BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//British Chess News - ECPv6.17.3.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:British Chess News X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://britishchessnews.com X-WR-CALDESC:Events for British Chess News REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:UTC BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:UTC DTSTART:20190101T000000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200815 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200816 DTSTAMP:20210812T112913Z CREATED:20200411T124913Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210812T112913Z UID:4422-1597449600-1597535999@britishchessnews.com SUMMARY:Birthday of IM John Pigott (15-viii-1957) DESCRIPTION:BCN wishes IM John Pigott all the best on his birthday (15-viii-1957) \nJohn Christopher Pigott was born in Croydon\, Surrey and his mother’s maiden name was Fletcher. \nIn 1975 John was selected by the BCF junior selectors and travelled with Jonathan Speelman and Peter J Lee (Hampshire) to the 8th Biel International Open in Switzerland. Leonard Barden wrote in the October 1975 British Chess Magazine (the cover was of Geller and Smyslov) : \n“17-year-old John Pigott’s 8.5/11 included wins against IM Kluger\, IM Messing and the 1975 Budapest Champion Rajna and earned him 2\,000 Swiss francs in prize money. The three English juniors who competed\, Pigott\, Speelman and Lee were chosen by the BCF junior selectors and travelled to Switzerland with the help of grant from the Slater Foundation and the London Chess Club.” \n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization. \n \n \n \n\n\n \n\nJohn represented England at the 1975 Anglo-Dutch match (25th and 26th of October) scoring 0.5/2 versus Paul van der Sterren. The game scores appear to either have been lost on not recorded. \n\nIn 1976 John scored 4.5/5 in the Surrey Open and shared the 3rd\, 4th and 5th prize. \nThe caption is in the photograph below\nThe caption is in the photograph above\nJohn became a FIDE Master in 1984 and an International Master in 2017\, a gap of some 33 years! \nJohn plays for Little Heath\, 4NCL Barbican\, Hon Members LCCL and King’s Head chess clubs. \nAfter a sojourn from chess John returned to the ECF grading list in January 2015 with a grading of 269F attracting some attention. \nHis highest FIDE rating was 2419 in February 2018 at the age of 61. \nWith the white pieces John plays the Queen’s Gambit and the Giuoco Piano. \nAs the second player John enjoys the Sicilian Najdorf and the Nimzo Indian Defence. \nJon Speelman’s Agony Column #40 \n\n Save as PDF URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-fm-john-christopher-pigott-15-viii-1957/ CATEGORIES:Birthday,Player ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/49460423371_c7279152fb_b.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200815 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200816 DTSTAMP:20260811T102336Z CREATED:20200411T181253Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260811T102336Z UID:4474-1597449600-1597535999@britishchessnews.com SUMMARY:Birthday of FM Andrew Smith (15-viii-1959) DESCRIPTION:BCN wishes Happy Birthday to FM Andrew Smith (15-viii-1959) \nAndrew became a FIDE Master in 1994 and is registered with the Irish Chess Union. \nHis highest FIDE rating was 2310 in July 1994 at the age of 35. \nFM Andrew Smith\, photographer unknown\nHe plays for Bourne End Chess Club in the Buckinghamshire League and in the Berkshire League. \nAndrew also plays for 4NCL Barnet Knights (he has played for Atticus)\, Buckinghamshire CCA in the Chiltern League and Hon Members LCCL. \nHe has won the Berks & Bucks Congress in 2018 and 2016 (joint) and he became Berkshire Individual Champion as a direct consequence winning the Cadogan Cup. \nWith the white pieces Andrew is (almost) exclusively a 1.e4 player favouring the Centre Game \nand as the second player Andrew plays the Philidor Defence and the Benoni. \nHe is known to favour “enterprising” variations such as the Mason Variation of the Philidor\, the Haldane Attack versus the French and other such exotica. \nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXXII (132)\, Number 7 (July) front cover features FM Andrew Smith from the final 4NCL weekend of the 2011-2012 season\, courtesy of John Upham Photography\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization. \n \n \n \n\n\n \n\nFM Andrew Smith at the 2019 Keith Richardson Memorial\, courtesy of John Upham Photography\n Save as PDF URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-fm-andrew-p-smith-15-viii-1959/ CATEGORIES:4NCL,Birthday,British Championships,Player,Writer ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/bct_4670_lv.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200815 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200816 DTSTAMP:20210812T113438Z CREATED:20200811T171953Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210812T113438Z UID:8425-1597449600-1597535999@britishchessnews.com SUMMARY:Birthday of Peter Griffiths (15-viii-1946) DESCRIPTION:BCN sends Happy birthday wishes to Peter Griffiths \nPeter Charles Griffiths was born on Thursday\, August 15th\, in 1946 in Birmingham\, Warwickshire. His mother’s maiden name was Ward. \nPeter was a strong player active from the 1960s until 1989. He played in the British Championships more than once and was a professional coach and writer. He wrote the column “Practical Chess Endings” which appeared in the British Chess Magazine. The column commenced in the December 1972 issue and columns became less frequent until around 1991. \nPeter Griffiths (far left)\nHe wrote Exploring the Endgame \nExploring the Endgame\nand co-authored Secrets of Grandmaster Play with John Nunn. \nSecrets of Grandmaster Play\nand wrote Improving Your Chess \nImproving Your Chess\nand Better Chess for Club Players \nBetter Chess for Club Players\nPeter Griffiths (far left)\n Save as PDF URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-peter-griffiths-15-viii-1946/ CATEGORIES:Arbiter,Birthday,Endgame,History,Writer ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://britishchessnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/gfa.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR