2024, 4NCL, Birthday, British Championships, Players, Writers

Happy Birthday GM Ravi Haria (07-ii-1999)

February 7, 2021 John Upham 7 Comments

BCN sends birthday wishes to GM Ravi Haria. Ravi is England’s youngest grandmaster at 25 and the first since Daniel Fernandez in 2017.

Ravi Haria was born Sunday, February 7th, 1999 in Elstree, Hertfordshire. “Maria” by Blondie was top of the hit parade. Ravi currently resides in London.

Ravi attended Lyonsdown School in Barnet and then The Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School and now reads History at University College, London.

Ravi learnt at the age of 6 and joined Barnet Knights Chess Club in 2005. His first chess teacher was Angela Eyton who taught him the moves and Angela was followed by Tony Niccoli and then Julian Meszoras on his ascent of the chess ladder.

Ravi’s first recorded tournament was the 35th Barnet Knights Under-8 rapidplay on September 25th 2005. Also playing of note were Jonathan Pein and Isaac Sanders.

His first recorded standard play game was in the London Junior Under-10 Championships on December 9th 2006.

By the time he was eight he had attracted the attention of the England selectors and played in the 2008 Commonwealth Championships in New Delhi coming home with a bronze medal.

Ravi aged 8 photographed by The Borehamwood and Elstree Times in January 2008

Ravi aged 9 photographed by The Borehamwood and Elstree Times in August 2008

In 2008 Ravi won the British Under-9 title in Liverpool. He said afterwards:

It was quite nice to be leading everyone and I felt proud of myself. I’m not sure how I control my nerves but it feels really good to win.

His mother Sona said:

It’s a bit overwhelming but we just support him. It means you have to give up a lot of time for him but it’s really nice to see that he’s getting somewhere.

This was followed in 2014 by winning the British Under-18 championship in Aberystwyth aged 15 and then the same title in 2017 in Llandudno.

Ravi Haria, UKCC Southern Gigafinal, 2013

In 2016 Ravi was equal 2nd to Deep Sengupta at the Hastings Masters Open with an impressive 6/9 and a TPR of 2563. This performance secured his second IM norm.

The IM title was conferred at the 88th FIDE Congress 2017, 7-15 October, Goynuk, Antalya, Turkey.

He scored six points after 11 rounds at the 2017 World Junior championship in Italy and 5.5 points at the 2017 WYCC U-18 group in Uruguay.

Ravi completed his British junior titles run by becoming the current (no OTB event in 2020) British Under-21 champion in 2019 in Torquay scoring an emphatic 6.5/9 securing a share of third place.

Partial crosstable for the 2019 British Championships in Torquay

Ravi became a FIDE Master in 2015 at the age of 16 and and International Master two years later making him England’s second youngest IM after Matthew Wadsworth.

OTB Elo rating profile for IM Ravi Haria according to MegaBase 2020

His peak FIDE rating was 2497 in October 2021 and currently (February 2022) is 2490.

In 2019 Ravi teamed up with IM Adam C. Taylor to join Adam’s Making Grandmasters training venture.

FM Ravi Haria, ECF Secondary Schools Rapidplay, 2016

On January 28th 2021 Thinker’s Publishing released The Modernised Anti-Sicilians, Volume 1, Rossolimo Variation which is a massive 520 page tome on the following position :

which was reviewed by FM Richard Webb.

which we hope will be followed by at least Volume 2!

The Modernized Anti-Sicilians - Volume 1: Rossolimo Variation, Ravi Haria, Thinker's Publishing, 2021 — The Modernized Anti-Sicilians – Volume 1: Rossolimo Variation, Ravi Haria, Thinker’s Publishing, 2021

Ravi has plus scores against : Matthew Turner, Simon Williams, William Claridge Hansen, Bob Eames, David Eggleston and Arul Gupta to name but a few.

GM John Emms plays IM Ravi Haria in the final round of the 2019 British Championships in Torquay

With the white pieces Ravi unsurprisingly plays the Moscow and Rossolimo variations against the Sicilian, the Ruy Lopez and, in recent years, he has adopted the Reti/English complex.

As the second player he plays the French Winawer and (refreshingly) the Abrahams-Noteboom Variation of the Semi-Slav.

For your entertainment we have these two brevities :

and

Ravi has played for University College London. Hendon and Cavendish in the London and other leagues and in 4NCL he started with Kings Head, transferring to Cambridge in 2014 and finally moving in 2016 to Wood Green.

In this game Ravi punishes IM Malcolm Pein who has a bad day at the office :

Ravi Haria, British Championships, 2014, Aberystwyth

Ravi is Mesutgm on chess.com and lichess

Over the 19th – 23rd August 2021 Ravi played in the Wood Green Invitational round-robin event at Oddfellows Hall, Stafford.

Ravi scored 7.5/10 and secured his second Grandmaster Norm and a TPR of 2680.

Wood Green Invitational Round-Robin event at Oddfellows Hall, Stafford. August Bank Holiday Weekend, 2021

Over the August Bank Holiday weekend of 2021 Ravi played in the Northumbrian Masters GM Tournament at the splendid Marriott MetroCentre, Gateshead winning jointly with Conor Murphy scoring 6.5/9 with a TPR of 2600. This gave Ravi his third and final GM norm.

The norm was ratified at a recent FIDE Congress. As of February 2022 Ravi stood at 2490 for standard-play.

2024, Biographies, Birthday, Historian, Journalism, Player, Players, Writers

Happy Birthday FM Jimmy Adams (07-ii-1947)

February 7, 2021 John Upham Leave a comment

BCN sends Birthday wishes to FM Jimmy Adams

James Bernard Adams was born on Friday, February 7th, 1947 to James Adams and Ivy F Soule in Islington, London. He attended Highbury County Grammar School for Boys.

Jimmy was married to Sharon and they have a daughter, Charlotte.

In 1958 Jimmy at the age of 11 joined his local Islington Chess Club (at the time Islington & North London Chess Club) and soon afterwards became a London Junior Champion. Following this Jimmy played little chess and was working for John Lewis (echoes of CHO’D Alexander and Leonard Barden). Following John Lewis Jimmy worked as a Health and Safety Officer for Islington Council.

At this time Islington Chess Club was one of the strongest in England and included such members as Kenny Harman, Ron Harman, Danny Wright, Stewart Reuben and others. Its most famous member was probably IM Simon Webb

The Spassky-Fischer match of 1972 re-kindled his lapsed interest and he won with a 100% score the London Amateur Championship.

He joined and was a staunch member of London Central YMCA (CENTYMCA) chess club and he wrote a privately published history of the club entitled The CENTYMCA Story. This is now a much sought after publication. His membership continued during the 1970s until around 1979.

During this period Jimmy was extremely active at the Endell Street premises.

Here is Jimmy playing Viktor Korchnoi at Endell Street (in the Phase Two classrooms) :

Jimmy plays Viktor Korchnoi at the Endell Street premises of London Central YMCA on January 18th, 1976. Photographer potentially John Yeo

In 1974 Jimmy embarked on a highly successful career as a writer and journalist. He contributed articles to both CHESS and the British Chess Magazine and authored a number of acclaimed books for Batsford, The Chess Player, Caissa Books and latterly, New in Chess. He also self-published the first book on Bobby Fischer’s successor entitled K is for Karpov! His books on Chigorin, Zukertort and Breyer are universally regarded as some of the finest chess biographies published.

In 1979 Jimmy joined Metropolitan Chess Club to play in the London League A Division. He played top board and scored very highly with many significant scalps.

Jimmy gained his FM title in 2014 (at the age of 67!). 67 must be one of the most advanced ages to acquire an FM title. According to Felice his peak rating was 2300 in January 1981 aged 34.

He joined Metropolitan Chess Club. He joined Barbican, as did many other CENTYMCA players, following the hiatus over their Tottenham Court Road venue loss.

Jimmy records a game between David Howell and Andrew Whiteley in 2000.

In December 2009 Jimmy visited the London Chess Classic and was photographed with VIP guest Viktor Korchnoi :

Viktor Korchnoi in conversation with Jimmy Adams at the 2009 London Chess Classic. Photograph by Mark Huba

Jimmy was Editor of Middlesex Chessletter and Bayswater Chess in the early 1970s and produced major bulletins on the hugely successful Islington Congresses of the same period. He then worked for Pergamon Chess Books which led to his editorship of CHESS / CHESS Monthly magazine from until 2010 although his name remained on the masthead until February 2012.

In 2012 Jimmy and Ray Cannon attended a meeting of the Ken Whyld Association in Norwich :

Jimmy Adams and Michael Negele at the 2012 meeting of the Ken Whyld Association

Jimmy and Ray Cannon at a 2012 meeting in Norwich of the Ken Whyld Association

In January 2016 Jimmy (together with Josip Asik) became co-editors of British Chess Magazine taking over from James Pratt and John Upham.
Jimmy also jointly edited Chess Informants 109-132 up to 2017 before taking on the role of Deputy Editor of the newly created American Chess Magazine whilst continuing to work as editor for Batsford Chess which had changed ownership over the years and had now been taken under the umbrella of Pavillion Books.

In 2014 Jimmy and Ray attended an event organised by the father of Emma Bentley