We send best wishes to Michael & Jean (née Fey) Franklin, married sixty years ago this day, June 18th in 1960.

[pgn]
[Event “Ilford Whitsun Congress”]
[Site “Ilford”]
[Date “1963.06.03”]
[Round “5”]
[White “Franklin, Michael John”]
[Black “Wheatcroft, Timothy Martin”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B28”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “59”]
[EventDate “1963.05.31”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “5”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]

{[%evp 0,59,19,38,40,41,87,26,15,1,54,32,47,27,19,26,31,-3,-12,-10,3,-10,-14,
-27,22,29,58,-22,-2,-15,-2,-11,1,19,9,-3,54,26,-15,40,140,135,161,149,173,170,
170,181,193,190,190,204,212,100,140,145,421,502,535,563,563,563]} 1. e4 c5 2.
Nf3 a6 3. g3 Nc6 4. d3 e6 5. Bg2 d5 6. Nbd2 Nf6 7. O-O Be7 8. e5 Nd7 9. Re1 Qc7
10. Qe2 b5 11. Nf1 Nd4 $6 $146 (11… Bb7) 12. Nxd4 cxd4 13. Bf4 (13. Qg4)
13… Bb7 14. h4 Rc8 15. Rec1 Qb8 16. Nh2 O-O 17. h5 Rc7 18. Qg4 Rfc8 19. Nf3
$14 Nf8 $6 20. Nxd4 (20. Bh6 g6 21. Nxd4) 20… Bc5 21. c3 (21. Bh6 g6 22. c3)
21… Qa7 22. Be3 (22. Bh6) 22… b4 23. Rf1 bxc3 24. bxc3 Qa8 25. Rab1 $1 Ba7
26. f4 (26. Bg5 Rxc3 27. Bf6) 26… Rxc3 27. f5 {[#]} Rxd3 $2 (27… Bxd4 28.
Bxd4 exf5 29. Qxf5 R3c7) 28. f6 $1 $18 g6 29. Qg5 Bxd4 30. Bxd4 {and it is
mate in 6.} 1-0
[/pgn]

Michael played for a number of clubs in recent years, viz :

Richmond & Twickenham
Coulsdon CF
Surrey CCA
4NCL Richmond
4NCL Bristol
Richards Butler

Michael became a FIDE Master in 1980 and achieved his highest rating in the Elo era of 2345 in January 1979.

[pgn]
[Event “Ilford Premier”]
[Site “Ilford”]
[Date “1956.??.??”]
[Round “2”]
[White “Franklin, Michael J”]
[Black “Fazekas, Stefan”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “D05”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “71”]
[EventDate “1956.??.??”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “5”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 1999”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,71,19,29,23,13,18,9,19,19,73,74,51,27,109,65,65,54,52,42,71,53,33,47,
51,42,43,28,63,60,48,48,38,59,57,23,23,18,20,11,35,59,114,88,107,98,113,114,
140,138,138,162,172,137,143,127,124,143,187,125,239,24,331,334,334,428,440,466,
29987,29988,29989,957,977,977]} 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 e6 3. e3 d5 4. Bd3 Ne4 5. Nbd2
f5 6. Ne5 Qf6 7. O-O Bd6 $146 8. f4 O-O 9. c4 c6 (9… c5) 10. Qh5 g6 11. Qh3
c5 12. Ndf3 Nc6 13. b3 a5 14. Bb2 cxd4 15. Nxc6 (15. Bxe4 dxe4 16. Nxc6 bxc6
17. Bxd4 Qe7 18. Ng5) 15… bxc6 16. Bxd4 Qe7 17. Bxe4 fxe4 18. Ne5 c5 19. Bc3
a4 20. Qh6 (20. Qg3 $1) 20… d4 21. exd4 Bxe5 $2 22. fxe5 Bb7 23. Qe3 $1 axb3
24. axb3 Rfd8 25. Rxa8 Bxa8 26. Ra1 Bc6 27. Rd1 Qa7 28. Qg5 (28. h3) 28… Rf8
29. d5 (29. Qe3) 29… exd5 30. cxd5 Bxd5 $2 31. e6 $1 $18 Qa2 32. h3 Qf2+ 33.
Kh1 Qf5 34. Qe7 Rf7 35. Qxf7+ Qxf7 36. exf7+ 1-0
[/pgn]

We are grateful to Leonard Barden for these words produced at short notice :

“Michael made his name as a young player first by his successes in the Saturday evening Gambit Guinea speed events at the Gambit chess cafe in Cannon Street which he often won ahead of master level rivals. He remained a strong speed player all his life.

Aaronson Masters at Harrow 1978, was his best individual success, sharing first place with IM Aldo Haik of France with (I think) an IM norm.

Michael was a regular British championship, Surrey, Hastings and London League player (forget club, Richmond? Clapham Common?) and was one of the first to play the London System (d4/Bf4) as as his regular opening with white.

[fen]rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/3P1B2/2PBPN2/PP1N1PPP/R2Q1RK1 b KQkq – 0 1[/fen]

He also had success as Black with the O’Kelly Sicilian 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 a6.

[fen]rnbqkbnr/1p1ppppp/p7/2p5/4P3/5N2/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq – 0 1[/fen]

When Surrey won the counties championship a few years back they took the trophy specially to Michael’s home in Norbury, such was their regard.

Michael’s work career was in the Patent Office and he retired when they introduced computers as he doesn’t like them and does not use the internet at all.”