Best wishes to IM Gary M Quillan on his birthday, this day (November 7th) in 1970.
All posts by John Upham
Congratulations FM -> IM (nearly) Marcus Harvey !
Congratulations are in order for Witney based Southampton Unversity student FM Marcus Harvey who obtained his second International Master norm at the recent Hull 4NCL International Congress by scoring 4.5/9 with wins over IM Andrew Greet and IM Richard Palliser. Marcus plays for 4NCL Wood Green.
Happy Birthday IM Chris Beaumont (28-x-1952)
Louis Paulsen : A chess biography with 719 games
Here from the massively loved publisher from the US comes yet another historical chess book, this time about a player best known in thought and word but not, as things stood before publication, deed. Golombek (1981) gives him half-a-page, Whyld/Hooper (1996) just over a page and Sunnucks (1976) less than two pages, with no photo or game at all; Whyld/Hooper manage a game but without notes.
This is the third McFarland work from the growing reputation of Belgian FIDE Master, Hans Renette starting with H.E. Bird: A Chess Biography with 1,198 Games and 2016 and following up with Neumann, Hirschfeld and Suhle which were both exquisite productions.
Louis Paulsen’s (1833-1891) tombstone is shown in this massive tome, a modest tribute to a most gifted and far seeing chess master, his innovations in the Leningrad Dutch and Sicilian still, one hopes, ringing down the ages. Did time stand still for a player unfettered by use of a chess clock? Certainly Paulsen attracted criticism for the slowness of his moves but, in retrospect, they were (of course!) worth waiting for.
This massive collection includes friendly games, contemporary comments, photographs, line drawings, blindfold clashes, simul encounters, any number of Evans’ and King’s Gambits. At random, I select 1862 when Paulsen drew a match 4-4 with Anderssen himself, a photo from the late Lothar Schmid’s massive archive supplies a little colour. Same year, Louis comes 2nd= with John Owen with both masters outdistancing even Steinitz, who was yet to find his (World Championship) form.
CHESS & BRIDGE have been offering this book for nearly sixty pounds and copies, believe me, won’t hang around. An investment.
So, in sum, a wonderfully produced record with no detail spared and every stone turned, dated, displayed. I have run out of superlatives.
With thanks to Olimpiu G Urcan for his corrections.
James Pratt, Basingstoke, October, 2019
Book Details :
- Hardcover : 441 pages
- Publisher: McFarland (2019)
- Language: English
- ISBN (print) 1476671958
- ISBN (ebook) 978-1476671956
- Product Dimensions 22.2 x 3.2 x 28.6 cm
Official web site of www.mcfarlandpub.com
Luke McShane is Chess Columnist for The Spectator
Luke McShane has made a welcome return to chess journalism as the columnist for The Spectator. At fifteen Luke provided a regular column for The Express on Sunday and, until recently, was a busy full-time trader at Goldman Sachs.
The first chess columnist for The Spectator was Conel Hugh O’Donnell Alexander who was followed by Raymond Keene who “retired” in 2019.
Luke’s most recent article may be found here.
We look forward to original and interesting articles from Luke !
Happy Birthday FM Simon Brown (14-x-1960)
Happy Birthday WFM Sarah Longson (née Hegarty) (02-x-1988)
We send best wishes to WFM Sarah Natasha Longson (née Hegarty) on her birthday this day, (October 2nd) in 1988.
From Sarah’s web site:
“I have played competitive chess since the age of 7 when I became UK U7 Girls Chess Champion and appeared on Blue Peter where I met the then world champion Garry Kasparov. Since then I have represented England in many international competitions and in 2013 won the British Ladies Championship.”
In 2016 Sarah and partner FM Alex Longson made a successful bid for ownership of the UK Chess Challenge which was auctioned by the bankruptcy receiver of IM Mike Basman, the previous owner.
Sarah and Alex have modernised the UKCC considerably especially in the areas of communications an usage of IT.
According to the ECF Sarah’s nominal club is Marple but she also plays for Stockport and 4NCL 3Cs.
Best Wishes Richard Kenneth Guy
We send best wishes to Richard Kenneth Guy on his 102nd birthday, this day (September 30th) in 1916
From Wikipedia :
Richard Kenneth Guy (born 30 September 1916) is a British mathematician and professor emeritus in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Calgary.[1] He is known for his work in number theory, geometry, recreational mathematics, combinatorics, and graph theory.[2][3] He is best known for co-authorship (with John Conway and Elwyn Berlekamp) of Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays and authorship of Unsolved Problems in Number Theory.[4] He has also published over 300 papers.[5] Guy proposed the partially tongue-in-cheek “Strong Law of Small Numbers,” which says there are not enough small integers available for the many tasks assigned to them – thus explaining many coincidences and patterns found among numerous cultures.[6] For this paper he received the MAA Lester R. Ford Award.[7]
From 1947 to 1951 Guy was the endings editor for the British Chess Magazine.[40] He is known for almost 200 endgame studies. Along with Hugh Blandford and John Roycroft, he is one of the inventors of the GBR code (Guy–Blandford–Roycroft code), a system of representing the position of chess pieces on a chessboard. Publications such as EG magazine use it to classify endgame types and to index endgame studies.[41]
Third Keith Richardson Memorial : September 14th 2019
A glorious Saturday (the 14th) in September was the date and Camberley Baptist Church was the location of the third tournament in memory of correspondence Grandmaster Keith Bevan Richardson.
A field of thirty-two gathered at the home (since 1982) of Camberley Chess Club for a six round rapid-play event (R20′ + 10″) that was free to enter raising money by donations to The Cure Parkinson’s Trust. Players were invited to choose books from Keith’s library
and donate to charity in return.
Top seed was recently qualified IM Adam C Taylor (ECF230)
whose chances were dented by losing in round 4 to Clive Frostick (Farnham) who, like Keith, was a highly successful correspondence player (a SIM : Senior International Master)
Other pre-tournament favourites were FM Andrew P Smith (IRE and Bourne End)
and FM Richard M Webb (Crowthorne)
along with WFM Louise Head (Crowthorne)
Following three rounds we stopped for lunch (in some cases liquid only) and on 100% were Adam, Clive and Andrew so round four could well be a key decider. Clive beat Adam with the white pieces whereas Andrew and Richard drew a hard fought Sicilian Dragon. In round five Clive breathed a sigh of relief to survive a “dodgy” position against Colin Purdon in one of the candidate games for the “Best Swindle” Prize.
The drama continued into the final round as Adam beat strong junior Ranesh Ratnesan
and everything hinged on Clive’s game with Richard Webb. After a long and interesting struggle the game was drawn and the tournament was decided.
The award for Best U-150 player went to rapidly improving Jessica Mellor (Guildford)
the award for Best Junior went to Radesh Ratnesan (Surbiton)
and the title of Camberley Chess Club Champion (highest placed local player) went to Colin Purdon
In overall first place with 5.5/6 was Clive Frostick :
The event collected more than £300 for the Cure Parkinson’s Trust and we are sure Keith was looking down from above and was pleased with what he observed.
Past Winners of Keith Richardson Memorial :
2017 : Julien Shepley
2018 : Ken Norman
2019 : Clive Frostick
Full results may be found from UTU Swiss
Camberley Chess Club would like to thank :
Camberley Baptist Church, Berkshire Junior Chess Association, Ken Coates and Christine Coates.
The organiser was John Upham.
British Blitz Championship Qualifier : Bristol
Sixty-four (!) players entered the South-West qualifier for the British Blitz Championship 2019 held at Bristol Grammar School for a fifteen round tournament employing a 3′ + 2″ FIDE approved time control.
The entry was headed by GM Matthew Turner (SCO) scoring 13.5/15 and gaining a mere 8.8 FIDE Blitz rating points drawing quickly with Keith Arkell and losing to FM Lewis Martin (ENG).
Paignton based “local” GM Keith Arkell (ENG) took runner-up spot with 12/15 losing 15 rating points having drawn with Lewis Martin but losing to in-form IM James Cobb (WLS) and IM Malcolm Pein (ENG). Malcolm’s son Jonathan elected to play in the much weaker Belfast qualifier which was probably a good move.
Highest placed lady player (and therefore qualifier) on 8.5/15 was University of Warwick student and reigning English Ladies Champion, WFM Louise Head (ENG) who was supported by her Crowthorne team mates FM Richard Webb, Colin Purdon and Mark Taylor.
Surprise performance (perhaps?) was from FM Lewis Martin (title awarded in 2018) who beat Matthew Turner, Malcolm Pein, Richard Webb and Louise Head of the titled players to earn a 64.8 rating increase.
Full results may be found at Chess Results . com