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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210318
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210319
DTSTAMP:20210318T094549Z
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SUMMARY:Birthday of GM Jim Plaskett (18-iii-1960)
DESCRIPTION:Happy Birthday GM Harold James Plaskett born on this day (March 18th) in 1960 \nGM Harold James Plaskett\nHere is his Wikipedia entry \nJim accepts the 1981 Grand Prix shield from ?\nHere are his games \nJim obtained his FM norm in 1980 according to Gino de Felice. \nFrom Chessgames.com : \n“Harold James (Jim) Plaskett was born in Dkeliha\, Cyprus. He was awarded the IM title in 1981 and became a GM in 1985. Plaskett’s tournament results include first place at Plovdiv 1984 and a tie for second at Hastings 1984-85. He was British champion in 1990.” \nJim with David Anderton OBE at the 1983 Benedictine International (Manchester)\nJames Plaskett almost became a millionaire \nTrends in the Sicilian Richter Rauzer\nTrends in the Sicilian Sozin\nTrends in the Gruenfeld without cd5\nThe English Defence\nPlaying to Win\nThe Sicilian Taimanov\nThe Sicilian Grand Prix\nCoincidences\nCan You Be a Tactical Chess Genius?\nThe Scandinavian Defence\nStarting Out: Attacking Play\nCatastrophe In The Opening\nThe Queen’s Bishop Attack Revealed.\nBad Show\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-gm-harold-james-plaskett-18-iii-1960/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,British Championships,English,Player,Writer
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210325
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210326
DTSTAMP:20210321T164305Z
CREATED:20190824T102732Z
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SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Sir Stuart Milner-Barry KCVO CB OBE (20-ix-1906 25-iii-1995)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Sir Stuart Milner-Barry KCVO CB OBE who passed away on Saturday\, March 25th\, 1995 in Lewisham Hospital\, London aged 88. He was laid to rest in the Great Shelford Cemetery\, Cambridge Road\, Great Shelford\, Cambridge CB22 5JJ. \nA memorial service was held for him at Westminster Abbey on 15 June 1995. \nGreat Shelford Cemetery Gravestone of Sir Philip Stuart Milner-Barry KCVO CB OBE by Geoffrey Gillon\nSignature of PS Milner-Barry from a Brian Reilly “after dinner” postcard from Margate 1936.\nPhilip Stuart Milner-Barry was born on Thursday\, September 20th 1906 in Mill Hill in the London Borough of Barnet. Mill Hill falls under the Hendon Parliamentary constituency. \nParents\nHis parents were Lieutenant-Commander Edward Leopold (1867-1917) and Edith Mary Milner-Barry (born 17th May 1866\, died 1949\, née Besant). Edward was in the  Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve\, H.M.S. “Wallington.” Prior to his war service his father was a professor of modern languages at the University of Bangor and Edith was the daughter of Dr. William Henry Besant\, a renowned mathematical fellow of St John’s College\, Cambridge University. \nStuart was the second born of six children\, There was  an older sister Alda Mary (18th August 1893-1938) and four brothers Edward William Besant (?-1911) \, Walter Leopold (1904-1982)\, John O’Brien (4 December 1898 – 28 February 1954) and Patrick James . Many of the Milner-Barry family were laid to rest in the Great Shelford churchyard. \nStuart learned chess at the age of eight and his autobiographical article below goes into more depth. \nHe was educated at Cheltenham College\, and won a scholarship to Trinity College\, Cambridge\, where he obtained firsts in classics and moral sciences. \nOn leaving Cambridge in 1927 he went to work at the London Stock Exchange (LSE). \nAccording to the 1928 and 1929 electoral rolls he was living with his mother Edith  and his brothers Walter and John O’Brien at 50 De Freville Avenue\, Cambridge CB4 1HT: \n50 De Freville Avenue\, Cambridge CB4 1HT\nIn 1931 the family had relocated to 11\, Park Terrace\, Cambridge which is nearby to Emmanuel College. Now living  with the family was brother Patrick James. \n11\, Park Terrace\, Cambridge\, CB1 1JJ\nPeriod map of the area of 11\, Park Terrace\, Cambridge\, CB1 1JJ\nHe discovered that he did not enjoy his LSE work and switched careers to became chess correspondent of The Times in 1938. \nAt the time (September 29th) of the 1939 register he (aged 33) was living as a journalist in a household of three with his mother Edith who carried out “unpaid domestic duties” and sister Alda who was of “private means”. \nHonours\nIn 1946 Stuart was awarded the OBE from the Civil Division in the  New Years Honours . The citation reads that was “employed in a Department of the Foreign Office”. A modern translation of this was he was engaged in Top Secret work at Bletchley Park alongside Alan Turing\, Gordon Welchman and Hugh Alexander and was thus honoured for his war work. More on this later… \nAfter the war he worked in the Treasury\, and later in 1966 administered the British honours system where he helped to facilitate the award of honours to other chess players ultimately retiring in 1977. \nAs well as the OBE he was made Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1962 and Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCV0) in 1975. \nA conference room was named after him at the Civil Service Club\, 13 – 15 Great Scotland Yard\, London SW1A 2HJ. \nPeter Hennessy* and The Rewarding Career of Sir Stuart Milner-Barry\n*Peter Hennessy is a renowned historian and journalist. The following was originally published in The Times in 1977 following  PSMBs retirement. \n“Few careers can have been as varied and rewarding as that of Sir Stuart Milner-Barry\, who retires today as Ceremonial Officer to the Civil Service Department and custodian of the British honours system. \nInto the 48 years since he left Cambridge with a degrees in classics and moral sciences\, he has crammed spells as a stockbroker\, chess correspondent of  The Times and member of the British chess team\, a wartime codebreaker for MI6 and a senior Treasury official before taking over administration of the nations “gongs and bongs ” nearly 11 years ago. \nThe richness of Sir Stuart’s progression is all the more striking given the difficulty he experienced in finding a job at all after university because of the Wall Street crash in 1929. His first 10 years spanned the slump of the 1930s\, when there was little for a stockbroker to do\, but fill his days reading The Times. \nIn 1938 he joined the paper full time as chess correspondent and\, along with many of the world’s leading players\, he was nearly trapped in Buenos Aires when war broke out the next year (ed. should be month rather than year). Catching the first ship home\, he finished up with that brilliant collection of dons\, antique dealers\, mathematicians and chess players billeted in Nissen huts in the park of Buckinghamshire country house\, who broke the code transmitted by the German Enigma machine. \nThe original Hut 6 building (photographed in 2004). Milner-Barry joined Hut 6 in early 1940\, and worked in the section throughout World War II. He became head of Hut 6 in Autumn 1943.\nSir Stuart eventually rose to lead hut six\, which broke the most secret messages of the Luftwaffe. Quartered in a comfortable Bletchley public house with another formidable chess player\, C. H. O’D. Alexander\, and Gordon Welchman\, the Cambridge mathematician\, he acquired a taste  for rum\, the only alcohol in plentiful supply for some reason\, and a sense of guilt about enjoying\, his stimulating\, important job\, safe while other men faced the bullets. \nHe was not tempted to stay on in the arcane world of code-breaking after the war\, unlike his friend\, the late Hugh Alexander\, as he regards such activities in peacetime as akin to reading somebody’s private correspondence\, though he recognizes the necessity of such efforts for intelligence work. Instead\, he took the reconstruction competition for the administrative class of the Civil Service and entered the Treasury. \nWhile battling with the post-war dollar shortage in Treasury Chambers he “found a wife\, carried her off and lived happily ever after”\, as he cheerfully puts it. Apart from a spell as establishment officer to the Ministry of Health\, he stayed at the Treasury until he reached the normal retiring age of 60 in 1966. \nLord Helsby\, then Head of the Home Civil Service\, asked him to stay on and take over the smooth machine that underpins the honours system\, which had been built up over many years by Sir Robert Knox. Sir Stuart has loved every minute of it. \nHe looks every inch the part\, a tall stately man of immense natural dignity\, he is the incarnation of propriety. The stresses to which the honours system has been subjected to in recent years must have caused him great distress but he is far too proper a civil servant to talk about it. His retirement at 70 has nothing to do with the alarums and excursions stimulated by the honours lists associated with Harold Wilson. \n“One of my principal jobs has been the protection of the system”\, he says. “The pleasures are very great. It’s fascinating in itself. You see so much of the history of people in every walk of like”. \nSir Stuart waxes eloquent about the beauty and uniqueness of the British honours system. He is a confirmed monarchist\, so the spontaneity of the jubilee celebrations  provides the perfect backcloth for his departure. He is succeeded by Mr. Richard Sharp\, an under-secretary at the Treasury.” \nBelow is the original article: \nSir Philip Stuart Milner-Barry OBE\nMarriage to Thelma\nIn the third quarter of 1947 Stuart married Thelma Tennant Wells in Westminster. A consequence of the “rules of the day” of the marriage was that Thelma had to resign her post in the Treasury immediately.  (Ed: this somewhat antiquated view of life was finally corrected in 1972 when the Civil Service dispensed with this rule). \nLady Thelma was to support Stuart in his chess activities for their married life. She also served as the first UK Director of Women’s Chess and made many lasting friendships in the chess world. She was buried together with Stuart in 2007. Stuart himself was President of the British Chess Federation between 1970 and 1973 as well as being Director of International Chess following his presidency. \nStuart and Thelma had three children\, one son and two daughters: Philip O. (born 1953)\, Jane E (born 1950) and Alda M (born 1958). \nDave Rumens is pleased to accept a cheque for £200 from Lady Thelma Milner-Barry for winning the 1978 Nottingham Congress with 5.5/6. Photograph provided by Nottinghamshire County Council.\nStuart was knighted on January 1st 1975 for his role as the “Ceremonial Officer of  Civil Service Department” between 1966-77. Technically the knighthood is known as a KCVO. \nMilner-Barry was Southern Counties (SCCU) champion for the 1960-61 season. \nHe first competed in the British Championship in 1931 and made regular appearences as late as 1978: a span of 47 years! \nIn their retirement  years Stuart and Thelma lived at the salubrious location of 43 Blackheath Park\, Blackheath\, London SE3 9RW. \nAutobiography\nIn June of 1933 at the age of 27 Stuart wrote an autobiographical piece for British Chess Magazine to be found in Volume LIII (53\, 1933)\, Number 6 (June)\, pp. 241-2 as follows: \nStuart Milner-Barry in 1933 taken from BCM\, 1933\, June\nP.S. Milner-Barry\nChampion of the City of London Chess Club\nI learned chess at the age of eight and played regularly after that with members of my family. My first-class practise (with due respect to my family) began at fourteen\, when Mr. Bertram Goulding Brown and  started a series of serious friendly games which has continued ever since\, almost without interruption. The vast majority of these games were begun with 1 P-K4\, P-K4\, and as we both eschewed the Lopez and the Four Knights\, we have acquired  a fairly extensive knowledge of the older forms of the King’s side openings – King’s Gambit (all sorts)\, Vienna\, Guioco Piano\, Evans’s Gambit\, Danish Gambit\, Bishop’s Opening\, etc. These games have undoubtedly born the most important influence in my development\, apart from which the serious friendly game is to me much the most enjoyable form of chess. We each have runs of success\, and there has never been much to choose between us. \n(An aside : Stuart wrote a extensive obituary of Bertram Goulding Brown which appeared in British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXXV (85\, 1965)\, Number 12(December) pp.344-45 in which he noted: \nB. Goulding Brown was my oldest and closest Cambridge friend\, I started playing with him in 1920\, and we have played ever since\, though\, alas\, not nearly so often since the War as in the 1920s and 1930. Our last games\, when he was eighty three\, were played about a year ago in the same book-congested upstairs study at Brookside as all the others had been. Both were cut-and-thrust draws: a Kieseritzky Gambit from myself and Two Knights’ (with 4.P-Q4 for White) were typical of the openings we adopted. We were planning another this Autumn\, but he died suddenly and peacefully at the end of August\, ) \nI have also been very fortunate in playing a good deal with C.H.O’D. Alexander. Our games have taken the form of a series of short matches (first player to win three games) played with clocks. Alexander was already stronger than me when he came up to Cambridge\, and he won the University Championship from me in his first year and my fourth. \nCHO’D Alexander plays his old friend PS Milner-Barry\nAll three matches have been won by him\, the first easily and the last two by the narrowest possible margin; a fourth now in progress looks like coming to an early  and ignominious conclusion (Score 0-2-2). These results have neither surprised nor disappointed me : I would not back any player in England to do better. \n(ed. For more detail on PSMBs matches with Hugh we refer to you our article on Hugh). \nIn 1923 I won the first Boy’s Championship at Hastings\, but lost badly the following year (ed. Alexander won). \nBoy Chess Champion PS Milner-Barry (Cheltenham College)\, first boy chess champion of England\, receiving the cup from Mrs. AG Ginner\, the donor \, at the Hastings Chess Club\nSince then I have competed twice at Hastings\, once tieing with Miss Menchik in the Major Reserve for the first place and once for the last\, in the Major. In between I played in the Major Open at Tenby\, and came out fifth\, with my first important win against Znosko-Borovsky. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nMeanwhile I played four years against Oxford\, with somewhat chequered results. The first year I won against G. Abrahams\, the second and third years\, I played K.H. Bancroft and scored a (very fortunate) draw and a win\, while finally I permitted Abrahams to fork my King and Queen with a Knight\, a performance unhappily repeated by R.L. Mitchell in the following year (his Queen was pinned by a Bishop). Since then the spell has been broken. In 1931 I played in the British Championships at Worcester\, and was quite satisfied with my form\, though my score of 5 out of 11 was nothing to write home about. In February 1932\, I have the great good fortune to fill a vacant place in the Sunday Referee* London International Tournament\, an extremely exhausting but very valuable experience which I greatly appreciated. \n*The Sunday Referee was a newspaper of the time which was adsorbed into The Sunday Chronicle in 1939. \nFull Crosstable for the 1932 Sunday Referee or London International Masters Tournament\nMy score of 3.5 out of 11\, equal with Sir George Thomas and above W. Winter and V. Buerger\, was quite as good as I expected. After this came the Cambridge Tournament\, which\, though a very delightful little congress\, was a fiasco from my point of view. Three of my opponents were unkind enough to show their best form against me\, and two other games I spoilt by clock trouble. \nI do not expect to play much serious competitive chess in future. I admire sincerely the business man who is ready\, after a hard day at the office\, to undergo a further four hours of strenuous mental exertion; and who is also prepared to spend his all too brief holidays in the same exhausting pursuit. Moreover\, while many players find the atmosphere of match and tournament play a stimulus or an inspiration\, it only renders me nervous\, and though this does not affect my play it certainly interferes with my enjoyment. As long as I can play my week-end games with B.G.B.\, and inveigle Alexander from Winchester to add another to his monotonous series of victories\, I shall not much mind if I can only occasionally take part in congresses. ” \nPS Milner-Barry Cup\nIn issue #53 (April 1946)  of West London Chess Club’s Gazette we have a news item concerning a newly inaugurated trophy called the PS Milner-Barry Cup: \nissue #53 (April 1946)  of West London Chess Club’s Gazette\nSergeant on Milner-Barry\nWriting in A Century of British Chess (Hutchinson\, 1934)\, PW Sergeant records in Chapter XXI\, 1925 to 1934: \nThe City of London C.C.’s Championship Tournament which ended this (1933) spring deserves special mention; for it introduced an entirely new name on the list of champions\, that of P.S. Milner-Barry\, formerly of Cheltenham College and of Cambridge University.  Ten years previously he had won the first boys’ championship at Hastings. \nNow\, he won the City of London Championship with a score of 11 out of 14\, followed by the bearers of such noted names as R.P. Michell (10 points)\, Sir George Thomas (9)\, and E.G. Sergeant (8.5). It caused some surprise\, therefore\, when it was found that he was not selected as a British representative at Folkestone. \nGolombek on Milner-Barry\nSurprisingly and disappointingly there is no direct entry in either Hooper & Whyld or Sunnucks for Sir Stuart but (as you might expect) Harry Golombek OBE does not let us down  in The Encyclopaedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977): \n“British master whose chess career was limited by his amateur status but whose abilities as a player and original theorist rendered him worthy of the title of international master. \nBorn at Mill Hill in London\, he showed early promise and in 1923 won the British Boys Championship\, then held at Hastings. \nHe studied classics at Cambridge and developed into the strongest player there. At the university he was to meet (ed. three years later) C. H. O’D. Alexander with whom he played much chess. \nThough nearly three years younger\, Alexander exerted a strong influence over him and both players cherished and revelled in the brilliance of play in open positions. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n24th April 1935: J Mieses of Germany in play against PS Milner-Barry during the Premier Tournament of the Kent County Chess Association in the Grand Hotel\, Margate. (Photo by F. Sayers/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)\nBy then along with Alexander and Golombek\, he had become recognized as one of the three strongest young players in the country. Whilst not as successful as they were in tournaments as the British championship in which stamina was essential\, he was a most formidable club and team match player\, as he had already shown in 1933 when he won the championship of the City of London Club ahead of R. P. Mitchell and Sir George Thomas. \nHarry Golombek OBE plays Sir Philip Stuart Milner-Barry OBE\nHe played in his first International Team tournament at Stockholm 1937 and was to play in three more such events : in 1939 at Buenos Aires where\, on third board\, he made the fine score of 4/5 ; in Helsinki 1952; and in Moscow 1956 where\, again on third board\, he was largely responsible for the team’s fine showing. \nLeft to right Baruch H Wood\, Stuart Milner-Barry\, Vera Menchik (playing in the women’s world championship (held concurrently with the 1939 Buenos Aires Olympiad) which she won with 17 wins and 2 draws)\, Sir George Thomas\, Conel Hugh O’Donel Alexander and Harry Golombek. England withdrew after their preliminary group due to the outbreak of war despite qualifying for the top final. Thanks to Leonard Barden\nIn 1940 he shared first prize with Dr. List in the strong tournament of semi-international character in London and then\, like Alexander and (later) Golombek\, helped in the Foreign Office code-breaking activities at Bletchley Park for the duration of the Second World War. Staying in the Civil Service afterwards\, he rose to the rank of Under-Secretary in the Treasury and was knighted for his services in 1975. \nSir Stuart Milner-Barry talks about Malik Mir Sultan Khan\nBelow is footage (start at 1′ 55″) of Sir Stuart discussing the talent of Malik Mir Sultan Khan: \n\nAfter the war\, too\, he had some fine results in the British championship\, his best being second place at Hastings in 1953. \nHartston on Milner-Barry\nThe following article is sourced from November 1995 edition* of Dragon\, the Cambridge University Chess Club magazine: \n(*Edited by Jonathan Parker) \nA sample cover of Dragon\, the Cambridge University Chess Club Magazine\n“I first met Sir Stuart Milner-Barry when I was fifteen years old (1962) playing in a tournament in Bognor Regis who played some rustic king’s pawn opening against me\, sacrificing a pawn for nothing in particular and then astonished by writing “castles” in full on his scoresheet.  I think he used “kt” for a knight too. I thought I had discovered  a true relic from a bygone age and the more I got to know him I realised the more correct that judgement was. \nMilner-Barry was the last of the true gentlemen amateurs and was one of the few people I have ever met who played chess for the sheer love of the game. \nA few typical incidents may give a flavour of his unique personality. First and most typical was the way he would resign: with a firm handshake\, a smile and a booming whisper of ‘You are far too good for me I’m afraid!’ When I first heard those words I was totally taken aback : What was this\, a chessplayer acknowledging that his opponent was better than him? Impossible! \nOnce\, at close of play in a county match against Milner-Barry I had the extra pawn in a difficult queen and pawn ending.  We analysed a little with most variations suggesting I was winning. It was the kind of position you would send for adjudication even if you are convinced it is lost. It avoids having to resign anyway and the adjudicator may always discount the pawns. But\, Sir Stuart never thought like that. After ten minutes analysing he extended his hand and congratulated me. \nSir Stuart Milner-Barry in play against Daniel Yanofsky from round 6 of the British Championship in Hastings\, 15th August 1953\nFinally there was the splendid incident in Moscow during the (Ed. 6th) European Team Championships in the late 1970s (Ed. 1977) Stuart was then the President of the BCF and took up an invitation of his old friend the British Ambassador to the USSR (Ed. Sir Howard Smith) to visit the event.  Since he was staying at the Embassy he had a KGB tail assigned to him to follow him everywhere. On one of his morning walks Sir Stuart got lost and was not certain which bridge he should be on to get back to the Embassy. So\, he turned around and walked back to the not very secret policeman\, followed him and asked for directions! For the rest of his stay they walked practically hand-in-hand. \nWhilst most of us knew Stuart as an amiable old gent who played for Kent and in the Lloyds Bank Masters who could still play brilliant attacking games in his eighties  most knew little of his distinguished career in real life. \nSir Stuart Milner-Barry\nWe suspected with some justification  that in his civil service career he was responsible for doling out all those OBEs to chess players  in the 70s and 80s when he was in charge of the honours list. \nIt was the wartime work at Bletchley Park that was Milner-Barry’s greatest achievement. As everybody knows the allies won the Second World War mainly because of the brilliant code-breaking work of the Cambridge quartet of Alan Turing\, Gordon Welchman\, Hugh Alexander and Stuart Milner-Barry. Turing and Welchman were mathematical geniuses\, Milner-Barry was the supreme administrator and Alexander straddled the gap with great talents in both areas. \nThe astonishing achievement at Bletchley was not so  much in breaking enemy codes as maintaining complete secrecy of the entire operation for the duration of the war. Only with such people as Milner-Barry and Alexander in charge could such a large operation be run so successfully without anybody knowing about it. \nMilner-Barry’s importance in the running at Bletchley may be judged from the fact that he personally delivered the note to Winston Churchill stressing overriding importance of their work asking for more funds. \n\nCompared with that the invention of the Milner-Barry Gambit and the Milner-Barry variation of the Nimzo-Indian are minor achievements. \nSir Stuart was proof that nice guys can be chess players although one cannot help suspecting he would achieved even better results if he had even a slight streak of nastiness about him. He would surely have not let Capablanca off the hook in Margate in 1938 when the attacking player secured a winning position against the ex-champions dragon variation and he would have surely also not let the British Championship slip from his grasp in 1953 when he finished as runner-up  after losing his last two games. \nHe always performed well when playing in Olympiads (or Team Tournaments as they were known then) for England during the 1930s and 50s. He was\, after all\, one of the most naturally gifted players this county has produced.  What other Englishman has two opening (or even just one) named after him? \nWhile at Cambridge while he won the University Championship in 1928\, losing to Alexander in the following year\, Milner-Barry composed some fine problems\, a frivolity he never returned to later in his life. \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 excellent though infrequent writer on the game\, he wrote a fine memoir of C.H.O’D. Alexander in Golombek’s and Hartston’s The Best Games of C.H.O’D. Alexander\, Oxford\, 1976.” \n\nThe Best Games of C.H.O’D. Alexander\, Harry Golombek and William Hartston. With A Memoir by Sir Stuart Milner-Barry\, Oxford University Press\, 1976\, ISBN 10: 0192175351 ISBN 13: 9780192175359\nAn Obituary from Bernard Cafferty\nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume CXV (115\, 1995)\, Number 5 (May)\, pp. 258-59 we have this obituary by Bernard Cafferty: \n“Sir Philip Stuart Milner-Barry KCVO CB  OBE (20 ix 1906 – 25 iii 1995) was the oldest of the British chess masters who came to prominence in the 1930s\, He was always thought of in conjunction with his great friends Hugh Alexander and Harry Golombek who both predeceased him. The length of Stuart’s career is amazing  – he was inaugural British Boy Champion in 1923 and was still playing for Kent first team in the Counties Championship  of recent years\, thus spanning a period of seven decades! Botvinnik spoke of him to me on my 1994 visit to Moscow. \nDavid Anderton OBE (rhs) congratulates Sir Stuart Milner-Barry OBE for winning the “Board of Honour ” game versus Edward Lasker at the 1976 Lloyds Bank Match by Telex\, London – New York. From BCM\, volume XCVI (96) Number 11 (August)\, Page 494. The venue was the Bloomsbury Hotel\, London. Photo courtesy of Lloyds Bank\nYet Stuart\, who never gained the IM title\, was always the true amateur and genuine English gentleman\, whose sense of duty and tradition was very great. It speaks volumes of him that he agonised over whether he should attend the Times Kasparov-Short match of 1993\, in a private capacity. He would have liked to watch the play\, but as a former British Chess Federation President\, 1970-73\, he felt it was his duty not to lend any extra recognition to the contest other than that assigned it by the BCF. \nBefore the war\, after graduating from Cambridge in Classics\, he took some fine scalps including those of Tartakower and Mieses and should have beaten Capablanca at Margate 1939. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nCapablanca and Stuart Milner-Barry at Margate\, England\, April 15\, 1936. AP Photos\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 worked\, rather unhappily\, in a stockbroking firm up to 1938 and it is in that capacity that his name appears on the official document that set-up the British Chess Magazine as a limited company in 1937. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nDuring the war he played his part in the Bletchley Park code-breaking undertaking along with Alexander and Golombek\, and after the war went into the Civil Service where he had a distinguished career at the Treasury. Then his career was extended as he spent his final working years in the patronage department that sifted recommendations for the honours list. \nI recall asking him in 1981 if there was any chance that Brian Reilly could qualify for an award. Stuart’s diplomatic answer was to the effect that he was now retired but would drop a word in the right quarter. \nStuart represented England at the Olympiads or 1936\, 1939\, 1952 and 1956. At the last of these he played particularly well on fourth board. He was conscious that his old friend Hugh Alexander could not take part in Moscow because of the sensitive nature of his work in the Intelligence Service. \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 playing style Milner-Barry\, a tall gaunt figure\, delighted in an open tactical fight. \nHe was The Times correspondent 1938-45\, resigning the post to let Harry Golombek take over. His best result after the war\, apart from the 1956 Moscow Olympiad\, was probably his second place in the British Championships of 1953 at Hastings. The abiding impression of his opponents over the years must have been  that here was a player who greatly enjoyed the game\, win\, lose or draw. \nCertainly\, that was my idea of him in the tussles we had from the British Championship of 1957 up to county matches in the 1980s. \nWe shall not see his like again. The England that formed his character is no longer with us.” \nMilner-Barry Variations\nThough never at home in close(d) positions\, he was an outstanding strategist in the open game and it is significant that his most important contribution to opening theory was the Milner-Barry variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defence which is essentially as attempt to convert a close position into an open one (1.P-Q4\, N-KB3; 2.P-QB4\, P-K3; 3. N-QB3\, B-N5; 4.Q-B2\, N-B3).” \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 (1996) note: \n“Sometimes called the Zurich or Swiss variation\, this is a line in the Nimzo-Indian Defence introduced by Milner-Barry in the Premier Reserves tournament\, Hastings 1928-9. This line became more widely known when it was played at Zurich 1934.” \nTwo famous opening lines are named after him – 4…Nc6 in the Nimzo-Indian (as above)\, and the gambit in the French Defence: 1.e4 e6;2.d4 d5;3.e5 c5;4.c3 Nc6;5.Nf3 Qb6;6.Bd3 cxd4;7.cxd4 Bd7;8.0-0 Nxd4; \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nStuart played this line both in correspondence and over-the-board play. If Black takes the pawn with 10…Qxe5\, White gets a fierce attack by 11\,Re1 Qd6 (else 12.Nxd5) 12.Nb5. \nThere is also a sub-variation of the Caro-Kann which is named after Sir Stuart viz: \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 a Blackmar-Diemer style pawn sacrifice. \nThere is also a Milner-Barry variation in the Falkbeer Counter Gambit to the King’s Gambit thus: \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 an ancient line that he revived at Margate 1937. \nand finally\, there is a Milner-Barry Variation in the Petroff Defence: \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\ngiving a total of five named variations. How many English players have that many? \nProblems and Compositions\nStuart developed an interest in problem composition in the 1920s \nSir Stuart Milner-Barry\, Problem\, Morning Post\, 1923\nSir Stuart Milner-Barry\, Problem\, The Observer\, 1925\nSir Stuart Milner-Barry\, Problem\, British Chess Magazine\, 1926\nFurther examples may be found on the excellent Meson Database maintained by Brian Stephenson \nMilner-Barry on The English Chess Explosion\nStuart was a great supporter of the development of British chess. Nothing would have given him more pleasure than to witness  the meteoric advances of English players in the 1970s. Indeed\, he wrote the foreword to the English Chess Explosion (Batsford\, 1980) by Murray Chandler and Ray Keene: \nThe English Chess Explosion (from Miles to Short)\, Murray Chandler & Ray Keene\, Batsford\, 1981\, ISBN 0 7134 4009 0\n“It gives me great pleasure to have been asked to write a foreword for this book. Nothing has given me more satisfaction than the flowering of British chess talent that has taken place in the past few years. \nBetween the wars\, though we had some splendid players like H. E. Atkins\, Sir George Thomas and F. D. Yates\, we were a second rate power at chess: in the great Nottingham tournament of 1936\, for example\, our quartet brought up the rear\, and that was where\, with occasional shining exceptions\, our representatives in international tournaments tended to find themselves. Similarly\, after the war in the 1950’s and 1960’s\, in spite of Alexander and Penrose\, we seldom achieved a really creditable place in the Olympiads. \nAlexander who retired early from the arena because of the exacting demands of his profession\, must have had rather a depressing time as non-playing captain. \nSir Stuart Milner-Barry OBE\nI myself date the renaissance from the Spring of 1974 when we won a closely contested match against West Germany at Elvetham Hall.\nThereafter we went from strength to strength\, with the appearance year by year of highly talented\, original and adventurous young men from the Universities – Keene and Hartston\, closely followed by Miles\, Stean\, Nunn\, Mestel\, Speelman\, and a still younger generation of schoolboy prodigies like Nigel Short. \nThe peak of our performance so far has been the third place (after the USSR and Hungary) last winter in the finals of the European Team Tournament at Skara (compared with our eighth and last place at Moscow in 1977). \nSir Stuart Milner-Barry OBE presents Dr. Jana Hartston with the ? prize\nHow did all this come about in the short space of six years? The Spassky-Fischer match of 1972 was a watershed. Since then\, and the first time\, it has been possible for able young men from universities to consider chess seriously as a full-time profession\, or at least as a career to which they devote the major part of their time and interest\, Secondly\, the fruits were being reaped of the unobtrusive but devoted spadework in junior training pioneered by Barden\, Wade and many others. Lastly\, no doubt\, sheer good fortune smiled upon us in the simultaneous emergence of a group of brilliant enthusiastic and likeable young men\, five of them already grandmasters and others likely to become so before long. \nIt is sad that Alexander\, who did so much to uphold the prestige of British chess in the doldrums\, did not survive to witness the transformation. I would like to wish the BCF President\, David Anderton\, and Alexander’s successor as captain\, all possible success for the future.” \nFooter from the foreword of The English Chess Explosion (from Miles to Short)\, Murray Chandler & Ray Keene\, Batsford\, 1981\, ISBN 0 7134 4009 0\nFurther Material\nAn obituary from The Independent by Bill Hartston \nAn article from Spartacus Educational \nHere are his games from chess.com \nMore on his time at Bletchley Park \nLocation of his grave \nHere is his Wikipedia entry \n\nSignature of Sir Stuart Milner-Barry\nAccording to Edward Winter in Chess Notes PSMB lived at these addresses : \n\n11 Park Terrace\, Cambridge\, England (Ranneforths Schachkalender\, 1938\, page 78).\n43 Blackheath Park\, Blackheath\, London SE3 9RW\, England (letter reproduced in C.N. 3809).\n\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-sir-philip-stuart-milner-barry-obe/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,English,History,Journalist,Player,Remembering,Writer
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210326
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210327
DTSTAMP:20210305T192111Z
CREATED:20200319T125443Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210305T192111Z
UID:3597-1616716800-1616803199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of GM Chris Ward (26-iii-1968)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of GM Christopher Geoffrey Ward (26-iii-1968)Here is his Wikipedia entry \nGM Chris Ward\nFrom Chessgames.com : \n“Grandmaster and British Chess Champion in 1996. He is the author of several chess books\, among them Winning With the Sicilian Dragon 2 (2001)\, Winning with the Dragon (2003) and The Controversial Samisch King’s Indian (2004).” \nChris plays Jiang Chuan Ye at the 1997 England – China match\nHere are his games \nChris Ward commentating during the Hastings Congress\nChris earned his IM title in 1990 and his GM title in 1996. According to Chessbase and Felice his peak rating was 2531 in July 2003 when he was 35. \nChris is President of the English Primary Schools Chess Association (EPSCA)\, Chris is the Chief Coach of the Kent Junior Chess Association (KJCA). Chris plays for KJCA Kings in the Four Nations Chess League (4NCL). \nChris with the British Championship Trophy from 1996 (Nottingham)\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“Not sure about best\, but 18.Qxf8+ against Summerscale en route to winning the 1996 British Championship will be forever ingrained in my mind. Sorry\, Aaron!”\n– GM Chris Ward (when asked for his best move) \nSource: Chess Monthly 2017 December \nGM Chris Ward\nEndgame Play\nThe Queen’s Gambit Accepted\nThe Genius of Paul Morphy\nImprove your Opening Play\nWinning With the Sicilian Dragon 2\nStarting Out: The Nimzo-Indian\nIt’s Your Move: Improvers\nUnusual Queen’s Gambit Declined\nWinning with the Dragon\nIt’s Your Move: Tough Puzzles\nStarting Out: Rook Endgames\nThe Controversial Samisch King’s Indian\nPlay the Queen’s Gambit\nStarting Out: Chess Tactics and Checkmates\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-gm-chris-ward-26-iii-1968/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,British Championships,Hastings,Player,Writer
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200331
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200401
DTSTAMP:20220401T132443Z
CREATED:20200716T120224Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220401T132443Z
UID:7455-1585612800-1585699199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of IMC Ken Messere OBE (16-iv-1928 31-iii-2005)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Ken Messere who passed away on Thursday\, March 31st 2005 aged 76 in Paris-16E-Arrondissement\, Paris\, France. \nKenneth Charles Messere was born on Monday\, April 16th\, 1928 in Richmond-on-Thames\, Surrey. His father was Charles (George) Messere (1901-1974) or Eisenberg and aged 26. His mother was Gertrude Marie Newman (1899-1978) and aged 29. \nKen had three siblings: Barbara Marie Messere (1930–2005)\, Hugh Martin Messere (1932–1985) and Derek R Messere (1934–2012) \nKen attended St. Peter’s College\, Oxford from 1946 – 1951 to read philosophy and is reported in the 1951 St. Edmund Hall Magazine\, as a member of the Trillick (debating) Society as follows: \n‘ That this House would rather be a live Communist than\na dead Democrat.’ The proposer established to his own satisfaction that democracy was founded on ‘selfishness\, capitalism and bourgeois hypocrisy.’ He did not satisfy J. F. R. Bonguard of St. Peter’s Hall who opposed\, using arguments taken from Hindu philosophy. K. C. Messere of St. Peter’s Hall\, spoke third and added some able arguments. \nIn June 1954 Ken married Mary Elizabeth Humphrey (1929-2003) in Ealing. They had a son Miles Jonathan Messere born in 1964 who passed away in 1965. \nPrior the time of his passing his wife Mary was living at 142B\, Herbert Road\, Woolwich\, London\, SE18 3PU. \nIn 1991 he was awarded the OBE (Civil Division) in the Queen’s Birthday honours list. The citation reads: Kenneth Charles Messere\, lately Head of Fiscal Affairs Division\, OECD\, Paris. \nKen appears each year from 1953 to 1967 in the noted publication Britain\, Royal And Imperial Calendars the function of which is to list entries for those engaged in UK public service. He worked for HM Customs and Excise. Prompted by this we consulted the venerable A History of Chess in the English Civil Service by Kevin Thurlow (Conrad Press\, 2021) on page 447 and found \n“He played for Customs. In 1964\, he went to work for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and was head of fiscal affairs from 1971 – 1991. In 1954 he began playing postal chess and became a leading player. He won a semi-final of the 5th World Correspondence Championship (1961 – 64) and became the first English player to compete in a World Championship Final.” \nThere are 31 games listed at his personal entry at chessgames.com starting with games from 1965. \nChessbase’s Correspondence Database 2020 records 69 games the earliest being from 1958 listing Ken’s federation as being France. \nFrom British Chess (Pergamon Press\, 1983) we have this lengthy contribution from Ken himself: \n“Between the ages of 6\, when I learnt to play and 23 (ed: 1951)\, when I ceased to be a student\, chess had a relatively low priority among various time-competing interests and activities\, so I never got around to studying theory. Things changed when I became a civil servant and needed a replacement for philosophy as an intellectually absorbing subject which could be argued about with friends over beers\, and for the next 12 years chess became my main interest. \nSince 1964 I have been working for the OECD in Paris\, where my friends are not chess enthusiasts and\, although chess remains a major pleasure\, my commitment to it has lessened. Nowadays\, out-side correspondence chess\, I play only occasional blitz games. \nComing late to serious chess has probably had at least some influence on my deficiencies and stylistic preferences. The deficiencies include an inability to visualize ahead with sufficient clarity to support accurate analysis\, slow sight of the board which leads to silly errors through time trouble or failing stamina and less familiarity with theory than my better opponents. As to chess style\, I have had to play romantically and subjectively to get good results. \nIf a game takes the form of a clear-cut position\, where strategical objectives are clear and superior technique prevails\, then mine generally does not. Consequently I have tended to play either sharp gambits or counter-gambits or to try to render the position sufficiently obscure for imagination and intuition to assume maximum importance. In keeping\, my chess heroes have been Alekhine\, Bronstein and Tal who revel in fantasy\, however much Alekhine may claim that it is logically based. \nWhen I took up competitive chess seriously in 1952\, I made some progress and won a few minor tournaments\, but in view of the defects already mentioned\, it soon became clear that my potential for improvement was limited and that nearly all my games were aesthetically flawed. Fortunately\, these defects represent no great handicap at correspondence chess\, where I found myself pleased with a reasonable proportion of the game I played\, and in addition\, capable on the day (or more accurately over the years) of winning against almost anyone. Thus\, against world champions I have two wins and one loss\, (see below). I also have 80 per cent from five games against Russian grandmasters\, even if a meagre 28 per cent from my eighteen games against all correspondence grandmasters. In 1954 when I began playing postal chess competitively\, I did sufficiently well in a few British Postal tournaments to be accepted at a reasonably high level in the official international tournaments. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nNot without luck (see Diagram l)\, I secured the 75 per cent necessary in two seven-player tournaments to qualify for the fourteen player preliminaries\, the winner of which was to qualify for the following world championship. In the 1961-64 preliminaries\, I played the best chess of my life\, including valid opening innovations\, imaginative pawn and piece sacrifices and even a technically efficient win in a queen and pawn end-game. I won the tournament with eleven wins\, one draw and one loss\, 1.5 points ahead of Maly of Czechoslovakia and two points ahead of Masseev\, the Russian favourite\, thereby obtaining my first norm towards the International Master title. My first annotated game is the win against Maly (ed: to be inserted once we have tracked down the game score!) which was typical stylistically and also crucial\, since if he had won it\, he would have qualified for the World Championship instead of me: the second against Bartha of the United States is the most compulsive and difficult tactical game I have ever played\, the last five moves alone requiring over 100 hours of analysis. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nIMC Ken Messere OBE (16-iv-1928 31-iii-2005)\nThe quality of my chess in the 1965-68 World Championship was much inferior. The tournament began disastrously. I went in for three losing variations as Black and made a suicidal clerical error in the opening so that after 3 months I had four losses from four games. Later\, there were compensations. I won against V. Zagarovsky\, the reigning world champion (the third annotated game) and obtained just (but only just) the necessary 33.3% per cent to obtain the correspondence chess international master title. For this I needed a win and draw from my last two games which\nafter 3.5 years\, had to be adjudicated. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nFortunately\, the win and draw were relatively clear\, though this would not have been so a few moves earlier. An an illustration of how the threat of adjudication breeds irrationality\, Diagram II gives the closing stages of my win against J.Estrin of the USSR – a more recent correspondence chess world champion. My only other game against a world champion was against the winner of this tournament\, Hans Berliner of the United States\, with whom I collaborated on a book of the tournament. The collaboration was stimulating but not without friction\, since I had to write 75 per cent of the book to see it ever finished. It took a year to complete\, 3 years to appear (published by BCM) but in the end was well-reviewed\, sold over 2000 copies and royalties are still (gently) drifting in. \nThe Fifth Correspondence Chess World Championship\, Hans Berliner & Ken Messere\, British Chess Magazine\, BCM Quarterly Nunber 14\, 5th December 1971\, ISBN 978-0-900846-05-2.\n  \nIn the early seventies\, in order to reduce numbers of games\, I retreated altogether from individual tournaments\, just playing twice for England in the Olympiads. Whether team play did not suit my style\, or whether my technique had improved but imagination withered\, I drew nine of my seventeen games from the two tournaments\, winning four and losing four. As England looked likely to aspire to medals for the first time ever\, my 50 per cent would not help matters and I gladly retreated to first reserve\, which to my dismay required taking over five unfinished games of Hugh Alexander\, who died during the tournament\, and who\, for me\, has always been England’s most attractive player and writer. My most uncomfortable decision in correspondence chess was a rejection of Hugh’s intended continuation in one of these games\, {Diagram III). Of these five games\, I lost one and drew four and England won a bronze medal. \nIn 1974 was invited to compete in the Potter Memorial Tournament of four postal grandmasters and nine international masters. After so many years of responsible’ team chess for England\, I went beserk and sacrificed a pawn in ten of the twelve games\, trying later to salvage inferior end-games. Result 33 % per cent. B. H. Wood invited me to write a book of the tournament\, to which a number of the players contributed and this was published in 1979. \nThe Potter Memorial\, Ken Messere\, CHESS (Sutton Coldfield)\, 1975\nAlso in 1979 I began to play in another invitation tournament of thirteen players organised by the Australian Correspondence Chess League\, which became a memorial to CJS Purdy\, its president and the first world postal champion\, who died soon after the tournament began. At the time of writing\, this tournament\, comprising four grandmasters (including one former world champion and two runners-up) and eight international masters\, is still in its early stages.” \nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXV (125\, 2005)\, Number 5 (May)\, page 226 we have this obituary: \n“Kenneth Charles Messere (16 iv 1928\, Richmond – 31 iii 2005\, Paris) was one of Britain’s strongest correspondence players (he held the correspondence IM title) and well-known author of books on the subject. After graduating from Oxford University\, Ken Messere went to HM Customs and Excise\, and thence to the Organisation for Economic Development (OECD) where he became head of the fiscal affairs division and a world expert on fiscal law. He reached the final of 1965-8 world correspondence championship\, beating world champions Zagorovsky and Estrin\, and wrote the book of the tournament with Hans Berliner (published by BCM)” \nFrom The Potter Memorial by Ken Messere\, CHESS (Sutton Coldfield)\, “Chess for Modern Times” Series\, 1975 we have this potted biography: \n“Compiler of this book\, took 3rd place in 1957 and 2nd in 1968 in the championship of the Postal Chess Club. Scores of 4.5 out of 6 in the ICCF Masters 1957-8 and 4/6 in the 1959-61 Championship took him to victory with 11/5 out of 13 in the 1961-3 semi-finals\, securing him his first international master norm and qualifying him for the 5th World Championship 1964-7 in which he scored 5.5\, just enough for the IM title\, with wins over Zagorovsky\, then world champion and Estrin\, world champion now. Ken Messere collaborated with Berliner\, who won it\, in a book on the tournament. \nHe then switched to play exclusively as a member of the British Olympiad team\, taking over 2nd board when Alexander died. \nThe switch back from rather cautious team play to enterprising individual games in 1974-7 provides some of the subject matter of this book.” \n  \nThe Tax System in Industrialized Countries\, Ken Messere\, Oxford University Press\, 1998\, ISBN 10: 1982933135 / ISBN 13: 9781982933135\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-imc-kenneth-charles-messere-16-iv-1928-31-iii-2005/
CATEGORIES:Correspondence,Death Anniversary,History,Honours,Player,Remembering,Writer
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210404
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DTSTAMP:20220404T131515Z
CREATED:20190823T192130Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220404T131515Z
UID:1136-1617494400-1617580799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of BH Wood MSc FCS OBE (13-vii-1909 04-iv-1989)
DESCRIPTION:We remember “BH” Wood MSc FCS OBE who passed away on Tuesday April 4th\, 1989 in the district of Birmingham. \nHe was buried alongside his wife Marjorie in the Sutton Coldfield Cemetery Extension which was opened in 1934 as an extension to the Holy Trinity Church. \nYorkshire Childhood\nBaruch Harold Wood (generally known as BH Wood\, or simply “BH”\, by the chess world) was born on Tuesday\, July 13th 1909 in Ecclesall\, Sheffield\, Yorkshire. The registration district was Ecclesall Bierlow. \nGravestone of BH & ME Wood\, photo by Glen Livet\nThe birth record suggests that he was baptised as Harold Baruch Wood. His parent’s were Baruch Talbot (1881-1951) and Florence Muriel Wood (née Herington). He appears as Harold Baruch on the 1911 census. \n1911 Census record for the Wood household\n1911 Census record for the Wood household\nInterestingly\, the Census form was signed by Talbot Wood so maybe BHs father also did not like his own first name! At the time of the Census the family lived at 30\, Violet Bank Road\, Nether Edge\, Sheffield\, S7 1RZ. \nWelsh School Days\nBaruch attended Friars School\, Bangor (established in 1557) along with William Ritson Morry. BHW was one year and three months older than WRM so it is entirely possible that they had met. \nMarriage to Marjory\nIn October 1936 BHW married Marjory Elizabeth Farrington in Ross\, Herefordshire. When Marjory died on 7th September 1977 they were living at 146\, Rectory Road\, Sutton Coldfield\, West Midlands. Baruch and Marjory had four children\, FM Christopher Wood\, Philip\, Frank and Peggy. \n146\, Rectory Road\, The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield\, West Midlands\, B75 7RS\nHonours\nIn the 1984 New Years Honours List\, Civil Division\, BHW was awarded the OBE. The citation read simply : “For services to Chess” \nHe won the BCF President’s Award in 1983 alongside TJ Beach and Brian Reilly. \nBH Wood playing board 9 in the Anglo team in the Anglo-Soviet Radio Team Match of 1946\nThe 1946 Anglo-Soviet Radio Match\nFrom The Anglo-Soviet Radio Chess Match by Klein and Winter : \n“BH Wood was born in Sheffield in 1909. A great lover of the game\, he founded the magazine Chess in 1935\, and has written a book for beginners. He scored a notable success by winning the British Correspondence Championship on one occasion. Wood has competed in the British Championship on several occasions\, and in a number of Premier Reserves tournaments. He also played for Great Britain in the international team tournament (ed. Olympiad) at Buenos Aires in 1939. \nLeft to right Baruch H Wood\, Stuart Milner-Barry\, Vera Menchik (playing in the women’s world championship (held concurrently with the 1939 Buenos Aires Olympiad) which she won with 17 wins and 2 draws)\, Sir George Thomas\, Conel Hugh O’Donel Alexander and Harry Golombek. England withdrew after their preliminary group due to the outbreak of war despite qualifying for the top final. Thanks to Leonard Barden\nHe is a graduate of the University of Wales and Birmingham University. He has been very active in recent years in giving simultaneous exhibitions and in organising correspondence chess.” \nSignature of BH Wood from a Brian Reilly “after dinner” postcard from Margate 1936.\nBetween 1938 and 1957\, BH won the championship of Warwickshire eight times. He held the record (until 2006) for the most Birmingham & District Chess League Individual titles – nine\, all won in Division 1: 1937\, 1939\, 1954\, 1956\, 1958\, 1960\, 1966\, 1967\, and 1983. He was the Records Secretary for the League from 1951-61. \nBirth of a Magazine\nCHESS Cover for volume 1\, September 1935 – August 1936. Source : Michael Clapham\nFrom CHESS\, Volume 52 (1987)\, Number 1014-15 (Christmas)\, we have the very last issue of the magazine for which BH was the Editor before becoming Founding Editor (and Paul Lamford became Editor). BH Wrote: \n“Countless people have asked me ‘Why did you start CHESS?’ I was in love with university life and has just taken an M.Sc.\, a waste of time after a good first-class honours\, and decided to have a go at replacing the old Chess Amateur\, which had closed down.  I had edited the students’ magazine in both Bangor and Birmingham. The first had been produced by The Daily Post Printers in Liverpool\, who agreed to print  1\,000 copies for £90. That £90 would be nearly £2\,400 now. \nCHESS masthead for Volume 1\, Number 1\, 1935. Source : Michael Clapham\nA year’s subscription I announced as 10 shillings (50p). \nTwo bits of luck! J.H. Van Meurs\, a Dutchman who did a lot for British Chess\, had listed in his still young B.C.F. Year Book some hundreds of chess clubs. \nW.H. Watts\, another great figure of those days\, had floated a rather short-lived magazine The Chess Budget\, donated a ‘Budget Cup‘\, for knock-out team competition and published excellent books on big tournaments\, etc. He handed me a list of keen chess players all around the world. I spent a week addressing envelopes by hand to all the clubs and people. \nTo individuals I sent single copies of CHESS; to each club three copies\, inviting payment or subscriptions. Hardly anybody failed to pay. Obviously there was a demand for a chess magazine with a lighter touch than the B.C.M. \nYears later\, I learnt why Mr. Watts had been so generous. He had fallen out with the establishment and welcomed the arrival of a new publication. \nWithin three months I was selling 3\,000 copies an issue. \nSome early ideas were chessy short stories \, cartoons and a competition for humorous anecdotes. \nI soon went to Amsterdam for the first Euwe-Alekhine match. I traced Alekhine to his hotel room with difficulty. He was officially incommunicado. He came to the door in pyjamas\, and within five minutes we had agreed to a £5 article per month. I was\, of course\, already on conversational terms with him (and remained so!). \nNow I fell into trap. 3\,000 readers in four months meant 6\,000 in eight months\, 9\,000 in  a year…? \nNot so! This is extrapolation\, a matter of calculation full of risks. \nMy preparations had been too good. In the remaining eight months of the year I picked up only a thousand more readers. Alekhine lost the title. With three months to go\, my money ran out\, I struggled to the end of the year.  The twelfth issue was pathetically thin compared with the first few but renewals staring rolling in and CHESS blossomed again. \nThe fifty-two years since have been gruelling\, unremitting toil but fascinating interest. How we bought our own presses and the effect this had on the world’s chess press – A law suit that went to appeal – How CHESS linked people in Malta\, Australia\, Hungary – Adventures in ‘simuls’\, postal chess etc. How we helped police to identify a drowned man\, etc. So many tales to tell! \nBHW \nBCF Obituary\nHere is an obituary from the BCF Yearbook 1989 – 1990\, page 14 : \nB.H. Wood\, O.B.E\nBaruch H. Wood\, O.B.E.\, founder of CHESS\, and the magazines editor for 52 years\, died at the age of 79 on 4th April. \nBorn in Sheffield on 13 July 1909\, “B.H.”\, as he was widely known in chess circles\, took up the game early playing competitively at school and at University. After graduating from the University College of Wales\, Bangor with a 1st class honours degree in chemistry\, he took an MSc at Birmingham University. Soon\, however\, his love of chess took him away from a career in chemistry\, with his launch of CHESS in 1935.  He was to continue as editor\, publisher\, for many years printer\, and often major contributor\, for over half a century. \nCHESS\, Sutton Coldfield\nThe magazine quickly won an international reputation for its frankness and outspokenness. It speaks much for the character and determination of its editor that he was able to continue publishing CHESS throughout the difficult years of the Second World War\, whilst holding a full-time job as director of a chemical research laboratory in Lichfield. \nWood will be best remembered for the magazine\, and for his other journalistic activities. He was for many years chess correspondent of The Daily Telegraph and of The Illustrated London News\, and his best known book Easy Guide to Chess went through three editions and many impressions. \nEasy Guide to Chess\, BH Wood\, CHESS\, Sutton Coldfield\, 1945\nThe above book (albeit the later Cadogan version) is available online. \nEasy Guide to Chess\nNigel Davies wrote “One of the best beginners books on the market.” \nWood’s feat in writing\, publishing\, printing and selling his own book may be unique. However\, Wood was no mean player as his draw against the then world champion Max Euwe\, who became a life-long friend\, testifies. \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 represented England in the International Team Championship at Buenos Aires in 1939\, scoring 50%. He also took first prize in international tournaments at Baarn 1947\, Paignton 1954\, Whitby 1963\, Thorshavn 1967 and Jersey 1975 and was second in the 1948 British Championship. He was British Correspondence Chess Champion in 1945. \nThe Cedars Chess Club May 1962 – Baruch is seated\, second from the right. Photograph sourced from ECF obituary.\nA life member of F.I.D.E. Wood was also an International Arbiter\, and organised 21 annual chess festivals at seaside venues from the 50’s onwards. In addition he was an active behind-the-scenes inspirer of many chess events\, and in particular was known as a driving spirit of university chess\, being until the time of his death President of the British University Chess Association. \nThe Author’s British Record Simultaneous Display. Some of the 127 schoolboys the author played simultaneously at Ilford County High School\, Winning over a a hundred of the games in 4 hours and 50 minutes.\nHe founded the Postal Chess Club and League and was for many years President of the British Postal Chess Federation. \nLetter from BH Wood to JE Upham dated 7th July 1983\n“B.H.” at Bournemouth in May 1971\nHe was awarded the O.B.E. for services to chess in 1984. \nHis wife Marjory\, predeceased him; he leaves three sons Christopher\, Frank and Philip\, and a daughter Peggy. \nBH Wood & his daughter Peggy\nand here is the article as it appeared in the Yearbook. \nBCF Yearbook\, 1989-90\, page 14\nBCF Yearbook\, 1989-90\, page 15\nGolombek on Wood\nFrom The Encyclopaedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977)  by Harry Golombek : \n“A well known British player\, editor of Chess (starting 1935) and chess correspondent of The Daily Telegraph and Illustrated London News. A FIDE judge\, he has founded and conducted 21 annual chess festivals\, notably at Whitby\, Eastbourne and Southport. \nBH Wood playing AY “Johnnie” Green in the 1956 British Championships in Blackpool\, photographer unknown\nWinner of a number of small and semi-international tournaments : Baarn 1947\, Paignton 1954\, Whitby 1963\, Thorshavn 1967\, and Jersey 1975. \nPlayed for the BCF in the International Team Tournament at Buenos Aires 1939. His best tournament result was probably his equal second in the British Championship at London 1948. \nIn 1954 BHW was sued BH Wood for libel by William Ritson Morry over a letter BHW sent to Henry Golding of the Monmouthshire County Chess Association warning him of WRMs financial history. Here is a summary of the action : \nThe Birmingham Post\, July 15th\, 1954\nand two years in 1956 we have this telling photograph of Ritson and BH playing at the British Championships in Blackpool. It must have been an entertaining pairing for the organisers if no-one else! \nWilliam Ritson Morry playing BH Wood at the British Championships in Blackpool from 1956\nPossibly WRM was thinking this as they played: \nEverybody Loves Wood\nAmong his books are : Easy Guide to Chess\, Sutton Coldfield 1942 et seq; World Championship Candidates Tournament 1953\, Sutton Coldfield 1954. “ \nWorld Championship Candidates Tournament 1953\, BH Wood\, CHESS\, Sutton Coldfield\, 1954\nCafferty on Wood (1989)\nHere is the obituary from British Chess Magazine\, Volume CIX (1989\, 109)\, Number 5 (May)\, pages 210 – 211: \nB. H. WOOD\nBaruch Harold Wood (13 viii 1909-4 iv 1989) popularly known as “B. H.” was a significant figure of the last fifty-odd years in British chess. His life touched practically all aspects of the game as player\, both OTB and CC\, magazine publisher and editor\, organiser of club\, congress and university chess\, journalist . . . the list seems endless. In 1984 he was awarded the OBE for services to chess. \nBorn at Sheffield\, which he sometimes used as an excuse when he was accused of stubbornness\, (“It’s my Yorkshire blood\, you know”) he was educated in North Wales (Friar’s School\, and then University College\, Bangor) and at Birmingham University. \nHe started his chess magazine at Sutton Coldfield in 1935 as an impecunious graduate who could not find suitable work in the Depression\, and his lively style ensured that it was a beacon in British chess for fifty years to come! For many British chess fans he was “Mr Chess” yet it seems a miracle that he kept the magazine going in the difficult times when interest in the game was at a low ebb. He may well have subsidised it from his journalistic work (Birmingham Post\, Illustrated London News and Daily Telegraph) and from his wartime work as manager of a chemical laboratory (“The first time I ever earned a decent salary”). \nHis duodenal ulcer prevented him doing military service\, and later in life he suffered from failing eyesight and the inability to walk which resulted from his diabetes\, not diagnosed till he had suffered from it for decades. \nHe worked a seven-day week on the magazine\, and his wife who predeceased him was often unsure when he would be home such was his devotion to the work. At times he would take off for trips abroad or long simul tours through Britain while trying to keep the magazine on schedule. \nOne of his last long tours was in 1967 when he drove Botvinnik around the UK. The world champion was duly impressed by the work load and wrote a very favourable account of the trip\, revealing incidentally that Barry was still paying off the mortgage on his large house in Rectory Road\, Sutton Coldfield where the car was parked on the forecourt as the garage was the reserve storage for a large library of chess books! His ability to quote chemical formula from memory also impressed Botvinnik. \nHe brought up a family of four\, all of whom were skilled players\, apart\, perhaps from the youngest boy. Daughter Peggy\nwas prominent in women’s chess and married Peter Clarke at the time of the Botvinnik visit. Elder sons Chris and Frank were of over-200 strength\, but had seen too much of their father’s life at close hand to want to take over the business from him. He ultimately sold out to Pergamon in 1987 though negotiations had been started much earlier. It was probably too much of a wrench to let go until failing health left him with little alternative\, but he described\nthe terms as very generous. \nBarry was a gifted linguist who was welcome abroad for his un-English approach of having a go at the native tongue. As a player he was at his best in the late 1930s (a member of the 1939 Olympiad team in Buenos Aires) till the 1950s. He should really have won the 1948 British Championship when he had the enterprising idea of having Paul Schmidt as personal coach! Yet his tournament wins run on as late as Guernsey 1975 and he was playing in the First Division of the Birmingham League within a few weeks of his death. The flesh may have been weak but a great spirit kept him going to the end. \nShall we ever see his like again? \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nJulius Silverman former MP for Aston (Birmingham) writes: I am very sorry to learn of the death of Barry Wood. I knew him for about 55 years and I always found him a pleasant and interesting companion and a good friend. On the last few occasions that I have met him he seemed increasingly frail. I know that the death of his dear wife was a great blow to him. \nBarry’s contribution to Chess in this country has been enormous and his passing is the end of an era in chess journalism.\nBarry’s journalism and his imaginative editorship made Chess a fascinating journal which it was always a pleasure to read.\nIts survival for well over 50 years was a unique achievement which required persistence and dedication. He has had many\nhills to surmount. \nOne was “… the chess lawsuit of the Century …” (This ran for about two and a half years\, ending in 1940 in a victory for the magazine on appeal\, Ed). Jacques versus Chess which might have brought Chess to an end. I appeared for him as counsel. We won. I received a life subscription to Chess as part of my fee. My copy still comes to me regularly. I have never enjoyed a fee so much. \nHere is the article in its original form: \nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CX (109)\, Number 5 (May)\, page 210\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CX (109)\, Number 5 (May)\, page 211\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nBernard on Barry (2004)\nREMEMBERING BARRY WOOD (1909-1939) \nby Bernard Cafferty \nOne of the most influential figures in British chess of the 20th century was B. H. Wood\, whom I knew personally from 1951\, and whom I played regularly\, over a period of three decades\, till l moved from Birmingham to Hastings in 1981. Here are some\nmemories of the man who was thought of by many in Britain as “Mr Chess”. \nBorn in Sheffield\, Baruch Harold Wood had his secondary education in North Wales at the same grammar school as W Ritson\nMorry who was later to become his Midlands colleague and bitter rival. BH always attributed his well-known stubbornness (he never resigned early) to “his Yorkshire blood”. Wood and Morry were to be students together at Birmingham University after BH gained his BSc in Wales. Then the pair faced the hard task of finding work in depression-struck mid-1930s England. BH founded his monthly magazine CHESS in 1935\, an act of amazing optimism which only his great appetite for work could justify. The magazine was based in Sutton Coldfield\, just north of Birmingham\, at gloomy premises known as Masonic Buildings. \nThe early decades of this publication were marked by the outpouring of glorious journalism of a popular sort. The man’s love\nof the game shone through his work and he recruited such contributors as the chatty Koltanowski and the prince of annotators\nAlexander Alekhine. Later he became the long-serving columnist of the Birmingham Post\, from 1949 of the weekly Illustrated London News\, and even later of the Daily Telegraph. A feature of the magazine was its lively letters from readers which made for more interesting reading than the equivalent occasional letter to be found in the staid\nBCM. The readers also made pertinent contributions to opening theory\, especially in going through the 1946 MCO with a fine toothcomb and reporting their discoveries to Sutton Coldfield. \nBH wrote a best-selling Easy Guide to Chess which went through several editions and was far more user-friendly than other primers on the market at the time. He also designed a luxury set\, the Coldfield\, and produced various chess clocks with new features. BH was a member of the BCF Olympiad side that played in the first part of the Buenos Aires Olympiad in the autumn of 1939. After the team’s withdrawal due to the outbreak of war\, he stayed on in Argentina for a short while\, taking part in a short tournament where he met the legendary Alekhine. \nOne Hundred Victorian Chess Problems\, BH Wood\, Wayland Publishers\, London\, 1972\nBH was married to Marjorie\, a Birmingham primary school teacher\, and had three sons and a daughter. The elder two boys\,\nChris and Frank\, were strong players but not Philip. His daughter Peggy was our leading girl player of the 1950s\, and married Peter Clarke in 1962. One should note that BH was not Jewish\, as many assumed from the name Baruch – he was generally addressed as Barry by his wife and close friends. Others called him just by the initials BH. Everyone in British chess knew exactly who you meant when you said BH. Many thought of him as a sharp business-man. In any event\, the fearsome workload he shouldered meant that none of his children\, seeing this at first hand\, aspired to carry on the magazine as a family business. To many in the British chess community who had never seen top players in action\, BH was their first contact with the wider chess world due to the exhausting simul tours he made to many clubs the length and breadth of the UK. \nLater\, he organized CHESS Festivals starting from 1953. These were our earliest open tournaments\, held at attractive venues such as Cheltenham\, Whitby\, Eastbourne and Southport. These events created the opportunity for British amateurs to meet continental grandmaster opposition like Donner and O’Kelly. BH had great confidence in his ability – his MSc at Birmingham University was in chemistry\, but in 1946-7 he started studying nuclear physics privately\, telling Brian Reilly\, who was employed by him at that time\, that it was the science of the future. I have to simply marvel at this – where did he find the time? In his self-portrait in connection with the GB-USSR match of 1946 he revealed that he had been studying Russian privately with a view to taking an external degree in it at Birmingham University. \nThe post-war decade saw him at his most active. He was BCF delegate at early FIDE meetings post-1946\, the period that saw the mighty Soviet Union admitted to membership in 1947. BH was instrumental in maintaining Spain’s membership of FIDE at the same time\, despite Soviet opposition to Franco’s fascism. He claimed to me he was always a most welcome guest in Spain thereafter. \nBattles with the BCF\nBH had been exempt from military service due to a duodenal ulcer. He spent the war keeping the magazine alive in his spare time as he was put in charge of a research laboratory at the Birmingham Chemical Company. During the war the government had the power under emergency legislation to direct citizens into any sort of work that would contribute to the war effort. His comment to me on that intensive period was: “It was the first time I ever drew a decent salary”. After a short spell as BCF FIDE delegate\, he fell out with the ruling body in the early 1950s. His view was that the national body was ultra-conservative and not open to fresh ideas such as the knockout championship open to all which he organised in 1949-50. Lo and behold\, a few months later the BCF started organising regional competitions to arrange for qualification for the British Championship! BH often criticised the BCF in his magazine. In June 1950 he wrote the first of a planned series of articles on the evergreen theme “Where is British Chess Going?” and forwarded a copy to the BCF just before publication. The BCF legal eagle Professor Wheatcroft immediately threatened to take out an injunction\, so putting the frighteners on the printers. Rather than delay the July issue (not that subscribers were not used to a rather irregular schedule!)\, BH brought out the issue with white space\, on two pages\, a dramatic way of alerting the readers to the dispute. The promised articles\, which he said would appear after the dispute was settled\, never appeared. \nDW Anderton OBE plays BH Wood MBE in 1981 in a Blitz tournament outside of the National Film Theatre. Photograph courtesy of John Saunders\nThere were also tensions with BCF figures like Alexander and Golombek\, in the latter case probably due to professional rivalry and Harry G’s identification with the BCM. Another prominent figure with whom BH crossed swords was the flamboyant Liverpool barrister Gerald Abrahams who threatened to sue over a report in CHESS of gambling debts incurred “on the turf’. \nBH was no stranger to litigation. For example he had had a lawsuit with Jaques culminating in 1940 over the use of the term\n“genuine Staunton-pattern sets” in his advertising. The case was initially lost\, a potentially crippling blow\, but then won on appeal with the aid of solicitor Julius Silverman (later a prominent Birmingham MP)\, Ritson Morry\, Sir George Thomas and\nother well-wishers. When Wood-Morry hostility was at its height in the early 1950s over pro- and anti-BCF views\, BH drew attention in a letter to a Welsh chess organiser to Ritson’s short period in jail. The uncomplimentary term ‘gaolbird’ was used. A court case followed which the penurious Ritson\, having been struck off as a solicitor could hardly afford\, yet BH was cleared on the defence of justification. My fellow students and I at Birmingham University could only marvel at the daily press reports on the wrangles between two of our patrons whom we had feted at a celebratory dinner only a short while before. \nHere is the point at which to mention BH’s support for chess in the universities. He was the long-time President of the\nBUCA (British Universities’ Chess Association) and turned up at many of their events with support. He loaned equipment in the early days when not every chess club had sufficient clocks for a match – bear in mind that the austerity period in Britain lasted for years after 1945. BH also supported correspondence chess\, being the founder of the Postal Chess League\, a team event very popular in its day but now defunct. \nBH’s best playing performance was the British Championship of 1948 when he came second to Broadbent. The Midlander had actually started with 6.5 points from seven games\, but the unsatisfactory position arose that he had to meet Broadbent in the last round when each had an adjourned game still to finish off. \nBH Wood during the 1948 British Championships at Bishopsgate Institute\, London. Taken on August 30th 1948 by Keystone Press Agency\nThe tension got to BH\, he missed a clear winning chance against the Northerner and lost. Yet he should really have taken the title on the merits of the positions he had achieved. His rivals resented the fact that he had hired a second\, namely Paul Schmidt\, the Estonian player who was once thought of as almost as good as Keres in his native land. Schmidt had won the German Championship during the war in 1941. The British amateurs of 1948 were not impressed by this intrusion of professionalism and the importation of someone who carried the taint of possible Nazism. According to Brian Reilly\, Gerald Abrahams was particularly scathing. \nBH made a good impression on Botvinnik when the latter stayed at the Wood residence in Rectory Road\, Sutton Coldfield\, in 1967 (the reference for those who can read Russian is Baturinsky’s “…Tvorchestvo” trilogy on Botvinnik. The article was entitled: Albion shakhmatny i inoy. It appears on pp435 -448 of the third volume. A shortened version appears in English in Botvinnik’s autobiography Achieving the Aim). When I drew BH’s attention to the article and its peculiar title he responded with his usual erudite comment: ‘Albion? Yes\, that’s the Roman reference to the white cliffs of Dover”. For most Brummies\, “The Albion” did not mean a local pub\, but rather the West Bromwich Albion football team! \nIn theory\, the communist Botvinnik should have been distant from his host\, the Midlands entrepreneur and business man\, who drove him round to his engagements in Britain for three weeks\, but their common love of chess triumphed over ideological\ndifferences. In particular\, the speed of production of CHESS\, now on its own presses\, was compared very favourably by the Soviet Patriarch to that of Shakhmaty v SSSR. British trade unions had a different view of course\, in pre-Thatcher days\, and BH had some tricky obstacles to overcome in this field. The Muscovite Botvinnik recorded the fact that the garage of BH’s large house was full of chess books (as were various rooms – to the abiding despair of Marjorie)\, so the family car was always parked outside on the drive. BH revealed to Botvinnik that he had not been able pay off his mortgage for decades due to the variable cash flow from his business and journalism. \nBH was in love with study as a young man\, he once told me\, and he had a facility in various European languages\, which made him always welcome abroad. Over the years\, BH had a number of employees who were strong players\, such as Brian Reilly\, Owen Hindle and Robert Bellin\, but none of them lasted long. Owen Hindle\, a person of placid temperament\, stuck it out the longest\, but even he had his patience tried by the ‘boss’. One cannot hide the fact that BH was a controversial figure – perhaps the clue after all is that reference to his stubbornness and Yorkshire blood? I contributed to his magazine for many years\, but certainly never wanted to work for him full-time! \nI used to see BH in the last decade of his life only in the Hastings press room. For his age\, he still took on a fantastic workload. Peter Clarke once commented that his father-in-law gave the impression of believing he would live for ever. Finally\, Anno Domini told and BH sold his business to Robert Maxwell of Pergamon fame/notoriety in 1988. \nIn his final year\, BH suffered from diabetes\, and the resulting inability to walk meant he was confined to a wheelchair\, but he still insisted on visiting Hastings one last time\, where\, in his prime\, he had specialised in taking away Premier score sheets. Often they were taken not just to his hotel room\, but even back to Sutton Coldfield\, so hindering the work of other chess journalists unless Ritson or later\, Peter Griffiths had got in first to create the bulletin. \nWhat a character! We lack such a colourful figure nowadays. Where he still alive today\, I imagine he would still be trying to put a bomb under the BCF. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nWinter\, Jaques and Wood\nFrom Chess Explorations (Cadogan Chess\, 1996) by Edward Winter we have further detail on the Jaques court case: \n“Paul Timson\, a lawyer\, sends us reports on two legal  cases connected with chess. In 1939 B.H.Wood found himself in the dock for having advertised for sale in CHESS in 1937 ‘genuine Staunton chessmen’. The plaintiffs were John Jaques & Son\, Ltd. Sir George Thomas.\, Max Euwe and Lodewijk Prins appeared as witnesses for the defence. The case is referred to by Fred Wren in his article ‘Tales of a Woodpusher: Woodpusher’s Woodpile’\, which appeared in Chess Review\, 1949 and was reprinted in Reinfeld’s The Treasury of Chess Lore. The issues of CHESS of the time also contained a huge amount of material on the case. The decision was that ‘Staunton’ alone was permissible description\, but that the phrase ‘genuine Staunton’ implied a product made by Jaques & Son Ltd.\, as opposed to any Staunton pattern.  However\, B.H. Wood appealed and\, in 1940\, won.” \nOther Sources\nIf you can get access then we recommend the eleven-page “B.H. Wood and his chess playing family” article in the August-2009 issue of Chess Monthly written by his son Chris Wood (helped by brother Frank). \nLikewise The Chess Lawsuit of the Century is detailed in CHESS\, volume 52\, Number 1018\, pp.392 – 394 by BHW himself. \nHere is an obituary from the MCCU \nBackground information from Sutton Coldfield Chess Club \nAlekhine’s Articles for CHESS by Michael Clapham \nHere is his Wikipedia entry. \n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-baruch-harold-wood/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,Honours,Official,Organiser,Player,Remembering,Writer
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SUMMARY:Birthday of GM Murray Chandler (04-iv-1960)
DESCRIPTION:Happy Birthday GM Murray Chandler MNZM (04-iv-1960) \nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess by Hooper & Whyld : \n“International Grandmaster (1983)\, a New Zealander who settled in England at the age of 15. subsequently playing for his adopted country in the Lucerne Olympiad\, 1982. He scored +4=6 to share first prize at New York 1980\, came second (+5=5 — 1) equal with Hort at Dortmund 1983\, and scored +5 = 6 (a GM norm) to share first prize at Amsterdam 1983\, a Swiss systemtournament. Chandler has edited the magazine Tournament Chess since its inception in 1982.” \nA White Pawn in Europe\, Murray Chandler\, 1975\nHere is his Wikipedia entry \nMurray Chandler\, Ray Keene and Miguel Najdorf\nFrom Chessgames.com : \n“Murray Graham Chandler was born in Wellington\, New Zealand. He was awarded the IM title in 1977 and the GM title in 1982. He was joint New Zealand Champion in 1975-76 (shared with Lev Isaakovich Aptekar and Ortvin Sarapu) and joint Commonwealth Champion in 1984. His best tournament results were 2nds at London 1984\, London 1986 and Amsterdam 1987 and he has played both for New Zealand (1976-1980) and England (1982-86) in the Olympiads. He edited Tournament Chess for a time from 1981 onwards and as well as writing he became the managing director of Gambit Publications. \nLeonard Barden (left) and Murray Chandler display the Lloyds Bank Trophy which the 19-year old New Zealander won ahead of 3 Grandmasters and 10 International Masters for his finest international success up to 1979. in the Lloyds Bank Masters\nHe was the organiser and winner of a large tournament\, the Queenstown Classic in New Zealand in January 2006 and this tournament also incorporated the 113th New Zealand Championship making Chandler the New Zealand Champion for the second time. He won his third New Zealand title at the 115th New Zealand Championship (2008) which was held in Auckland where he currently resides.” \nMurray Graham Chandler\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nMurray Graham Chandler\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nMurray Graham Chandler\nThe English Chess Explosion\nSicilian 2.c3\nThe Complete c3 Sicilian\nTournament Chess\nHow to Beat Your Dad at Chess\nChess Tactics for Kids\nChess for Children\nChess Puzzles for Kids\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-murray-graham-chandler/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player,Writer
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SUMMARY:Birthday of CGM Christopher Jones (06-iv-1952)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of CGM Christopher JA Jones (06-iv-1952)Here is an excellent biography from Chess Scotland \nHere is an article about Helpmates from CJAJ published by Chessbase \nGrandmaster of Composition Christopher Jones\nCGM Christopher James Austin Jones\nCGM Christopher James Austin Jones with James Pratt and David Shire at Eton College\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-cgm-christopher-ja-jones-06-iv-1952/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Composer,Player,Problemist,Writer
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SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Julius du Mont (15-xii-1881 07-iv-1956)
DESCRIPTION:Signature of J du Mont from a Brian Reilly “after dinner” postcard from Southsea 1951.\nBCN Remembers Julius du Mont (15-xii-1881 07-iv-1956) \nHere is his Wikipedia entry \nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXXVI\, Number 5\, 1956 we have this obituary written by DJ Morgan : \nIn our February issue we wrote an appreciation of one of the distinguished past editors of this magazine\, R. C. Griffith. He had been followed in the chair in 1938 by our present Games’ Editor\, and when he\, in turn\, was called in 1940 to sterner duties\, he was succeeded by Julius du Mont. During the war years\, and through the difficult post-war period\, till 1949\, he held the reins. As we wrote on another occasion\, “His had been difficult years: the “B.C.M.” had survived when so much else had succumbed during the stress and strain of total war.” lt is with regret that we now record his death on April 7th\, in a Hastings nursing home\, at the age of seventy-four\, after a protracted illness. \ndu Mont was born in Paris-a little-known fact which he himself once disclosed to us-on December 15th\, 1881. lt was there also that he received his education. His early bent and ambitions were musical. The tradition that chess and music have a close relationship may be traced as far back\, at least\, as Philidor’s great eminence in both. du Mont was truly in the line of such dual personalities. He pursued his musical studies at the Frankfort-on-Main Conservatoire and at Heidelberg\, and soon became established as a concert pianist.’ Later he achieved great success as a music teacher\, and among his pupils was the well-known concert pianist\, Edna lles. The French and German background also explains his facility as a linguist. \nHe came to England as a young man and brought with him a considerable talent for chess. Settling in London\, he rapidly improved as a player\, and successes followed. At the Kentish Congress\, Tunbridge Wells\, 1912\, he came equal second and third. He was Champion of the strong Hampstead Club for two years\, and Middlesex Champion in 1913 and 1915. He quickly mastered our language and showed this during the First World War by writing a manual on the Lewis gun. After the war\, music kept its place in his life\, but more and more chess became his main activity. He forsook playing and turned to journalism and authorship\, and his output of books is evidence of his gifts and industry. Titles come readily to mind: Chess Openings lllustrated\, Centre Counter Defence (1919) and Centre and Danish Gambit (1920); The Elements of Chess (1925) ; Ihe Basis of Combination in Chess (1938) ; 200 Miniature Games (1941); More Miniature Games (1953); (with Dr. Tartakower) 500 Master aomes of Chess\, two volumes (1952)\, to which was added a third volume in 1954\, 100 Master Games of Chess. He also translated Edward Lasker’s Chess Strategy\, and Alekhine’s two volumes of My Best Games of Chess (the first with M. E.Goldstein). \nThe wealth of material ready to hand combined with a foreigner’s gift of lucid expression in “the other tongue” made his books very popular. To the great value and importance of these books\, a whole generation of chess-players will readily testify. \nFor some years\, du Mont was chess editor of The Field and of The Manchester Guardian. During the last war he organized chess championships for the Armed Services. We pay tribute to his services to the game\, to his many kindnesses and friendships to its players\, and\, in particular\, to his devotion to this magazine.-D. J. M. \nD. C.\, who enjoyed a long friendship with our late Editor\, writes to us as follows- \nBy the death of J. du Mont\, the chess world has lost an eminent and popular personality. That this popularity was well deserved will be apparent even to those who knew him only slightly.  \nEssentially kind\, he performed many generous acts\, and having\, by his own efforts\, become the best-known British writer on chess\, he not only filled this position with modesty and dignity\, but was liberal in the help he gave to those starting on the road he had so successfully followed. \nIn the tournament room-where his presence was always welcome-he was invariably quiet and courteous\, and although gifted with a fine wit\, he never used it\nunkindly. He *as an excellent companion\, and players at many congresses will recall the happy times they spent in their visits to him at all hours of the evening. It is sad to think that these gatherings have now irrevocably reached their end: to quote A. E. Housman’s beautiful lines- \nThey come and were and ore not\nAnd come no more anew. \nBut as long as a literature of chess remains\, the name of Julius du Mont will not be forgotten. His many friends\, however\, have no need of his writings in order to keep alive their memory of him. \nIn Chess Secrets I learned from the Masters\, Edward Lasker\, Hollis and Carter\, 1952 : \nJ. DuMont became the author of a number of interesting monographs on chess openings\, and for many years he was the Editor of the British Chess Magazine. It was he who translated my own translation of Schachstrategie which I attempted in the summer of 1913. Naturally\, my English was not fit to be printed. DuMont had to rewrite everything I had written\, and except for his untiring labors Chess Strategy might never have been published. He gave the book a certain literary flavor\, which no doubt added greatly to its popularity. It went into fourteen printings before it was replaced by Modern Chess Strategy in 1945.  \nDuMont was a pianist of note and I took lessons from him; however\, the time I took from my chess activities to practise the piano was shamefully meagre. No wonder I have been told more than once that as a pianist I am a good chess player.” \n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-julius-du-mont-15-xii-1881-07-iv-1956/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,Hastings,History,Player,Writer
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200413
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200414
DTSTAMP:20220413T122248Z
CREATED:20200324T195846Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220413T122248Z
UID:3711-1586736000-1586822399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of FM Peter Markland (13-iv-1951)
DESCRIPTION:BCN wishes a happy birthday to Peter Markland born on Friday\, April 13th\, 1951 \nFrom the rear cover of “Sicilian:…e5 : \n“P.R. Markland is a British Master\, and a member of many English international teams\, including those at the 1972 and 1974 Olympiads\, and is also a British correspondence international” \nPeter first qualified to the British Championship in 1967 (Oxford) and obtained an IM and GM norm at Hastings 1971. \nIn 1984 he became a Grandmaster for correspondence chess (GMC). \nPeter became a banker and lives in Woodbridge\, Suffolk\, IP13. \nFrom British Chess (Pergamon Press\, 1983) we have this contribution from Peter himself: \n“1951 seems to have been a vintage year for chessplayers and although I cannot claim to count myself in the company of Andersson\, Karpov\, Ribli and Sax we do all share the same year of birth. \nAlthough I learned the moves at the age of 5\, I only took any real interest in the game at 13 when I began to play schools chess. Compared with such as Nigel Short I was a very late starter! \nI was educated at Bolton School and played for Bolton and Lancashire in my early years. This was fortunate in that all three of these teams enjoyed great success in the late 1960s. In all three teams I played along side Martyn Corden who was to precede my rise to international level himself by playing in the Siegen Olympiad team in 1970. In 1967\, I qualified for the British Championship at my first attempt and I was pleased to score 5/11. The following year the school team won The Sunday Times tournament playing without Martyn Corden in the finals. \nUp to this time I had concentrated chiefly on junior teams and had won the NCCU junior titles. Over Christmas and New Year of both 1966-7 and 1967-8 I travelled down to play at the Devon Junior Congress at Plymouth but in 1968 I decided to try my luck at Hastings. This proved to be one of the turning points of my career. \nI was placed in the Challengers Reserves for 1968-9 and after the first round loss (to the eventual winner) my play gained momentum and I qualified for the Challengers the following year. The intervening year passed quietly with a trip to Ireland in the Glorney Cup. I went up to Balliol College\, Oxford in October 1969. \nThe Scottish Junior International\, Glasgow\, 1969. l-r: David Watt\, Rene Borngässer\, David Levy\, Heinz Wirthensohn\, Peter Markland. Courtesy of Chess Scotland\nThe Hastings Challengers tournament 1969-70 began when I met the same opponent as in the previous year in the first round. This time I managed to come out on top. By the time the last round came\, I had played most of the leaders and had 6/8 including two pleasing wins with my favourite defence at the time – the Sicilian Pelikan variation. \nSicilian:…e5 by TD Harding & PR Markland\, Batsford\, 1976\, ISBN 0 7134 3209 8\nIn the last round I was paired against de Veauce who had a reputation as a good strategist and whom I hoped to unsettle tactically. I had white and my plan failed. He outplayed me in the opening and middlegame and I sacrificed my isolated centre pawn to activate my pieces. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nSo I then had to wait had to wait to see the other results before I could confirm a somewhat lucky place in the Premier. \nIn 1970 I had the opportunity to travel with the student team to the Olympiad in Haifa. My score of 5.5/7 was reasonably pleasing but the standard of opposition was far from good. \nPeter Markland at Hastings 1970-71\nAt the end of the year came the Hastings Premier – a tournament which I can only describe as the highlight of my career. I began nervously and lost a nondescript game to Uhlmann in the first round. My confidence grew with two comfortable draws with Portisch (the eventual winner) and Keene. In round four I met the surprise leader\, Mestrovic (who had 3/3) and perhaps partly due to the fact that this game was played on 1st January I won convincingly in 18 moves. \nPeter Markland during his game with Portisch on December 30th 1970\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 next four rounds brought an uneventful draw with Wade and three exciting encounters with Byrne\, Krogius and Gligoric all of which after several reversals of fortune ended in draws. \nPeter Markland at Hastings 1970-71\nIn the last round I was to play Hort who needed to to win to gain a share of first prize. He played a horribly passive opening and by move 14 I was already well on top. To try to compensate he snatched a queenside pawn and gave me the chance to play the type of move one can only dream about! \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nThis victory meant an equal second on 5/9 with Gligoric\, Hort\, Krogius and Uhlmann and both a GM and IM norm. \n\nAs a result of this I became a regular member of the England side. During 1971 my results were erratic\, possibly caused by too much play. I was pleased with my 3.5 score in my first Clare Benedict\, although I lost my first game for England due to nervousness and I was first equal with George Botterill in the Slater Young Masters at Hastings (again). Here I declined a last round draw offer\, blundered almost next move and lost to an up-and-coming junior by the name of Michael Stean! On the debit side my performances in the British Championship\, The Oxford International Congress and the Robert Silk tournament left room for improvement. \nWhilst playing with Bolton in the National Club Championship\, we had never won the competition although we had reached the semi-finals many times. This year\, 1971\, playing for Oxford University\, we won the tournament beating our old rivals Cambridge University in the final on board count. \nThe Hastings tournament of 1971-72 saw me firmly entrenched near the bottom. It is very difficult in this type of international tournament when one becomes marked as an out-of-form player. All the other players make extra efforts to beat you and this drains your strength further. \nMy main problem at Hastings was a lack of defence to 1.e4. I lost five games against this move. In the last round I had a very interesting struggle against Karpov who needed to win this game to tie first with Korchnoi who had beaten him in the previous round\, but the strength of 1.e4 proved too much. \nThe summer of 1972 saw the advent of my University finals and thus I played very little for the first six months of the year – even I had to decline an invitation to the Teeside GM event. Later in the year I played in the student Olympiad in Graz and then in the Olympiad is Skopje. \nIn the preliminaries we had drawn Yugoslavia and Switzerland\, who were the only other teams likely to qualify for the ‘A’ final. We missed qualification narrowly and I think that every team member had one poor result in the qualifying rounds – mine being a scraped draw against a Syrian team. \nWe won the ‘B’ final by beating the Israeli team in the last round and I felt pleased by my score of 11.5/16 with no losses. Indeed\, in my last round game with Balshan I was quite rightly instructed to agree a draw in a winning position to secure the team’s first place. \nI feel that this tournament from my point of view aptly demonstrates the difference in title norms in the early 1970s and today. I played five players who had no Elo ratings and only four titled players. Hence an IM norm would not have been available under any circumstances. The main reason for the lack of Elo ratings in 1972 was that the new system had only just been introduced and for many players this was their first Elo-rated tournament. In the last Elo list\, all but one of the sixteen players are rated\, there are now four GMs and five IMs amongst my opponents and the norm figures would be 10.5/16 and 12.5/16 for IM and GM respectively. \nHere is my best game from the Olympiad. It is indicative of an early combination prevailing through into a winning ending. \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 1973 I was once more plagued by too many invitations and played indifferently throughput the year. The only bright spots were my score of 3/7 on boards 3 and 4 of the European Team Finals and second place in the Woolacombe International. \n1974 was once again an Olympiad year. The England team won the Clare Benedict for the first time in Menorca and I was able to contribute 5/6 winning both a board prize and the best score prize. I was drafted into the Olympiad team as a late replacement and although we qualified easily enough for the ‘A’ finals this was in no way due to my efforts as I had a 50% score in the preliminaries. \nWe had qualified for the ‘A’ final with one round to spare and our last group match against the USE (from which the score was to be carried forward) began the final matches. It had been decided\, as a tactical measure and in our view of our differing styles\, that I should take black whenever we had this colour on the fourth board\, so that Whiteley and Stean could utilize a greater proportion of whites. This worked to a limited extent and indeed\, Stean obtained an IM Norm. Also\, as it worked out I played in matches against seven of the top eight teams (being rested against Yugoslavia) and only three teams below us. In the end\, I was pleased with my +3 =1 -4 with black in the finals to give overall a 50& score. \nDuring 1973 and 1974 I was co-author of two books in the Batsford opening series\, both with Tim Harding on Sicilian Defence variations. \nThe Sicilian Richter-Rauzer\, TD Hardign and PR Markland\, Batsford\, 975\, ISBN 0 7134 2979 8\nI also wrote a best game collection of Karpov which was by far the most interesting of the three books to write. \nThe Best of Karpov\, PR Markland\, Oxford University Press\, 1975\, ISBN 10: 0192175343\nAt about this time\, I decided to embark upon a career in banking and to abandon that of a professional chessplayer. Since then I have concentrated on correspondence chess. \nHaving received  master certificate\, I entered a European and World tournament in both of which I finished first. The second of these two results qualified me for the world Championship Semi-finals. But first attempt in the eleventh championship ended in failure to qualify. \nAs a result of an invitation received by the BPCF I played in the Eino Heilimo Memorial Grandmaster event. I have \, however\, qualified as a postal IM by scoring the required seven points and had an outside chance of trying for first place at one stage. \nHere is my best game from this event. \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 brief Wikipedia entry. \nThe English Chess Forum has discussed Peter. \nPeter’s games are here. \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 Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-peter-richard-markland-13-iv-1951/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Correspondence,English,Hastings,Player,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200416
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200417
DTSTAMP:20210306T140828Z
CREATED:20200408T125741Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210306T140828Z
UID:4191-1586995200-1587081599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of IM Colin Crouch (14-x-1956 16-iv-2015)
DESCRIPTION:Death Anniversary of IM Colin Stamford Crouch (14-x-1956 16-iv-2015) \n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-im-colin-stamford-crouch-14-x-1956/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,Player,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200417
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200418
DTSTAMP:20210306T141148Z
CREATED:20200401T120920Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210306T141148Z
UID:3925-1587081600-1587167999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of GM Peter Wells (17-iv-1965)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of GM Peter Kenneth Wells (17-iv-1965) \nHere is his very brief Wikipedia entry \nPeter Wells (seated\, far LHS)\nand from chessgames.com : \n“Peter Kenneth Wells was born in Portsmouth\, England and became a FIDE Master in 1982\, an IM in 1987\, and a GM in 1994. He is also a FIDE Senior Trainer (2015).” \nPeter Wells (between Harry Golombek and Ray Keene) takes part in the obligatory “Staring at the board” posed picture during the 1985 Varsity Match\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nPeter Wells (second from right) at a Lloyds Bank event.\nGM Peter Wells\nThe Complete Semi-Slav\nPiece Power\nThe Complete Richter-Rauzer\nThe Scotch Game\nWinning with the Trompowsky\nChess Explained : The Queen’s Indian\nGrandmaster Secrets : The Caro-Kann\nDangerous Weapons : Anti-Sicilians\nGM Peter Wells\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-gm-peter-kenneth-wells-17-iv-1965/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200418
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200419
DTSTAMP:20210306T141648Z
CREATED:20200613T113037Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210306T141648Z
UID:6263-1587168000-1587254399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of GM Jonathan Rowson (18-iv-1977)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of GM Jonathan Rowson (18-iv-1977)Here is his Wikipedia entry \nGM Jonathan Rowson\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-gm-jonathan-rowson-18-iv-1977/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200425
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200426
DTSTAMP:20210424T091645Z
CREATED:20190823T090733Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210424T091645Z
UID:1056-1587772800-1587859199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of GM John Nunn (25-iv-1955)
DESCRIPTION:BCN wishes GM John Nunn Happy Birthday (25-iv-1955) \nFrom The Encyclopaedia of Chess by Harry Golombek : \nBritish International master and European Junior Champion\, 1975. Born in London\, Nunn learned chess at the age of four and soon revealed a great aptitude for the game. \n  \nGraham Ladds and John Nunn. See full caption below.\nSupplied caption for above picture.\nHe came 6th in the Norwich Junior international tournament in 1970 and went up to Oxford University to take a mathematics degree at a very early age. He played on top board for the University from 1972-6 and is now preparing for a doctorate there. \nJohn DM Nunn\nHe won the European Junior Championship and with it the international master title in Groningen in 1975. In that year too he was equal first in the IBM Master tournament\, and at London in 1975 he reached an international master norm coming 5th in the international tournament there. He played on bottom board at the Haifa Olympiad 1976 and scored 64.2% \nGM John Nunn\nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess by Hooper & Whyld : \nEnglish player. International Grandmaster (1978)\, British champion 1980. He went to Oxford at the unusually young age of 15\, graduated in 1973. Gained his B.Sc. the following year and his\ndoctorate in 1978. \nGM John Nunn\n  \nA Junior Research Fellow\, he lectured in mathematics until 1981 when he became a professional player. By then he had already achieved several good results in international tournaments: Budapest 1978\, first; Hastings 1979-80\, first (4-5 = 10) equal with Andersson; Baden-bei-Wien 1980\, category 12\, third (+5=10) after Spassky and Belyavsky: Helsinki 1981\, first (+5 = 6) equal with Matulovich; and Wiesbaden 1981\, first (+6=3). In the category 12 Wijk aan Zee tournament 1982\, Nunn came first ( + 5=7 — 1) equal with Balashov ahead of Tal\, Hubner\, and Timman and at Helsinki 1983 he came second (+5 = 6) after Karlsson. \nMaia Chiburdanidze and John Nunn from Lloyds Bank\, 1985\nPossessing a remarkably quick sight of the board\, Nunn is an expert solver: he made the second highest individual score in the world team solving championship\, 1978\, and won the solving championship of Great Britain in 1981. \nLubomir Kavalek and John Nunn\nHere is an excellent article from ChessBase \nPolugayevsky-Nunn European team championship : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nGM John Nunn\n\nHere is his Wikipedia entry \n46th USSR Chess Championships 1978\, RD Keene\, JDM Nunn\, RG Wade\, Master Chess Publications\, 1978\, ISBN 0 906634 00 8\n  \nThe Benoni for the Tournament Player\nSolving in Style\nThe Complete Pirc\nSecrets of Rook Endings\nSecrets of Pawnless Endings\nNew Ideas in the Pirc Defence\nBeating the Sicilian 3\nThe King Hunt\nSecrets of Grandmaster Chess\nSecrets of Practical Chess\nNunn’s Chess Openings\nJohn Nunn’s Chess Puzzle Book\n101 Brilliant Chess Miniatures\nLearn Chess\nSecrets of Minor-Piece Endings\nUnderstanding Chess Move by Move\nJohn Nunn’s Best Games\nEndgame Challenge\nTactical Chess Endings\nLearn Chess Tactics\nMammoth Book of the World’s Greatest Chess Games\nGrandmaster Chess Move by Move\nUnderstanding Chess Endgames\nNunn’s Chess Endings\nUnderstanding Chess Middlegames\nChess Tactics Workbook for Kids\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nChess Endgame Workbook for Kids\nGM John Nunn\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-john-denis-martin-nunn/
CATEGORIES:4NCL,Birthday,British Championships,Player,Problemist,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200503
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200504
DTSTAMP:20210503T125607Z
CREATED:20190822T222848Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210503T125607Z
UID:1018-1588464000-1588550399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of David Hooper (31-xiii-1915 03-v-1998)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers David Hooper who passed away in a Taunton (Somerset) nursing home on Sunday\, May 3rd 1998. Probate (#9851310520) was granted in Brighton on June 24th 1998. \nPrior to the nursing home David had been living at 33\, Mansfield Road\, Taunton\, TA1 3NJ and before that at 5\, Haimes Lane\, Shaftesbury\, Dorset\, SP7 8AJ. \nFor most of the time between Reigate and Shaftesbury David lived in Whitchurch\, Hampshire. \nDavid Vincent Hooper was born on Tuesday\, August 31st 1915 in Reigate\, Surrey to Vincent Hooper and Edith Marjorie Winter who married in Reigate\, Surrey in 1909. On this day the first French ace\, Adolphe Pégoud\, was killed in combat. He had scored six victories. \nDavid was one of six children: Roger Garth (1910-?)\, Edwin Morris (1911-1942)\, Isobel Mary (12/01/1917-2009)\, Helene Edith (1916-1982) and Elizabeth Anne Oliver (1923-2000) were his siblings. \nRecorded in the September 1939 register David was aged 24 and living at 94\, High Street\, Reigate\, Surrey: \nHistorical Map showing 94\, High Street\, Reigate\, Surrey\nIn 2021 this property appears to be a flat (rather than bridge) over the River Kwai Restaurant: \n94\, High Street\, Reigate\, Surrey\, RH2 9AP\nLiving with David was his sister Isobel who was listed a “potential nurse”. David’s occupation at this time was listed as Architectural Assistant and he was single. We think that three others lived at this address at the time but they are not listed under the “100 year rule”. We know that David was also a surveyor and went on to attain professional membership of the Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA). \nIn the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette May 27th 1944 there appeared this report of a simultaneous display on Empire Day (May 24th) at Dr. Marsh’s house: \nBath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette\, May 27th 1944\nand from The Western Morning News\, 9th April 1947 we have: \nWestern Morning News\, 9th April 1947\nand then from The Nottingham Evening Post\, 16th August 1949 we have: \nNottingham Evening Post\, 16th August 1949\nIn 1950 aged 35 David married Joan M Higley (or Rose!) in the district of South Eastern Surrey. \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.\nKen Whyld wrote an obituary which appeared in British Chess Magazine\, Volume 118 (1998)\, Number 6\, page 326 as follows : \nDAVID VINCENT HOOPER died on 3rd May this year in a nursing home in Taunton. He had been in declining health for some months. Born in Reigate\, 31st August 1915\, his early chess years were with the Battersea CC and Surrey. \nDavid Hooper (left) in conversation with Alan Phillips. Location and photographer unknown.\nHe won the (ed. Somerset) County Championship three times\, and the London Championship in 1948. His generation was at its chess peak in the years when war curtailed opportunities\, but he won the British Correspondence Championship in 1944. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nHis games from that event are to be found in Chess for Rank and File by Roche and Battersby. \nChess for the Rank and File\nAlso at that time\, he won the 1944 tournament at Blackpool\, defeating veteran Grandmaster Jacques Mieses. \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 was most active in the decade that followed\, playing five times in the British Championship. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nHis highest place there was at Nottingham 1954\, when\, after leading in the early stages\, he finished half a point behind the joint champions\, Leonard Barden and Alan Phillips. \nDavid was in the British Olympic team at Helsinki 1952\, and in the same year accidentally played top board for England in one of the then traditional weekend matches against the Netherlands. British Champion Klein took offence at a Sunday Times report of his draw with former World Champion Dr. Euwe on the Saturday and refused to play on Sunday. Thus David was drafted in to meet Euwe\, and acquitted himself admirably. Even though he lost\, the game took pride of place in that month’s\nBCM. \nAlan Phillips plays David Hooper on August 20th 1954 in round five of the British Championships in Nottingham\, photographer unknown\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 the following game\, played in the Hastings Premier l95l-2\, he found an improvement on Botvinnik’s play against Bronstein in game 17 of their 1951 match\, when 7.Ng3 was played because it was thought that after 7.Nf4 d5 it was necessary to play 8 Qb3. \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 his profession as architect David worked in the Middle East for some years from the mid-1950s\, and when he returned to England he made his mark as a writer. His Practical Chess Endgames \nPractical Chess Endgames (Chess Handbooks)\, David Hooper\, Routledge & Kegan Paul\, London\, 1968\, ISBN 0 7100 5226 X\nhas an enduring appeal. Two of his books appeared in the Wildhagen biographical games series on Steinitz\, and Capablanca. The last was written jointly with Gilchrist. \nWilliam Steinitz : Selected Chess Games\, David Hooper\nWith Euwe he wrote A Guide to Chess Endings; \nA Guide to Chess Endings\, Dover (1976 reprint)\, ISBN 0-486-23332-4\nwith Cafferty\, A Complete Defence to 1.e4; \nA Complete Defence to 1.P-K4 A Study of Petroff’s Defence\, Bernard Cafferty & David Hooper\, Pergamon Press\, 1967\, ISBN 0 08 024089 5\nA Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames; \nA Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames\, David Hooper\, Bell & Hyman Limited\, London\, 1970\, ISBN 0 7135 1761 1\nA Complete Defence to 1.d4; \nA Complete Defence to 1d4: A Study of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted\, Bernard Cafferty & David Hooper\, Pergamon Press\, ISBN 0-08-024102-6\nand Play for Mate; \nPlay for Mate (1990)\, DV Hooper and Bernard Cafferty\, ISBN-13: 978-0713464740\nwith Brandreth The Unknown Capablanca\, \nThe Unknown Capablanca\, David Hooper & Dale Brandreth\, Batsford\, London\, 1975\, ISBN\, 0 7134 2964\nand with Ken Whyld\, The Oxford Companion to Chess. \nThe Oxford Companion to Chess\, 1st Edition\, David Hooper & Ken Whyld\, Oxford University Press\, 1984\, ISBN 0 19 217540 8\nKen Whyld \nFrom The Encyclopaedia of Chess by Harry Golombek : \nBritish amateur (an architect by profession) whose best result was =5 in the British Championship at Felixstowe 1949 along with\, amongst others\, Broadbent and Fairhurst. \nHooper abandoned playing for writing about chess and has become a specialist in two distinct areas. He is an expert on the endings and has a close knowledge of the history of chess in the nineteenth century. \nHis principal works : Steinitz (in German)\, Hamburg\, 1968; A Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames\, London 1970. \nHere is an interesting article from Edward Winter \nHere is his brief Wikipedia entry. \n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-david-hooper/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200504
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200505
DTSTAMP:20210306T150410Z
CREATED:20191211T164755Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210306T150410Z
UID:2307-1588550400-1588636799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of GM Joe Gallagher (04-v-1964)
DESCRIPTION:BCN wishes Happy Birthday to GM Joseph Gerald Gallagher (04-v-1964) \nStreatham & Brixton becoming BCF National Club Champions in 1989. The team was Tony Kosten\, Mark Hedben\, Daniel King\, Nigel Povah (Captain)\, Joe Gallagher and Julian Hodgson : quite a strong team\nHere is his Wikipedia entry \nGM Joseph Gerald Gallagher\n\nGM Joe Gallagher\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nGM Joe Gallagher\nWinning With the King’s Gambit\, Batsford\, ISBN 0-7134-6944-7\nBeating the Anti-Sicilians\, Batsford/Henry Holt and Company\, ISBN 0-8050-3575-3\nBeating the Sicilian 3\nBeating the Anti-King’s Indians\, Batsford/International Chess Enterprises\, ISBN 1-879479-36-2\nThe Trompovsky\, Chess Press\, ISBN 1-901259-09-9\n101 Attacking Ideas in Chess\, Gambit Publications\, ISBN 1-901983-20-X\nThe Magic of Mikhail Tal\, Everyman Chess\, ISBN 1-85744-266-0\nStarting Out: the Caro-Kann\, Everyman Chess\, ISBN 1-85744-303-9\nStarting Out: King’s Indian\, Everyman Chess\, ISBN 1-85744-234-2\nStarting Out: The Pirc/Modern\, Everyman Chess\, ISBN 1-85744-336-5\nPlay the King’s Indian\, Everyman Chess\, ISBN 1-85744-324-1\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-gm-joseph-gerald-gallagher-04-v-1964/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200504
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200505
DTSTAMP:20210306T150930Z
CREATED:20200409T085032Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210306T150930Z
UID:4247-1588550400-1588636799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of GM Danny Gormally (04-v-1976)
DESCRIPTION:BCN wishes Happy Birthday to GM Daniel William Gormally (04-v-1976) \n\nDanny won the Southern Counties (SCCU) championship in the 2002-03 and 2010-11 (sharing with David Howell) seasons. \nHere is a ChessBase interview with Danny \nDanny Gormally Caption Competition\nand another interview from Chessbase \n\nGM Danny Gormally\n\nDanny Gormally with the ? Trophy\nInsanity\, Passion and Addiction\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 Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-gm-daniel-w-gormally-04-v-1976/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200506
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200507
DTSTAMP:20210306T151808Z
CREATED:20200409T172437Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210306T151808Z
UID:4274-1588723200-1588809599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of Dr. Tim Harding (06-v-1948)
DESCRIPTION:From chessgames.com :“Timothy David Harding was born in London. He has been playing both over-the-board and correspondence chess since the 1960s. Harding played on the Irish team at the 1984 FIDE Olympiad in Thessaloniki\, scoring 50%. In 2002 he achieved the title of Senior International Master of Correspondence Chess. He is also a Candidate Master (2015). \nAs a chess historian\, Harding has authored dozens of books on chess since 1973. He is also the author of the “The Kibitzer”\, a popular chess column published at ChessCafe.com. \n(Tim Harding’s homepage – http://www.chessmail.com/timsite)” \nBCN wishes Happy Birthday to Timothy David Harding (06-v-1948) \nFrom Wikipedia : \n“Timothy David Harding (born 6 May 1948 in London)[1] is a chess player and author with particular expertise in correspondence chess. He published a correspondence chess magazine Chess Mail from 1996 to 2006[2] and authored “The Kibitzer”\, a ChessCafe.com column from 1996 until 2015.[3] In 2002\, he was awarded the title Senior International Master of Correspondence Chess by the International Correspondence Chess Federation. Harding has lived in Dublin since 1976\,[2] writing a weekly column for The Sunday Press from then until 1995. \nIn 2009\, Harding received a PhD degree in history from University of Dublin\, with his thesis on correspondence chess in Britain and Ireland\, 1824–1914.[4] \nHe is credited with coining the name Frankenstein–Dracula Variation in his 1975 Vienna Game book.” \nTimothy David Harding (06-v-1948)\nTim has written / co-authored at least forty chess books and here is a selection : \nThe Velimirovic Attack\, Sozin Sicilian\, TD Harding and RG Wade\, Chessman Publications Ltd.\, 1969.\nCounter gambits by Timothy D. Harding (1974)\nSicilian:…e5 by TD Harding & PR Markland\nThe Sicilian Sozin\, TD Harding\, GS Botterill\, C. Kottnauer\, Batsford\, 1974\nSicilian Richter-Rauzer\nThe Leningrad Dutch\, BT Batsford\, Tim Harding\, 1976\nColle\, London and Blackmar-Diemer Systems\, BT Batsford Ltd\, Tim Harding\, 1979\nFrench: MacCutcheon and Advance Lines\, Batsford\, 1979\nFrench: Classical Lines\, Batsford\, 1979\nQueen’s Gambit Declined : Semi-Slav\, Tim Harding\, BT Batsford Ltd.\, 1981\nGuide to the Chess Openings\nBritish Chess Literature to 1914 : A Handbook for Historians\nEminent Victorian Chess Players\nJoseph Henry Blackburne: A Chess Biography\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-timothy-david-harding-06-v-1948/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,History,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200513
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200514
DTSTAMP:20210306T152627Z
CREATED:20191027T141129Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210306T152627Z
UID:1681-1589328000-1589414399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Charles Locock (27-ix-1872 13-v-1946)
DESCRIPTION:Death Anniversary of Charles Dealtry Locock (27-ix-1872 13-v-1946) \nFrom < Wikipedia : \n“Charles Dealtry Locock (1862 – 1946) was a British literary scholar\, editor and translator\, who wrote on a wide array of subjects\, including chess\, billiards and croquet.[1]” \nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess by Hooper & Whyld : \nThe Locock Gambit is in the Philidor Defence\, named after the English player Charles Dealtry Locock (1862 – 1946). The gambit is probably sound; Black should play 4…Bey instead of 4…h6 \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-charles-dealtry-locock-27-ix-187213-v-1946/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200515
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200516
DTSTAMP:20200510T093529Z
CREATED:20200411T142959Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200510T093529Z
UID:4454-1589500800-1589587199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of GM Matthew D Sadler (15-v-1974)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of GM Matthew D Sadler (15-v-1974) \n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-gm-matthew-d-sadler-15-v-1974/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,British Championships,Player,Writer
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200516
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200517
DTSTAMP:20210516T144229Z
CREATED:20190823T085838Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210516T144229Z
UID:1054-1589587200-1589673599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Harold Murray (24-vi-1868 16-v-1955)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Harold Murray who passed away on Monday\, May 16th\, 1955. \nHarold James Ruthven Murray was born on Wednesday\, 24th June 1868 in Camberwell\, London. He was the eldest son of Sir James Augustus Henry Murray 1837–1915 and  Ada Agnes Ruthven 1845–1936. Sir James was famously the first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. \nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXV (125\, 1955)\, Number 8 (August)\, pp. 233-4 we have this obituary from DJ Morgan: \n“The great historian of chess died in May last\, at the age of eighty-six. Some of the early results of his researches into the origins of the game were published in this magazine\, and a reference to the “B.C.M.” volumes for the first fifteen years of this century will reveal a wealth of articles of permanent value. A tribute to our late and\ndistinguished contributor has been unavoidably delayed. \nMurray was the eldest son of Sir James A. H. Murray\, the pioneering editor of the great Oxford English Dictionary\, and was born in Camberwell on June 24th\, 1868. He went to Mill Hill School\, took an Open Mathematical Exhibition to Balliol College\, Oxford\, and left the University\, in 1890\, with a First Class in the Final Mathematical School. Subsequently\, teaching engagements took him to Taunton\, Carlisle\, and Ormskirk. From 1891 to 1900 he was Headmaster of Ormskirk Grammar School\, which he left to become a Board of Education Inspector of Schools. \nTaunton gave him an enthusiasm for chess. At Ormskirk he helped to found a club\, which he captained from 1896 to 1900. His interest in the history of the game had been aroused in 1893\, and when\, in 1897\, he received encouragement from such a notable authority as Baron von der Lasa\, historical research became his ruling passion. In his own words his aim was to trace the development of the modern European game from the first appearance of its ancestor\, the Indian chaturanga\, in the beginning of the seventh century of our era. \nMany books had been written on the history of chess\, but none had covered exactly the whole story as he envisaged it. Hyde\, in 1694\, and another Englishman\, Forbes\, in 1860\, had in the main confined their attention to Oriental chess. Other investigators\, such as Sir William Jones on Indian chess (1790)\, Cox on Burma chess (1803 and 1807)\, and Bland on Persian chess (1852)\, had published their conclusions in journals of Asiatic studies. The great German writer\, von der Lasa\, in 1897\, treated almost exclusively of the European game. Van der Linde alone had dealt with both Oriental and European chess\, but it was in three distinct works (1874-81). \nVan der Linde was able to incorporate the results of Weber’s examination of the early references to chess in Sanskrit literature\, and to show that Forbes’s History was both inaccurate and misleading. \nSince the publication of Linde’s Geschichte there had been many additions to our knowledge of various aspects of chess history\, mostly scattered in isolated papers. So\, continues Murray\, he set about collecting and collating all available material and making it easily accessible to English readers. \nMurray was able to call on the help of acknowledged scholars in the many languages\, obsolete and obsolescent\, into which his researches led him. Above all\, his work was largely based upon his own studies of original materials. The manuscripts and rare books in the unrivalled collections of J. G. White\, of Cleveland\, Ohio\, and of J. W. Rimington Wilson in this country\, were placed unreservedly at his disposal\, as were the resources of other collectors and libraries. \nAs an example of his devotion to his work\, he made a thorough study of Arabic\, and it was his knowledge of this language which enabled him to make his remarkable discovery of the chess-work of Allajlaj\, a Mohammedan chess master of the tenth century. The fascinating story of the recovery of these oldest recorded games is told in the “British Chess Magazine” of November\, 1903. \nMurray thus brought a fine scholarship to his immense task. He had\, in addition\, the true historian’s gifts of meticulous research\, of grasp of detail\, of the critical sifting of evidence; to this scientific technique was added the art of lucid exposition.\nIn his hands\, it can be said\, the chess-player’s elements of time\, space\, and material were used to range through most of the centuries of the Christian era. \nA History of Chess\nThe History appeared in 1913\, from the same University Press\, he was proud to think which\, more than 200 years before\, had published Thomas Hyde’s Mondragorios seu Historia Shohiludii. The huge volume of 900 pages\, lavishly illustrated and with scores of chess diagrams\, was received with world-wide acclamation. From ancient “Indian Board-games” to “Steinitz and his School\,” the vast field had been covered with great authority. The book is in two parts\, “Chess in Asia” and “Chess in Europe\,” but through it all runs the absorbing story of how the game\, in play and in problem\, in its practice and in its laws\, has developed and spread. From India to Persia\, to Islam as a result of the Mohammedan conquest of Persia\, from Islam to Spain\, and thence to Christian Europe\, chess has followed the great political and religious movements. It is very improbable that chess was played in England before the Norman Conquest. That it was familiar to the Norman Kings in the eleventh century is certain from the evidence of the word exchequer\, which was applied to the table “upon which the accounts were worked out by means of a cloth divided into strips about a footwide\, on which counters\, representing the moneys\, were placed and moved.” \nThis must suffice. The work is one to browse in and to dip into through the years. Murray has left an enduring monument\, the greatest book ever written on the game. We can but touch briefly on other aspects of his varied and active life. Following his retirement from the Board of Education\, in 1928\, he took an active interest in Local Government work. He became Chairman of the Fernhurst Parish Council\, and was a member of the Midhurst R.D.C.\, 1931-55\, being Chairmain of its Housing\nCommittee from 1938 to 1948. \nIn 1952 he published A History of Board Gomes Other Than Chess. \nA History of Board Games other than Chess\nHe also wrote a Shorter History of Chess and a History of Draughts (both unpublished)\, and spent much time working on mathematical problems connected with Knights’ Tours and Magic Tours. His work on these investigations is also unpublished\, but a good deal remains in typescript in fairly complete form. \nApart from his interest in board games and mathematics\, he was interested in genealogy\, and did research on his own and his wife’s families. Up to his death he was working on local history and was writing a history of Heyshott\, the village to which he retired. Walking\, in his younger days\, and bird-watching in his middle years\, were amongst his otter recreations. \nA game of chess he. always enjoyed\, but not under the rigorous conditions of matches and tournaments. \nHis son\, Major D. M. J. Murray\, Royal Engineers\, was killed in Hong Kong in 1941. The chess world’s sympathy with his second son Mr. K.C. Murray of the Antiquities Service\, Nigeria\, and with his daughter\, Miss K. M. E. Murray\, M.A.\, Principal of the Bishop\nOtter College\, Chichester\, is but a small expression of its sense of indebtedness to their distinguished father.-D. J. M.” \nFollowing this obituary a letter from Alex Hammond appeared in British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXV (125\, 1955)\, Number 9 (September)\, page 270 as follows: \n“Dear Mr. Reilly\,\nMurray was\, indeed a very great man\, though a few of us were privileged to know him intimately\, as his nature was shy and retiring. \nFor myself\, I shall always treasure his memory\, as when I wrote my The Book of Chessmen he gave me freely of his knowledge\, and saved me from many errors. \nAny person who attempts to write on chess history will always find real difficulty in discovering anything of interest which does not appear in his monumental “History.” \nProbably his like will not be seen again\, as such patient industry\, deep knowledge\, and tremendous perseverance are unlikely to be combined in a single personage again. \nYours sincerely\,\nAlex Hammond\n16 Burlington Arcade\, London\, W1 \nThe Book of Chessmen\, Alexander Hammond\, Arthur Barker Ltd.\, London\, 1950\nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess (Oxford University Press\, 1984 & 1996) by Hooper & Whyld: \n“Foremost chess historian\, school inspector. His A History of Chess (1913)\, perhaps the most important chess book in English\, was the result of about 14 years of research inspired by Lasa\, and grounded on van der Linde’s work. During that period Murray contributed 35 articles to the British Chess Magazine \, some of which outlined his discoveries. Most of the 900-page History is concerned with the evolution of modern chess from its oriental precursor up to the 17th century. He learned Arabic so that he could read important manuscripts\, and in addition to his own circle he was able to solicit help from colleagues of his father Sir James A. H. Murray\, editor-in-chief of the Oxford English Dictionary; who was also aided by J. G. White\, with both advice and the loan of rare books from the Cleveland collection\, and by many others. His book includes an authoritative account of both Mansubat and medieval problems. (See also history of chess.) In 1952 he published a companion volume\, A History of Board Games other than Chess. \nWhile the scholarship of his chess book has never been questioned it is too detailed for the average chess-player. Aware of this problem\, Murray wrote a briefer work approaching the topic in a more popular way. The manuscript\, unfinished at his death\, was completed and published in 1963 as A Short History of Chess. (See Civis Bononiae.) \nA Short History of Chess\nFrom The Encyclopaedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977)\, Harry Golombek OBE : \n“Chess historian and a Board of Education Inspector of Schools. Appropriately enough\, a son of the pioneering editor of the great Oxford English Dictionary\, he became interested in the history of chess in the early 1890s. Up to this time the historical writings on chess in English had been unhistorical. In order to fit himself for the task Murray learned several languages including Arabic and he also studied the true historians of chess\, the German writers\, Van der Linde and Von der Lassa. \nIn his own words his aim was to trace the development of the modern European game from the first appearance of its ancestor\, the Indian chaturanga\, in the beginning of the seventh century of our era. This he did in a vast work of some 900 pages published in Oxford in 1913. An immense amount of painstaking research had gone into the work and only a man of Murray’s great learning could have attempted it. \nIt at once became the standard book on the subject and has remained so ever since. Murray left behind among his papers an unfinished work A Short History of Chess which took the history of the game up to 1866 which gave a clearer and more readable account of the history of the game than his main work. This was brought up to date by Goulding-Brown and Golombek and published in Oxford in 1963.” \nFrom The Encyclopaedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1970 &1976)\, Anne Sunnucks : \n“The chess historian who wrote the History of Chess\, published by Oxford University Press in 1913. Murray was born in Camberwell on 24th June\, 1868\, the eldest son of Sir James Murray\, the first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. After graduating from Balliol College\, Oxford\, with a First Class in the Final Mathematical School\, in 1890 Murray became a master at Queen’s College\, Taunton\, where he learned to play chess. He later taught at Carlisle Grammar School and in 1896 became the headmaster of Ormskirk Grammar School. About 1893 his interest in the history of the game was aroused\, and four years later\, encouraged by the great German writer and authority on the game\, Baron Von der Lasa\, his historical researches began.\nFrom 1901-1928 he was a Board of Education Inspector of Schools\, an appointment which made it difficult for him to play much chess. He began to turn his attention more and more to the history of the game\, contributing articles to The British Chess Magazine and Deutsches Wochenschach. He made the acquaintance of J. J. White of Cleveland\, Ohio\, owner of the largest chess library in the world\, and was given access to this collection\, as well as one owned by J. W. Rimington Wilson in England. White’s library contained a number of Arabic manuscripts\, and\, in order to be able to study them\, Murray learned Arabic. The History of Chess took him 13 years to complete. \nOn his retirement from the Board of Education\, Murray served as Chairman of Fernhurst Parish Council and was a member of Midhurst R.D.C. from 1931-1955 and was Chairman of its Housing Committee from 1938-1948. His other interests\, apart from chess\, were genealogy\, local history\, walking and bird watching. In 1952 he published A History of Board Games Other than Chess. \nAfter his death A Short History of Chess was found uncompleted among his papers. Additional chapters were added by B. Goulding Brown and H. Golombek\, and it was published in 1963.” \n(Bertram Goulding Brown was a tournament chess player and a contributor to British Chess Magazine. He was born 5 July 1881 and died 22 August 1965 in the United Kingdom.) \nYou may read the entire book here \nFrom Amazon : \n“Harold James Ruthven Murray was born on 24 June 1868. His first book A History of Chess was published by Oxford University Press in 1913. Murray covered the first 1\,400 years of the game’s history in definitive detail. He died on 16 May 1955. He left several more manuscripts which are being held by Oxford University.” \nAccording to Edward Winter in Chess Notes HJRM lived 53 Hagley Road\, Edgbaston\, Birmingham\, England (Ranneforths Schach-Kalender\, 1915\, page 71). \nHere is his Wikipedia entry \nand here is an excellent article from Edward Winter. \n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-harold-james-ruthven-murray/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Remembering,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200516
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200517
DTSTAMP:20260817T141207Z
CREATED:20200427T133527Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260817T141207Z
UID:4991-1589587200-1589673599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Andrew Thomas (11-x-1904 16-v-1985)
DESCRIPTION:Signature of ARB Thomas from a Brian Reilly “after dinner” postcard from Southsea 1951.\nHere is his Wikipedia entry \nARB Thomas in play with FEA Kitto\nBCN remembers Andrew Rowland Benedick Thomas (11-x-1904 16-v-1985) \nWe cannot improve on this excellent article about ARBT on the Chess Devon web site \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.\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/remembering-andrew-rowland-benedick-thomas-11-x-1904-16-v-1985/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,History,Official,Organiser,Player,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200516
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200517
DTSTAMP:20210307T175542Z
CREATED:20200517T135858Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210307T175542Z
UID:5582-1589587200-1589673599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of Mark Crowther (16-v-1966)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of TWIC founder\, Mark Crowther (16-v-1966) \nFrom Wikipedia : \nThe Week in Chess (TWIC) is one of the first\, if not the first\, Internet-based chess news services. It is based in the United Kingdom. \nTWIC has been edited by Mark Crowther since its inception in 1994.[1] It began as a weekly Usenet posting\, with “TWIC 1” being posted to Usenet group rec.games.chess on 17 September 1994.[2] Later it moved to Crowther’s personal web site\, then to chesscenter.com in 1997\,[3] and in 2012 it moved to theweekinchess.com.[4] \nIt contains both chess news\, and all the game scores from major events. \nTWIC quickly became popular with professional chess players\, because it allowed them to quickly get results and game scores\, where previously they had relied on print publications.[5] \nTWIC still exists as a weekly newsletter\, although for important events the TWIC website is updated daily. It remains a popular site for up-to-date chess news.[6] \n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-mark-crowther-16-v-1966/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200518
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200519
DTSTAMP:20210307T175655Z
CREATED:20200517T170112Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210307T175655Z
UID:5616-1589760000-1589846399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of IM Andrew Martin (18-v-1957)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of IM Andrew Martin (18-v-1957) \nFrom ChessBase : \nAndrew David Martin (born 18th May 1957 in West Ham\, London) is an English chess player with the title of international master. Martin has won various national and international tournaments. He has been playing for years in the Four Nations Chess League\, at present (July 2009) for Wood Green Hilsmark Kingfisher\, previously for the Camberley Chess Club. Martin received his title as international master in 1984. He earned his first grandmaster norm in the British Championship of 1997 in Brighton. Martin was a commentator on the chess world championship between Kasparov and Kramnik in 2000.\nOn the 21st February 2004 Martin set a new world record for simultaneous chess. \n\nHe faced 321 chess players at the same time. His result was: 294 wins\, 26 draws and only one loss. Martin is known as a professional chess teacher and head trainer of the English youth team. He trains eight schools (Yateley Manor\, Aldro\, Millfield\, Sunningdale\, Waverley School\, St Michael’s Sandhurst\, Wellington College\, Salesian College). Martin is a chess columnist\, an author of chess books and the author of various instructional videos. He was the publisher of the series Trends Publications. Martin lives in Sandhurst\, England\, is married and the father of two daughters and two sons. His present Elo rating is 2423 (as of July 2009). \nAndrew coaching students\nThe above is somewhat inaccurate and out of date. Andrew came from East Ham rather than West Ham. He was the editor rather than the publisher of Trends Publications and he lives in Bramley\, Surrey with his partner Naomi. \nOn July 23rd 1981 a world record attempt of continuous blitz games was undertaken at the National Film Theatre in London with much support of the membership of London Central YMCA. \nYours Truly (John Upham) plays Andrew Martin at the NFT\nAndrew now plays for Camberley and Guildford clubs in the Berkshire and Surrey Border Leagues and is former member of London Central YMCA (CentYMCA)\, Wood Green and Barbican clubs. \nAndrew plays JJ Ady whilst Simon LeBlanq observes at the London Central YMCA\nAndrew has written many books starting as Editor of the “Trends Series” for Tournament Chess owned by Richard O’Brien (Not of The Crystal Maze). He has authored numerous DVDs for Foxy Videos and ChessBase and has a YouTube Channel focused on young and improving players called “Andrew Martin – Chess Explorations“. \nAndrew’s first book as author was this one : \nWinning With the King’s Indian\, Caissa Publishing\, Andrew Martin\, 1989\nHere is one his favourite 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\nTrends in the Slav Defence\, Tournament Chess\, Andrew Martin\, 1990\nThe Contemporary Anti-Dutch\, 1990\nHere is a second memorable game : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nSecret Weapons\, Tournament Chess\, 1991\nShort\, Tournament Chess\, 1993\nAlekhine’s Defence\, 2001\nThe Essential Center-Counter\, 2004\nKing’s Indian Battle Plans\, 2004\nThe Hippopotamus Rises\, 2005\nPlay the Benko Gambit\, 2007\nFirst Steps : Queen’s Gambit\, 2016\nFirst Steps : Caro-Kann Defence\, 2018\nFirst Steps : King’s Indian Defence\, 2019\nChess Hacker\, Andrew Martin\, Thinkers Press\, 2019\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-im-andrew-martin-18-v-1957/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,British Championships,Player,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200522
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200523
DTSTAMP:20210307T175946Z
CREATED:20200408T125401Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210307T175946Z
UID:4187-1590105600-1590191999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of IM John Cox (22-v-1962)
DESCRIPTION:IM John Cox\nBCN sends best wishes to IM John Cox on his birthday\, this day\, in 1962. \nJohn was born in Altrincham\, Trafford\, Greater Manchester and attended Eton College playing top board in the Sunday Times National Schools Competition. \nHe became a FIDE Master in 1982\, an International Master in 2002 and obtained a peak rating of 2423 in January of 2006. \nHe is an expert bridge player and an amateur rock climber / mountaineer. \nJohn plays for Cavendish in the London League\, Hackney in other leagues and Barbican in the Four Nations Chess League (4NCL). \nFrom the excellent Shropshire Chess web site we have : \nJohn Cox\, aged 17\, photographer unknown\n“Probably the best home reared player to come out of the county\, John Cox started to play at age 6 with his father Jeff (see above) joining Shrewsbury Chess Club at age 7. At age10 he became joint Shropshire lightning champion. He was 16 when he won the 1979 county championship though much of his early success was outside the county. He gained his first FM norm at the 1980 Lloyds Bank Masters where he became the first Shropshire player to beat a GM (see below)\, also drawing with IM’s Ligterink and Pytel. In 1981 he gained his third norm and the FM title at Ramsgate together with his first IM norm. Though now based in London\, he is still a regular visitor to the local Wrekin Congress.” \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 \nJohn Cox (first from left) at a Lloyds Bank event.\nJohn Cox (left\, rear)\nJohn Cox (left\, rear) at a Lloyds Bank Varsity match\nIM John Cox\nStarting out 1.d4 ! by John Cox\nDangerous Weapons : The Ruy Lopez\nStarting Out : Alekhine’s Defence\nDealing with d4 Deviations\nStarting Out : Sicilian Sveshnikov\nThe Berlin Wall\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-john-j-cox-22-v-1962/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200529
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200530
DTSTAMP:20210307T181503Z
CREATED:20200402T172328Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210307T181503Z
UID:3981-1590710400-1590796799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of IM Chris Baker (29-v-1958)
DESCRIPTION:Birthday of IM Christopher Wallace Baker (29-v-1958) \nChris was born in Coventry\, West Midlands and played in the Staffordshire Open in 1975 (the earliest games held in MegaBase 2020). \nChris has played for Guildford in Four Nations Chess League (4NCL). \nHe has been the trainer of the Welsh junior team and is a fully-qualified arbiter. \nHe has taught chess in many schools in the Farnham area of Surrey. \nIM Chris Baker\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 authored and co-authored a number of books including the following : \nA Startling Chess Opening Repertoire\nSimple Winning Chess\nLearn From Your Chess Mistakes\nDynamic Black Opening Repertoire\nA Startling Chess Opening Repertoire\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-im-christopher-wallace-baker-29-v-1958/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200603
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200604
DTSTAMP:20210307T181753Z
CREATED:20200530T124532Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210307T181753Z
UID:5844-1591142400-1591228799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of GM Jonathan Levitt (03-vi-1963)
DESCRIPTION:From Wikipedia (Dutch version) : \nJonathan Levitt \, Jon\, (born in 1963) is a British chess player . In 1984 he became a FIDE International Master and in 1994 a FIDE Grand Master. \nGM Jonathan Levitt\, photograph by Cathy Rogers\nLevitt wrote chess anecdotes on the (no longer existing) chess portal kasparovchess.com . He also has a chess column in “Oxford Today”. Levitt is also known for his talent tests and he is also a chess teacher. Moreover\, he is a master in endgame studies. He takes chess photos\, some of which can be seen in Wikipedia. \nJonathan Levitt in play with Michael Adams\, Lloyds Bank\, 1990\, Philidor\, 1/2-1/2\nLevitt is also the author of several chess books: “Secrets of Spectacular Chess”\, “Genius in Chess”\, “Advice on Improving Your Game”. He also makes chess videos for the internet. \nFrom chessgames.com : \n“Jonathan Paul Levitt was born in Southwark (London)\, England. Awarded the IM title in 1984\, he is now a GM (1991) and a composer of problems. Winner of the Staunton Memorial in 2005. His notable works as an author include “Secrets of Spectacular Chess” and “Genius in Chess”.” \nJonathan achieved a peak rating of 2495 in January 1989 at the age of 26 and lives in Ipswich. \nHe shared 1st place the GLC Masters in 1986 with 10.5/15 with Neil McDonald : \nJonathan Levitt\, ? and Neil McDonald at the 1986 GLC Masters\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nGLC Masters crosstable\, 1986\nand was first equal with Jonathan Speelman in the Third Staunton Memorial in 2005 : \nThird Staunton Memorial\, 2005\nGM Jonathan Levitt\, photographer unknown\n\nHere is his personal web site \nGenius in Chess\nSecrets of Spectacular Chess\nGM Jonathan Levitt\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-gm-jonathan-levitt-03-vi-1963/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player,Writer
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_1019.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200613
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200614
DTSTAMP:20210608T101753Z
CREATED:20200613T092948Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210608T101753Z
UID:6252-1592006400-1592092799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of GM Paul Motwani  (13-vi-1962)
DESCRIPTION:FM Paul Motwani (See full caption in photograph below) \nCaption for photograph above\nBCN wishes GM Paul Motwani Happy Birthday (13-vi-1962) \nHere is his Wikipedia entry \nGM Paul Motwani has just played a brutal double check in the 1990 Scottish Lightning Championship. Photograph by Alistair Mulhearn\nPaul Motwani plays Bent Larsen at the 1990 Watson\, Farley and Williams International Chess Challenge. The game was a 3.Lb5 sicilian which was drawn\nPaul Motwani during a simultaneous display\nGM Paul Motwani demonstrates one of his 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\nColin McNab and Paul Motwani in post mortem analysis\nC.O.O.L. Chess\nH.O.T. Chess\nS*T*A*R* Chess\nThe Most Instructive Games of the Young Grandmasters\nChess Under the Microscope\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-gm-paul-motwani-happy-birthday-13-vi-1962/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200619
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200620
DTSTAMP:20210620T094213Z
CREATED:20190823T181141Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210620T094213Z
UID:1094-1592524800-1592611199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Robin Matthews (16-vi-1927 19-vi-1983)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Robin Matthews CBE\, FBA who died in Cambridge aged 83 on June 19th 2010. Probate (3367272) was granted in Ipswich\, Suffolk on September 6th\, 2010. \nRobert (Robin) Charles Oliver Matthews was born in Edinburgh on Thursday\, June 16th 1927. Born on the same day was England cricketer\, Tom Graveney. \nHis English father\, Oliver Harwood Matthews became an Edinburgh solicitor and his mother was Ida Matthews (née) Finlay.  Robin had a daughter Alison. \nAcademia\nHe was educated at Edinburgh Academy and then Corpus Christi College\, Oxford becoming a Fellow of All Souls College\, Oxford. He went on to become a highly successful economist authoring at least twelve publications on the subject. \nAccording to Wikipedia “He was the Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford from 1965 to 1975 and the Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge from 1980 to 1991. He was also the Master of Clare College\, Cambridge from 1975 to 1993.” \nFor a detailed description of this part of his life there is an excellent obituary / biography from the Australian economist\, Geoffrey Harcourt. \nProblem Composer\nBrian Stephenson (BCPS) writes : “Probably the UK’s greatest composer of ‘mate in 3’ #ChessProblems . His chapters in the book you note were what got me hooked on chess composition. Nearly all of his output can be viewed at The Meson Database” \nBlack Correction: Quaternary Play \nFirst Prize\, The Observer\, 1964 \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nMate in three \nAccording to David McKittrick in The Independent: \n“Outside academia\, Matthews was keen on chess\, in particular setting problems and publishing two books on what are known as three-mover directmates\, in which white is to move and checkmate black in no more than three moves against any defence. \nAlthough this might be thought a particularly narrow point of interest\, one enthusiast said of him that his writings “demonstrated a deep knowledge along with the feeling of wonder and curiosity about the subject”. \nRCO Matthews\nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess by Hooper & Whyld: \n“British Composer\, International Judge of Chess Compositions (1957)\, International Master for Chess Compositions (1965)\, economist\, appointed Master of Clare College\, Cambridge in 1975. He has specialised in orthodox three movers and is among the world’s leaders in this field.” \n\nHere is an obituary from The Daily Telegraph \nand an obituary from The Independent \nChess Problems : Introduction to an Art\nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess by Anne Sunnucks : \nInternational Master of the F.I.D.E. for chess compositions (1965) and International Judge of the F.I.D.E. for Chess Compositions (1957). President of the British Chess Problem Society for 1971 and 1972. Professor of Economics at Oxford University. \nCyclic Overload Doubled \nFirst Prize\, British Chess Magazine\, 1968 \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nMate in three \nBorn on 16th June 1927. Professor Matthews has composed about 200 problems\, about 40 of them 1st prize winners\, mainly strategic three-movers\, He is one of the world’s best three move composers. \nNowotnys \nBritish Chess Magazine\, 1967 \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nHis best problems give clear-cut expression of complex themes\, with proper attention given to key-move and by-play in the best English tradition. \nChess Problems : Introduction to an Art\nThe results are massive rather than elegant\, but carefully constructed. Themes he has specialised in include overload White self-weakening and reciprocal change.” \nR.C.O. Matthews\nBritish Chess Magazine\n1956 \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 three moves \nFrom Wikipedia : \n“Robert (Robin) Charles Oliver Matthews (16 June 1927 – 19 June 2010) was an economist and chess problemist. \nMatthews was born in Edinburgh. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy and Corpus Christi College\, Oxford\, and was a Fellow of All Souls College\, Oxford. He was the Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford from 1965 to 1975 and the Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge from 1980 to 1991. He was also the Master of Clare College\, Cambridge from 1975 to 1993.” \n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-robin-co-matthews/
CATEGORIES:Composer,Death Anniversary,History,Problemist,Remembering,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200624
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200625
DTSTAMP:20210621T084640Z
CREATED:20190624T001040Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210621T084640Z
UID:6378-1592956800-1593043199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Alan Phillips (28-x-1923 24-vi-2009)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Alan Phillips (28-x-1923 24-vi-2009) \nHere is his far too brief Wikipedia entry \nFrom Chessgames.com : \n“Alan Phillips\, joint British Champion in 1954\, was born in England in 1923. He was the author of Chess: 60 Years on with Caissa and Friends (Caissa Editions\, 2003) and The Chess Teacher (Cadogan\, 1995).” \nHere is an item from the Shropshire Chess web site \nHere is Alan Phillips autobiography from his own book\, Chess: Sixty years on with Caissa & Friends \n“Born in Stockport in 1923\,I was playing pontoon in an air-raid shelter in the autumn of 1940 with a friend from our school\, Stockport Grammar\, when he suddenly announced that he knew a better game\, being the school chess champion. Ostensibly studying for a Cambridge Scholarship with a view to reading Classics\, I played about 200 games with Norman Stephens\, emerging the victor perhaps because I studied Alekhine’s and Euwe’s games\, obtained from the Public Library\, whence I had been borrowing difficult piano works for the previous two years. When I got up to Magdalene in 1941\, I found standing next to me in the University Chess Club Wykehamist James Lighthill\, destined to become\, arguably\, our greatest applied mathematician of the second half of the last century; I played chess with him one evening a week and piano duets another\, and as Match Captain and Hon.Sec. in my second year – shared top board\, while now supposedly reading Italian\, as a War Office scheme\, and French\, languages I unfortunately then considered beneath contempt\, compared with the glory that was Greek. \nAlan Phillips plays David Hooper on August 20th 1954 in round five of the British Championships in Nottingham\, photographer unknown\nEnrolled but not commissioned – the War Office having ratted on its promise to a large bunch of first-class linguists – in the Army Intelligence Corps from August 1943 to October 1946\,I spent nearly three years abroad in Sicily and Palestine\, riding a motor-bike – our American equivalents in the CIC were mostly majors or colonels and rode in Cadillacs – and playing\, when stationary\, much music with singers and violinists\, especially in Palestine\, and chess with the Captain of the Harbour in Sicily\, a charming moustached Neapolitan who got about three draws in 300 games\, and then in Haifa\, Hadera and Jerusalem chess clubs\, beating the youth champion of Palestine and Aloni when he played simultaneously\, but losing to Porath\, and enjoying ‘skittles’ in cafes with many other players of near-master rank. Demobilised and put\, like the Goons\, on the Z-reserve in autumn 1946\, I went back to Cambridge to read Classics Pt II and found Peter Swinnerton-Dyer\, as far as I know our best number theorist of the past fifty years\, waiting for me – we tied for the University Championship having begun a series of trips to Hastings with Alan Truscott\, and later continued to Birmingham for the Midland Championship\, which I won in 1951. I usually won prizes in increasingly strong sections at Hastings except in two Premiers\, 1950-1 and 1954-5\, when my emotions were otherwise engaged\, as happened in the British Championship in 1952\, when\, after I had beaten all the best players and scored 7/8 with three rounds to go\, a girl-friend turned up and I lost my last three games\, refusing a draw in round nine in a not superior position\, not out of arrogance\, but in order to clinch the title. \nAlan Phillips and Leonard Barden are joint British Champions of 1954 in Nottingham\, photographer unknown\nOtherwise\, with one or two exceptions\, I only lost to the strongest players in the British Championships I played in\, i.e. 1949-55 and 1961\, tying for first place at Nottingham 1954 and coming third equal in a very strong Championship at Aberystwyth 1955\, which earned me a place as Board 6 on the English team at the Moscow Olympiad in 1956\, where I only drew against Luxembourg\, and lost to Geller\, but drew in two cases from bad positions with Johner\, Sanguinetti and Ghitescu. \nDavid Hooper (left) in conversation with Alan Phillips. Location and photographer unknown.\nIn l96l I moved up to Derbyshire\, where – though playing top board for Manchester as well as the county – having switched to Maths teaching after several years part-time study at Birkbeck and acquired offspring as well as promotion\, I also started annual visits to Dartington Summer School of Music\, now totalling 38 out of a possible 40\, all of which made it virtually impossible for me to play in tournaments\, apart from the odd visit to Hastings or fairly strong week-end tournaments\, e.g. Ilford\, which I won for the second time in 1973\, beating Basman. My responsibilities on my return to London as Head of Charlton School in 1967\, where I got Bob Wade to teach chess as part of mathematics in the Lower School\, and then of Forest Hill School\, where we organised many tournaments\, although I played generally as top board for Kent\, whom I led twice to victory in the County Championship in 1975 and 1976\, meant that I had even less time for tournament chess\, except at Islington and in the Challengers\, so that my real heyday ended there\, with a final move to a ‘quiet’ county\, Shropshire – as far as chess was concerned – as Adviser for Secondary Education and Area Adviser\, 1976-82\, in which capacity I avoided as much paper-work as I could and taught chess in the lunch-hour to all the primary and handicapped pupils I visited. I should say most of my successes at chess have been at County Level\, where I played top board for Cambridgeshire and London University\, as well as the counties mentioned\, and in the very strong London League\, as far as I can estimate I had a success rate of some 70% in those contests. In general the games in this book\, with one or two exceptions for historical or anecdotal reasons\, were played at high levels\, and won by the right player\, not suddenly lost by a blunder\, like some games published nowadays because the blunder is perpetrated by a famous player. \nPhotograph taken in Hastings on 28 December 1950. Lord Dunsany (standing on the right) is watching the first-round game between Alan Phillips and Weaver Adams\, source : http://boylston-chess-club.blogspot.com/\nWith regard to the general assessment of players and tournaments\, I have only one comment “Look at the games!” When even\, or especially\, David Bronstein wails “They give me a number”\, I think it time to end a spuriously precise system and revert to the earlier English practice or the traditional Soviet one of putting players in classes\, preferably according to a sufficiently large number of results in tournaments or strong club or county matches. And when players are inhibited\, when the match is won\, from offering an opponent\, who has played well\, a draw\, that is a diminution of sportsmanship\, so a draw\, even with Kasparov\, should not count in grading. Finally the use of seconds or computers once a game is started should be\nregarded as totally unsporting\, and players should be put on their honour\, as bridge-players are in matters of cheating\, not to use them. \nI should like to dedicate this book to the memory of my good friends\, David Hooper\, Stuart Milner-Barry\, and A.R.B.Thomas\, men of integrity\, humour\, and many other talents\, who brought to their chess the same qualities of courage and sportsmanship they showed in the rest of their lives. \nAlan Phillips (28-x-1923 24-vi-2009) : Source : https://www.shropshirechess.org/History/1970s.htm\nAlan Phillips\nBritish Master\, Joint British Champion 1954\nThorn Cottage\, Appleton Thorn\, Warrington\, Cheshire\nSeptember 2003″ \nObituary of Alan Phillips by John Saunders from British Chess Magazine\, 2009. Part One\nObituary of Alan Phillips by John Saunders from British Chess Magazine\, 2009. Part Two\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 obituary from The Times of London \nThe Chess Teacher\nChess: Sixty years on with Caissa & Friends\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-alan-phillips-28-x-1923-24-vi-2009/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200625
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200626
DTSTAMP:20210625T192957Z
CREATED:20200410T100731Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210625T192957Z
UID:4327-1593043200-1593129599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Birthday of IM Byron Anthony Jacobs (25-vi-1963)
DESCRIPTION:IM Byron Jacobs\nBCN wishes Happy Birthday to IM Byron Anthony Jacobs (25-vi-1963) \nByron originates from Sir John Betjeman’s favourite town (Slough) and attended Slough Grammar and then The University of Sussex (Falmer). \nHe was Standard London under-16 champion in 1979. He was 3rd= in the 1982 Danish U-18 International. He was 3rd= in the 1988 Guernsey Open. His last recorded event in Megabase 2020 was in 1998. \nByron became a FIDE Master in 1983 and an International Master and in 1988 achieved a peak rating of 2390 in July 1987 at the age of 24. \nHaving given up competitive chess Byron became a successful poker player and commentator and has written on the subject. \nByron is a director of Brighton based First Rank Publishing and is specialist chess typesetter and Chief Advisor for Everyman Publishing and others and was pivotal in Brighton based\, Chess Press. \nByron was the typesetter for British Chess Magazine from 2011 – 2012. \nIM Byron Jacobs (front\, fourth from left) at a Lloyds Bank event\nIM Byron Jacobs (seated\, second from left)\nIM Byron Jacobs (standing\, second from left)) at a Lloyds Bank Masters\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nByron is an accomplished chess author with many titles to his name : \nThe Times Winning Moves (1991 with Ray Keene)\nThe Complete King’s Indian (1992 with Ray Keene)\nWinning with the Benko (1995)\nThe Caro-Kann Advance (1997)\nAnalyse to Win (1997)\nThe Benko Gambit by Andrew Kinsman & Byron Jacobs (1999)\nStarting Out in Chess (1999)\nMastering the Opening (2001)\nFrench Classical (2001)\nNimzo-Larsen Attack (2001)\nAn Opening Repertoire for White (2003)\n Save as PDF
URL:http://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-im-byron-anthony-jacobs-25-vi-1963/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player,Writer
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