BCN wishes GM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant best wishes on her birthday, July 19th 1968
From Wikipedia :
In 1985, when she won the World Junior Chess Championship for Girls, held in Dobrna (and taking silver in Adelaide three years later). Very soon thereafter, she fulfilled the criteria for the Woman International Master title and this was awarded in 1986. Encouraged by these early successes, she quickly developed aspirations[citation needed] to become a Women’s World Championship contender and in the course of the qualification cycles of the late eighties and early nineties, proved that she had the ability to compete at the top level. Second place behind Nana Ioseliani in her first Interzonal at Tuzla 1987 was an inspirational start, but she won the 1993 event in Jakarta and the 1995 event in Kishinev. Her performances in the respective Candidates Tournaments ruled out an opportunity to play for the world title.
She won the Women’s Soviet Chess Championship in 1990.
Aside from world championship competitions, in 1990 she took first place at both the Biel Women’s Open and Geneva (IM), then followed up by winning the Doeberl Cup in Canberra, Australia in 1991; the first woman to do so. Her participation at the Hastings Premier in 1993/94, where she finished ahead of six male grandmasters and defeated three of them on her way to a share of third place. In respect of women competitors at Hastings, the result was second only to that of Judit Polgár.
In the nineties she participated in the Veterans vs Ladies dance-themed tournaments where she defeated Borislav Ivkov, Vlastimil Hort, Vasily Smyslov and Mark Taimanov.
In 1996, she married Jonathan Grant, also a chess player, and they settled in Edinburgh, later giving birth to daughter Elena.
In team chess, Arakhamia debuted at Chess Olympiad at Novi Sad in 1990, representing the USSR Ladies team as first reserve and registering a perfect 12/12 score. With the Soviet and then Georgian Ladies Teams, she has won nine Olympiad medals, and including two team and three individual gold medals. She has won medals at the European Team Chess Championships; a team gold at Pula in 1997 and team silver medals in 1992 and 2005.
Despite moving to the UK, Arakhamia continued to represent Georgia for many years, through membership of its national chess federation. She was the Georgian Ladies Champion in 1983, 1984 and 1990. In January 2008 however, she switched her registration to her adopted country.
GM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant
Post-millennium, she has won a bronze medal at the Women’s European Individual Championship at Warsaw in 2001. She was Scottish champion jointly with Paul Motwani in 2003 (the first ever woman to achieve the honour) and has participated at the British Championship, taking the Ladies’ Champion titles of 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. In 2006, she finished just a half point behind overall Championship winner Jonathan Rowson. She concluded with a 4½/5 finish, including a win against Nick Pert in the last round. 2006 was also the year that her husband took first place in the Scottish Championship, making them the first ever husband–wife pair to win a full national championship. Also in 2006, at Batumi Georgia, she assisted the Australian squad by coaching their Under-10 Girls at the World Youth Chess Championship.
In 2007, she beat former U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura at Gibraltar Masters, in a 100-move first round encounter. Journalist John Saunders describes Arakhamia-Grant as the ideal role model: “her charming and dignified manner belies a tough, determined fighter at the board.”[citation needed] At Philadelphia, while visiting her sister, she played the World Open and finished top woman. As the tournament was a qualifier for the MonRoi Women’s Grand Prix, she earned a place in the Montreal finale, held just a few weeks later. There, she shared the lead after five rounds and finished in joint fourth place (Pia Cramling won). As part of the Liverpool European Capital of Culture festivities, she played in the United Kingdom vs China match and was top scorer for the UK with 4/6, although China won the match.
Arakhamia-Grant at the 2008 EU Championship
At the 2008 EU Individual Open Chess Championship in Liverpool, she shared the highest scoring woman prize with Jovanka Houska and Yelena Dembo. At the Olympiad in Dresden, she played for Scotland in the main event and completed her final grandmaster norm with victory in the final round. Having additionally met the 2500 Elo rating requirement in the January 2009 FIDE list, she was awarded the title in March 2009, making her Scotland’s sixth grandmaster. In August 2009 Arakhamia-Grant won the Baltic Queen round-robin tournament in Saint Petersburg.[1]
In July 2011 she won the Scottish Championship outright, finishing with the score of 7/9.
In league chess, Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant has played for OSC Baden-Baden in the Women’s Bundesliga and for Georgian team Interplast Tbilisi in the European Club Cup. For the 2008/9 season, she represents Wood Green Hilsmark Kingfisher 1 in the British 4NCL.
BCN sends best wishes to John Michael Rice on his birthday, July 19th in 1937.
An ABC of Chess Problems
From chesscomposers.blogspot.com :
John Rice was the chief editor of the problems section of the “British Chess Magazine” from 1961 until 1974 and is a faithful collaborator of “The Problemist”. He has written “Chess Problem: Introduction to an Art” (1963) together with Robin Matthews and Michael Lipton and “The Two-Move Chess Problem” (1966), “Serieshelpmates” (1978) with Anthony Dickins or “Chess Wizardry: The New ABC of Chess Problems” (1996).
He composes mostly direct mates, but can composes as well in other genres, including fairies. He is an International Judge for twomovers, helpmates and fairy problems and the former President of the PCCC from 2004 until 2006.
John was awarded the title of “International Grandmaster for chess compositions” in 2015.
BCN wishes IM Nigel Edward Povah all the best on his birthday, July 17th in 1952.
Chess Training : Nigel Povah
From Wikipedia :
Nigel Edward Povah (born 17 July 1952 in Wandsworth, London) is a British chess player. He is an International Master at over-the-board chess and a grandmaster at correspondence chess. Povah is the author of Chess Training. He is reckoned to be the UK’s strongest correspondence chess player since Jonathan Penrose. Povah has one son, Jonathan Povah.
BCN remembers Henry Edward Bird who was born this day (July 14th) in 1830.
From Wikipedia :
Henry Edward Bird (Portsea in Hampshire, 14 July 1830 – 11 April 1908) was an English chess player, and also an author and accountant. He wrote a book titled Chess History and Reminiscences, and another titled An Analysis of Railways in the United Kingdom.
Although Bird was a practicing accountant, not a professional chess player, it has been said that he “lived for chess, and would play anybody anywhere, any time, under any conditions.”
At age 21, Bird was invited to the first international tournament, London 1851. He also participated in tournaments held in Vienna and New York City. In 1858 he lost a match to Paul Morphy at the age of 28, yet he played high-level chess for another 50 years. In the New York tournament of 1876, Bird received the first brilliancy prize ever awarded, for his game against James Mason.
In 1874 Bird proposed a new chess variant, which played on an 8×10 board and contained two new pieces: guard (combining the moves of the rook and knight) and equerry (combining the bishop and knight). Bird’s chess inspired José Raúl Capablanca to create another chess variant, Capablanca Chess, which differs from Bird’s chess only by the starting position.
It was Bird who popularized the chess opening now called Bird’s Opening (1.f4), as well as Bird’s Defense to the Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4). Bird’s Opening is considered sound, though not the best try for an opening advantage. Bird’s Defense is regarded as slightly inferior, but “trappy”.
BCN notes that 110 years ago today was born Baruch Harold Wood.
From Wikipedia :
Baruch Harold Wood MSc OBE (13 July 1909 – 4 April 1989), generally known as B. H. Wood, was an English chess player, editor and author. He was born in Sheffield, England.
Easy Guide to Chess
From Wikipedia :
Between 1938 and 1957, Wood won the championship of Warwickshire eight times. In 1939 he represented England at the Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires.[1][2] He won the tournaments at Baarn (1947), Paignton (1954), Whitby (1963), Tórshavn (1967) and Jersey (1975).[3] He tied for 4th–6th, scoring 5 points out of 9 games, at the 1948–49 Hastings Christmas Chess Congress, 1.5 points behind winner Nicolas Rossolimo.[4] In 1948, he tied for second place at the British Chess Championship held in London.[3] He won the British correspondence chess championship in 1944–45.[5]
Everybody Loves Wood
From Wikipedia :
In 1935, Wood founded the magazine CHESS, which became one of the two leading chess magazines in Great Britain.[6] He edited it until 1988, when it was taken over by Pergamon Press. Wood was the chess correspondent for the Daily Telegraph and The Illustrated London News.[3] From 1948 to February 1967, he was responsible for the chess column of the Birmingham Daily Post. He also wrote a popular and often reprinted book Easy Guide to Chess (Sutton Coldfield 1942),[3] described by Grandmaster Nigel Davies as “one of the best beginners books on the market”.[7] His other books include World Championship Candidates Tournament 1953 (Sutton Coldfield 1954)[3] and 100 Victorian Chess Problems (1972).
BH Wood
From Wikipedia :
From 1946 to 1951 he was a president of the ICCA, a forerunner organization of the International Correspondence Chess Federation. Wood was a FIDE Judge,[3] an international chess arbiter, and the joint founder of the Sutton Coldfield Chess Club. Wood represented England when it joined FIDE, the world chess federation. He was longtime President of the British Schools Chess Association and also of the British Universities Chess Association.
From Wikipedia :
Wood’s daughter Margaret (Peggy) Clarke won the British Girls’ Championship in 1952, 1955, and 1956, and was the joint British Ladies’ Champion in 1966.[8] Her husband Peter Clarke was a full-time chess player and writer, who finished second in the British Chess Championship five times, represented England in the Chess Olympiads seven times, wrote five chess books, and was the Games Editor of the British Chess Magazine.[9] Wood’s sons Christopher, Frank and Philip are also strong chess players.
BCN sends IM Robert Bellin best wishes on his birthday, this day (the 30th of June) in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
Robert was awarded the IM title in 1977. He was outright British Champion in 1979 in Chester having tied first equal (with six others) in 1974 in Clacton. The play-off was won by George Botterill.
His best international success was in 1981 in Shanghai coming clear first overall.
Robert is married to WGM Dr. Jana Bellin and they have two sons.
BCN wishes FIDE Master Bernard Cafferty best wishes on his birthday, June 27th in 1934.
From Wikipedia :
Bernard Cafferty (born 27 June 1934 in Blackburn, Lancashire) is an English chess master, columnist, writer, magazine editor and translator.
Cafferty was one of the leading English chess players of the late 1950s and 1960s, ranking amongst the top ten players in 1959 and 1960 (2b on the old grading scale which is equivalent to 217-224 on the present English Chess Federation grading scale). He was British Boys’ Champion in 1952 (jointly) and British Junior Champion in 1954.[1] He was British Correspondence Chess Champion in 1959/60 and won the British Lightning Championship (ten-seconds-a-move) in 1964 (jointly), 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969 and is the only player ever to have won this title on four successive occasions. He played on top board for Warwickshire in the English Counties Final of 1961 when his team beat Yorkshire. He played in every British Chess Championship between 1957 and 1971, beating Peter Clarke, Sir Stuart Milner-Barry and Gerald Abrahams on his debut. His best placing was in 1964 when he finished second equal with three other players behind Michael Haygarth. He reached a peak Elo rating of 2440 (in July 1971) and played internationally for England on several occasions, both at over the board and correspondence chess.
Originally from Blackburn in Lancashire, he went to Birmingham University in 1951 and was resident in the Midlands for many years as a student and later a school master, teaching Geography and, from 1964, Russian at St. Philip’s Grammar School in Birmingham. In 1981 he moved to Hastings to take up his post as general editor of British Chess Magazine. He stood down from the general editorship in 1991 but remained as associate editor of the magazine until 2011. He was chess columnist for the Sunday Times between 1983 and 1997, and for the Birmingham Evening Mail from 1967 to around 2002.
Cafferty has for many years been in demand in the chess world for his profound knowledge of (and passionate interest in) the Russian language and he has translated several books from Russian to English. He has produced translations of Botvinnik’s Best Games 1947-70 and the Soviet world champion’s autobiography (Achieving the Aim) as well as collections of the best games of Mikhail Tal and Boris Spassky. Perhaps the most notable of his translations was Alexander Kotov’s Think Like a Grandmaster (Batsford, 1971), a book which is sometimes associated with the major upsurge in the quality of competitive chess in the UK in the 1970s. For ‘The Chess Player’ publisher, he translated two books by Lisitsin (extracted from his 1958 work Strategiya i Taktika Shakhmat) (both 1976) and Sokolsky’s Pawns in Action (1976) and co-authored (with Tony Gillam) Chess with the Masters (1977).
He became less active as a player from the early 1970s but he acted as second to Tony Miles when Miles won the 1974 World Junior Chess Championship in Manila, Philippines. Miles remains the only British player to have won this title to date (2012).
He has for many years been a member of Hastings Chess Club and was president of the club from 1999 to 2009. He won the Hastings club championship in 1994 and 2001 and was joint winner in 1995 and 1996. He won the Sussex Chess Championship in 1996 and 2003.
Jovanka Houska is an English chess player with the titles International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She is an eight-time winner of the British Women’s Chess Championship.
Dharshan Kumaran (born 7 June 1975) is an English chess grandmaster.[1] He won the World Under-12 Championship in 1986, the World Under-16 Championship in 1991, and finished 3rd equal in the World Under-20 Championship in 1994. He currently works as a neuroscience research scientist at DeepMind.[2]
GM Dharshan Kumaran
Coming soon to your sixty four squares !
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