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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200627
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DTSTAMP:20260817T141140Z
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SUMMARY:Death Anniversary for Vera Menchik (16-ii-1906 27-vi-1944)
DESCRIPTION:A Great Life with a Tragic Ending\nFew people know the story of Vera Menchik yet it deserves to be told. She was the first women’s world chess champion in 1927 and retained the title undefeated until her untimely death at the age of 38 in 1944 during a rocket attack on London.  She is more properly compared with the great male players of her era against whom she scored creditably. The absence of a full biography of Vera in English reflects the peculiar circumstances of her life and death. \nVera was\, in modern terminology\, a refugee and essentially a stateless person for much of her life. She was born in Moscow in 1906 during the period of the Russian Empire to an expatriate family who was forced to flee when she was 15 following the Russian Revolution having lost their livelihood.  As they passed through Europe\, her father and mother split up in his homeland Czechoslovakia which had been created out of the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian empire. She arrived in England and took up residence in the seaside town of Hastings. (The fact that Hastings had hosted the world’s longest series of annual chess tournaments since 1895 was a happy coincidence.) Vera never attained British nationality until near the end of her life even though she had been domiciled in England from 1921. She won the first-ever Women’s World Championships held in London in 1927 under a Russian flag; thereafter she nominally represented Czechoslovakia until finally she represented England in 1939 following her marriage to a senior official within the British Chess Federation. \nVera’s grandfather was Arthur Illingworth\, a wealthy trader from Lancashire who had set up business in Moscow where his Anglo-Russian daughter Olga married František Menčik. He was a successful estate manager. Vera learned chess from her father and performed well at school. Her younger sister Olga was also a good chess player and the sisters remained close throughout their lives. \nVera was a woman in a man’s world – she had to struggle harder to achieve the kind of recognition which was accorded to men. She appeared like a comet in the sky and it would be many years until other women were able to reach her level. At her first major international tournament at Karlsbad in 1929\, she was the only female participant in a tournament of 22 great players. Even as women’s world champion\, some of the male players objected to her participation.  The Viennese master Albert Becker joked that anybody who lost to her should belong to the Vera Menchik Club. By an irony of history\, he became its first member losing to her in the third round. She beat many other grandmasters during her career including the Dutchman Max Euwe in 1930 and 1931 (both at Hastings) who was to become world champion in 1935. \nAlthough she is often portrayed as being Russian or Czech or latterly British\, she was a true cosmopolitan. She knew that life could be unstable in any country. She had lived through the Russian Revolution; one parent was left behind in Czechoslovakia; she had moved westwards across Europe and embraced different cultures and languages at formative stages of her life. It is no wonder that she learned also to speak Esperanto which was designated to be the world’s lingua franca before English achieved its dominance. As a leading chess player\, she travelled back to Moscow and to Czechoslovakia several times as well as to South America for her final match to retain the women’s world champion title in 1939. She needed to be self-sufficient and was obtained roles as the games editor of a chess magazine as well as being appointed the manager of the National Chess Centre in Oxford Street which was destroyed during the Blitz in 1940. \nShe survived most of the war and now a widow moved in with her mother and sister to a house in south London.  They took the precaution of going down to the cellar during bombing raids. Tragically the house received a direct hit from a flying bomb and the entire family was wiped out. Hardly any of her possessions remained save for one dented trophy. The records at the national chess centre were destroyed as were her personal effects including her chess memorabilia. At least there remains a record of the moves played in her games which serve as testimony to her remarkable career as not only the first women’s world chess champion but also a woman who broke boundaries wherever she went and demonstrated that a woman is capable of standing on her own feet professionally and leading a full and eventful life. \nThe Bomb Attack \nBCN remembers that in the early morning of Tuesday\, June 27th\, 1944 (i.e. 77 years ago) Vera Menchik\, her sister Olga\, and their mother were killed in a V-1 flying bomb attack which destroyed their home at 47 Gauden Road in the Clapham area of South London. \nWe now know that the V1 in question landed at 00:20 hrs on the 27th and led to the death of a total of 11 people including the Menchik household. Here is a summary of recorded V1 and V2 landings in the Clapham\, SW4 area. \n47\, Gauden Road\, Clapham\, SW4 6LW in more modern times.\nAll three were cremated at the Streatham Park Crematorium on 4 July 1944. Vera was 38 years old. \nSignature of Vera Menchik from a Brian Reilly “after dinner” postcard from Margate 1936.\nVera’s Parents and Sister\nVera Frantsevna Menchik (or Věra Menčíková) was born in Moscow on Friday\, 16th February\, 1906. Her father was František Menčik\, was born in Bystrá nad Jizerou\, Bohemia. František and Olga were married on June  23rd 1905 in Moscow and notice of this marriage appeared in British newspapers on July 22nd 1905.  Vera’s sister was Olga Rubery (née Menchik) and she was born in Moscow in 1908. Olga Menchik married Clifford Glanville Rubery in 1938. Vera married Rufus Henry Streatfeild Stevenson on October 19th 1937. \nHer Maternal Roots\nOur interest in unearthing her maternal English heritage / roots has led to the following: \nHer mother was Olga (née Illingworth (1885 – 27 vi 1944). Olga’s  parents were Arthur Wellington Illingworth and Marie Illingworth (née ?). Arthur was born in October 1852 in the district of Salford\, Lancashire\, his parents were George Illingworth (1827-1887) and Alice Whewell (1828-1910).  \nIn the 1861 census Arthur is recorded as being of eight years of age and living in the Illingworth household. \nIn the 1871 census Arthur is recorded as being of eighteen years of age and living in the Illingworth household of nine persons at 5\, Lancaster Road\, Pendleton\, Lancashire. Arthur’s occupation is listed as being a merchants apprentice. In fact\, he was a stock and share broker. \nArthur died in Moscow on February 21st 1898. Probate was recorded in London on July 6th\, 1900 as follows: \nIllingworth Arthur Wellington of Moscow Russia merchant died 21st February 1898 Probate London 6th July to Walter Illingworth stock and share-broker Effects £4713 7s \n£4713 7s in 1898 equates roughly to £626\,600.00 in 2020 so it would appear that Arthur was considerably successful and almost certainly left money to Olga Illingworth. \nWhat do we conclude from all of this? Quite simply that Vera’s maternal roots were from Salford in Lancashire. \nBCM Announcement\nThe August 1944 British Chess Magazine (Volume LXIV\, Number 8\, page 173 onwards) contained this editorial  from Julius du Mont: \nJulius du Mont\, Editor of British Chess Magazine from 1940 to 1949\n“British Chess has suffered a grievous and irreparable loss in the death by enemy action of Mrs. R.H.S. Stevenson known through all the world where chess is played as Vera Menchik. \nWe give elsewhere (below : Ed.) an appreciation of this remarkable woman. Quite apart from her unique gifts as a chess-player-the world may never see her equal again among women players-she had many qualities which endeared her to all who knew her\, the greatest among them being here great-hearted generosity. \nWe sympathise with our contemporary “CHESS” : Vera Menchik was for some years their games editor. Few columns have been conducted with equal skill and efficiency and none\, we feel sure\, with a greater sense of responsibility. \nThe news of this remarkable tragedy will be received by the chess world with sorrow and with abhorrence of the wanton and useless robot methods of a robot people. \nOne shudders at the heritage of hatred which will be theirs\, but their greatest punishment will come with their own enlightenment.” \nBCM Contemporary Obituary from EGR Cordingley\nFrom page 178 of the same issue we have an obituary written by EGR Cordingley : \n“The death by enemy action of Miss Vera Menchik removes not only the greatest woman chess player of all times but a charming personality. \nThe world will remember her for her chess prowess\, for her exceptional skill as a woman player who had beaten in tournament play such gifted players as Euwe\, Sultan Khan\, Sir George Thomas\, Alexander and Yates. In such company\, and she played in several of the Hastings International tournaments and other of similar grade\, she usually obtained about 33%\, though in the Maribor tournament of 1934 she finished third\, behind Pirc and Steiner but ahead of Rejfir\, Spielmann\, Asztalos and Vidmar. \nHer game was characterised by solid position-play\, with the definite aim of bringing about a favourable end-game and of avoiding wild complications. The ordinary stratagems of the game\, small combinations and the like\, were of course part of her equipment\, but she lacked that imaginative\, inventive spirit without which few become really great players. \nIn recent times\, Reshesvky and Flohr (as a professional with a reputation to maintain and a living to earn) have shown that great success can be achieved by reducing the game to pure positional play\, the technique being firstly to build up a position devoid of weaknesses\, an ‘I can’t lose position\,’ and secondly to create and take advantage of the minutest weaknesses in the opponent’s camp\, a major weakness may show that imagination is not quite dead within. \nThis defect in her play was the inevitable reflection of her character: sound common-sense\, conscientious to an unusual degree\, and persevering\, while she had the combative\, tenacious nature so desirable and so often found in good chess players; for chess is battle of wits\, the fight is what most of use love in chess. Vera was\, seldom assertive\, a fault not uncommon in chess players. She sat placidly at the chess board\, never causing even mild irritation by any of those nervous mannerisms that may always be seen in any chess room\, the peripatetic fever being the most prominent. A slight flush would rise when the position grew difficult\, or when she was short of time on her clock – and that was recurrent according to the time-limit. \nAway from the chessboard show would readily talk of other subjects\, and her great interest was in persons\, in their actions and behaviour under the strain and stress of the unruly passions; in the moulding of their lives under the inscrutable dictates of chance; in the twists and turns of a mind warped perhaps by a casual incident long ago. Of course\, she was a pagan\, a thinking one\, who had asked and asked and found only the answer that reasoning gave. She judged kindly and never inflicted upon others her own opinions or beliefs: she asked only that these should be heard as one side of any argument\, for she enjoyed a dialectic bout. \nA delightful side to her character was her simple sense of humour\, and I remember so clearly her pleasure – glee would describe it more eloquently – when I gave her the punctuation necessary to make sense of that ludicrous collection of words\, ‘Jones where Brown had had had had had had had had had had had the master’s approval’ Anyone who knew her only at the chessboard would have been astonished at the amount of bubbling merriment she discovered of of life’s events. \nI shall remember her more for the woman as I knew her over many cups of coffee spread over many\, many weeks – complacent\, smiling\, and kindly; conscientious\, loyal\, and sincere; as I understand the word\, a Christian who would help any deserving person as best she could. E. G. R. C. \n”\nand here is the original article as printed: \nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume LXIV (1944)\, Number 8\, August\, Page 178\nBCM 1958 Appreciation by Peter Clarke\nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXVIII (128\, 1958)\, Number 7 (July)\, page 181 onwards) we have this retrospective from Peter Clarke: \n“The night of June 27th\,1944\, Vera Menchik\, World Woman Champion\, was killed when an enemy bomb demolished her home in London; with her perished her mother and sister Olga. In these tragic circumstances the chess world lost its greatest woman player\, still undefeated and at the height of her powers. \nVera Francevna Menchik was born in Moscow on February 16th\, 1906\, of an English mother and Czech father. There she spent her childhood\, showing a love for literature\, music\, and\, of course\, chess\, which at the age of nine she was taught by her father. She had a natural bent for the game and when only fourteen shared second and third places a schoolboys (!) tournament. The following year\, 1921\, the family came to England\, where Miss Menchik lived the rest of her life. \nAs if by some fortunate coincidence\, the Menchiks settled in Hastings\, though it was not until the spring of 1923 that Vera joined the famous chess club. Her natural shyness and lack of knowledge of English caused this delay. However\, they did not handicap her too much\nas she herself afterwards wrote: ‘Chess is a quiet game and therefore the best hobby for a person who cannot speak the language.” \nShe studied the game eagerly\, and very soon her talent caught the attention of the Hungarian grandmaster\, Géza Maróczy\, who was resident at Hastings at that time. Thus there began the most important period in her development as a player; a sound and mature understanding of positional play-and a thorough knowledge of a few special openings and defences: in particular the French Defence. The influence of\nthe grandmasters ideas was clearly apparent in her style throughout the whole of her career. \nMiss Menchik’s rise to fame was meteoric: by 1925 she was undoubtedly the strongest player of her sex in the country\, having twice defeated the Champion\, E. Price\, in short matches; and only two years later she won the first Women’s World Championship in London with the terrific score 10.5-0.5. She was just twenty-one\, but already in a different class from any other woman in the world. For seventeen years until her death Vera Menchik reigned supreme in women’s chess\, defending her world title successfully no less than seven times (including a match with Sonja Graf at Semmering in 1937\, which Miss Menchik won 11.5-4.5. In the seven tournaments for the World Championship she played 83 games; winning 78\, drawing 4\, and losing 1 only! However\, what was more remarkable was that she was accepted into the sphere of men’s chess as a master in her own right\, a feat which no woman had done before or has done since. Up to then\, women’s chess had been a very poor relation of the masculine game\, but here was a woman who was a worthy opponent for the strongest masters. \nFlohr wrote of her: ‘Vera Menchik was the first woman in the world who played chess strongly…who played like a man.’ It was as the ambassador extraordinary\, so to speak\, of the women’s game that Miss Menchik really made her greatest contribution to chess. Wherever she went\, at home and abroad\, she aroused great interest among her sex; others were eager to follow her\, to identify themselves with her. Nowadays women’s chess is well organized\, and much of the credit for this must go to Vera Menchik for first bringing it into the light. Among her many personal successes in international tournaments perhaps the greatest was at Ramsgate in 1929: as one of the foreign masters (she was still of Czech nationality) she shared second and third places with Rubinstein\, * point behind Capablanca and above\, among others\, her tutor Maróczy. \nEven the greatest masters recognized Miss Menchik’s ability; Alekhine himself\, writing on the Carlsbad Tournament of 1929\, said: ‘Vera Menchik is without doubt an exceptional phenomenon among women. She possesses great aptitude for the game…The chess\nworld must help her develop her talent!’ \nThe Vera Menchik Club\nAn amusing incident occurred at this tournament. There were naturally sceptics among the masters over the lady’s participation. Flohr recalls how one of these\, the Viennese master Becker\, suggested: \n‘Whoever loses to the Woman Champion will be accepted as a member of the Vera Menchik Club which I intend to organize.’ \nBecker was the first to lose to her\, and that evening the masters chided him: “Professor Becker\, you did not find it very difficult to join the club. You can be the Chairman.’ And forthwith he was chosen as Chairman for three years. Everyone wished that the new club would soon obtain more members! Indeed\, the Vera Menchik Club has many famous names on its lists-Euwe\, Reshevsky\, Colle\, Yates\, Sultan Khan\, Sir G. A. Thomas\, Alexander\, to mention a few. \nIn 1935 Miss Menchik returned to the country of her birth to take part in the great international tournament in Moscow. To be truthful\, she had very little success\, but she was everywhere treated with respect and sympathy by masters and spectators alike. The Soviet master l. Maiselis\, writing in CHESS in 1944.(Shakhmaty za 1944 god)\, related the following entertaining anecdote from the tournament: One day a group of players and organizers were discussing the chances of Alekhine and Euwe in the forthcoming match. Flohr said: ‘It is quite clear that I will be World Champion.’ We looked at him inquiringly. \n‘It’s very simple\,” continued Flohr\, ‘Euwe wins a match against Alekhine\, Vera Menchik beats Euwe (at that time her score against Euwe was +2\, =1\, -1) and I will somehow beat Miss Menchik.’ \nWe laughed at this good-natured joke\, and we laughed all the more the next day when Flohr was unable\, despite every effort\, to defeat her in a vital game. \nln 1937 Miss Menchik married R. Stevenson\, but in chess she continued to use her maiden name\, made famous by so many victories. Her husband\, a well-known organizer\, became\, Secretary of the B.C.F: in the following year and remained so until his death in 1943. \nSince the days of Vera Menchik women’s chess has taken great strides forward; now there is a special committee of F.I.D.E. to look after its needs.- Only last year the first lnternational Women’s Team Tournament took place ln Emmen\, Holland; the new World Champions\, the U.S.S.R.\, became the first holders of the Vera Menchik Cup. So chess goes onwards\, but the name of its first Queen will ever be remembered.” \n\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nFrom The Encyclopaedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1970 & 1976) by Anne Sunnucks : \n“Woman World Champion from 1927 to 1944. Vera Menchik was born in Moscow on 16th February 1906 of an English mother and a Czech father. Her father taught her to play chess when she was 9. \nVera Menchik 1906-1944 chess playerin\, CZ / GB portrait with chess board late twenties (Photo by ullstein bild / ullstein bild via Getty Images)\nIn 192l her family came to England and settled in Hastings (at 13\, St. John’s Road\, St. Leonards-on-Sea\, TN37 6HP) : \n13\, St. John’s Road\, St. Leonards-on-Sea\, TN37 6HP\nTwo years later\, when she was 17\, Vera joined Hastings Chess Club\, \nHastings Chess Club : 2 Cornwallis Terrace\, Hastings TN34 1EB\nwhere she became a pupil of Geza Maroczy. The first Women’s World Championship was held in 1927. Vera Menchik won with a score of 10.5 out of 11. She defended her title successfully in Hamburg in 1930\, in Prague in 1931\, in Folkestone in 1933\, in Warsaw in 1935\, in Stockholm in 1937 and in Buenos Aires in 1939. She played 2 matches against Sonja Graf\, her nearest rival\, in 1934 when she won +3 -1 and in 1937\, in a match for her title when she won +9 -1 =5. \nIsaac Kashdan plays Vera Menchik during the Hastings Congress on December 28th\, 1931. Kashdan won in 45 moves in a classical French.\nThe first woman ever to play in the British Championship and the first to play in a master tournament\, Vera Menchik made her debut in master chess at Scarborough 1928 when she scored 50 per cent. The following year she played in Paris and Carlsbad\, and it was at Carlsbad that the famous Menchik Club was formed. The invitation to Vera Menchik to compete among such players as Capablanca\, Euwe\, Tartakower and Nimzowitch was received with amusement by many of the masters. The Viennese master\, Becker was particularly scornful\, and in the presence of a number of the competitors he suggested that anyone who lost to Vera Menchik should be granted membership of the Menchik Club. He himself became the first member. Other famous players who later joined the club were Euwe\, Reshevsky\, Sultan Khan\, Sir George Thomas\, C. H. O’D. Alexander\, Colle and Yates. \nHer greatest success in international tournaments was at Ramsgate in 1929\, when she was =2nd with Rubinstein\, half a point behind Capablanca and ahead of Maroczy. In 1934 she was 3rd at Maribor\, ahead of Spielmann and Vidmar. In 1942 she won a match against Mieses +4 -l -5. In 1937 Vera Menchik married R. H. S. Stevenson\, who later became Hon. Secretary of the British Chess Federation. He died in 1943. She continued to use her maiden name when playing chess. On her marriage she became a British subject. \nLeft to right Baruch H Wood\, Philip Stuart Milner-Barry\, Vera Menchik (playing in the women’s world championship held concurrently with the Olympiad which she won with 17 wins and 2 draws)\, Sir George Thomas\, Conel Hugh O’Donel Alexander and Harry Golombek. England withdrew after their preliminary group due to the outbreak of war despite qualifying for the top final. Thanks to Leonard Barden\nFrom 1941 until her death she was Games Editor of CHESS. She also gave chess lessons and managed the National Chess Centre\, which opened in 1939 at John Lewis’s in Oxford Street\, London and was destroyed by a bomb in 1940. \nIn 1944 Vera Menchik was a solid positional player\, who avoided complications and aimed at achieving a favourable endgame. Her placid temperament was ideal for tournament play. Her main weakness was possibly lack of imagination. Her results have made her the most successful woman player ever.” \nVera Menchik\nFrom The Encyclopaedia of Chess\, (BT Batsford\, 1977) by Harry Golombek : \nProbably the strongest woman player in the history of the game\, Vera Menchik was born in Moscow and\, though her father was a Czechoslovak and her mother English\, she played for most of her\nlife under English colours. \nIn l92l her family came to Hastings in England and there Vera became a pupil of the great Hungarian master\, Geza Maroczy. This was to have a dominating influence on her style of play which was solidly classical\, logical and technically most well equipped. Such a style enabled her to deal severely not only with her fellow women players but also with contemporary masters and budding masters. Vera did extremely well\, for example\, against C. H. O’D. Alexander\nand P. S. Milner-Barry\, but lost repeatedly to H. Golombek who was able to take advantage of her lack of imagination by the use of more modern methods. \nVera was soon predominent in women’s chess. In the first Women’s World Championship tournament\, at London in 1927\, she won the title with a score of 10.5 out of 11 and retained the championship with great ease at all the subsequent Olympiads (or International Team tournaments as they were then known more correctly) at Hamburg 1930\, Prague 1931\, Folkestone 1933\, Warsaw 1935\, Stockholm 1937 and Buenos Aires 1939. \nVera Menchik at Margate 1935\, photographer unknown\nWith Sonja Graf\, the player who came nearest to her in strength among her female contemporaries\, she played two matches and demonstrated her undoubted superiority by beating her in 1934 (+3-l) and again in a match for the title in l937 (+9-l=5). \nIn 1937 Vera officially became a British citizen by marrying the then Kent and later B.C.F. Secretary\, R. H. S. Stevenson (Rufus Henry Streatfeild Stevenson: ed).\n(Rufus Henry Streatfeild Stevenson was home news editor of the British Chess Magazine\, secretary of the Southern Counties Chess Union and match captain of the Kent County Chess Association). \nOddly enough\, Sonja Graf\, many years later\, also became a Mrs Stevenson by marrying an American of that name some years after the Second World War. \nVera Menchik also played and held her own in men’s tournaments. She did well in the British championship and her best performance in international chess was =2nd with Rubinstein in the Ramsgate Team Practice tournament ahead of her old teacher\, Maroczy. She also had an excellent result at Maribor in 1934 where she came 3rd\, ahead of Spielmann and Vidmar. \nHer husband died in 1943 and Vera herself\, together with her younger sister Olga and her mother\, was killed by a V1 bomb that descended on the Stevenson home in London in 1944. \nVera Menchik\, circa 1935\, Historic Collection / Alamy Stock Photo\nThis was a sad and premature loss\, not only for British but for world chess\, since there is no doubt she would have continued to dominate the female scene for many years. \nAs a person Vera was a delightful companion\, jolly and full of fun and understanding. As a player she was not only strong but also absolutely correct and without any prima donna behaviour. Generous in defeat and modest in victory\, she set a great example to all her contemporaries. \nAn example of Vera’s attacking play at its best against her nearest rival\, Sonja Graf\, is shown by the following game which was played in her 1937 match at Semmering in Austria : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n27th November 1936: Britain’s world chess champion Vera Menchik (right) and challenger Sonja Graf after signing a contract at the Bloomsbury Hotel\, London\, to play for the championship of the world over 16 games. (Photo by J. A. Hampton/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)\nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess\, (Oxford University Press\, 1984) by Hooper and Whyld : \n“Woman World Champion from 1927 until her death. Daughter of a Czech father and an English mother\, Menchik was born in Moscow\, learned chess when she was nine\, settled in England around\n1921\, and took lessons from Maroczy a year or so later. In 1927 FIDE organized both the first Olympiad and the first world championship tournament for women. These events were run concurrently\, except in 1928\, until the Second World War began\, and Menchik won the women’s tournament every time; London 1927 (+10=1); Hamburg 1930 (+6=1 — 1); Prague 1931 (+8);\nFolkestone 1933 ( + 14); Warsaw 1935 (+9); Stockholm 1937 (+14); and Buenos Aires 1939 ( + 17=2). She played in her first championship tournament as a Russian\, the next five as a Czech\,\nand the last as a Briton. She also won on two matches against her chief rival\, the German-born Sonja Graf (c. 1912-65): Rotterdam\, 1934 (+3-1)\, and Semmering\, 1937 (+9=5—2)\, \nVera Menchik in a pre-event posed picture in which she faces unstoppable checkmate in one from Hastings 193? She was about to play Sir GA Thomas.\nIn international tournaments which did not exclude men Menchik made little impression; one of her best results was at Maribor 1934 (about category 4) when she took third place alter Pirc and L. Steiner ahead of Spielmann. In 1937 she married the English chess organizer Rufus Henry Streatfeild Stevenson (1878-1943)\, A chess professional\, she gave lessons\, lectures\, and displays\, and was appointed manager of the short-lived National Chess Centre in 1939. In 1942 she defeated Mieses in match play (+4=5-1)\, She\, her younger sister Olga (also a player)\, and their mother were killed in a bombing raid. \nFrom left to right: Vera Menchik\, Alexander Alekhine\, Géza Maróczy and Sultan Khan. From London International Masters\, 1st February\, 1932\, French Defence\, drawn in 32 moves.\nHer style was positional and she had a sound understanding of the endgame. On occasion she defeated in tournament play some of the greatest masters\, notably Euwe\, Reshevsky\, and Sultan Khan. Men she defeated were said to belong to the Menchik club. When world team championships for women (women’s chess Olympiads) were commenced in 1957 the trophy for the winning team was called the Vera Menchik Cup.” \nVera Menchik commemorated on a postage stamp from the Czech Republic\nShe was inducted to the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2011. \nOther Articles\nHere is an excellent article from the Hastings and St. Leonard’s Club written by Brian Denman. \nHere is an excellent article from Neil Blackburn (aka SimaginFan) on chess.com \nHere is an excellent article by Albert Whitwood \nHere is her Wikipedia  entry. \nHere is an excellent record compiled by Bill Wall. \nBiography of Vera Menchik British chess player \nVera Menchik.\, EI Bykova\, Moscow\, 1957\, 176 pages\, 4s 7d.\nVera Menchik: A Biography of the First Women’s World Chess Champion\, with 350 Complete Games\nEdward Winter  was less than impressed with the above book. \nVera Menchik\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-for-vera-frantsevna-menchik-16-ii-1906-27-vi-1944/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200707
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200708
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CREATED:20190911T085325Z
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UID:1319-1594080000-1594166399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of IM Andrew Whiteley (09-vi-1947 07-vii-2014)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers IM Andrew Jonathan Whiteley (09-vi-1947 07-vii-2014) \nAndrew Whiteley\nAndrew was born on Monday\, June 9th\, 1947 in Birmingham\, West Midlands to Denys Edward Hugh Whiteley (1914 – 1987) and Muriel Sutton (1919 – 1967). Andrew had two siblings\, Robert N (Birmingham\, 1944) and Angela M (Oxford 1952). \nDenys Edward Hugh Whiteley (1914 – 1987\, from Ancestry.co.uk\nAndrew completed his education at Magdalen College School\, Oxford and then in law at Pembroke College\, Oxford. \nAndrew and friends at the NatWest Bank Young Masters\n“Whiteley’s school chess record is an outstanding 63/65: Andrew Whiteley is captain and top board of a very strong U18 team of: A Whiteley\, H Morphy\, MN Crombie\, MM Daube\, A Hawkins and AH Smith.” \nSome of the participants in the Paul Keres display on November 25th\, 1962\, at St Pancras Town Hall\, London WC1. Back row : AJ. Whiteley\, D\, Floyer\, PJ Collins\, PJ Adams\, RC Vaughan\, KB Harman\, D. Parr\, DNL Levy\, Front row : MV Lambshire\, AE Hopkins (selector) Paul Keres\, Miss D. Dobson\, RE Hartley\, BC Gillman\, WR Hartston and PN Lee. Photograph by AM Reilly. Source : BCM\, 1963\, page 13\nAndrew was joint (with WR Hartston) Southern Counties (SCCU) champion in the 1967-68 season. \nHis highest Elo rating was 2395 in January 1977 at the age of 29 and played for King’s Head in the Four Nations Chess League (4NCL). \nAndrew was former President of the Middlesex County Chess Association (1985-87) and Deputy (1984-85 & 1987-88). \nAndrew Whiteley playing board two in the London – Belgrade Telex Match on April 3rd\, 1976 from the St. James Hotel\, Buckingham Gate. Sourced from BCM\, Volume XCVI (96)\, Number 5\, page 192. Photographer probably Freddy Reilly.\nHe became a FIDE Master in 1980 at the age of 33. His last major tournament was Cappelle Le Grand in 1988 (see photograph below). \nMagnus Magnusson presents Andrew Whiteley (right) with the BCF County Championship trophy as Captain of the Middlesex team in 1986.\nBelow was written by BCM editor James Pratt in Volume CXXXIV (134)\, Number 8 (August) page 417-8 : \n“Unfailingly courteous\, formally dressed\, retired London solicitor\, British Master\, Andrew Jonathan Whiteley (9 vi 1946 Birmingham – 8 vii 2014) has died. The son of an Oxford professor\, AJW was British U21 Champion of 1965. He tied\, with Hans Ree\, for first in the European Junior in 1965/6. \nHans Ree (left) and Andrew Whiteley (right) examine the European Junior Trophy for 1965/6 in which they tied for first.\nThe following game first appeared in the Games Department column of Harry Golombek in British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXXVI (1966)\, Number 3 (March)\, page 148. It was game #14\,118. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nHe scooped the Silver medal at the British in 1971 and in 1976. Andrew often worked selflessly at his office in the mornings\, commuting to key games after lunch. He rose to be No. 3 or 4 in England and\, always a loyal team man\, shone in Olympiads. Belatedly\, having turned his back on the law\, in 1988\, he became an IM. He was also a BCF Arbiter and Middlesex County organiser. In 2008\, he won the English Senior Championships aged 61. \nHis was a classical chess style. RIP.” \nAndrew Whiteley at the Nice Olympiad of 1974.\nHere is his Wikipedia entry \nAndrew Whiteley commentating on Kasparov vs Karpov\nHere is a excellent obituary from his old school\, Magdalen College. \nFM Andrew Whiteley\, IM Julian Hodgson and FM Byron Jacobs at Cappelle Le Grand\, 1988. Photograph by Caroline Winkler\nHere is an obituary from Stewart Reuben on behalf of the English Chess Federation \nAndrew Whiteley receives the Rosebowl trophy from John Poole\nSince 2014 King’s Head Chess Club has held an annual blitz tournament in memory of Andrew featuring many of England’s top players. \nAndrew Whiteley faces David Howell whilst Jimmy Adams records the moves\nHere is a discussion of Andrew on the English Chess Forum \nIM Andrew Whiteley at the first 4NCL weekend of 2012 in November.\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-andrew-john-whiteley/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,Hastings,Player,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200711
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200712
DTSTAMP:20260817T141124Z
CREATED:20200711T121121Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260817T141124Z
UID:7338-1594425600-1594511999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Ken Whyld (06-iii-1926 11-vii-2003)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers much loved Ken Whyld who passed away on July 11th 2003 in Lincolnshire. \nKen Whyld from CHESS magazine\, January 1950. courtesy of the Ken Whyld Association\nFrom Chess : The Records : \n“Ken Whyld was the editor of Chess Students Quarterly in the early 1950s and from 1955-63\, Chess Reader\, in which he reviewed more than 500 chess books. He has written seven tournament books and one match book. \nKen Whyld (06-iii-1926 11-vii-2003)\nWith J. Gilchrist he wrote a three-volume anthology of Lasker’s games\, and with David Hooper\, The Oxford Companion to Chess.  \nKen at the gravestone of “William” Steinitz\nFor the book World Chess Champions he wrote the chapters on Lasker and Smyslov. In his playing days he was champion of his county (Nottinghamshire) many times and played in the British Championship as well as international tournaments.” \nKen Whyld  (06-iii-1926 11-vii-2003)\nPossibly the best tribute to Ken was written by John Saunders and Bernard Cafferty in the August 2003 issue of British Chess Magazine\, pages 398 – 402. \nEditorial from British Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIII (123)\, Number 8 (August)\, page 395 by Editor\, John Saunders\nKen Whyld Remembered from British Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIII (123)\, Number 8 (August)\, page 398 by Editor\, John Saunders and Bernard Cafferty\nKen Whyld Remembered from British Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIII (123)\, Number 8 (August)\, page 399 by Editor\, John Saunders and Bernard Cafferty\nKen Whyld Remembered from British Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIII (123)\, Number 8 (August)\, page 400 by Editor\, John Saunders and Bernard Cafferty\nKen Whyld Remembered from British Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIII (123)\, Number 8 (August)\, page 401 by Editor\, John Saunders and Bernard Cafferty\nKen Whyld Remembered from British Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIII (123)\, Number 8 (August)\, page 402 by Editor\, John Saunders and Bernard Cafferty\nKen Whyld\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nHere is his Wikipedia entry \nSee more details from the Ken Whyld Association \nThe Collected Games of Emanuel Lasker\nThe Oxford Companion to Chess\nChess : The Records\, Guinness\, 1986\, SBN 10: 0851124550ISBN 13: 9780851124551\nLearn Chess in a Weekend\nChess Columns : A List\nChess Reader\nChess Stalker Quarterly\nThe Oxford Companion to Chess\, 1st Edition\nCurse of Kirsan by Sarah Hurst\, Ken wrote the Foreword.\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-ken-whyld-06-iii-1926-11-vii-2003/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210724
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210725
DTSTAMP:20210812T153624Z
CREATED:20210124T171654Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210812T153624Z
UID:13455-1627084800-1627171199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Johann Löwenthal (15-vii-1810 24-vii-1876)
DESCRIPTION:Death Anniversary Johann Löwenthal (15-vii-1810 24-vii-1876) \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-johann-lowenthal-15-vii-1810-24-vii-1876/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220401
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220402
DTSTAMP:20220404T160618Z
CREATED:20200401T115720Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220404T160618Z
UID:3917-1648771200-1648857599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of CM David Anderton OBE (02-viii-1941 01-iv-2022)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers CM David Anderton OBE who passed away on Friday\, April 1st\, 2022 aged 80. \nIn the 1977 New Years Honours List\, Civil Division\, David was awarded the OBE. The citation read simply : “For services to Chess” \nDavid William Anderton was born in the district of Walsall\, Staffordshire\, West Midlands. His mother’s maiden name was Coltart and David resided in Walsall. \nDavid was married to Doreen in 2005. \nDavid Anderton (rhs) congratulates Sir Philip Stuart Milner-Barry for winning the “Board of Honour ” game versus Edward Lasker at the 1976 Lloyds Bank Match by Telex\, London – New York. From BCM\, volume XCVI (96) Number 11 (August)\, Page 494. The venue was the Bloomsbury Hotel\, London. Photo courtesy of Lloyds Bank\nDavid was an Honorary Life Vice-President of the English (formerly British) Chess Federation. \nJohn Nunn\, David Anderton and Jonathan Speelman\n“David won the ECF President’s Award in 2009 following his stepping down as ECF legal expert. This is the citation from the 2010 ECF Yearbook : \n“As this is Gerry Walsh’s last year as President it was considered appropriate that he be allowed to choose someone receive the award. Gerry has worked with David for all his time with BCF and ECF and has selected him due to his tireless and selfless devotion to both the BCF and ECF over many years. \nDavid Anderton OBE\, ? and Teresa Needham\nMost of you will know David and will agree that this is a well deserved award. It is fair to state that David’s assistance over the years has been invaluable and that without it many areas of the Federation would have found it difficult\, if not impossible to operate. \nJim Plaskett with David Anderton OBE at the 1983 Benedictine International (Manchester)\nSince my election David has been a constant friend and confidante. He has invariable given sound advice throughout my term of office. It was John Wickham who rang me and suggested that due to my length of tenure\, a special award might be in order. \nJim accepts the 1981 Grand Prix shield from David Anderton OBE\nAfter years of selfless and generous devotion serving as ECF President\, International Director\, Captain of the England Team and legal adviser\, this seems to be a fitting tribute. \nFrom the Praxis Bath Zonal Tournament of 1987. David Anderton OBE is second from right\nDavid’s advice both legal and general\, has been invaluable in such matters as the John Robinson legacy and the change of name from BCF to ECF Limited\, and I certainly hope that this advice will continue. \nGerry Walsh” \nBob Wade OBE\, Murray Chandler MNZM and David Anderton OBE\nDavid is a FIDE Candidate Master (CM). \nFrom the BCF 1979-80 Year Book of Chess : Robert Bellin\, the new British Champion\, explains the secret to the Mayor of Chester (?) and to David Anderton\, BCF President\nWith the White pieces David exclusively plays 1.d4 aiming for a Queen’s Gambit and main lines. \nWith Black David plays the Winawer and the Classical French plus the Lenningrad Dutch. \nMrs. Joan Agar; Chairman of Leigh Interests\, presents the Leigh trophy (for 1981) to Mark Hebden. Left\, David Anderton\, BCF President; on the right Malcolm Wood\, Leigh’s Chief Executive. BCM\, 1981\, page 104\nHere are his games. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nDW Anderton OBE plays BH Wood MBE in 1981 in a Blitz tournament outside of the National Film Theatre. Photograph courtesy of John Saunders\nDuring 1989-93 David was an Executive Board Member of FIDE. \nThe England Team from the 1990 Novi Sad Olympiad : John Nunn\, Jon Speelman\, Julian Hodgson\, David Anderton OBE (Captain)\, Nigel Short\, Michael Adams and Murray Chandler\nIn 2002 David was awarded the title of International Master by the ICCF (correspondence chess) \nIn 2015 David stood down from all of his roles within the ECF. \nDavid Anderton OBE\, Paul Bazalgette (Senior Partner at Philips & Drew) and Tony Banks (GLC Arts & Recreation Department) at the 1982 Philips and Drew Kings Tournament Opening Ceremony. Photograph by Clive Field\nDavid has won the British Seniors Championship in 2003 (shared)\, 2005\, 2007 (shared)\, 2009 (shared) and 2011. \nHere is a potted biography from The Express and Star Newspaper \nDavid Anderton OBE at the 2019 British Championships in Torquay\, courtesy of John Upham Photography\nDavid is Head of Regulatory Law at Anson’s Solicitors. He is also Secretary of the Erasmus Darwin Foundation (03270753) and Director of Unionist Buildings Ltd.\, Wallsall Conservative Investments Ltd. and Wallsall Unionist Holdings Ltd. \nCM David William Anderton OBE\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-cm-david-william-anderton-obe-02-viii-1941/
CATEGORIES:4NCL,Birthday,British Championships,Honours,Official,Player,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200803
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200804
DTSTAMP:20210801T180718Z
CREATED:20190822T165409Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210801T180718Z
UID:1008-1596412800-1596499199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Captain William Davies Evans (27-i-1790 03-viii-1872)
DESCRIPTION:BCN Remembers Captain William Davies Evans (27-i-1790 03-viii-1872) \nCaptain William Davies Evans (27-i-1790 03-viii-1872)\nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess (OUP\, 1984) by Hooper & Whyld : \n“Inventor of the Evans gambit\, for about half a century one of the most popular attacking weapons. He was born in (Musland Farm in the parish of Saint Dogwells\,) Pembroke\, Wales\, went to sea at the age of 14\, was employed by the Postal Department from about 1815\, and rose to the rank of captain four years later. In 1824\, soon after taking command of the first Royal Mail steam packet to sail from Milford Haven to Waterford\, and while aboard\, he invented his gambit. Evans was a keen player. He gathered a small chess circle in Waterford\, and when on leave in England played chess in London\, notably in 1826 when he showed his gambit to Lewis and McDonnell\, and in 1838 when he played a long series of games with Staunton at the Westminster Chess Club. In Jan. 1840 he was pensioned off on account of ill-health. He went to Greece\, became captain of a steamer that sailed the Mediterranean\, and returned to London at the end of 1842. During the next 13 years there are several accounts of his presence in London\, and then he settled abroad. He died and was buried in Ostend\, \nEvans claimed to have solved the three pawns problem (See below) \, which\, however\, had already been solved by others. His claim to the invention of tri-coloured lighting for ships has not been verified independently\, although he is known to have investigated the subject. For this invention he states that the Tsar of Russia gave him a gold chronometer\, and that he also received money. For a more detailed life of Captain Evans see British Chess Magazine\, 1928\, pp\, 6-18.” \nThe Evans Gambit is a variation of the Giuoco Piano or Italian Game : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nWhen Evans originally devised his gambit the move order was slightly different : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nin which White sacrifices the b-pawn for increased central control and development viz : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1970 & 1976) by Anne Sunnucks : \n“Inventor of the Evans Gambit\, an opening described by a player in the last century as ‘A yellow fever attack : if you live through the initial stages and avoid any carelessness that may bring on a relapse\, you will come out alright’. \nCaptain Evans discovered the gambit in about 1824. It was a favourite opening during the last century and was adopted by a number of leading players including La Bourdonnais and Morphy. \nFor some years Commander in H.M. Royal Mail Packet Service on the Milford and Waterford station\, Captain Evans later became Commander in the P.& O. Company’s service and agent for the Royal Mail Steampacket Company\, Port Grande. On retirement he lives for many years in Holland and Belgium. \nThe story is told of how\, in 1870\, the Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia\, brother of the Tsar\, was visiting Bruges when he heard that the inventor of the Evans Gambit was living in Ostend. Being a keen chess player he invited Evans to play a game. When Evans had won\, the Grand Duke turned to his adversary and said : ‘I believe you invented the Evans Gambit ?’\, ‘Yes’ replied Evans ‘and it’s not the only thing I’ve invented for which you have not paid me.’ ‘What’s the other?’ asked the Grand Duke.\nEvans then explained that he was the inventor of the ship’s lights which were being used by the Russian Navy\, in which the Grand Duke held the rank of Admiral. Several months later Evans was invited to the Russian Consulate in Ostend\, where he was handed a letter from the Grand Duke\, a gold chronometer\, a gold chain and a draft of money\, ostensibly in payment for the Russia’s rights to use the captain’s invention in her ships. ” \nEnjoy this interesting article from “Introuble2” on chess.com \nEvans analyzed the “Little Game of Chess” (an endgame composition involving only two kings with three pawns each) \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nto independently discover that it actually won for the player who moves first\, not drawn as had been believed for over a hundred years. \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977) by Harry Golombek we have : \n“After his retirement Evans went to live abroad and eventually found a haven is Ostend and there\, ill\, and almost blind and in very straightened circumstances\, he dictated a letter on 22 March 1871\, which was published in the Gentlemen’s Journal supplement for June 1872\, along with an appeal for him organised by George Walker. The letter gives the authentic facts of his life and is worth quoting in full\, if only to refute various unfounded reports about a meeting with the Tsar’s brother\, or according to that rich source of misinformation\, the Rev GA MacDonnell\, that the Evans Gambit was discovered off the coast of Africa by a middle-aged lieutenant in the Royal Navy -perhaps the reverend gentleman was confusing Waterford with the Canary Islands. \nThe letter runs : \nWilliams Davies Evans is a native of Pembrokeshire\, South Wales\, and was born on 27 January 1790. He commenced a naval career at the age of fourteen. He was about twenty-eight years of age when he first learnt the moves of the game of Chess. Having the advantage of frequent practise with Lieut H. Wilson\, R.N.\, who was a player of some reputation in his time\, beside corresponding on the subject of the game with the late Mr. W. Lewis\, and also with George Walker\, the able Chess Editor of Bell’s Life \, he made a rapid progress in the game. Captain Evans received at first the odds of a Rook from Lieut. Wilson. After a continuance of play for some years\, the odds were greatly reduced\, until ultimately Captain Evans succeeded in defeating his formidable antagonist playing even. \nAbout the year 1824\, being then in command of a Government Mail Steamer\, the passages between Milford Haven and Waterford were favourable to the study of the game of Chess and at this time he invented the Gambit\, which bears his name. The idea occurred to him while studying a narration of Giuoco Piano in Sarratts’s Treatise on Chess. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nCaptain Evans was the first who gave to the world a true solution of that very difficult end game\, the King and three Pawns unmoved against King and three Pawns also unmoved. This position was handed down to us through a period of some centuries as a drawn game\, but Captain Evans proved that the first player can always win. \nCaptain Evans acquired some celebrity as “Inventor of the System of Tri-Coloured Lights for Ships to Prevent Collisions at Night”\, which has been adopted by all nations possessing a marine. For this invention the English Government awarded him the sum of £1\,500 \, and the Czar of Russia a gold pocket chronometer\, value £160\, together with a donation of £200. \nThe subscription that amounted to over £200 was too late. He died in 1872 and was buried in Ostend where his grave bears the inscription : \nTo the sacred memory of William Davies Evans\, formerly Commander in the Post Office and Peninsular and Oriental Steam Services\, Superintendent In the Royal Mail Shipping Company\, and inventor of the system of tri-coloured light for shipping. Also well known in the Chess World as the author of the Evans Gambit \nBlue Plaque for Captain WD Evans\nHere is his Wikipedia entry. \nRead here of the Plaque in Wolfscastle \nBlue Plaque for Captain William Davies Evans (27-i-1790 03-viii-1872)\nPlay The Evans Gambit (co-author Tim Harding). Cadogan. ISBN 1-85744-119-2.\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-captain-william-davies-evans/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200827
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200828
DTSTAMP:20210827T142749Z
CREATED:20200409T081050Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210827T142749Z
UID:4238-1598486400-1598572799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of FM Max Fuller (28-i-1945 27-viii-2013)
DESCRIPTION:September 15th\, 1980. Australian Open Chess Champion Max Fuller (35) is currently on a grand chess playing tour of Britain and Europe. He played in the British Championships last month and has included three tournaments in Denmark in his busy schedule.His tour culminates in Malta in December when he plays in his 8th chess Olympiad.Max has been playing chess since he was 13.He lives in Hamilton Avenue\, Earlwood\, Sydney.In the picture Max is playing in the Benedictine International Chess tournament in Manchester in which he was equal fourth.The Benedictine Championship was won by Britain’s number 2 seeded Grandmaster John DM Nunn of Oriel College Oxford.Picture from John Madden (NUJ)\nBCN Remembers FM Max Fuller (28-i-1945 27-viii-2013) \nTonight two Sydney ***** the N.S.W. Chess Championship at the Chess centre Liverpool St.\, City. They are Fred E Flatow\, 28 of Belmore (left.) and Max Fuller\, 21\, of Kingsgrove (right). They have been playing for about 10 Hrs up till 6.15 p.m. and had move 121. The match will go on till move 144 at which stage a draw will be declared or until either man wins before then. February 23\, 1966. (Photo by Richard John Pinfold/Fairfax Media via Getty Images).\nMaxwell Leonard Fuller was born on Sunday\, January 28th 1945 in Sydney\, New South Wales. He was brought up by his mother and\, according to Ian Rogers\, his step-father with whom he did not get on. \nKnight moves: Max Fuller in 1964. He went on to become Australia’s No.1 player and toured the world.CREDIT:STUART MACGLADRIE\nHe was Australian Junior Champion in 1962. \nHe won the New South Wales title in 1965 (and then in 1986 and 1988). \nMax came to England in late 1968 to play at Hastings and then chose to settle here. He played for Lewisham chess club. He won the Whitby Open in 1969 (See BCM\, Volume LXXXIX\, Number 8\, page 264). \nIn the 1970s be played board one for Australia whilst maintaining a FIDE rating of 2450\, and\, according to chessgames.com : “Fuller finished equal second in the British championship in 1970 and 1975\, winner of the Doeberl Cup three times\, winner of the Australian Open three times\, Joint Australian Champion 1972 with Trevor Hay and competed in nine Olympiads for Australia from 1964-1990. In 1974\, he won the 101st Athenaeum Chess Club Jubilee tournament\, held in London.” \nHe became a FIDE Master in 1980 \nFuller returned to chess in 2004 after an eight-year absence and finished equal second in the 2004 and 2005 NSW championships. \nAccording to IM Gary Lane : “Max had a heart attack and died on the day he was attending the funeral of his pal Peter Parr” \nWith the white pieces Max essayed the Ruy Lopez with a penchant for the exchange variation but nonetheless he was flexible and varied. \nAs the second player against 1.e4 he was versatile with a broad range of defences and likewise facing 1.d4/1.Nf3 he was difficult to prepare for. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nAccording to British Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXXIII (2013)\, Number 9 (September)\, page 450 : \n“From Australia the saddest of news\, the passing Maxwell Leonard Fuller (28 i 1945 Sydney – 27 viii 2013 Sydney). FM Max Fuller played in seven BCF Championships\, 1969 -80. He later claimed the scalps of Short\, Miles and Chandler. He was the most determined player imaginable and had the broadest of opening repertoires. (James Pratt)” \nAleandro Trimboli (10) of Leichhardt plays Mr Max Fuller of Newtown\, Australian Open Chess Champion. As part of the Waratah Festival Celebrations the NSW Chess Association is conducting chess games with chess champions playing up to 30 players at once\, in Hyde Park. October 17\, 1973. (Photo by Golding/Fairfax Media via Getty Images).\nIn this obituary from Ray Keene\, Ray very thoughtfully provides a game in which Max loses to Ray. \nGM Ian Rogers wrote this detailed obituary \nGreg Canfell posted this item \nMax Fuller at the Doeberl Cup in 1985. Photo : William Anderson-Smith\nHere is his Wikipedia article \nFM Max Fuller (28-i-1945 27-viii-2013) from around 1992\nSicilian Defence 11 Lines with c3\, Max Fuller and Len Pickett\, The Chess Player\, 1977\, ISBN ?\n  \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-fm-maxwell-leonard-fuller-27-viii-2013/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,Hastings,Player,Remembering,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200901
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200902
DTSTAMP:20210901T103404Z
CREATED:20190822T155139Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210901T103404Z
UID:983-1598918400-1599004799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Joseph Blackburne (10-xii-1841 01-ix-1924)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Joseph Blackburne (10-xii-1841 01-ix-1924) \nThe following (excerpts of) information were obtained via ancestry.co.uk / findmypast.co.uk: \nJoseph Henry Blackburne was born on Friday\, December 10th\, 1841 in Chorlton\, Manchester. His father was Joseph Blackburn (aged 23\, a temperance reformer) and his mother was Ann Pritchard (aged 24). He had eight sons and five daughters. \nHis brother Frederick Pritchard Blackburn died on 11 October 1847 in Lancashire\, Lancashire\, when Joseph Henry was 5 years old. \nHis sister Clara was born on 4 November 1847 in Street\, Lancashire\, when Joseph Henry was 5 years old. \nHis half-sister Clara was born in 1848 in Manchester\, Lancashire\, when Joseph Henry was 7 years old. \nHis mother Ann passed away on 26 November 1857 in Manchester\, Lancashire\, at the age of 40. \nHis half-brother William Thomas was born on 17 June 1865 when Joseph Henry was 23 years old. \nJoseph Henry Blackburne married Eleanor Driscoll on 10 December 1865 when he was 24 years old. \nJoseph Henry Blackburne married Beatrice Lapham on 3 October 1876 when he was 34 years old. \nHis wife Beatrice passed away in January 1880 in St Olave Southwark\, London\, at the age of 26. They had been married 3 years. \nJoseph Henry Blackburne married Mary Jane Fox in St Olave Southwark\, London\, on 16 December 1880 when he was 39 years old. \nJoseph Henry Blackburne lived in Everton\, Lancashire\, in 1891. \nAccording to Edward Winter in Chess Notes JHB lived at the following addresses : \n\n16 Lucey Road\, London SE\, England (The Chess Amateur\, October 1924\, page 32 (address in 1879) and the 1881 British census (C.N. 4756)*).\n116 Barkworth Road\, Camberwell\, London\, England (1891 British census (C.N. 4756)*).\n7 Whitbread Road\, Lewisham\, London\, England (1901 British census (C.N. 4756)*).\n45 Sandrock Road\, Lewisham\, London SE\, England (Ranneforths Schach-Kalender\, 1915\, page 56\, and Hastings Chess Club address list\, 1922*).\n\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nAccording to chessgames.com : \n“Joseph Henry Blackburne was born in Chorlton\, Manchester. He came to be known as “The Black Death”. He enjoyed a great deal of success giving blindfold and simultaneous exhibitions. Tournament highlights include first place with Wilhelm Steinitz at Vienna 1873\, first at London 1876\, and first at Berlin 1881 ahead of Johannes Zukertort. In matchplay he lost twice to Steinitz and once to Emanuel Lasker. He fared a little better with Zukertort (Blackburne – Zukertort (1881)) and Isidor Gunsberg\, by splitting a pair of matches\, and defeating Francis Joseph Lee\, ( Blackburne – Lee (1890) ). One of the last successes of his career was at the age of 72\, when he tied for first place with Fred Dewhirst Yates at the 1914 British Championship. \nJoseph Blackburne (10-xii-1841 01-ix-1924)\nIn his later years\, a subscription by British chess players provided an annuity of £100 (approximately  £4\,000 in 2015 value)\, and a gift of £250 on his 80th birthday.” \nIn 1923 he suffered a stroke\, and the next year he died of a heart attack.” \nJoseph Henry Blackburne (10-xii-1841 01-ix-1924)\nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess (OUP\, 1984) by Hooper and Whyld : \n“For more than 20 years one of the first six players in the world and for even longer the leading English born player. Draughts was the most popular indoor game in his home town\, Manchester; he learned this game as a child and became expert in his youth. \nHe was about 18 when\, inspired by Morphy’s exploits\, he learned the moves of chess. In July 1861 he lost all live games of a match against the Manchester chess club champion Edward Pindar\, but he improved so rapidly that he defeated Pindar three months later (-1-5=2—1)\, and in 1862 he became champion of the club ahead of Pindar and Horwitz. \nInstructed by Horwitz\, Blackburne became one of the leading endgame players of his time; and wishing to emulate the feats of L. Paulsen\, who visited the club in November 1861\, he developed exceptional skill at blindfold chess. He spent most of the 1860s developing his chess and toying with various occupations. \nAfter winning the British championship\, 1868-9\, ahead of de vere\, he became a full-time professional player. \n\nBlackburne achieved excellent results in many tournaments: Baden-Baden 1870\, third equal with Neumann after Anderssen and Steinitz; London 1872\, second (+5-2) after Steinitz ahead of Zukertort; Vienna 1873\, second to Steinitz after a play-off; Paris 1878\, third after Winawer and Zukertort: Wiesbaden 1880\, first equal with Englisch and Schwarz; Berlin 1881\, first (+13=2 — 1)\, three points ahead of Zukertort\, the second prize winner (Blackburne’s greatest achievement); London 1883\, third after Zukertort and Steinitz; Hamburg 1885\, second equal with Englisch\, Mason\, Tarrasch\, and Weiss half a point after Gunsberg; Frankfurt 1887\, second equal with Weiss after Mackenzie; Manchester 1890\, second after Tarrasch; Belfast 1892\, first equal with Mason; London 1892\, second ( + 6-2) after Lasker; London 1893\, first ( + 2=3). \nHe was in the British team in 11 of the Anglo-American cable matches\, meeting Pillsbury on first board six times (+2-3 — 1)\, and he continued to play internationally until he was 72\, long enough to meet the pioneer of the hypermodern movement Nimzowitsch\, whom he defeated at St Petersburg 1914. \n\nBlackburne had remarkable combinative powers and is remembered for his swingeing king’s side attacks\, often well prepared but occasionally consisting of an ingenious swindle that would deceive even the greatest all his contemporaries. The tournament book of Vienna 1873 refers to him as ‘der schrwarze Tod [Black death] der Schachspieler’\, a nickname that became popular. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nHis unflappable temperament also earned him the soubriquet “the man with the iron nerves’. Even so\, neither his temperament nor his style was suited to set matches\, in which he was rarely successful against world-class players. He had other chess talents: a problem composer\, he was also a fast solver\, allegedly capable of outpacing the great Sam Loyd. Blackburne earned his livelihood by means of simultaneous displays\, for this purpose touring Britain twice-yearly\, with a few breaks\, for more than 50 years. \nChess\, circa 1896\, JH Blackburne\, well known chess player\, who had toured both on the Continent and America\, able to make between 40 to 60 moves when blindfolded by sheer memory (Photo by Bob Thomas/Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)\nBefore this time such displays were solemn affairs; Lowenthal\, who would appear in formal dress and play for several hours in silence\, was shocked when Blackburne turned up in ordinary clothes\, chatting and making jokes as he played\, and refreshing him self with whisky\, (Blackburne confessed\, however\, that when fully absorbed in a game he never noticed whether he was drinking water instead\,) Once\, walking round the boards\, he drained his opponent’s glass\, saying when rebuked He left it en prise and I took it en passant‘ \nThe illustrator Julius Hess depicted Blackburne in a New Yorker Staats Zeitung evening edition as sitting at a chesstable and beckoning: “Waitah! A whiskey and limejuice!” \nHe played his blindfold displays quickly\, and with little sign of the stress that besets most blindfold players. Probably the leading blindfold expert of his time\, he challenged Zukertort\, a close rival in this field\, to a match of ten games\, played simultaneously\, both players blindfold; but Zukertort declined. Many who knew and liked Blackburne subscribed to a fund which sustained him in his last years. \nImage Supplied by a reader of the book ‘Eminent Victorian Chess Players’ to Tim Harding\nP. A. Graham\, Mr Blackburne’s Games at Chess (1899) contains 407 games annotated by Blackburne and 28 three-movers composed by him. \nMr Blackburne’s Games at Chess by PA Graham\nA reprint\, styled Blackburne*s Chess Games (1979)\, has a new introduction and two more games. \nOne of Blackburne’s contributions was the suggestion of using chess clocks rather than the archaic hourglasses. \nHere follows a reproduction of an article from British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXX1 (1961)\, Number 12 (December)\, page 340-342 written by RN Coles entitled “Early Days of a Great Master” : \n“The only record of how J. H. Blackburne first\, entered the chess world is the one provided by P. Anderson Graham in the introduction to his collection of Blackburne’s games. This has all the ingredients of a romanticized version of the truth-the first casual games in a temperance hotel\, then entry to the important Manchester Club and a series of victories over ever stronger opponents until at last Pindar\, Champion of the Provinces\, comes along\, plays the unknown youth and is defeated. \nReference to C. H. Stanley’s column in the Weekly Guardian and Express helps to supply a more accurate version. Young Blackburne’s earliest interest was in problems and he submitted one to the Guardian and Express which appeared in January\, 1861\, only to be found by several solvers to be cooked\, Then silence till May 11th\, when the column carries a note: \nJ. H. B. Problems received with much pleasure…Shall be glad to see you at the Club.” \nHere are a couple of published problems. For a complete listing see below. \nManchester Express\, 1861 \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n#4. 6+4 \nThe Field\, 1893 \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n#3\, 7+6 \n  \nNot yet a member\, clearly. Nevertheless\, he contrived somehow to meet Pindar outside the club and played some games-with him (two scores appear in the Guardian and Express\, July 20th)\, and a set-match of five up was then arranged\, still played in private (Guardian and Express\, August 3lst)\, which “was terminated by Mr. Pindar winning a clear victory\, the score being Pindar 5\, Blackburne 0” (one game was quoted in the July “B.C.M.” and another score can be found in the Guardian and Express\, July 27th. \n“A second match was agreed upon\, level games to entitle either player to the victor’s palm. The result … is calculated positively\, to startle the chess world. The first game was scored by Mr. Pindar; of the next seven\, Blackburne won five and the two remaining were drawn. ‘At this point Mr. Pindar resigned the match.” (Guardian and Express\, September 7th\, with the score of a Blackburne win from this match quoted February 1st\, 1962.) \nOnly now does Blackburne appear to have joined the Manchester Club\, meeting such players as Stanley himself for the first time (Guardian and Express gives the score of a casual game\, November 9th)\, though Stanley later claimed personally to have discovered the young prodigy. \nIn November\, 1861\, Paulsen visited the club and the score survives of a casual game in which he beat Blackburne\, who played a Winawer Variation of the French Defence long before Winawer ever came on the-scene (Guardian and Express\, December\,1861); Paulsen concluded his visit with one of his celebrated ten-board blindfold displays and not unnaturally the young Blackburne eagerly took a board; his defeat is No.25O in his games collection. This so stimulated him that he himself tried blindfold play and by January 20th\, 1862\, was able to give his first display against four boards\, winning them all (Guardian and Express\, January 25th\, with one of the scores). This he followed with seven games on February 8th\,\nwinning five and losing two. (Guardian and Express\, February 8th) and finally ten games on February 8th\, winning five\, losing two\, and drawing three (Guardian and Express\,February 15th\, which quotes the score of one game in addition to No. 254 in his games). \nInter-club matches were something of a rarity in those days and were regarded as of considerable importance when they occurred; one such was the annual Manchester-Liverpool match and in 1862 Blackburne took part for the first time\, being matched against Wellington\, another young player of promise who seems to have got no further; as many games were played between opponents as time allowed and these two young men played three\, all won by Blackburne. (Guardian and Express\, February 22nd\, which quotes the score of one game in addition to No. 138 in the collection). \nDuring this spring the rivalry with Pindar was renewed in a third match for the first five wins and after eleven games the score stood at 4 each\, with three drawn (Guardian and Express\, March 15th\, quoting the score of the eleventh game)\, but I cannot find who won the last game. Since Blackburne was hailed as club champion this season\, one must suppose he was the victor. \nSuch was his first club season. ln June\, 1862\, he played in the London lnternational Tournament and from then on his chess career was public property. \nTo conclude\, here is the score of the eleventh game of his third match with Pindar\, a critical struggle in which his budding mastery appears at the-end. From an inferior opening he struggles into an equal ending but by a rash exchange of Rooks on the 36th move gives Pindar a clear advantage\, which could have been held by 41. P-R4. Blackburne seizes on this omission like a real master to switch into a most accurately calculated queen ending. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nand here is the original article: \nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXX1 (1961)\, Number 12 (December)\, page 340\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXX1 (1961)\, Number 12 (December)\, page 341\nMany juniors and beginners will know the Blackburne Shilling Gambit (or Kostić Gambit) in some circles known (named by Julian Hodgson) as the ‘Oh My God’: \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nThere are variations named after Blackburne as follows : \nThe Blackburne Attack in the Four Knights is \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nand the Blackburne Variation of the Dutch defence is \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nand a popular line in the Queen’s Gambit \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nare attributed to Blackburne in the literature. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nAccording to The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977) by Harry Golombek : \n“British grandmaster and highly successful tournament player who was one of the most prominent masters of the nineteenth century. He did not learn to play chess until the age of nineteen\, but his natural gifts soon brought him into the front rank of British players\, and in 1868 he abandoned his business interests and adopted chess as a profession. \nBlackburne’s international tournament career spans an impressive fifty-two years from London 1862 to St. Petersburg 1914 – a total of 53 events in which he played 814 games\, scoring over 62%. Although he rarely won international events\, he generally finished in the top half of the table and his fierce competitive spirit coupled with his great combinative ability earned the pleasant nickname of ‘the Black Death’. \nJoseph Blackburne (10-xii-1841 01-ix-1924). Photograph from The Encyclopedia of Chess by Harry Golombek\nHis most notable successes were =1st with Steinitz at Vienna 1873 (Blackburne lost the play-off match)\, 1st at Berlin 1881 ahead of Paulsen\, Schallopp\, Chigorin\, Winawer and Zukertort\, and 2nd to Tarrasch at Manchester 1890. \nBlackburne won the BCA Championship in 1868 and for many years was ranked as Britain’s foremost player. In 1914 – at the age of 72 – he shared first place at the BCF congress in Chester. \nIn match play his success was mixed. He defeated Bird in 1888 (+4-1) and Gunsberg in 1881 (+7-4=3) but lost a second match to Gunsberg in 1886 (+2-5=6). He lost to Lasker (+0-6=4) in 1892 and was defeated heavily twice by Steinitz : in 1862/3 (+1-7=2) and in 1876 (+0-7=0)\, the latter of these matches being for the World Championship. \nBlackburne excelled at blindfold play and in simultaneous exhibitions\, which provided a major portion of his income. He died in Lewisham\, a much respected veteran of eighty-three.” \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n\nJoseph Henry Blackburne (10-xii-1841 01-ix-1924)\nEdward Winter discusses the Zukertort-Blackburne game of 1883. \nHere is an article on chess.com by Bill Wall \nProblems of the Black Death by Batgirl \nMeson Database of JHBs problems \nHere is his Wikipedia entry \nEminent Victorian Chess Players\, Tim Harding\, McFarland & Co; 1st edition (20 April 2012)\, ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0786465682\nJoseph Henry Blackburne: A Chess Biography\, Tim Harding\, McFarland & Co; Annotated edition (30 July 2015)\, ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0786474738\nBlackburne : The Black Death in Spades by Bob Long\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-joseph-henry-blackburne/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200909
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200910
DTSTAMP:20260816T134323Z
CREATED:20200427T172617Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260816T134323Z
UID:5027-1599609600-1599695999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Dr. Paul List (09-ix-1887 09-ix-1954)
DESCRIPTION:Remembering Paul List (09-ix-1887 09-ix-1954) \nFrom The Anglo-Soviet Radio Chess Match by Klein and Winter : \n“Paul M List was born in Memel\, Lithuania in 1887. After living in Berlin for many years\, where he was manager of the bridge and chess rooms in a well-known café-restaurant\, he came to this country in 1936. \nPaul M List\nHe has competed in many tournaments\, local and international. He\, too\, failed to get into the prize list in the recent London International Tournament\, but he is a resourceful player\, particularly in defensive positions. \nHis best performance was Berlin\, 1925 where he came first\, ahead of Richter. Since he came to this country he has become an art dealer\, but chess is still one of his foremost activities.” \nScene at London. From left to right – Seated : Fairhurst\, List and Winter in play. Standing König and Sir George Thomas\nHere is an article by Matthew Sadler on the 1954 British Lightning Championship won by List \nDr. Paul List (09-ix-1887 09-ix-1954). Source : The Anglo-Soviet Radio Chess Match.\nHere is his (surprisingly brief) obituary from British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXIV (1954)\, Number 10 (October)\, page 324 : \n“Dr. Paul List\, the British Lightning Championship winner a year ago (though he could not hold the title because he was not a naturalised Briton)\, died in London at the age of 66. A player of master strength\, Dr. List left his native Russia for Germany in the 1920’s\, and began on his second exile in 1938 when sought refuge in this country from Germany.” \nItem from Kington Times – Saturday 02 June 1951 regarding the visit of Dr. List\nFrom The Illustrated London News in 1953 (by BH Wood) : \n“Sixty-five-year-old Dr. (not of medicine) Paul List\, the oldest competitor\, who settled in Britain about 1937 and has been thinking of becoming naturalised ever since\, finished with a marvellous fifteen-and-a-half points out of a possible eighteen” \nDr. Paul M. List. Source : https://www.kingpinchess.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/They-provided-their-own-heat1.jpg\nHere is his Wikipedia entry \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/remembering-paul-m-list-1887-09-ix-1954/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200926
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200927
DTSTAMP:20210925T140242Z
CREATED:20190823T001025Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210925T140242Z
UID:1122-1601078400-1601164799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of WIM Eileen Tranmer (05-v-1910 26-ix-1983)
DESCRIPTION:We remember WIM Eileen Betsy Tranmer who passed away on September 26th\, 1983. \nEileen Tranmer\nShe was the first English woman to be awarded by FIDE the Woman’s International Master title in 1950. \n“From The Anglo-Soviet Radio Chess Match by Klein and Winter : \nMiss E. Tranmer was born in Scarborough\, North Yorkshire in 1910\, and learned chess at the age of six. She did not take it up seriously\, however\, until 1936. Under the tuition of W. Winter she has made notable progress\, and her performances include a second prize in the British Correspondence Championship 1944\, as well as first prize in one of the subsidiary tournaments at Hastings\, 1945. \nBy profession Miss Tranmer is a musician and has played principal clarinet in the Scottish and Sadler’s Wells Orchestras.” \nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume CIII (103\, 1983)\, Number 11 (November)\, page 482-83 (presumably written by Bernard Cafferty) : \n“Eileen Tranmer died in hospital at Ticehurst on September 26th after a long illness. Born in Scarborough\, May 5th 1910\, she was a professional clarinet player and played in a number of prominent British orchestras till forced to retire by deafness. \nMandatory Credit: Photo by ANL/Shutterstock (3880870a)Miss Eileen Tranmer The British Women’s Chess Champion Pictured Here Playing A Clarinet In The Orchestra While Appearing At The Theatre Royal Glasgow.\nOne of the leading British players in the two decades after the war\, Eileen won the British Ladies Championship in 1947\, 1949 (with a 100% score)\, 1953 and 1961\, and played in the British Championship at Buxton\, 1950. Her international record was sparse\, as was the case with nearly all English players of that period. Nevertheless\, she made her mark in the 1949-50 first post-war Women’s World Championship where she finished 5-7th in a field of 16\, beating Bykova\, again\, and finished 7th in the field of 16. \n37th Hastings International Chess Congress\, 1962. USA Ladies champion Lisa Lane (L) playing against British Champion Eileen Tranmer\nWe are grateful to WCM Dinah Norman for sending us these memories : \n“Eileen Tranmer was one of the best English chess lady players of her generation. \nI only played her once at Oxford in an International Ladies Tournament held between 24 July and 1 August 1971. Eileen totally outplayed me and I lost the game. \nEileen was a member of Acton Chess Club where there were three active lady players at that time. They were Jean Rogers\, Olive Chataway and Eileen. Eileen lived in Acton then. \nMandatory Credit: Photo by ANL/Shutterstock (3880957a)Miss Eileen Tranmer The British Women’s Chess Champion.Miss Eileen Tranmer The British Women’s Chess Champion.\nEileen was a professional musician and had to stop playing when she became deaf which was dreadful for her. \nIn 1969 Eileen\, Rowena Bruce and I were selected to play in the Ladies Chess Olympiad Team in Lublin\, Poland. Sadly Eileen was taken ill just before the event so Rowena and I had to play all 13 rounds without a break. I was on Board 1 and at the end Rowena and I were exhausted and I had to withdraw from a tournament in the Czech Republic without playing a game. The food in Poland was awful so we said never again! \n  \nMandatory Credit: Photo by ANL/Shutterstock (3880958a)Miss Eileen Tranmer The British Women’s Champion Chess Player Pictured Playing Some Of The Glasgow Ladies Chess Club At The Green’s Playhouse Cafe Glasgow.Miss Eileen Tranmer The British Women’s Champion Chess Player Pictured Playing Some Of The Glasgow Ladies Chess Club At The Green’s Playhouse Cafe Glasgow.\nEileen was very friendly with Harry Golombek. The expectation among the lady chess players was that they would get married but she never did. Harry did not drive and Eileen was very kind driving Harry and his elderly mother around. \nVery sadly Eileen’s brother was killed in a car crash and after that Eileen suffered mental problems. Eileen lived near John and Jean Rogers and John said Eileen would turn up at their home in the middle of the night wanting to play chess. \nAt Hastings 1959-1960 : Yugoslavia’s red-haired Milanka Lazarevic and Britain’s Eileen Tranmer ran away with the Premier Reserves (afternoon event).\nThe last time I saw Eileen was at Paignton. Her friend Olive Chataway brought her to Paignton and Eileen played in the bottom tournament and did badly. Eileen did not recognise myself or Rowena which was very sad. \n  \nMandatory Credit: Photo by ANL/Shutterstock (4745287a)Miss Eileen Tranmer 43-year-old British Women’s Chess Champion. Box 556.Miss Eileen Tranmer 43-year-old British Women’s Chess Champion. Box 556.\nEileen later left Acton and moved to Tring. Eileen was a pleasant and modest person and was well liked. She had a good sense of humour.” \nFrom the obituary in The Times of London we learn that her last few years were over-shadowed by an illness that preyed on her mind. \nWe take the following game from the August 1944 issue of BCM. The game was played in the BCCA Championship\, and curiously enough there was an enquiry about that event to the BCF only a short while ago – a Georgian journalist wishes to quote that wartime performance as an early example of success by a woman in male chess company! ” \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nGerald Abrahams in Not only Chess\, wrote about Eileen (Chapter 18 : What Achilles Saw Among Women) as follows : \n“To revert to the British Ladies\, they were joined in the late 1930s by a very able pupil of Miss Menchik\, the Yorkshire Clarinettist Eileen Tranmer; a woman whose chess I have seen to express some admirable qualities of mind and character. I had the privilege of watching her is Moscow in 1949-50\, when\, handicapped by influenza of a particularly virulent kind – what the Russians call “grippe” – she won some five or six consecutive games\, to finish in the prize list of the new official Women’s World Championship. There had been two championships before\, which Vera has won easily. Since Vera had unhappily perished in the Blitz\, they looked at Moscow for her successor.” \nHere is her Wikipedia entry \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nWIM Eileen Betsy Tranmer & WIM Rowena Mary Bruce at the 1946 Anglo-Soviet Radio Match\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-eileen-betsy-tranmer/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201020
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201021
DTSTAMP:20211020T221318Z
CREATED:20190823T184412Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211020T221318Z
UID:1110-1603152000-1603238399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Philip Walsingham Sergeant (27-i-1872 20-x-1952)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Philip Walsingham Sergeant who passed away on Monday\, October 20th 1952. \nPWS was born in Kensington on Saturday\, January 27th\, 1872 to Lewis Sergeant and Emma Louisa Sergeant (née Robertson) and was baptised at All Saints Church\, Notting Hill. According to PWS’s baptism record Lewis was an author. \nAccording to PWS in A Century of British Chess : \n“When I was seven years of age – about the period\, by the way\, in which my father began to teach me Greek – he began also to initiate me into chess. Not that he designed it  as a consolatory set-off to my application to Greek; for he loved the Classics well\, though\, going up to Cambridge with  small classical exhibition\, he had turned to Mathematics\, and therein took his degree. ” \nAccording to the 1881 census PWS (aged 9) lived with his parents and numerous siblings : Dorothy (aged 7)\, Winifred (6)\, Hilda (5)\, Bernard (2)\, John (his grandfather aged 76) and Mary (his grandmother aged 75). They had staff\, Elizabeth Fraser and Sarah Martin. They lived at 10\, Addison Road\, North\, Kensington. \nAccording to “Joseph Foster. Oxford Men and Their Colleges\, 1880-1892. 2 vols. Oxford\, England: James Parker and Co\, 1893″ : \nPWS attended St. Paul’s School and then Trinity College\, Oxford to read Classics where he attained Honour Moderations. \nand here is the record from the above publication : \nEntry for Philip Walsingham Sergeant in Joseph Foster. Oxford Men and Their Colleges\, 1880-1892. 2 vols. Oxford\, England: James Parker and Co\, 1893\nWe do not know if PWS played in the Varsity matches of 1892 – 1895 : Britbase does not (yet) include player details for these matches. \nPWS married Minnie Boundford (born 27th February 1889) in 1909 in Hampstead and they lived at 5\, Dukes Avenue\, Chiswick where PWS was listed as an author and Minnie as someone who carried out “unpaid domestic duties”. Minnie was 17 years younger than PWS. Minnie’s father was a joiner and a carpenter. \nThey had two daughters Margaret (born 1910) and Kathleen (born 1911). \nIn October 1946 Minnie and PWS remarried. Presumably this was rather unusual in that day and age. \nAccording to The Oxford Companion to Chess (OUP\, 2nd edition\, 1996) by Hooper and Whyld : \nPWS was an English author of biographical games collections for Charousek\, Morphy and Pillsbury as well as other works of importance such as A Century of British Chess (1943) and Championship Chess (1938). \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (BT Batsford\, 1977) by Harry Golombek : \n“A professional writer on chess and popular historical subjects. Without any pretentions to mastership\, he represented Oxford University in the years 1892 – 5 and assisted RC Griffith in preparing three editions of Modern Chess Openings. \nIn chess he dealt with a number of important subjects : Morphy’s Games of Chess\, London\, 1916; Charousek’s Games of Chess\, London\, 1919; Pillsbury’s Chess Career (in collaboration with WH Watts)\, London\, 1923; Championship Chess\, London\, 1938. \nAll these are lucidly and carefully written but suffer from the defect that\, being neither a master player nor a professional annotator\, he was not competent to deal with the annotational part of the work. Probably his best book on chess was A Century of British Chess\, London\, 1934. \nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXX11 (72)\, Number 11 (November)\, page 324 we have this rather brief obituary (presumably written by Brian Reilly): \n“We regret to have to report the death\, at the age of eighty-one of Philip W. Sergeant\, the author of A Century of British Chess\, which we imagine is in most chess libraries. He was the author of several well-known historical books – but we are only concerned here with his chess activities\, which included representing Oxford University 1892-5; helping RC Griffith with two editions of Modern Chess Openings; playing for Middlesex\, winning the chess championship of the authors’ club for several year\, and latterly as an honoured member; and occasionally obtaining the championship of the Guildford Chess Club. Our sympathy with his widow and two daughters is sincere.”\n” \nHe was a cousin of EG Sergeant. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nFrom Wikipedia : \n“Philip Walsingham Sergeant (27 January 1872\, Notting Hill\, London[1] – 20 October 1952)[2] was a British professional writer on chess and popular historical subjects.[3][4] He collaborated on the fifth (1933)\, sixth (1939)\, and seventh (1946) editions of Modern Chess Openings\, an important reference work on the chess openings. He also wrote biographical game collections of Paul Morphy (Morphy’s Games of Chess (1916) and Morphy Gleanings)\, Rudolf Charousek (Charousek’s Games of Chess (1919))\, and Harry Nelson Pillsbury (Pillsbury’s Chess Career\, with W. H. Watts\, 1922)\, and other important books such as A Century of British Chess (1934) and Championship Chess (1938).” \nHarry Golombek writes that\, “Without any pretensions to mastership\, he represented Oxford University in the years 1892-5”.[3] Golombek considers A Century of British Chess probably Sergeant’s best chess book\, but opines that although Sergeant’s chess books are lucidly written\, they suffer from the defect that\, as a non-master\, he was not competent to deal with the annotational aspect of his work. \nHe was a second cousin of Edward Guthlac Sergeant. \nPhilip Walsingham Sergeant\nCharousek’s Games of Chess\nThe Rice Memorial Chess Tournament\, 1916\nPillsbury’s Chess Career\, London\, 1923\nA Century of British Chess\, London\, 1934\nAn Introduction to the Endgame at Chess\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-philip-walsingham-sergeant/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering,Writer
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201117
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201118
DTSTAMP:20211117T160434Z
CREATED:20190822T164355Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211117T160434Z
UID:1004-1605571200-1605657599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Gordon Crown (20-vi-1929 17-xi-1947)
DESCRIPTION:We remember Gordon Crown who died this day (November 17th) in 1947. \nGordon Thomas Crown was born on Thursday\, June 20th\, 1929 to James Crown (born 18th November 1899) and Hilda M Crown (born 3rd October 1900\, née Sharrott). \nJames was a refrigerating engineer and Hilda carried out unpaid domestic duties. The birth was registered in the district of West Derby\, Lancashire. \nGordon attended Holt Secondary School which is now known as Childwall Sports and Science Academy. \nAccording to the electoral register of 1939 they lived at 8 Ingledene Road\, Liverpool\, Liverpool C.B.\, Lancashire\, England. (This is L18 3HJ in this day and age.) \nAccording to Zoopla : “This 4 bed freehold semi-detached house is located at 8 Ingledene Road\, Liverpool L18 3HJ and has an estimated current value of £581\,000. Ingledene Road has 19 properties on it with an average current value of £492\,220\, compared to an average property value of £325\,035 for L18. There have been 5 property sales on Ingledene Road\, L18 over the last 5 years with an average house price paid of £474\,900. There are currently 108 properties for sale in L18 with an average asking price of £372\,163 and 59 properties to rent in L18 with an average asking rent of £408 pw.” \n8 Ingledene Road\, Calderstones\, Liverpool\, L18 3HJ\nLiverpool Echo 15 April 1946\nBoth Sunnucks and Hooper & Whyld are silent on GTC : surprising! \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977)\, Harry Golombek OBE : \n“Gordon Crown is one the sad might-have-beens of the world of chess. In his short life he had already shown himself to be of master strength and a potentially very great player when suddenly\, at the age of eighteen\, he died during an operation. \nHe learnt chess when aged nine and soon became one of the best players\, first in Liverpool\,\, his home town\, and then in Lancashire\, of which county he won the Junior Championship three years in succession. \nCrown first came into national prominence when he came second in the British Boys Championship in 1946. (Ed : the winner was John Fuller) In the Hastings Congress of 1946/7 he won first place in a strong Premier Reserves Section. \nThe last year of his life even saw him reaching out to international success\, Playing on board 9 for Britain against The Netherlands he scored 1.5 out of 2 against L.J. Tummers. Then he won third prize in the British Championship at Harrogate. As a result of this success he was promoted to board 4 for Britain against Australia in a radio match when he beat Dr. M. Gellis. \nHarry Golombek and Gordon Crown in around 1946-47.\nIn September 1947 he was hurried to hospital suffering from peritonitis and\, being a diabetic\, succumbed under the operation. \nAs a player he excelled in both the opening and endgame phases and possessed a style of play that stamped him as a future grandmaster. As a person he was modest\, clever and a very agreeable companion. This was great loss for British and\, almost certainly\, world chess.” \nWe have reproduced his obituary from British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXVII (1947)\, Number 12 (December)\, Page 387-8 and we assume that this was written by TJ Beach: \n“The tragic death of Gordon on November 17th  after an operation\, will be felt keenly-by chess players throughout the country. Although only l8 years of age he had risen to a high place in British chess circles. Learning the elements of the game in 1938\, he had won the Lancashire Junior Championship in three successive years\, was champion of the Liverpool Chess Club and Merseyside champion with 100 per cent scores last season\, headed his section of the Premier Tournament at the last Hastings Christmas Congress\, and\, filling the vacancy caused by the late withdrawal of R. F. Combe the 1946 champion\, took third prize in the British Championship played at Harrogate in August of this year. \nIn three international team matches he scored l.5 points on Board 9 against Tummers\, of Holland; was one of the two British players to score a full point against the visiting U.S.S.R. team\, sharing honours with Kotov in two finely played games on Board 4; and followed this with a win over Dr. Gellis\, of Victoria\, in the recent radio match with Australia\, despite the earlier loss of the exchange through an oversight. His full match record for the past twelve months in international\, county\, and club matches read: won 16\, drawn 2\, and lost l. (to Kotov). \nHis play was notable for his exceptional knowledge of opening and end-game strategy\, but his prowess was not by any means confined to “book” knowledge. Possessing deep positional insight\, real combinational ability\, and chess experience beyond his years\, his concentration\, tenacity\, and\ndetermination to win had already made him one of the most formidable match and tournament players in the country. Many of us felt that he would become a worthy British champion within the next few years\, and possibly reach even greater heights in the international sphere\, and it is\, perhaps\, not too much to say that many chess players were already looking forward to the day when Gordon Crown would lead British chess to a high place in international esteem: Now those dreams have been rudely shattered\, and the loss to British chess is great indeed. \nGordon Crown was not merely a youthful chess prodigy. Although suffering for many years from the physical disability which has now caused his premature death\, he had a distinguished record at the Holt High School\, Liverpool\, and had entered Liverpool University only a month ago to read for the degree of B.A. Unable to play football and cricket\, in which latter he was deeply interested\, he became a tennis and table-tennis player of well above average ability and was an excellent exponent of billiards and snooker. Among other interests were cycling\, and military history and strategy\, in which he had read and studied widely. \nNo study of Gordon Crown would be complete without reference to his personality quite apart from his ability. Possessed of a quiet assurance and confidence in matters pertaining to chess\, he was modest in victory\, generous in his rare defeats\, and ever ready to help small clubs by means of a lecture or simultaneous display. \nNever too busy to play the humblest novice\, he gave untold pleasure and a new interest in life to many men who had suffered during the war by introducing them to the\nfascination of chess\, and by this means helped materially in the vital task of rehabilitation. With charm and dignity Gordon Crown won a warm place in the hearts and affections of those who were fortunate enough to be counted among his friends\, and whilst our deepest sympathy goes out to his parents in their tragic loss\, they may well ae proud that their son achieved so much that was really worth while within so few years\, for we shall remember Gordon with affection long after his chess exploits are but a dim memory.-T. J. B.” \nThe following is one of the last games\, if not the last; played by Crown in competitive chess. Score and notes from “The Field” \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nand here is the scan of the original article: \nObituary of Gordon Thomas Crown\, part one\nand \nObituary of Gordon Thomas Crown\, Part Two\nWe are grateful to Leonard Barden on the identity of T.J.B. : \n“Thomas John Beach\, wartime RAF navigator with Distinguished Flying Cross\, leading light of Liverpool chess\, regular British championship player for many years\, chairman of BCF junior selectors\, father of a leading Midlands expert\, a good and dedicated man” TJB was the father of Richard Beach who won the British Boys Under 18 title in 1961. \nAccording to the British Chess Magazine\, 1943\, March\, page 56 GTC lived at 8 Ingledene Road\, Calderstones\, Liverpool 18\, England. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nGordon Thomas Crown\, from CHESS\, 1948\, January\, page 86\nOn 17 November 1947 he was admitted to hospital\, complaining of a stomach upset. Diagnosed too late with appendicitis\, complicated by his diabetes\, he died in the operating theatre. \nHis friend (and former British champion) Leonard Barden speculates that had he lived\, Crown would have become at least a strong Grandmaster\, further noting that he was ” … open\, friendly and modest as well as a clear and enthusiastic explainer of his chess ideas; I think he would have been like Keres or Gligoric in their countries\, a model for our young players.” \nHarry Golombek was similarly impressed with Crown’s play\, stating that “In his short life\, he had already shown himself to be of master strength and was potentially a very great player.” \nWe are grateful to be able to use comments from long time friend\, Leonard Barden posted under the nom de plume of Roberts Partner on chessgames.com : \n“As to the circumstances of Crown’s death. The finger of blame must be pointed at the family doctor for failing to make a timely correct diagnosis. On Sunday 16 November 1947 a chess friend visited the Crown home at Ingledene Road\, Liverpool\, and found Crown in bed. He explained that his doctor had diagnosed a stomach upset and had recommended rest. The friend and Crown played and analysed together for several hours\, and Crown did not appear in any physical discomfort. But that night after the friend left his condition deteriorated and he was rushed to hospital where he died in the early morning hours of 17 November. There was also a belief among some Liverpool chess players that the hospital procedures could have been better.” \nand \n“On another thread some CG posters expressed surprise at the Ritson Morry v Crown game where Morry fell into a well-known opening trap. \nThe British championship at Harrogate in August 1947 was played in a spa building where the underfloor heating was still switched on. This coincided with one of the warmest summers on record (it was the year in which Compton and Edrich made their memorable cricket achievements for Middlesex). By the second week of the BCF congress older and overweight players (the latter group including Ritson Morry) were wilting. Ritson also had some long adjourned games\, and by the time of his game with Crown in the final round was exhausted. The game finished in 15-20 minutes so by the time other players went to spectate after their opening moves there was just a reset board with no sign of the players and no indication of what had transpired. Other final round results went Crown’s way so that he finished third outright and thus got selected on a high board for the USSR match.” \nWestern Daily Press 22 September 1947\nand here is an article by ddtru (?) in chess.com : full article \nWe are grateful to renowned chess historian\, Taylor Kingston for supplying these scans of an article from Chess Life in 1947 about Gordon Crown written by Reuben Fine : \nChess Life article about Gordon Thomas Crown\, Part One\nand \nChess Life article about Gordon Thomas Crown\, Part Two\nFrom Wikipedia: \n“Gordon Thomas Crown (20 June 1929 – 17 November 1947) was a promising British chess player who died of appendicitis at the age of eighteen. He is best known for his win against the Russian Grandmaster Alexander Kotov shortly before his death. \nCrown was born in Liverpool in 1929. He finished second in the British under 18 championship in 1946 and improved rapidly\, winning the Premier Reserve section of the 1946/7 Hastings International Chess Congress. This led to his being placed on the reserve list for the 1947 British Chess Championship. Following the withdrawal of the defending champion Robert Forbes Combe\, he was allowed to play in the championship\, where he finished third (Harry Golombek won). \nConsequently\, he was selected to play for the British team in the 1947 Britain-USSR match\, where he caused a sensation by defeating the Soviet Grandmaster Alexander Kotov\, though he lost the return game. He also defeated Max Gellis in a Britain-Australia radio match.” \nInterestingly\, via the EC Forum\, Geoff Chandler pointed out a note by Edward Winter in which Bill Hartston recounts advice from David Bronstein : “Look at the games of Gordon Crown. He really understood chess”. From NOW! magazine\, (6-12 February 1981\, page 80.): thanks Geoff ! \nGordon Thomas Crown\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-gordon-thomas-crown/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201119
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201120
DTSTAMP:20260817T135628Z
CREATED:20210224T120404Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260817T135628Z
UID:14503-1605744000-1605830399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of SIM Graham Mitchell (04-xi-1905 19-xi-1984)
DESCRIPTION:Death Anniversary of SIM Graham Mitchell (04-xi-1905 19-xi-1984) \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-sim-graham-mitchell-04-xi-1905-19-xi-1984/
CATEGORIES:Correspondence,Death Anniversary,English,History,Remembering
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201129
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201130
DTSTAMP:20210514T084840Z
CREATED:20190823T190915Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210514T084840Z
UID:1126-1606608000-1606694399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of IM Robert Wade OBE (10-iv-1921 29-xi-2008)
DESCRIPTION:We remember IM Bob Wade OBE who was born 100 years ago today on Sunday\, April 10th 1921 \nIn 1979 Queen’s Birthday Honours List\, Civil Division Bob Wade was awarded the OBE. The citation read simply : “For services to Chess” \nHe won the BCF Presidents’ Award in 1986. \nIn the Foreword to the 2009 ECF Yearbook\, President Gerry Walsh wrote : \n“As I started this report I had just heard the sad news that IM Bob Wade had died aged 87. I first met Bob at one of the Whitby Congresses and in 1972 he played in the Teeside GM Tournament where I recall he beat the three Hungarian players Portisch\, Bilek and Sax (ed : aged 51).” \nGeurt Gijssen wrote in Chesscafe.com : \n“I received the sad news that Bob Wade passed away at the age of eighty seven. He played his last tournament in London in August. When I was young I read about his exploits as a chess player\, and he was the arbiter in many important chess events. I met him in 1993 when I was the organizer of the first part of the match Karpov – Timman\, played in The Netherlands in three different cities: Zwolle\, Arnhem\, and Amsterdam. He was the only member of the Appeals Committee and Bob was always present watching the games in the playing hall. He gave me invaluable advice about all elements of the match venues. It was very clear that he was an experienced chess player and arbiter\, and I learned many things from him. May he rest in peace.” \nFrom the 1952 Ilford Congress (30 May – 2 June) and originally published in BCM\, July 1952\, page 187. (l-r) : Harold Israel\, Alan Phillips\, Bob Wade\, Otto Friedman\, Abe Yanofsky\, Alfred William Bowen and Harold Meek. Thanks to John Saunders and Leonard Barden\nWade was Southern Counties (SCCU) champion for the 1956-57\, 1957-58 and 1964-65 seasons. \nFrom the Preface of The World Chess Championship : 1951 by Lionel Sharples Penrose we have : \n“Mr. Wade is also passionately devoted to the game. Before coming to Europe\, he was three times champion of New Zealand. He had played in tournaments in England but his chief successes have been on the Continent. At Venice in 1950\, he obtained a high place in a very severe contest in which some of the strongest Russia\, Czech\, Dutch\, French\, Italian\, North and South American players took part. Much of his time is occupied in chess organising and teaching. He is an acting vice-president of the F.I.D.É and in this official capacity he attended the match in Moscow\, which is the subject of this book.” \nIM Bob Wade\nPaul McKeown researched (and Simon Spivack asked permission to reproduce his words) the earliest part of Bob’s life as follows: \n“On May 20th\, 1919\, Thomas Graham Wade\, aged 27\, Sergeant in the NZ Expeditionary Force\, repatriated with honour from war-time service in Egypt\, Gallipoli and France\, married Amy Lilian Neave\, aged 21\, in South Dunedin. A New Zealander of Scots and English descent\, his family was Graham from Montrose. The family name\, Wade\, came from Marshall George Wade\, the soldier and engineer who led the Hanoverian forces against the Scots at the time of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion and was immortalised in the original third verse of the British national anthem: \nLord\, grant that Marshal Wade\,\nMay by thy mighty aid\,\nVictory bring. \nMay he sedition hush and like a torrent rush\,\nRebellious Scots to crush\,\nGod save the King. \nIM Bob Wade\nRobert Graham Wade\, known in the Scots manner to his family as Robin\, and later to his many friends as Bob\, was their first child\, born April 10th\, 1921\, at Dunedin. Over the next few years he was joined by sisters\, Lilian\, Agnes\, Betty\, June\, his brother Ted and finally by his youngest sister Amy. The family lived for a number of years at Portobello. \n\nAt that time\, Portobello was a scattered community of about 150 people with three shops and a pub on the Otago Peninsula. Bob attended Portobello Primary School\, a small country school\, finished “dux” or top of class\, and then attended the King Edward Technical High School at Stuart Street in Dunedin.” \nIM Bob Wade\nIn The Oxford Companion to Chess (OUP\, 1984 & 1996)\, Hooper & Whyld: \n“Wade Variation\, 147\, also known as the Modern Variation\, in the Queen’s Gambit Declined\, Meran Variation\, from Bogoljubow-Wade\, Oldenburg\, 1949; \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n1239 in the French Defence\, introduced by Wade in a match against Schmid in 1950. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nHooper & Whyld go on to write : \n“New Zealand-born Robert Graham Wade (1921- ) won the championship of his homeland three times before moving to England as a young man\, He won the British Championship twice and trained many English players.” \nAside from the two variations mentioned by Hooper & Whyld there are other Wade Variations : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nwhich Jim Plaskett dubbed the “Sidestep Variation” \nand \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nwhich is the Pytel-Wade Variation of the Scandinavian Defence. \nAnne Sunnucks wrote in The Encyclopaedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1970 & 1976) : \n“International Master (1950 Ed: actually 1954)\, International Judge (1958)\, New Zealand Champion three times and British Champion in 1952 and 1970. \nBob Wade was born in New Zealand on 10th April 1921 and is a professional chess player. He has lived in England for many years and has played regularly for the British Chess Federation team in Chess Olympiads. He has played a prominent part in coaching schemes for juniors and is largely responsible for recent successes of English juniors in international events. \nBob Wade v. Aldecoa of the Philippines from the 1958 Munich Olympiad played on October 9th 1958. The game was won by Bob in 60 moves. From the collection of David Jarrett with many thanks.\nHe is chess correspondent of Associated Newspapers and Independent Television News and editor of a series of books on Contemporary Chess Openings published by Batsford. \nAuthor of a number of books on the game\, his publications include books on the World Championship of 1951\, 1957 (ed : this book was\, in fact\, by Golombek) and 1963\, the first in collaboration with W. Winter; The Closed Ruy Lopez (Batsford\, 1970) in collaboration with LS Blackstock and PJ Booth: World Chess Championship (Batsford\, 1972) in collaboration with Svetozar Gligoric; Games of RJ Fischer (Batsford\, 1972) in collaboration with KJ O’Connell and Soviet Chess (Neville Spearman\, 1968). \nWade was a member of the FIDE Laws Commission from 1950 to 1952.” \n\nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977)\, Harry Golombek OBE : \n“International Master who was born at Dunedin\, New Zealand\, but came to live In England in 1946 and has represented both countries on different occasions. He has nearly always done well in British Championships and won the title in Chester in 1952 and again at Coventry in 1970. He had played for the British Chess Federation at the Olympiads of 1954\, 1956\, 1958\, 1960 and 1962\, winning the shortest game of the Varna Olympiad in that year in nine moves against Anton Kinzel of Austria \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nHe played for the New Zealand team at the 1970 Olympiad at Siegen but returned to the BCF team at Skopje in 1972. \nHis best individual international results were a fifth place at Venice 1950 and again fifth at the Masters section of the Capablanca Memorial at Cienfuegos in Cuba in 1975. Possessor of a sharp clear-cut style of play\, he once drew a match with the West German grandmaster Lothar Schmid with neither side drawing a game\, though this was before Schmid received the grandmaster title. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nHe has done much valuable work in England teaching the young\, and was responsible for the text of a highly successful television series in 1975. \nHis main books are : Soviet Chess\, London\, 1967; Botvinnik-Bronstein Match 1951 (in co-operation with W. Winter)\, London\, Toronto 1951; Match Petrosian-Botvinnik\, London\, 1963; Sousse 1967\, The Chess Player\, Nottingham\, 1968.” \nFrom British Chess (Pergamon Press\, 1983) we have this article from George Botterill : \n“In the Birthday Honours list of 1979 Bob Wade was awarded the OBE for his services to chess. Few rewards can have been more thoroughly earned. For some reason\, Bob has always been held in greater esteem abroad than in the country for which he has done so much. But the many players who have turned to him for advice or who have simply enjoyed his hospitality\, which is always ungrudgingly available to fellow chess players\, know the measure of his dedication to the game. \nTheodore Tylor vs Bob Wade at Paignton 1953. Bob held TT to a draw to secure first place\nWade was born in Dunedin\, a third generation New Zealander of Scots and English ancestry. He started a a career as a civil servant in the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Having won the New Zealand Championship in 1944 and 1945 he was sent over to participate in the British Championship of 1946. The result was not exactly a success – a mere 3.5 points out of 11. But Bob was not to be disheartened so easily. Feeling he was capable of better things\, he took leave of absence in 1947 and did the circuit\, such as it then was\, of chess tournament in Europe and North America. \nBob giving a simul in Leeds in the 1950s\nWhen he returned to New Zealand he found that he had been transferred to another department in a civil service reorganisation. The new job was not so congenial. He stuck it out for 6 months – during which time he won the New Zealand Championship for a third time – and then handed in his resignation to take up the precarious life of a chess professional. \nIM Bob Wade\nSettling in Britain he soon gained the IM title (ed : 1954). But even in those days when still a young man Wade did not concentrate exclusively on his own playing career. In 1949 he went to the FIDE congress and was one of the five people – the others were BH Wood\, Ragozin\, Zubarev and Rogarde – who collaborated on the writing of the official rules for the game. \nBob Wade OBE\, Murray Chandler MNZM and David Anderton OBE at the 1986 Dubai Olympiad. Photograph by Frits Agterdenbos\nHe also served as a member of the commission that determined who the original holders of international titles would be. When you consider that Wade was also on the 1950 commission that decided the composition of the World Championship Interzonals\, it becomes apparent that this man played a significant part in the shaping the structure of modern international chess. \nBob at a CentYMCA event with Neil Carr\, Mike Wills\, Aaron Rose and Jon Ady\nAlthough rarely at the top in international tournaments\, Wade was always a very dangerous player\, capable on his day of beating anybody in the world. He won the British Championship twice at Chester in 1952 and at Coventry in 1970. \nBob playing Kick Langeweg at IBM 1961.\nIn recent years Wade has put his main energies into junior training and organisation and also into his work as the editor of Batsford’s highly productive and extremely successful series of chess books. \nBob with John Nunn and Boris Spassky at the GLC Masters\nIt is hard to say in what department one should place Wade’s greatest contributions to British Chess. Living through what is retrospect look to have been the Dark Ages of British chess – the 1950s and 1960s – he has demonstrated that even in a social and cultural environment that made playing chess economically ‘impossible’ profession to follow it was still possible to dedicate a life to chess\, if one had the determination. \nLeonard Barden\, Henry Mutkin\, Adrian Hollis and Bob Wade observe Nick Ivell vs Ken Regan at the 1983 Varsity match\nDuring those years he was really the only British Player who regularly active in international tournaments. Since then he has been constantly active as an author\, editor and adviser\, always working to transform Britain into a country more congenial to good chess. \nBob at the demo board at London Central YMCA chess club.\nBut we suspect that he might regard this role as trainer and coach as the most important thing of all. He is\, quite appropriately the British Chess Federation’s Chief National Coach. \nBob doing one of the things he loved best : teaching. He was discussing a position at Havana 1965. Dr JR Capablanca\, son of the former world champion\, on the right\, interpreted.\nIf one had to choose a single best game from Wade’s whole tournament career\, it would probably be this one. \nGeorge Botterill \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nDr. Fazekas (left) playing Bob Wade at an Ilford Congress\, photographer unknown\nIn the January 2009 issue of British Chess Magazine John Saunders wrote a ten page obituary as follows : \nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, #1 (January)\, pp. 34-43\nLeonard Barden wrote this obituary \nHere is Bob’s Telegraph obituary. \nJohn Saunders interviewed Bob at his Blackheath home and wrote this extensive article for the 1999 British Chess Magazine. \nHis detailed results in Olympiads\, from olimpbase.org\, follow. \nAmsterdam 1954\, England board 4\, 6/12 (+4−4=4);\nMoscow 1956\, England board 3\, 6½/14 (+2−3=9);\nMunich 1958\, England 1st reserve\, 7/14 (+5−5=4);\nLeipzig 1960\, England 2nd reserve\, 6/11 (+4−3=4);\nVarna 1962\, England 2nd reserve\, 6/12 (+4−4=4);\nSiegen 1970\, New Zealand board 2\, 9/15 (+7−4=4);\nSkopje 1972\, England board 3\, 7½/14 (+4−3=7).\nWade won several middle-strength Master events in the British Isles: Ilford 1957 and 1968\, Paignton 1959\, Dublin 1962\, and Southend-on-Sea 1965. \nWade was generally no more than a middle-ranking player in strong international tournaments. His other highlights against high-standard international-level competition include: \ntied 4–5th at Haifa/Tel Aviv 1958 on 7½/13 (winner Samuel Reshevsky);\n3rd at Bognor Regis 1959 on 7/10 (winner Erno Gereben);\n5th at Reykjavík 1964 on 7½/13 (winner Mikhail Tal);\ntied 4–5th at Málaga 1966 on 7/11; (winners Alberic O’Kelly de Galway and Eleazar Jiménez);\n6th at Briseck 1971 on 7/13 (winner Gideon Barcza);\n5th at Cienfuegos ‘B’ 1975 on 10/17; (winners Julio Boudy and Amador Rodriguez);\ntied 7–12th in the World Senior Championship\, Bad Woerishofen 1992\, on 7½/11 (winner Efim Geller).\nWade was the only British player to have faced Bobby Fischer in tournament play (outside of Olympiads). They met three times\, with Wade drawing one game and losing the other two. \nHis detailed Wikipedia entry may be found here \nBob was an active author and wrote (or co-wrote) around 22 books as follows : \nThe World Chess Championship\, W.Winter & RG Wade\, Turnstille Press\, 1951\nHastings Chess Congress 1955-56\, RG Wade & W. Ritson Morry\, En Passant Chess Publications\nChess Tactics for Beginners\, RG Wade\, Bott and Morrison\, 1960\nThe World Chess Championship: 1963 Botvinnik vs Petrosian\, Wade\nSoviet Chess\, RG Wade\, Neville Spearman (UK) & David McKay Company\, Inc\, New York\, 1968\nSousse 1967 : International Chess Tournament\, RG Wade\, The Chess Player\, 1968\nThe Velimirovic Attack\, Sozin Sicilian\, TD Harding and RG Wade\, Chessman Publications Ltd.\, 1969.\nThe Closed Ruy Lopez\, Wade\, Blackstock and Booth\, Batsford\, 1970\nPalma 1970 : Interzonal Chess Tournament\, RG Wade and LS Blackstock\, The Chess Player\, 1970\nThe Games of Robert J. Fischer\, Robert Wade and O’Connell\, Batsford 1972\, 2nd ed. 1972\, reprinted 1973\, First limp edition 1981\, Reprinted 1985\, 1981\, 1989\, Second edition (The Complete Games of Bobby Fischer) 1992\nWorld Championship Interzonals\, Wade\, Blackstock and Kotov\, Batsford\, 1974\nThe World Chess Championship\, Gligoric and Wade\, Batsford\, 1974\nThe Marshall Attack\, Wade & Harding\, Batsford\, 1974\nPlaying Chess\, RG Wade\, Batsford/TVTimes\, 1974\nSicilian Lasker-Pelikan\, 1978\, Batsford\, Wade\, Speelman\, Povah and Blackstock\n44th USSR Championship Final Moscow 1977\, RG Wade\, LS Blackstock and HC Thomas\, Master Chess Publications\, 1977\n45th USSR Championship Final Leningrad 1977\, RG Wade\, LS Blackstock and HC Thomas\, Master Chess Publications\, 1977\nBugojno\, 1978\, RG Wade\, LS Blackstock and HC Thomas\, Master Chess Publications\, 1978\n46th USSR Chess Championships 1978\, RD Keene\, JDM Nunn\, RG Wade\, Master Chess Publications\, 1978\, ISBN 0 906634 00 8\nTournament of the Stars:~ Montreal 1979\, RG Wade\, LS Blackstock\, AL Hosking\, Master Chess Publications\, 1979\nInterpolis Supertournament:~ Tilburg 1979\, LS Blackstock & RG Wade\, Master Chess Publications\, Chess\, Sutton Coldfield\, 1979\nFighting Chess\, Kasparov and Wade\, Harper Collins\, 1983\nTrends in the Reti\, Volume 1\, RG Wade\, 1992\nBatsford Chess Endings\, Speelman\, Tisdall and Wade\, 1993\nChess for Children\, Ted Nottingham and Bob Wade\, Sterling Juvenile\, 1996\nTrends in the Reti\, Volume 2\, RG Wade\, 1996\nWinning Chess : Tactics and Strategies\, Sterling Juvenile\, 2001\nIn 2007 Ray Cannon published the following tribute : \nBob Wade : Tribute to a Chess Master\, Ray Cannon & Ray Keene\, Impala\, 2007\nHowever\, Paul McKeown remains Bob’s official biographer. \nIM Robert Wade OBE\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-robert-graham-wade-obe/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201203
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201204
DTSTAMP:20211202T104020Z
CREATED:20200323T140601Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211202T104020Z
UID:3698-1606953600-1607039999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of A(lfred) Christopher Reeves (19-ii-1939 03-xii-2012)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Dr. A(lfred) Christopher Reeves who passed away on Monday\, December 3rd\, 2012 in St. Agnes\, Cornwall. His probate record (#4073868) is dated December 3rd\, 2012 being recorded in the Bristol registry. \nAlfred Christopher Reeves was born in Wharfedale\, Yorkshire on Sunday\, February 19th\, 1939. His mother’s name was Tomlin. \nAlfred detested his first name to the extent that he asked people to call him Christopher and\, when asked\, told them that the A was for Arthur. For this reason much of the chess literature uses Arthur whereas public records use Alfred. \nIn British Chess Magazine\, Volume 133 (2013)\, Number 1 (January)\, page 2 we have this obituary from James Pratt: \n“Alfred Christopher Reeves (Leeds\, 19 ii 1939 – St Agnes?\, 3 xii 2012). Chris Reeves was a FIDE Master of Composition. He toyed with entering the priesthood but became a child psychotherapist. He started composing (“…my solace and diversion …”) in 1960\, largely specialising in the orthodox two move field. Though not a prolific composer\, his work was known worldwide.\nHe was Sub-Editor of The Problemist” \nFrom the The Encyclopaedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977)\, Harry Golombek OBE\, John Rice writes: \n“British problemist\, output consists of skilfully constructed two-movers in the modern style.” \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1970 & 1976)\, Anne Sunnucks wrote: : \n“Problem composer. Since 1960 he has composed about 70 modern-style two movers\, and is considered to be one of the most talented British composers. His originality and technique enable him to build into tangible form what would be no more than a passing idea for most composers. He has edited the problem section of Correspondence Chess\, and he controlled BCF tourneys and International Team matches.” \nFrom British Chess (Pergamon Press\, 1983) Botterill\, Levy\, Rice and Richardson we have this: \n“I was born on February 19th\, 1939\, the second son of a doctor who practised in a busy Yorkshire coal-mining town. As a youngster I acquired a taste for chess problems as soon as I learnt the moves of the game. \nI owe my initiation to the admirable column which DM Davey used to run in the weekly review The Tablet and to the enterprise of one of the masters of the boarding school to which I was sent when still quite young. Davey’s column catered for novice chess problemists like myself by conducting graded solving tournaments with modest handicaps. \nThese tournaments ran conveniently the length of the school term\, just long enough to sustain a young person’s enthusiasm\, The teacher in question used to put the week’s problem up on the school noticeboard and dozens of small schoolboys participated as a result. The Tablet column was not only a boon for beginners like me. It had a very discriminating band of solvers who were given ample space to express their views on each week’s problems. This had the additional effect of making it a popular forum for budding composers who need the stimulus and encouragement of audience response in what is\, after all\, a very solitary sort of pastime. \nMy fascination with chess problems soon diverted my energies away from the game itself. I was eight when I began solving. Another 13 years elapsed before I seriously tried my hand at composing. My immediate inspiration was the example of the then young trio of British composers\, Barry Barnes\, Michael Lipton and John Rice. Their latest work incorporating\, try-play\, and often exploiting complex patterns of relationships between mates\, was regarded as unacceptably\, ultramodern\, in some quarters but found ready appreciation with the solvers of Davey’s column. \nOther sorts of problems I had enjoyed; these I wanted to emulate. The powerful attraction their work had on me has made me chary ever since of the strictures of self-appointed guardians of chess problem ‘taste’\, who suggest that the modern two-mover cannot hold the same interest for the solver as the more traditional type. It certainly did not have a negative effect on me. \nProblem I was one of my earliest compositions\, in fact the first to gain any sort of award. At the time I was a theological student destined for the priesthood. I recall having felt some scruples about indulging in the frivolous pastime of chess problem composition not that it prevented me from becoming thoroughly addicted! \nI have found that a bad conscience makes a good chess problem\, and the greatest spur for composition is the feeling that one should really be busy doing something else. The problem shows a duel between the white queen and the black knight on d5\, each of whose eight possible moves feature as a unique defence against one of the white queen tries. Solvers have often found the key to this problem’ quite elusive. \nProblem I \nThe Tablet\, 30th June\, 1962 \n3rd Honorary Mention BCPS Ring Tournament \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nWhite to play and mate in 2 \n1.Qa1?…Nc7!\n1.Qa4?…Nb6!\n1.Qb1?…N5b4!\n1.Qc1?…Nc3!\n1.Qe1?…Ne3!\n1.Qf1?…N5f4!\n1.Qg4?…Nf6!\n1.Qg1?…Ne7! \nKey! Qb3! \nThe 1960s were my golden period of problem composition. They were my solace and diversion as I passed by way of theological studies through an Oxford degree to the foothills of a different career from the one I had originally envisaged\, not the ‘cure of souls’ but the management and treatment of emotionally disturbed children and their families. By the end of the decade I was\nalready engaged in working as a Child Psychotherapist. Since then I have found that human problems have tended to displace my former involvement with problems of the chess pieces. Whereas\nbetween 1960 and 1970 I composed seventy problems\, in the subsequent decade I could manage only a dozen more. The reason for this slowing down in production\, however\, has not only been the demands of personal\, family and professional life. \nAs a composer I have concentrated almost exclusively on the orthodox two-move field\, one which if not yet exhausted nevertheless presents a major challenge to the composer to find something new to say or some new way of saying it. It is no accident (though I admit to a slight feeling of regret) of heterodox problems has expanded enormously in the past few years. \nOf my eighty or so problems\, fifty have been honoured in tournaments\, ten with First prizes\, ten with other prizes and the rest with Honourable Mentions and Commendations. My ambition is to\nreach a respectable century of compositions\, though I being to wonder whether I shall ever make the mark. I would also like to reach the FIDE Master norm for problem composition. I have\nhad twenty of my problems included in the triennial FIDE Albums so far\, a few of them joint compositions. Here again\, however\, my productivity (or lack of it) may eventually tell against me. \nStill\, the problemist must always keep the business of honours in perspective. Composing problems is an essentially private business. Your opponent is the power of the pieces\, not a fellow sitting opposite Vou. Unlike the chess player\, one can keep one’s defeats to oneself when one puts the pieces away after a fruitless evening pondering over a board\, so it seems only fair that\none’s successes likewise should be modestly recorded. \nBy a coincidence two of the three problems which I have selected to round off this brief note about myself and my compositions are ones which got no recognition from the tournament judge\nat the time\, although I count them amongst my best works. \nI have chosen a trio of problems all roughly on the same theme\, namely\, the four possible moves of the pawn from its starting square. In chess problem parlance this is called the BP4M* theme when applied to the Black pawn\, and the Albino theme when applied to the White pawn. \nII and III show two ways in which four mates can be provided to meet each of the BP4M moves\, only to be changed in the next phase of play. In II\, the change is between mates set before the key and those operative after it; in III\, the change is more radical\, involving the transfer of the WR from one position to another\, thereby creating two separate but related (or ‘twin’) problems. Incidentally\, a good way to begin to get a taste of what composing involves is to take a problem like III and try to express the theme in full (here the changed BP4M) without resorting to the twinning device. \nMy last example\, IV\, shows a duel between white and black pawns\, with the four Albino tries being met by the four possible BP4M defences. \n(* BP4M is BCNs replacement for a word starting with p now considered by some as offensive.). \nWhilst the player may rejoice in a victory soundly accomplished I can think of few pleasures to compare with the satisfaction which comes from accomplishing the sort of task which IV entails\, especially when one is fairly sure that it has not been successfully achieved before. For me\, at all events\, this is what two-mover chess problem composition is all about: its is the ‘art if the all-but-impossible’!” \nProblem II \nDie Schwalbe August\, 1965 \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nWhite to play and mate in 2 \n1…dxc6+ 2. Bxc6\n1…d6 2.Nd5\n1…d5 2.Qb4\n1…dxe6 2.Bc8 \nKey 1.Qxe5! (2.exd7) \n1…dxc6 2.Nxc6\n1…d6 2.Qf6\n1…d5 2.Qc7\n1…dxe6 2.Qxe6\n1…Rd5+ 2.Nd5 \nProblem III \n1st Prize  \nProblemist Twin Tournament 1966-67 \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nWhite to play and mate in 2 \nProblem IV \nProbleemblad\, May\, 1965 \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nWhite to play and mate in 2 \nClearly Chris was a hugely popular figure in the problem world. Here is a collection of tributes from the BCPS. \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-alfred-christopher-reeves-19-ii-1939-3-xii-2012/
CATEGORIES:Composer,Death Anniversary,History,Problemist,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201208
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201209
DTSTAMP:20211208T155947Z
CREATED:20191208T001021Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211208T155947Z
UID:3679-1607385600-1607471999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of John Fuller (12-v-1928  08-xii-2004)
DESCRIPTION:We remember John Fuller who passed away aged 76 on Wednesday\, December 8th 2004. His death was recorded in the district of Lancaster. At the end of his life he lived in Carnforth\, in Lancashire. \nJohn Arthur Fuller was born in Hendon\, Middlesex on Saturday\, May 12th 1928. His parents were Horace Arthur Fuller (a Bank Officer) and Phyllis Fuller (née Gooch). \nJohn had three brothers: Julian Frederick who was two years older\, Nigel Anthony who was three years younger and Adrian Easterbrook who was six years younger. \nThey lived at 12\, High View\, Pinner in Middlesex. \n12\, High View\, Pinner\, Middlesex\, HA5 3PA\nOn August 26th 1939\, aged eleven\, John (described as a scholar) departed from Liverpool on board the SS Ceramic (part of the Shaw Savill & Albion Company shipping line) and duly arrived one hundred and twenty days later in Sydney\, New South Wales. \nThe family returned to Liverpool in March 1945 on board the Athlone Castle which was of the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company Ltd. John was now sixteen years old. \nAccording to ancestry.co.uk he is survived by a son\, Robert. The family tree indicates that John had two sons and two daughters but his wife is marked as Private and so her name is not visible. We speculate that it may be Ann Fuller (née Dent) but this is awaiting confirmation. \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1972 & 1976) by Anne Sunnucks : \n“British Master\, British Boy Champion in 1946 and British Correspondence Champion from 1953-1955. Born on 12th May 1928 Fuller learned to play chess when he was 11. In 1946 \, the year in which he won the British Boys Championship\, he also tied for the London Boys Championship. He went on to win the Middlesex Championship three times and the Warwickshire Championship twice. Fuller played for England in matches between Scotland and the Netherlands and in the Clare Benedict International Team Tournament. He also had the best British score in the Premier Tournament at Hastings in 1949 and 1955. \nHe was a design engineer.” \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsfords\, 1977) by Harry Golombek: \n“British master and design engineer by profession. British Boy Champion in 1946. Fuller was a player of great promise with a fine understanding of the game. But a serious illness disturbed the even flow of his chess career and\, though he recovered and made some more appearences in the chess world\, he eventually withdrew from chess on an international and national level. \nFuller played twice in the Hastings Premier tournament: =5th 1949/50 and 6th in 1955/6.” \nThe Oxford Companion to Chess is silent on JAF. \nThere has been considerable discussion of JAF in another place. \nBCN would like to acknowledge help received from Richard James\, Leonard Barden\, Rob Fuller and John Upham in putting this article together. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nSubsequent to this post being published our attention was kindly drawn by John Saunders to the obituary in BCM\, Volume 125 (2005)\, #5 (May)\, page 247. Here is the article: \nJohn Fuller (12 v 1928 – 8 xii 2004\, Carnforth) was a British Master and British correspondence champion in 1954 and 1955. Having spent some of the war years in Australia\, he quickly made his mark in junior chess on his return to Britain. He shared first place with Leonard Barden in the 1946 London Boys’ Championship and went on to win the British Boys’ Championship in 1946 with 5/5 in the final section\, ahead of Gordon Crown and Leonard Barden. He beat an off-form Crown in nine moves in the last round (see game above) He played a number of correspondence games with Crown\, himself a richly gifted player\, who w0as to die tragically young in 1947\, and it was reported that Fuller had the better of these encounters. \nFuller became a design engineer\, but his business and chess careers were both affected by a serious bout of tuberculosis when he was a young man. He won the Hastings Premier Reserves ‘B’ with 8/9 in 1947/48 ahead of Alan Phillips and Arthur Winser\, and in 1949 Leonard Barden remembers playing off with him for a place in the 1949/50 Hastings premier after the two of them had made similar scores at the 1949 British Championship. \n“We played the match at Sir George Thomas’s flat in autumn 1949… and John crushed me in that. Not sure of the score\, I think it was 2.5- 0.5.” \nHe played in the Hastings Premier in 1949/50 and again in 1955/56\,and made the best British scores on both occasions – 4/9 and 3.5/9 respectively. He also represented England in matches against Scotland and the Netherlands\, and in the Clare Benedict team tournament. He only appeared three times in British Championships\, scoring 6.5 in 1949\, 5.5 in 1950 and 6.5 in 1958. He ranked in the top ten of the British Chess Federation Grading List on six occasions\, with a best place of third equal in 1958. He seems to have dropped out of over the board competition chess shortly after being awarded the (now defunct) British Master title in 1963/64. \nHarry Golombek referred to Fuller in The Encyclopaedia of Chess (1977) as a player of great promise with a fine understanding of the game”. Alan Phillips told BCM that he was “one of the most promising players of his generation… he slaughtered me three times”. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nLeonard Barden had the following memories of John Fuller: “He was a member of West London Chess Club\, which was historically significant as his good friend and fellow member (both living in Harrow) was Jim Slater\, who 25 years later told me that knowing John was one of the factors which kept his interest in chess up to the point where he became our Maecenas… John was a tall redhead\, outgoing and friendly\, and a natural talent who also worked on theory. With the better opportunities available to later generations I’m sure he would have reached IM strength.” \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-john-fuller-12-v-1928-iii-2005/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200113
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200114
DTSTAMP:20230213T142309Z
CREATED:20200417T141944Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230213T142309Z
UID:4742-1578873600-1578959999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Geoffrey Diggle (06-xii-1902 13-ii-1993)
DESCRIPTION:Death Anniversary of Geoffrey Harber Diggle (06-xii-1902 13-ii-1993) \nHere is his Wikipedia entry \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-geoffrey-harber-diggle-06-xii-1902-13-ii-1993/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Journalist,Player,Remembering,Writer
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200716
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200717
DTSTAMP:20230217T193732Z
CREATED:20200716T220105Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230217T193732Z
UID:7479-1594857600-1594943999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Raaphi Persitz (26-vii-1934 04-ii-2009)
DESCRIPTION:We remember Raaphy(i) Persitz who passed away on Wednesday\, February 4th\, 2009. \nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXIX (129\, 2009)\, Number 3 (March)\, pp. 130-134 by John Saunders we have this detailed obituary: \nRaaphy Persitz\nA tribute to a great friend of British chess\, by John Saunders\nRaphael Joseph Arie (Raaphy) Persitz (26 vii 1934\, Tel Aviv – 4 ii 2009\, Tel Aviv) \n28th December 1955: Israeli chess player Raaphy Persitz in play at the International Chess Congress at Hastings. (Photo by Folb/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)\nRaaphy Persitz\, one of the strongest players resident in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s and also one of BCM‘s most popular contributors\, has died aged 74. Raaphy was born in Tel Aviv\, the grandson of Shoshana Persitz (1893-1969)\, a publisher who became an early member of the Knesset\, the Israeli parliament. Raaphy became Israel’s first junior champion in 1951 and shortly afterwards came to study PPE (Philosophy\, Politics and Economics) at Oxford University where he was a member of their very strong chess team and a close friend of Leonard Barden and others. \nRaaphy Persitz (26-vii-1934 04-ii-2009). 26 year-old Raaphy Persitz at the 1960 Leipzig Olympiad playing on board four for Israel. He scored +6\, =2\, -4.\nOne of his most publicised feats was to win his Varsity match game and also a county match against Hugh Alexander on the same day (see the May 1954 or March 2004 issues of the magazine for further details). Raaphy played three times in the Varsity match and also represented England in three Students Olympiads in the mid-1950s. He represented Israel in the 1960 Leipzig Olympiad on board four\, and also played twice in the Hastings Premier\, in 1955-56 and 1968-69\, the latter being his swansong in competitive chess as he turned his attention to a career in banking which took him first to Switzerland and eventually to his home town of Tel Aviv. As a player his best result was probably finishing third behind Reshevsky and Szabo at the first major international tournament held in Israel\, Haifa/Tel Aviv 1958. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nDespite giving up competitive play\, Raaphy never lost his love of the game and remained an avid reader of magazines and follower of the game until the end of his life. And\, of course\, he remained a perceptive and humorous writer on the game though his output was much lower than in the 1950s. The news of his death came as a particular shock to me as\, only a couple of weeks previously\, he had sent me a fax saying how moved he had been by the tribute I had writ- ten to Bob Wade in the January 2009 issue of BCM. That was typical of his kindness to wards me which dated back to when I took my first tottering steps as BCM editor in 1999. We never actually met in person but spoke occasionally on the telephone and exchanged faxes (Raaphy didn’t seem to communicate by email). \nRaaphy Persitz (26-vii-1934 04-ii-2009)\nAs a long-time reader of the magazine I had enjoyed his Student’s Corner column contributions. The column had been initiated by Abe Yanofsky in the early 1950s and Raaphy had inherited it in 1958. I was particularly delighted when\, in 2004\, after I had written about his 1954 feat in winning his Varsity match game and a county match against English number one CHO’D(Hugh) Alexander on the same day\, Raaphy consented to write another column (which appeared in the May 2004 issue of BCM). I never succeeded in getting him to write another one but it was such a pleasure to have him write for the magazine during my spell as editor. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n(Regarding the above game there is a note from Sally Simpson on chessgames.com as follows: \nRaaphi Persitz agreed to play for Oxford v Cambridge in London and also on the same day for Oxon v Gloucester in a county match in Swindon. \nThis is the second game\, he won both games. \nBe aware that Bruce Hayden in ‘Cabbage Heads and Kings’\, which is where I got this game from\, mentions this but also added that these games took place on the same day as the 1954 Grand National (won by Royal Tan). This is wrong as the Grand National that year was run on the 10 April. \nI think that maybe Bruce saw the score of the games with the two games a day story in a Sunday newspaper covering Saturdays Grand National and perhaps got the dates mixed up. \n) \nThe fax he sent me on 7 January 2009 seems particularly poignant now but it is a good example of Raaphy’s kindness and self-deprecating humour. Here is the full text: \n“Dear John\, I was moved by your wide-ranging obituary of Bob Wade in the BCM[January 2009\, p34l. I dare say you did justice to his contributions and devotion to chess\, spanning well over half a century. I have several pleasant recollections of conversations and over-the-board encounters with Bob. One such tussle\, a hard-fought draw\, was reproduced by Bob\, with comments (in the Student’s Corner) in a book containing his eventful games. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nAnother\, somewhat less felicitous\, recollection harks back to a game we contested at Ilford\, where\, in extreme time trouble\, I blithely played Rxh7+\, expecting …Qxh7\, but overlooking the simple …Kxh7\, leaving me a whole rook down with no compensation\, whereupon I duly resigned. What impressed me at the time was the lightning speed with which Bob reacted to my ill-fated blunder – as if it were nothing but inevitable… \nWith warmest wishes for a healthy\,\nhappy\, fruitful 2009. Raaphy.” \nI had hoped to publish the above as a Letter to the Editor but\, sadly\, it must now appear as part of Raaphy’s obituary. The draw with Bob Wade referred to in the fax was played in Dublin in 1962 and featured in Student’s Corner in BCM in the December 1966 issue on page 356. It seems appropriate to reproduce the game here in tribute to these two recently departed and much-loved chessplayers. \nNotes by Persitz\nUnlike the majority of games that have\, over the years\, appeared in the Student’s Corner\, the following dour struggle between Bob Wade (White) and myself (Black)\, from Dublin\, 1962\, is in no way outstanding: it does not contain any brilliant combinations; it is not a positional masterpiece; it is certainly not devoid of mistakes. Nor is it amusing\, or original\, or of theoretical interest or particularly instructive. Yet (with the aid of the interspersed comments) it ought to give the student a pretty shrewd and realistic idea of the stuff competitive chess is made of: the endless number of laborious variations that have to be examined; the annoying little threats that must be attended to; the treacherous pitfalls to be sidestepped; the technical hurdles to be surmounted; the frustrating little details\, indifference to which may be fatal; in brief\, the drudgery that has become part and parcel of contemporary tournament practice\, without which success is unimaginable. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nRaaphy Persitz Tributes\nLeonard Barden: Raaphy was probably my best friend at Oxford – certainly so among chessplayers. We played hundreds of blitz games in the junior common room at Balliol and later for some months in 1957 we shared a London flat\, analysing Russian championship games over breakfast. He was a wonderful man to know\, bright\, witty\, gentle\, sympathetic and knowledgeable. \nLeonard Barden (centre) with Raaphi Persitz\, JB Sykes\, OI Galvenius and DM Armstrong\, Ilford\, May\, 1953\nA tribute by Amatzia Avni: Ordinary people have a mixture of good qualities and bad ones. After 20 years of friendship with the late Raaphy Persitz I can attest that he was a distinct type: one sided\, positive-only; pure gold. \nI first met him in 1989. I had just written my first chess book (in Hebrew) and was searching for someone to write me an introduction. The word was that Persitz was back in town\, after long years abroad. Having seen glimpses of his amazing linguistic skills\, I contacted him and he agreed immediately. He didn’t know me\, hadn’t read a single sentence of the book\, yet he didn’t hesitate: “yes\, sure\, I’ll be glad to”. \nThat was typical Persitz: always ready to help\, unconditionally. The introduction\, needless to say\, was a sheer delight\, a class or two above the rest of the book. In later years he gave me a hand several times polishing my texts and making them more reader-friendly to English-speaking readers. Somehow he seemed to know what I wished to express better than I did. His suggestions enabled me to convey my meaning in a clear and precise manner. \nRaaphy was modest and reserved. Once I called him and realized he was upset. “My mother had passed away some weeks ago\,” he said. I was puzzled why he didn’t tell me the sad news at the time. “I didn’t want to bother you” was his reply. \nA couple of years ago I stumbled upon Bruce Hayden’s old book Cabbage Heads and Chess Kings. One of the book’s chapters was headed “Raaphy Persitz star or comet?”. I learned that\, in the 1950s\, Persitz gained bright victories in England\, against Penrose\, Alexander\, Milner-Barry and others. Searching a Chessbase database I found out that he also done battle with some out- standing international players. Yet\, in all our meetings and hundreds of hours of conversation\, he never said a thing about that! \nPersitz was a master of understatement. I learned that if I wrote “very fine” or “extremely strong”\, the ‘very’ and ‘extremely’ would fly out of the window. If I made a firm stand on a certain issue\, he would add “probably”\, “apparently’ or “it may be argued that”\, because it was indeed only an opinion\, not a fact. Over time\, following his line of thought made me improve the way I expressed myself and thought about chess. \nPersitz’s distinctions in chess\, in linguistics and in journalism are evident to anyone who ever read his chess books and articles. He also excelled at economics\, but I am unqualified to comment on this. \nGod bless you\, Raaphy. I feel privileged to have known you. Amatzia Avni. \nHere is his Wikipedia entry \n Save as PDF
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