and that everything since then had been a step backwards. This odd notion had a positive side. Philidor was the darling of the English chess scene. Almost all books at that time were versions of\, or at least based on\, Philidor’s book. Surratt at least kept open the possibility that there were ideas beyond those of Philidor. \nIn 1808\, true to his role as a teacher\, Surratt published his Treatise on the Game of Chess\, a book that mainly concentrated on direct attacks on the king which he lifted from the Modense writers. \nHe translated several older writers whom he admired (though his translations are not considered particularly good):\nThe Works of Damiano\, Ruy Lopez and Salvio in 1813.\nThe Works of Gianutio and Gustavus Selenus in 1817. \nIn 1921 a posthumous edition of his Treatise\, A New Treatise on the Game of Chess\, was published. This copy covered the game of chess as a whole and was designed for the novice player. It also contained a 98 page analysis of the Muzio Gambit \nIn addition to his chess books\, Surratt also published\n[i]History of Man in 1802\,\nA New Picture of London[/i] in 1803\nHe translated Three Monks!!! from French in 1803 and Koenigsmark the Robber from German in 1803. \nHis second wife\, Elizabeth Camillia Dufour\, was also a writer. In 1803 (before they were married\, which was 1804)\, she published a novel called Aurora or the Mysterious Beauty. \nThey were married the following year. His first wife had died in 1802 at the age of 18. Both his wives were from Jersey. \nContrary to what one might expect\, Sarratt has been described tall\, lean and muscular and had even been a prize-fighter at one point. He had also bred dogs for fighting. He was regarded as a very affable fellow and very well-read but with limited taste (Ed : surely this applies to everyone ?) \nWilliam Hazlitt\, in his essay On Coffee-House Politicians wrote: \n[Dr. Whittle] was once sitting where Sarratt was playing a game at chess without seeing the board… Sarratt\, who was a man of various accomplishments\, afterwards bared his arm to convince us of his muscular strength…\nSarratt\, the chess-player\, was an extraordinary man. He had the same tenacious\, epileptic faculty in other things that he had at chess\, and could no more get any other ideas out of his mind than he could those of the figures on the board. He was a great reader\, but had not the least taste. Indeed the violence of his memory tyrannised over and destroyed all power of selection. He could repeat [all] Ossian by heart\, without knowing the best passage from the worst; and did not perceive he was tiring you to death by giving an account of the breed\, education\, and manners of fighting-dogs for hours together. The sense of reality quite superseded the distinction between the pleasurable and the painful. He was altogether a mechanical philosopher.” \nSomewhere along the way there must have come about a complete reversal of his fortunes because Surratt died impoverished in 1819\, leaving his wife destitute. But the resilient Elizabeth Sarratt was able to support herself by giving chess lessons to the aristocracy of Paris. \nShe must have been very well liked. In 1843 when she herself became old and unable to provide for herself\, players from both England and France took up a fund to help her out. She lived until 1846. \nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess (OUP\, 1984 & 1992) by Hooper & Whyld : \nReputedly the best player in England from around 1805 until his death. As a young man he met Philidor. Subsequently he developed his game by practice with a strong French player Hippolyte du Rourblanc (d. 1813)\, with whom he had a long friendship dating from 1798\, and with Verdoni\, Sarratt’s first important contribution to the game was in connection with the laws of chess: he persuaded the London club\, founded in 1807\, to accept that a game ending in stalemate should be regarded as a draw and not as a win for the player who is stalemated. He became a professional at the Salopian coffee house at Charing Cross\, London\,  \nNos. 39-41\, Charing Cross and the Timber Yard\nand in 1808 wrote his Treatise on the Game of Chess.  \nTreatise on the Game of Chess by JH Sarratt\, 1808\nThis\, largely a compilation from the work of the Modenese masters\, advocated that players should seek direct attack upon the enemy king\, a style that dominated the game until the 1870s. An Oxford surgeon\, W. Tuckwell\, wrote that he learned chess ‘from the famous Sarratt\, the great chess teacher\, whose fee was as a guinea a lesson’. Lewis\, who played many games with Sarratt from 1816\, wrote in 1822 (after he had met both Deschapelles and Bourdonnais) that Sarratt was the most finished player he had ever met\, Sarratt translated the works of several early writers on the game\, making them known for the first time to English readers: The Works of Damiano\, Ruy Lopez and Selenus (1813) and The Works of Gianutio and Gustavus Selenus (1817). \nHe died impoverished on 6 Nov. 1819 after a long illness during which he was unable lo earn a livelihood by teaching. Instead he wrote his New Treatise on the Game of Chess published posthumously in 1821\, This is the first book to include a comprehensive beginner’s section: in more than 200 pages Sarratt teaches by means of question and answer. Another feature is a 98-page analysis of the Muzio gambit : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nHad it been Sarratt’s ambition to become a chess professional there would have been scant opportunity during the lifetime of Philidor and Verdoni. A tall\, lean\, yet muscular man\, sociable and talkative\, he seems in his younger days to have had interests of a different kind\, among them prize fighting and the breeding of fighting dogs. Hazlitt\, who met Sarratt around 1812 wrote ‘He was a great reader\, but had not the least taste. Indeed the violence of his memory tyrannised over and destroyed all power of selection. He could repeat Ossian by heart\, without knowing the best passage from the worst.’  \nSarratt’s early publications were History of Man (1802): translations of two Gothic novels\, The Three Monks!!! (1803)\, from the French of Elisabeth Guénard (Baronne de Méré) \, and Koenigsmark the Robber (1803)\, from the German of R. E. Raspe; A New Future of London (1803)\, an excellent guide that ran to several editions\, the last in 1814\, When war broke out with France in 1803 Sarratt became\, for a short period\, a lieutenant in the Royal York Mary-le-Bone Volunteers and published Life of Bonaparte * a propaganda booklet detailing Napoleon’s alleged war crimes\, and warning of the desolation that would follow if he were to invade.  \nNot long after the birth of his second child in 1802 Sarratt’s wife died and in 1804 he married a Drury Lane singer\, Elisabeth Camilla Du four. Tt would be difficult to find a more accomplished\, a more amiable\, or a happier couple than Mr and Mrs Sarratt’ – Mary Julia Young\, Memoirs of Mrs Crouch (1806)\, Mrs Sarratt too was a writer contributing tales to various journals and publishing Aurora or the Mysterious Beauty (1803)\, a translation of a French novel. She survived her husband until 1846\, ending her days giving chess lessons to the aristocracy in Paris. In 1843 Louis-Philippe and many players from England and France subscribed to a fund on her behalf. ” \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1970 & 1976)\, Anne Sunnucks : \n“Self-styled ‘Professor of Chess’\, Sarratt was the first professional player to teach the game in England. He was the author of a A Treatise on the Game of Chess\, The  (1808)\, The Works of Damiano\, Ruy Lopez and Salvio (1813)\, The Works of Gianutio and Gustavas Selenus (1817) and a New Treatise on the Game of Chess (1821). \nThere is no record of Sarratt’s date or place of birth\, He began his career as a schoolmaster and later taught chess at Tom’s Coffee House\, Cornhill\, London\, and at the London Chess Club\, and was in his day considered to be the strongest player in London.” \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1983)\, Harry Golombek OBE : \n“Leading English player of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Famed in his day as a teacher and author. Sarratt adopted the title of ‘Professor of Chess’\, His writings include A Treatise on the Game of Chess\, London 1808\, The Works of Damiano\, Ruy Lopez and Salvio (1813). \nSarratt is usually credited with introducing into England the Continental practise of counting a game ending in stalemate as a draw. (RDK)” \nSome games by Jacob Henry Sarratt: \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-jacob-henry-sarratt/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/16388.da2b2c13.668x375o.6ab1061b0256@2x.jpeg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201029
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201030
DTSTAMP:20201028T124304Z
CREATED:20190822T162401Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201028T124304Z
UID:992-1603929600-1604015999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Reginald Broadbent (03-viii-1906 29-x-1988)
DESCRIPTION:We remember Reginald Broadbent who passed away on October 29th 1988. \nReginald 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\, 1930 in Durban. \nAccording 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. \nHe married Catherine H Broadbent (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”. \nThey resided at 72\, South Park Road\, Gatley\, Cheshire : \n72\, South Park Road\, Gatley\, Cheshire. SK8 4AN\nAccording to Steve Mann in his excellent Yorkshire Chess web site : \n“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” \nThe British Chess Magazine\, Volume CVIII (108\, 1988)\, #12 (December)\, p. 553 records this brief death announcement : \n“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. \nAfter 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.” \n As advertised in the British Chess Magazine\, Volume CIX (109\, 1989)\, #1 (January)\, p. 27 we have : \n“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. \nHe 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.  \nBrian 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. He was a subscriber to BCM right up to his death.” \nWith the white pieces Broadbent was a die-hard 1.e4 player who allowed the Marshall Attack against the Ruy Lopez. \nAs the second player RJB defended the Nimzo-Indian Defence and played Open games. \nHere is one of his best games : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nFor an element of déjà vu here is RJBs obituary from the 1989 – 1990 BCF Yearbook\, page 14 : \n(The Yearbook editor was Brian Concannon and it would appear standard practise\, at the time\,  not to credit or attribute sources for obituaries.) \nBCF Yearbook\, 1989-1990\, page 14\nA detailed biography may be found here \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-reginald-joseph-broadbent/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player,Writer
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/25734.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201020
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201021
DTSTAMP:20211020T221318Z
CREATED:20190823T184412Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211020T221318Z
UID:1110-1603152000-1603238399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Philip Walsingham Sergeant (27-i-1872 20-x-1952)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Philip Walsingham Sergeant who passed away on Monday\, October 20th 1952. \nPWS was born in Kensington on Saturday\, January 27th\, 1872 to Lewis Sergeant and Emma Louisa Sergeant (née Robertson) and was baptised at All Saints Church\, Notting Hill. According to PWS’s baptism record Lewis was an author. \nAccording to PWS in A Century of British Chess : \n“When I was seven years of age – about the period\, by the way\, in which my father began to teach me Greek – he began also to initiate me into chess. Not that he designed it  as a consolatory set-off to my application to Greek; for he loved the Classics well\, though\, going up to Cambridge with  small classical exhibition\, he had turned to Mathematics\, and therein took his degree. ” \nAccording to the 1881 census PWS (aged 9) lived with his parents and numerous siblings : Dorothy (aged 7)\, Winifred (6)\, Hilda (5)\, Bernard (2)\, John (his grandfather aged 76) and Mary (his grandmother aged 75). They had staff\, Elizabeth Fraser and Sarah Martin. They lived at 10\, Addison Road\, North\, Kensington. \nAccording to “Joseph Foster. Oxford Men and Their Colleges\, 1880-1892. 2 vols. Oxford\, England: James Parker and Co\, 1893″ : \nPWS attended St. Paul’s School and then Trinity College\, Oxford to read Classics where he attained Honour Moderations. \nand here is the record from the above publication : \nEntry for Philip Walsingham Sergeant in Joseph Foster. Oxford Men and Their Colleges\, 1880-1892. 2 vols. Oxford\, England: James Parker and Co\, 1893\nWe do not know if PWS played in the Varsity matches of 1892 – 1895 : Britbase does not (yet) include player details for these matches. \nPWS married Minnie Boundford (born 27th February 1889) in 1909 in Hampstead and they lived at 5\, Dukes Avenue\, Chiswick where PWS was listed as an author and Minnie as someone who carried out “unpaid domestic duties”. Minnie was 17 years younger than PWS. Minnie’s father was a joiner and a carpenter. \nThey had two daughters Margaret (born 1910) and Kathleen (born 1911). \nIn October 1946 Minnie and PWS remarried. Presumably this was rather unusual in that day and age. \nAccording to The Oxford Companion to Chess (OUP\, 2nd edition\, 1996) by Hooper and Whyld : \nPWS was an English author of biographical games collections for Charousek\, Morphy and Pillsbury as well as other works of importance such as A Century of British Chess (1943) and Championship Chess (1938). \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (BT Batsford\, 1977) by Harry Golombek : \n“A professional writer on chess and popular historical subjects. Without any pretentions to mastership\, he represented Oxford University in the years 1892 – 5 and assisted RC Griffith in preparing three editions of Modern Chess Openings. \nIn chess he dealt with a number of important subjects : Morphy’s Games of Chess\, London\, 1916; Charousek’s Games of Chess\, London\, 1919; Pillsbury’s Chess Career (in collaboration with WH Watts)\, London\, 1923; Championship Chess\, London\, 1938. \nAll these are lucidly and carefully written but suffer from the defect that\, being neither a master player nor a professional annotator\, he was not competent to deal with the annotational part of the work. Probably his best book on chess was A Century of British Chess\, London\, 1934. \nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXX11 (72)\, Number 11 (November)\, page 324 we have this rather brief obituary (presumably written by Brian Reilly): \n“We regret to have to report the death\, at the age of eighty-one of Philip W. Sergeant\, the author of A Century of British Chess\, which we imagine is in most chess libraries. He was the author of several well-known historical books – but we are only concerned here with his chess activities\, which included representing Oxford University 1892-5; helping RC Griffith with two editions of Modern Chess Openings; playing for Middlesex\, winning the chess championship of the authors’ club for several year\, and latterly as an honoured member; and occasionally obtaining the championship of the Guildford Chess Club. Our sympathy with his widow and two daughters is sincere.”\n” \nHe was a cousin of EG Sergeant. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nFrom Wikipedia : \n“Philip Walsingham Sergeant (27 January 1872\, Notting Hill\, London[1] – 20 October 1952)[2] was a British professional writer on chess and popular historical subjects.[3][4] He collaborated on the fifth (1933)\, sixth (1939)\, and seventh (1946) editions of Modern Chess Openings\, an important reference work on the chess openings. He also wrote biographical game collections of Paul Morphy (Morphy’s Games of Chess (1916) and Morphy Gleanings)\, Rudolf Charousek (Charousek’s Games of Chess (1919))\, and Harry Nelson Pillsbury (Pillsbury’s Chess Career\, with W. H. Watts\, 1922)\, and other important books such as A Century of British Chess (1934) and Championship Chess (1938).” \nHarry Golombek writes that\, “Without any pretensions to mastership\, he represented Oxford University in the years 1892-5”.[3] Golombek considers A Century of British Chess probably Sergeant’s best chess book\, but opines that although Sergeant’s chess books are lucidly written\, they suffer from the defect that\, as a non-master\, he was not competent to deal with the annotational aspect of his work. \nHe was a second cousin of Edward Guthlac Sergeant. \nPhilip Walsingham Sergeant\nCharousek’s Games of Chess\nThe Rice Memorial Chess Tournament\, 1916\nPillsbury’s Chess Career\, London\, 1923\nA Century of British Chess\, London\, 1934\nAn Introduction to the Endgame at Chess
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-philip-walsingham-sergeant/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201011
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201012
DTSTAMP:20201011T193135Z
CREATED:20191011T195944Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201011T193135Z
UID:1506-1602374400-1602460799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Charles Fox (09-xi-1866 11-x-1935)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Charles Fox (09-xi-1866 11-x-1935) \nCharles Masson Fox was born on Friday\, November 9th 1866 in Falmouth\, Cornwall. his father\, Howard\, was 29 and his mother\, Olivia Blanche Orme\, was 22. He had one brother and two sisters. \nHis sister Olivia Lloyd was born on 5 February 1868 in Falmouth\, Cornwall\, when Charles Masson was 1 year old. His sister Stella was born on 11 December 1876 in Falmouth\, Cornwall\, when Charles Masson was 10 years old. In 1881 he was living in Sherborne\, Dorset. In 1901 he was once more living in Falmouth and his profession was that of a timber merchant. His brother Howard Orme died on 7 June 1921 in Falmouth\, Cornwall. His father Howard passed away on 15 November 1922 in Cornwall. His mother Olivia Blanche passed away on 12 March 1930 in Falmouth\, Cornwall\, at the age of 85. \nSadly\, neither Hooper & Whyld\, Sunnucks or Golombek mention Fox in their works. \nHere is an extensive article from the British Chess Problem Society (BCPS) written by CJ Feather \nFrom Wikipedia : \n“Charles Masson Fox (9 November 1866 – 11 October 1935) was a Cornish businessman who achieved international prominence in the world of chess problems and a place in the gay history of Edwardian England. \nMasson Fox was born into a Quaker family (although he was not related to the Quakers’ founder George Fox) and was a cousin of the fraudulent sinologist Sir Edmund Backhouse\, 2nd Baronet. Living throughout his life in the Cornish seaside town of Falmouth\, Fox in the early decades of his life was a senior partner of his family’s timber firm\, Fox Stanton & Company\, and was also on the Board of Messrs G C Fox & Company\, a long-established firm of shipping agents. \nC.M.Fox’s gravestone at Budock Quaker Burial Ground\nFox is described by chess historian Thomas Rayner Dawson (1889–1951) as “a friendly man\, kind\, mellow\, lovable\, bringing peace and comfort and serene joy with him”. He was also a discreet but active homosexual. In 1909 he visited Venice with his friend James Cockerton\, meeting the writer Frederick Rolfe and becoming the reluctant recipient of Rolfe’s famous Venice Letters\, in which the gay subculture of Venice is vividly described. \nIn 1912–13 Fox was blackmailed by a woman who accused him of seducing her 16-year-old son. Eventually Fox reported the matter to the police and the woman was sent to prison for five years and her son for one year\, with hard labour.[1] However\, Fox was profoundly affected by the publicity surrounding the case\, which was reported in detail in the local press. The predictable result of his courageous action was the destruction of his reputation\, and the compromise of his business and social life in Falmouth. \nAlthough he continued to live in Cornwall\, the focus of his social life shifted to London\, and in the last two decades of his life\, Fox became prominent in the world of chess. He was elected President of the Cornwall Chess Association\, played a prominent part in the development of the British Chess Problem Society\, and is still renowned as one of the greatest ever exponents of fairy chess (chess problems with variations in the rules).” \nFrom The Problemist Fairy Chess Supplement\, 1933 : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nWhat is the shortest game\nending in this position? \nCharles Masson Fox
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/remembering-charles-masson-fox-09-xi-1866-11-x-1935/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Problemist
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201009
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201010
DTSTAMP:20211009T100528Z
CREATED:20191016T160417Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211009T100528Z
UID:1562-1602201600-1602287999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Norman Gibbins (15-x-1882 09-x-1956)
DESCRIPTION:Death Anniversary of Norman Martin Gibbins (15-x-1882 09-x-1956) \nSee http://davidgibbins.com/journal/2013/5/28/war-in-another-dimension
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-norman-martin-gibbins/
CATEGORIES:Composer,Death Anniversary,History
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200926
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200927
DTSTAMP:20210925T140242Z
CREATED:20190823T001025Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210925T140242Z
UID:1122-1601078400-1601164799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of WIM Eileen Tranmer (05-v-1910 26-ix-1983)
DESCRIPTION:We remember WIM Eileen Betsy Tranmer who passed away on September 26th\, 1983. \nEileen Tranmer\nShe was the first English woman to be awarded by FIDE the Woman’s International Master title in 1950. \n“From The Anglo-Soviet Radio Chess Match by Klein and Winter : \nMiss E. Tranmer was born in Scarborough\, North Yorkshire in 1910\, and learned chess at the age of six. She did not take it up seriously\, however\, until 1936. Under the tuition of W. Winter she has made notable progress\, and her performances include a second prize in the British Correspondence Championship 1944\, as well as first prize in one of the subsidiary tournaments at Hastings\, 1945. \nBy profession Miss Tranmer is a musician and has played principal clarinet in the Scottish and Sadler’s Wells Orchestras.” \nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume CIII (103\, 1983)\, Number 11 (November)\, page 482-83 (presumably written by Bernard Cafferty) : \n“Eileen Tranmer died in hospital at Ticehurst on September 26th after a long illness. Born in Scarborough\, May 5th 1910\, she was a professional clarinet player and played in a number of prominent British orchestras till forced to retire by deafness. \nMandatory Credit: Photo by ANL/Shutterstock (3880870a)Miss Eileen Tranmer The British Women’s Chess Champion Pictured Here Playing A Clarinet In The Orchestra While Appearing At The Theatre Royal Glasgow.\nOne of the leading British players in the two decades after the war\, Eileen won the British Ladies Championship in 1947\, 1949 (with a 100% score)\, 1953 and 1961\, and played in the British Championship at Buxton\, 1950. Her international record was sparse\, as was the case with nearly all English players of that period. Nevertheless\, she made her mark in the 1949-50 first post-war Women’s World Championship where she finished 5-7th in a field of 16\, beating Bykova\, again\, and finished 7th in the field of 16. \n37th Hastings International Chess Congress\, 1962. USA Ladies champion Lisa Lane (L) playing against British Champion Eileen Tranmer\nWe are grateful to WCM Dinah Norman for sending us these memories : \n“Eileen Tranmer was one of the best English chess lady players of her generation. \nI only played her once at Oxford in an International Ladies Tournament held between 24 July and 1 August 1971. Eileen totally outplayed me and I lost the game. \nEileen was a member of Acton Chess Club where there were three active lady players at that time. They were Jean Rogers\, Olive Chataway and Eileen. Eileen lived in Acton then. \nMandatory Credit: Photo by ANL/Shutterstock (3880957a)Miss Eileen Tranmer The British Women’s Chess Champion.Miss Eileen Tranmer The British Women’s Chess Champion.\nEileen was a professional musician and had to stop playing when she became deaf which was dreadful for her. \nIn 1969 Eileen\, Rowena Bruce and I were selected to play in the Ladies Chess Olympiad Team in Lublin\, Poland. Sadly Eileen was taken ill just before the event so Rowena and I had to play all 13 rounds without a break. I was on Board 1 and at the end Rowena and I were exhausted and I had to withdraw from a tournament in the Czech Republic without playing a game. The food in Poland was awful so we said never again! \n  \nMandatory Credit: Photo by ANL/Shutterstock (3880958a)Miss Eileen Tranmer The British Women’s Champion Chess Player Pictured Playing Some Of The Glasgow Ladies Chess Club At The Green’s Playhouse Cafe Glasgow.Miss Eileen Tranmer The British Women’s Champion Chess Player Pictured Playing Some Of The Glasgow Ladies Chess Club At The Green’s Playhouse Cafe Glasgow.\nEileen was very friendly with Harry Golombek. The expectation among the lady chess players was that they would get married but she never did. Harry did not drive and Eileen was very kind driving Harry and his elderly mother around. \nVery sadly Eileen’s brother was killed in a car crash and after that Eileen suffered mental problems. Eileen lived near John and Jean Rogers and John said Eileen would turn up at their home in the middle of the night wanting to play chess. \nAt Hastings 1959-1960 : Yugoslavia’s red-haired Milanka Lazarevic and Britain’s Eileen Tranmer ran away with the Premier Reserves (afternoon event).\nThe last time I saw Eileen was at Paignton. Her friend Olive Chataway brought her to Paignton and Eileen played in the bottom tournament and did badly. Eileen did not recognise myself or Rowena which was very sad. \n  \nMandatory Credit: Photo by ANL/Shutterstock (4745287a)Miss Eileen Tranmer 43-year-old British Women’s Chess Champion. Box 556.Miss Eileen Tranmer 43-year-old British Women’s Chess Champion. Box 556.\nEileen later left Acton and moved to Tring. Eileen was a pleasant and modest person and was well liked. She had a good sense of humour.” \nFrom the obituary in The Times of London we learn that her last few years were over-shadowed by an illness that preyed on her mind. \nWe take the following game from the August 1944 issue of BCM. The game was played in the BCCA Championship\, and curiously enough there was an enquiry about that event to the BCF only a short while ago – a Georgian journalist wishes to quote that wartime performance as an early example of success by a woman in male chess company! ” \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nGerald Abrahams in Not only Chess\, wrote about Eileen (Chapter 18 : What Achilles Saw Among Women) as follows : \n“To revert to the British Ladies\, they were joined in the late 1930s by a very able pupil of Miss Menchik\, the Yorkshire Clarinettist Eileen Tranmer; a woman whose chess I have seen to express some admirable qualities of mind and character. I had the privilege of watching her is Moscow in 1949-50\, when\, handicapped by influenza of a particularly virulent kind – what the Russians call “grippe” – she won some five or six consecutive games\, to finish in the prize list of the new official Women’s World Championship. There had been two championships before\, which Vera has won easily. Since Vera had unhappily perished in the Blitz\, they looked at Moscow for her successor.” \nHere is her Wikipedia entry \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nWIM Eileen Betsy Tranmer & WIM Rowena Mary Bruce at the 1946 Anglo-Soviet Radio Match
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-eileen-betsy-tranmer/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200924
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200925
DTSTAMP:20210924T120919Z
CREATED:20190822T162717Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210924T120919Z
UID:994-1600905600-1600991999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of WIM Rowena Bruce (15-v-1919 24-ix-1999)
DESCRIPTION:We remember WIM Rowena Bruce who died this day (September 24th) in 1999. \nRowena Mary Dew was born on Thursday\, May 15th\, 1919 in Plymouth\, Devon. Her father was Clement Warner Harvey Dew and her mother was Mary Jane Rowe. \nThe Bruce and Dew families circa 1923. Rowena is at the front and on the right aged around four years. Source : ancestry.co.uk\nShe married Ronald Mackay Bruce in July 1940 when she was 21 years old. \nHer father Clement Warner Harvey passed away on 7 October 1957 in Plymouth\, Devon\, at the age of 79. Her mother Mary Jane passed away on 3 August 1958 in Cornwall at the age of 73. Her husband Ronald Mackay passed away in April 1991 in Plymouth\, Devon\, at the age of 87. They had been married 50 years. \nFrom The Anglo-Soviet Radio Chess Match by Klein and Winter : \n“Mrs RM Bruce was born in Plymouth in 1919\, and learned chess at the age of twelve. She won the Girls’s World Championship in 1935 and the British Ladies Championship in 1937. During the war she served with the WVS in Plymouth. Apart from chess\, she is interested in music and plays the cello. \nRowena practising the cello. Courtesy of Keverel Chess\nShe is married to RM Bruce\, who is a well-known Plymouth player.” \nIn 1984 both Rowena and Ron received the BCF President’s Award for Services to Chess. \nFrom British Chess (Pergamon Press\, 1983) by Botterill\, Levy\, Rice and Richardson : \n“I was taught by my Mother Mrs. May Dew\, when recovering from a mastoid operation in 1930\, and I joined Plymouth Chess Club on 5th November 1931\, aged 12.5. \nI started receiving chess tuition from the Plymouth Match Captain\, Ronald Bruce in 1934. (Married him in 1940!). \nI won the Girls’ World Championship in 1935. I won the British Ladies’ Championship for the first time in 1937\, and again in 1950\, 1951\, 1954\, 1959\, 1960\, 1962 and 1963. I tied for first place in 1955\, 1967 and 1969. \nI represented Great Britain in the West European Zonal tournament held in Venice 1951\, where I finished 2nd. This qualified me to represent Great Britain in the Candidates tournament held in Moscow in 1952. I finished 12th out of 16. \nWorld Chess Championship (Women)1952 Candidates Tournament\nIn 1952 we adopted a little girl – Rona Mary. \nOther tournaments abroad included zonals in Italy\, Yugoslavia and Germany\, and Olympiads in Germany\, Poland and Bulgaria. \nThis last-named ended in disaster because I collapsed with a stroke during my second game. Obviously my chess playing was affected\, but I was indeed fortunate to make a fairly good recovery. \nWIM Rowena Mary Bruce at the 1952 Moscow Candidates tournament\nI returned to competitive chess playing a year later but\, in the meantime\, several young players have surged forwards\, and that British Ladies’ Championship seems to have become much more difficult to win ! \nBut I now have three grandchildren! \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nBCN is grateful to WCM Dinah Norman for sending us these memories : \n“Rowena Mary Bruce (need Dew) was born on 15 May 1919 and died in Plymouth in 1999. Rowena was the youngest of 3 children born to Harvey and Mary Dew. Mary Dew was a member of the Plymouth Chess Club and tried unsuccessfully to get her 2 sons interested in the game but Rowena was the only child who was interested. \nWhen Rowena was 10 her mother organised private lessons for her with the Plymouth Champion\, Ron Bruce. At the age of 21 Rowena married Ron Bruce and it was a very successful and happy marriage. They had an adopted daughter Rona who had no interest in Chess. Rowena had to wait until she was 21 before she could marry Ron. Rowena lived in Plymouth all her life.  \nRowena and Ron married in July 1940. Ron and Rowena cemented a formidable playing and organising partnership which benefited chess in Devon for almost half a century. \nA stern-looking Rowena offers advice to one of the juniors at the WECU Congress\, Easter 1951\, in the analysis room at the Penolver Hotel\, Newquay. Courtesy of Keverel Chess\nAfter the War Rowena was one of the leading quartet of British Lady players which included Elaine Pritchard (née Saunders)\, Anne Sunnucks and Eileen Tranmer. In 1951 Rowena played in the Ladies Zonal in Venice and qualified for the Candidates in Moscow to be played the following year. \nAT the age of 53 she qualified for the East European Zonal in Sofia\, Bulgaria in 1972. Sadly in Round 2 of that event she collapsed at the board with a major cerebral haemorrhage which left her right side paralysed. By sheer force of will after many months of convalescence she taught herself to speak and walk again. She had to give up playing her cello which was awful for her. \nLadies Chess Tournament Fenny Heemskerk\, Rowena Mary Bruce (née Dew)\, Donner\, Architect Date: January 12\, 1953 Personal name: Architect\, \, Bruce\, R.\, Donner\, \, Heemskerk\, Fenny Institution name: Block Chess Tournament – Image ID: 2ARK3JK\nThe steely determination with which she followed her 75 year chess career and her recovery from serious illness belied her gentle nature. She was a modest\, kind and gracious person who always thought the best of others. \nShe won the British Ladies title 11 times. \nI shared the title with her in 1967 and 1969 after 2 play offs. She was a very pleasant and sporting opponent.” \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1970 & 1976) by Anne Sunnucks : \n“International Woman Chess Master and winner of the British Ladies Championship on 10 occasions. \nShe was taught to pay chess by her mother\, who was the Devon Lady Champion\, after a mastoid operation when she was 10. In 1931 she joined Plymouth Chess Club\, where she met R. M. Bruce\, the Devonshire Chess Captain\, who coached her and was largely responsible for later success. She married him in 1940. \nOpening Ladies Danlon chess tournament in Amsterdam\, v.l.n.r. T. Roodzant\, F. Heemskerk\, I. Larsen\, L. Timofeeva\, E. Rinder\, R. Bruce Date: October 21\, 1959 Location: Amsterdam\, Noord-Holland Keywords: group portraits\, chess Person Name: Bruce\, Rowena Mary\, Heemskerk\, Fenny \, Larsen\, I.\, Rinder\, Elfriede\, Roodzant\, Toos\, Timofeeva. Lidia – Image ID: 2AW6KHJ\nIn 1935 she won the Girls’ World Championship and two years later the British Ladies’ Championship for the first time. She has won the title outright or been joint holder on 10 occasions in 1937\, 1950\, 1951\, 1954\, 1955\, 1959\, 1960\, 1962\, 1963 and 1967. \nMrs Bruce has represented Great Britain in matches against the USSR and the Netherlands and the British Chess Federation in qualifying tournaments for the Women’s World Championship. In Venice in 1951 she came 2nd in the Western European Qualifying Tournament for the Women’s World Championship and thereby qualified for the Candidates tournament in 1952\, when she came 12th out of 16. \nRowena at the 1952 Moscow Zonal tournament. Courtesy of Keverel Chess\nApart from chess\, her hobbies are music\, gardening and bridge. \nShe is principal ‘cellist in the Plymouth Orchestral Society.” \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nAn obituary (presumably written by John Saunders) appeared in the British Chess Magazine\, Volume CXIX (119\, 1999)\, Number 11 (November)\, page 584 : \n“Rowena Bruce died peacefully at home on 23 September following a long illness. Rowena Mary Dew was born in Plymouth on 15 May 1919\, and she was taught the game at the age of 10\, while she was convalescing from surgery\, by here mother Mary Dew\, herself a very able player who had been Devon Ladies’ Champion. \nRowena joined the Plymouth Chess Club\, where she met her future husband\, Ron Bruce\, himself a strong player. She won the World Girls’ Championship in 1935 and the British Women’s title two years later. Rowena married Ron in 1940 and won the British title under her married name ten more times (seven outright and three jointly) between 1950 and 1969. \nShe represented Great Britain in matches against the USSR and the Netherlands. She qualified for the Women’s World Championship by coming 2nd in the Western European Zonal in Venice\, and in the subsequent Candidates tournament in Moscow in 1952 she came 12th out of 16. She was awarded the women’s international master title in 1951. \nRowena locking horns with her friend Fenny Heemskerk\, who finished in a magnificent 2nd place. Courtesy of Keverel Chess\nThe contribution to chess that Rowena and Ron Bruce made to national\, west country and Devon chess was well recognised at the highest level\, and when the British Chess Federation instituted a new award in 1983\, the President’s Award for Services to Chess\, they won it jointly in only its second year. Ron died in 1991. \nRowena was a past president of the Devon County Chess Association and the West of England Chess Union and continued playing for Devon until about four years ago when her increasing frailty made it impossible for her to travel to away matches. \nHer other accomplishments included music : she was a principal cellist in the Plymouth Orchestral Society. She also partnered husband Ron in strictly non-competitive bridge for many years. She leaves a daughter Rona and three grand-children.” \nWIM Rowena Mary Bruce\nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsfords\, 1977) by Harry Golombek : \n“International Woman master and eleven times British Ladies champion or co-champion. \nAt the age of fifteen in 1935\, Miss Dew won the girls World championship and two years later\, still under he maiden name\, se won the British Ladies championship at Blackpool. Thereafter she won the championship under her married name in 1950\, 1951\, 1954\, 1955\, 1959\, 1960\, 1962\, 1963\, 1967 and 1969. \nHer best international result was a 2nd in the 1951 Western European Zonal tournament\, qualifying for the Women’s Candidates tournament in Moscow 1952\, where she came 12th/16. She has represented England in a number of team events\, has excellent combinative powers\, but lacks steadiness in strategy.” \nRowena (far left) during the 1952 Moscow Candidates tournament. Courtesy of Keverel Chess\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nDavid Hooper (seated right) in play at the West of England Championships in Bristol\, Easter\, 1947. His opponent \, ARB Thomas \, was that year’s champion. Among the spectators is Mrs. Rowena Bruce\, the 1946 British Ladies’ Champion. BCM\, Volume 118\, #6\, p.327. The others in the photo are L – R: H. V. Trevenen; H. Wilson-Osborne (WECU President); R. A. (Ron) Slade; Rowena Bruce; Ron Bruce; H. V. (Harry) Mallison; Chris Sullivan; C. Welch (Controller); F. E. A. (Frank) Kitto.\nHere is an interesting article from Tartajubow on Chess \nFrom Wikipedia : \n“Rowena Mary Bruce (15 May 1919 – 24 September 1999)\, née Dew\, was an English chess player who held the title of Woman International Master (WIM\, 1951). She was an eleven-time winner of the British Women’s Chess Championship (1937\, 1950\, 1951\, 1954\, 1955\, 1959\, 1960\, 1962\, 1963\, 1967 and 1969). \nBiography\nFrom the end of the 1930s to the end of the 1960s\, she was one of England’s strongest women chess players. In 1935\, she won the FIDE World Girls Championship. Rowena Mary Bruce won the British Women’s Chess Championship eleven times: 1937\, 1950\, 1951\, 1954\, 1955\, 1959\, 1960\, 1962\, 1963\, 1967 and 1969[1]. In 1952\, in Moscow\, she participated in the Women’s Candidates Tournament where she took 12th place[2]. In 1951\, she was awarded the FIDE Woman International Master (WIM) title. \nOn 21 June 1946\, Bruce played (and lost) a “radio chess” match against Lydmilla Rudenko. Bruce was one of two women who were part of a twelve member British team who played in a four day tournament. The British team played their moves in London while the Russian team played their moves in Moscow.” \nRowena with Spassky and the Lord Mayor of Plymouth\, Alderman Pascho.\n“Rowena Mary Bruce played for England in the Women’s Chess Olympiads: \nIn 1966\, at second board in the 3rd Chess Olympiad (women) in Oberhausen (+5\, =5\, -2) where she won an individual silver medal\, and\nIn 1969\, at second board in the 4th Chess Olympiad (women) in Lublin (+5\, =3\, -6).\nFrom 1940 to 1991 she was married to Ronald Bruce (1903–1991)” \nWIM Eileen Betsy Tranmer & WIM Rowena Mary Bruce
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-rowena-mary-bruce/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200920
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200921
DTSTAMP:20210920T225258Z
CREATED:20190920T100224Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210920T225258Z
UID:1405-1600560000-1600646399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Hugh Blandford (24-i-1917 20-ix-1981)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Hugh Blandford who was a British composer. \nHugh Francis Blandford was born on Wednesday\, January 24th in 1917 in South Stoneham\, Hampshire\, England. \nOn this day Ernest Borgnine was born and an earthquake measuring 6.3 in magnitude struck Anhui Province\, China\, causing 101 deaths. \nHugh’s father was the Rev Albert Francis Blandford and his mother was Alice Rhoda Crumpton Evans. Hugh had two younger brothers\, Philip Thomas. and Evan Arthur. \nThe family moved to Jamaica and he spent his early childhood there until he was nine years old when they sailed from Kingston\, Jamaica with his family to Bristol on board the SS Carare (Elders & Fyffes Line) : \nPassenger Manifest (part) for SS Carare \, 30th May 1926.\nHis mother Alice Rhoda Crumpton passed away on 19 July 1964 in Minehead\, Somerset\, at the age of 79. \nHis father Rev Albert Francis passed away in December 1967 in Somerset at the age of 79. \nHe had three children during his marriage. \nHe died in Hatfield\, Hertfordshire on Sunday\, September 20th\, 1981. \nBlandford is also known for participating in defining the GBR (Guy\, Blandford Roycroft) code. \nIn 1961 he was awarded the title of “International Judge of the FIDE for Chess Composition” \nCM Bent wrote the following obituary in the British Chess Magazine\, Volume CI (101\, 1981)\, Number 12 (December)\, page 532 : \n“The modest and self-effacing composer who formerly conducted our Studies column from 1951-1972 died in September. His work as a metallurgist and his family responsibilities allowed him to make periodical contributions over a long span and to offer us many of his own original compositions.  \nHis style\, as with his manner\, was essentially quiet and it was a rarity for him to compose anything other than wins.  \nHis last voluntary labour was to compile an index for E.G. of all studies published there to date. His loss to the world of of studies will be greatly felt.  \nThe first prize winner below is a classic of exquisite refinement and matches the immaculate handwriting which was always such an elegant feature of his work” \nStudies by Hugh Francis Blandford\nSolutions to studies by Hugh Francis Blandford\nSee more of his compositions here from the arves.org database. \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess by Anne Sunnucks : \n“British study composer and FIDE Judge of Endgame Studies. Born on 24th January 1917. Since July 1951\, Hugh Blandford has conducted the Endings Section of the British Chess Magazine. By profession a metallurgist\, he was married and had two children. Of his 60 or more studies he was best known for the excelsior theme.” \nFrom Wikipedia : \n\nHugh Francis Blandford (24 January 1917 – 20 September 1981) was a chess endgame composer born in Southampton\, England.[1]\nHe spent several years of his childhood in Jamaica with his father\, the Reverend Albert Francis (Frank) Blandford\, a Minister in the Congregational church\, his mother and two younger brothers\, Evan Arthur and Philip Thomas Blandford. All three brothers then returned to England and attended Eltham College (the School for the Sons of Missionaries) in South-east London\, while their parents remained in Jamaica. He married Marjorie Cox\, whom he had worked with during the Second World War. \nHe played chess from his schooldays and as well as playing\, also started to compose original chess endings. He became known in the field of chess endgame studies for a small but elegant body of compositions\, expertly edited and published after Hugh’s death by his long-standing chess endings colleague\, John Roycroft.[2] \n\n1st Prize\, Springaren 1949\, White to move and win\n\nHugh Blandford was co-inventor with Richard Guy – and\, later\, with John Roycroft – of the Guy–Blandford–Roycroft code for classifying studies.[3] In July 1951 he began as the endgame study editor for the British Chess Magazine.[4][5] He was made an International Judge for Chess Composition[4] in 1961.[6] \nA metallurgist\, he continued to compose chess endgame studies until the end of his life\, dying of a heart attack in early retirement in Hatfield\, England\, on 20 September 1981.
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-hugh-francis-blandford/
CATEGORIES:Composer,Death Anniversary,History,Problemist,Studies,Writer
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200916
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200917
DTSTAMP:20200914T094901Z
CREATED:20200409T133157Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200914T094901Z
UID:4260-1600214400-1600300799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of FM John Littlewood (25-v-1931 16-ix-2009)
DESCRIPTION:John Eric Littlewood was born in Sheffield on Wednesday\, September 16th 1931. His mother’s maiden name was Wheeldon. He last resided in the WN8 postal area of Skelmersdale\, Lancashire. \nHe became a FIDE Master in 1989 at the age of 58. According to Felice his peak FIDE rating was 2395 in January 1980. However\, it is almost certain that it would have been higher than that\, in the 1960s and 1970s. \nJohn\, Jenny and Paul Littlewood\, circa 1962. Kindly supplied by Paul Littlewood.\nHe coached his son Paul who became British Champion in 1981. His brother Norman was also a very strong player. \nJohn and Paul on Skegness beach circa 1958. Kindly supplied by Paul Littlewood. George and Ringo are out of shot !\nFrom “Chess Coaching” : \nJohn Littlewood is a National Coach and the Director of Junior Chess to the British Chess Federation. He is a FIDE Master with national and international playing experience\, and is an established chess write\, translator and journalist. \n03-01-1962 37th Hastings International Chess Congress\, 1962. World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik (R) playing against John Littlewood of England\nFrom “Learn Chess 2” \n“A British Master\, formerly Northern Counties Champion and currently (1984) a National Coach for the British Chess Federation. John Littlewood has played for England in several international tournaments\, including two Olympiads” \nJohn Littlewood giving a simultaneous display\nJohn Was Northern Counties Chess Union (NCCU) Champion in 1971\, 1972\, 1977\, 1978\, 1979\, 1980 and 1981 : a record seven times ! \nJohn with chess friends\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nJohn won the Appleby-Frodingham Chess Club tournament in 1962 with 3.5/5 : \nAppleby-Frodingham Tournament of 1962 crosstable\nand then\, in the same year came 3= in the British Championships with 7.5/11 : \nTruncated crosstable from the 1962 British Championship in Whitby\nand in 1969 in Rhyl John was unfortunate not to share the title with Dr. Jonathan Penrose after losing to Frank Parr in the final round : \nTruncated crosstable of the British Championships of Rhyl 1969\nJohn Littlewood at Hastings 1963-4. Still taken from Pathe news reel footage\nJohn Littlewood playing Wolfgang Unzicker in round one of the 1969-70 Hastings International Congress\nJohn won the Southport Open in 1972 and the picture below was taken shortly afterwards : \nJohn and family following winning the 1972 Southport Open. See the BCM article below for a full caption\nJohn won the Chorley tournament of 1977 with 7/9 \nChorley 1977 tournament crosstable\nJEL won the British Chess Federation’s President’s Award in 2000. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nFM John Littlewood at 4NCL courtesy of Helen Milligan\nIn 2006 John won the BCF Veterans / Seniors title for the first time repeating the feat in 2008 sharing with George Dickson. \nWith the White pieces John almost exclusively played 1.e4 favouring the Wormald Attack\, Open Sicilians and the Rossolimo variation. \nAs the second player John played the Closed Ruy Lopez\, the Sicilian Dragon and the Grünfeld defence. \nIn the following video IM Andrew Martin discusses the game Bisguier – Littlewood\, 1962. \n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXEc2gmBbRA[/embedyt] \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nRather than reinventing an already round wheel we reproduce the following ten page tribute in the October 2009 issue of British Chess Magazine. The tribute is by John Saunders : \nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIV (129)\, 2009\, Number 10\, October\, page 536\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIV (129)\, 2009\, Number 10\, October\, page 537\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIV (129)\, 2009\, Number 10\, October\, page 538\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIV (129)\, 2009\, Number 10\, October\, page 539\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIV (129)\, 2009\, Number 10\, October\, page 540\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIV (129)\, 2009\, Number 10\, October\, page 541\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIV (129)\, 2009\, Number 10\, October\, page 542\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIV (129)\, 2009\, Number 10\, October\, page 543\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIV (129)\, 2009\, Number 10\, October\, page 544\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIV (129)\, 2009\, Number 10\, October\, page 545\nA rather detailed article from Tartajubow on Chess II \nHere is how news of his passing was received on the English Chess Forum \nHere is an obituary from Leonard Barden in The Guardian \nHere is an obituary published in The Times of London \nFarewell to John Littlewood : The Lincolnshire Poacher \nand\, finally a history of JEL from the Yorkshire Chess Archives \nFM John Littlewood (25-v-1931 16-ix-2009)\nHere is John’s Wikipedia entry \nHow to Play the Middle Game in Chess by John Littlewood\, Collins\, 1974\nChess Coaching by John Littlewood\, The Crowood Press\, 1991\nLearn Chess by Edward Penn and John Littlewood\, Pitman House\, 1980\nLearn Chess : Teacher’s Book\,  by Edward Penn & John Littlewood\, Pitman House\, 1980\nLearn Chess 2 by John Littlewood\, Adam & Charles Black\, 1984\nFM John Littlewood (25-v-1931 16-ix-2009)
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-fm-john-eric-littlewood-25-v-1931-16-ix-2009/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player
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