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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200901
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200902
DTSTAMP:20210901T103404Z
CREATED:20190822T155139Z
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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: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
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CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,Hastings,Player,Remembering,Writer
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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: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
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-raaphi-persitz-26-vii-1934-04-ii-2009/
CATEGORIES:2023,British Championships,History,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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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200707
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200708
DTSTAMP:20210708T081939Z
CREATED:20190911T085325Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210708T081939Z
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:20200627
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200628
DTSTAMP:20260817T141140Z
CREATED:20200428T182939Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260817T141140Z
UID:5080-1593216000-1593302399@britishchessnews.com
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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DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200626
DTSTAMP:20210621T084953Z
CREATED:20190823T192347Z
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UID:1138-1593043200-1593129599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Marmaduke Wyvill (22-xii-1815 25-vi-1896)
DESCRIPTION:Remembering Marmaduke Wyvill (22-xii-1815 25-vi-1896) \nHere is his Wikipedia entry \nHere is an excellent article from the Yorkshire Chess History web site. \nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess by Hooper & Whyld : \nHe was winner of second prize in the first international tournament\, London 1851. He developed his chess skill in the 1840s\, meeting Dubois in Rome\, Kieseritzky in Paris\, and many players\, including Buckle\, in London\, His style was that of the English school\, and he understood well the positional ideas of the English opening and the Sicilian Defence. In 1847 he was elected Member of Parliament for Richmond\, Yorkshire\, a seat he held until 1868 except for a break of two years. The London 1851 tournament consisted of a series of knock-out matches. After defeating Williams (+4-3) in the third round and losing to Anderssen ( + 2=1-4) in\nthe fourth and final round\, Wyvill was placed second. His score against Anderssen was better than that made by other players (Kieseritzky\n“1—2\, Szen +2—4\, Staunton +1—4)\, Wyvill had\nproved himself one of the leading players of his time. Although he played in no more tournaments he retained an interest in the game throughout his\nlife. \nHere is an example of the Wyvill pawn formation : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nThe Wyvill formation is a name given by Tarrasch to a pawn formation with doubled pawns as shown above. This formation was not unfamiliar to Wyvill but could with more justification have\nbeen named after Winawer who so frequently doubled his opponent’s c-pawns that this and similar formations became known as his trademark. The technique for attacking the Wyvill formation was also understood by Neumann and before him by Carl Hamppe (1814-76)\, the leading\nViennese player of the 1850s. \nMarmaduke Wyvill at Leamington Spa\, seated third from left.\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-marmaduke-wyvill/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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DTSTAMP:20210621T084640Z
CREATED:20190624T001040Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210621T084640Z
UID:6378-1592956800-1593043199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Alan Phillips (28-x-1923 24-vi-2009)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Alan Phillips (28-x-1923 24-vi-2009) \nHere is his far too brief Wikipedia entry \nFrom Chessgames.com : \n“Alan Phillips\, joint British Champion in 1954\, was born in England in 1923. He was the author of Chess: 60 Years on with Caissa and Friends (Caissa Editions\, 2003) and The Chess Teacher (Cadogan\, 1995).” \nHere is an item from the Shropshire Chess web site \nHere is Alan Phillips autobiography from his own book\, Chess: Sixty years on with Caissa & Friends \n“Born in Stockport in 1923\,I was playing pontoon in an air-raid shelter in the autumn of 1940 with a friend from our school\, Stockport Grammar\, when he suddenly announced that he knew a better game\, being the school chess champion. Ostensibly studying for a Cambridge Scholarship with a view to reading Classics\, I played about 200 games with Norman Stephens\, emerging the victor perhaps because I studied Alekhine’s and Euwe’s games\, obtained from the Public Library\, whence I had been borrowing difficult piano works for the previous two years. When I got up to Magdalene in 1941\, I found standing next to me in the University Chess Club Wykehamist James Lighthill\, destined to become\, arguably\, our greatest applied mathematician of the second half of the last century; I played chess with him one evening a week and piano duets another\, and as Match Captain and Hon.Sec. in my second year – shared top board\, while now supposedly reading Italian\, as a War Office scheme\, and French\, languages I unfortunately then considered beneath contempt\, compared with the glory that was Greek. \nAlan Phillips plays David Hooper on August 20th 1954 in round five of the British Championships in Nottingham\, photographer unknown\nEnrolled but not commissioned – the War Office having ratted on its promise to a large bunch of first-class linguists – in the Army Intelligence Corps from August 1943 to October 1946\,I spent nearly three years abroad in Sicily and Palestine\, riding a motor-bike – our American equivalents in the CIC were mostly majors or colonels and rode in Cadillacs – and playing\, when stationary\, much music with singers and violinists\, especially in Palestine\, and chess with the Captain of the Harbour in Sicily\, a charming moustached Neapolitan who got about three draws in 300 games\, and then in Haifa\, Hadera and Jerusalem chess clubs\, beating the youth champion of Palestine and Aloni when he played simultaneously\, but losing to Porath\, and enjoying ‘skittles’ in cafes with many other players of near-master rank. Demobilised and put\, like the Goons\, on the Z-reserve in autumn 1946\, I went back to Cambridge to read Classics Pt II and found Peter Swinnerton-Dyer\, as far as I know our best number theorist of the past fifty years\, waiting for me – we tied for the University Championship having begun a series of trips to Hastings with Alan Truscott\, and later continued to Birmingham for the Midland Championship\, which I won in 1951. I usually won prizes in increasingly strong sections at Hastings except in two Premiers\, 1950-1 and 1954-5\, when my emotions were otherwise engaged\, as happened in the British Championship in 1952\, when\, after I had beaten all the best players and scored 7/8 with three rounds to go\, a girl-friend turned up and I lost my last three games\, refusing a draw in round nine in a not superior position\, not out of arrogance\, but in order to clinch the title. \nAlan Phillips and Leonard Barden are joint British Champions of 1954 in Nottingham\, photographer unknown\nOtherwise\, with one or two exceptions\, I only lost to the strongest players in the British Championships I played in\, i.e. 1949-55 and 1961\, tying for first place at Nottingham 1954 and coming third equal in a very strong Championship at Aberystwyth 1955\, which earned me a place as Board 6 on the English team at the Moscow Olympiad in 1956\, where I only drew against Luxembourg\, and lost to Geller\, but drew in two cases from bad positions with Johner\, Sanguinetti and Ghitescu. \nDavid Hooper (left) in conversation with Alan Phillips. Location and photographer unknown.\nIn l96l I moved up to Derbyshire\, where – though playing top board for Manchester as well as the county – having switched to Maths teaching after several years part-time study at Birkbeck and acquired offspring as well as promotion\, I also started annual visits to Dartington Summer School of Music\, now totalling 38 out of a possible 40\, all of which made it virtually impossible for me to play in tournaments\, apart from the odd visit to Hastings or fairly strong week-end tournaments\, e.g. Ilford\, which I won for the second time in 1973\, beating Basman. My responsibilities on my return to London as Head of Charlton School in 1967\, where I got Bob Wade to teach chess as part of mathematics in the Lower School\, and then of Forest Hill School\, where we organised many tournaments\, although I played generally as top board for Kent\, whom I led twice to victory in the County Championship in 1975 and 1976\, meant that I had even less time for tournament chess\, except at Islington and in the Challengers\, so that my real heyday ended there\, with a final move to a ‘quiet’ county\, Shropshire – as far as chess was concerned – as Adviser for Secondary Education and Area Adviser\, 1976-82\, in which capacity I avoided as much paper-work as I could and taught chess in the lunch-hour to all the primary and handicapped pupils I visited. I should say most of my successes at chess have been at County Level\, where I played top board for Cambridgeshire and London University\, as well as the counties mentioned\, and in the very strong London League\, as far as I can estimate I had a success rate of some 70% in those contests. In general the games in this book\, with one or two exceptions for historical or anecdotal reasons\, were played at high levels\, and won by the right player\, not suddenly lost by a blunder\, like some games published nowadays because the blunder is perpetrated by a famous player. \nPhotograph taken in Hastings on 28 December 1950. Lord Dunsany (standing on the right) is watching the first-round game between Alan Phillips and Weaver Adams\, source : http://boylston-chess-club.blogspot.com/\nWith regard to the general assessment of players and tournaments\, I have only one comment “Look at the games!” When even\, or especially\, David Bronstein wails “They give me a number”\, I think it time to end a spuriously precise system and revert to the earlier English practice or the traditional Soviet one of putting players in classes\, preferably according to a sufficiently large number of results in tournaments or strong club or county matches. And when players are inhibited\, when the match is won\, from offering an opponent\, who has played well\, a draw\, that is a diminution of sportsmanship\, so a draw\, even with Kasparov\, should not count in grading. Finally the use of seconds or computers once a game is started should be\nregarded as totally unsporting\, and players should be put on their honour\, as bridge-players are in matters of cheating\, not to use them. \nI should like to dedicate this book to the memory of my good friends\, David Hooper\, Stuart Milner-Barry\, and A.R.B.Thomas\, men of integrity\, humour\, and many other talents\, who brought to their chess the same qualities of courage and sportsmanship they showed in the rest of their lives. \nAlan Phillips (28-x-1923 24-vi-2009) : Source : https://www.shropshirechess.org/History/1970s.htm\nAlan Phillips\nBritish Master\, Joint British Champion 1954\nThorn Cottage\, Appleton Thorn\, Warrington\, Cheshire\nSeptember 2003″ \nObituary of Alan Phillips by John Saunders from British Chess Magazine\, 2009. Part One\nObituary of Alan Phillips by John Saunders from British Chess Magazine\, 2009. Part Two\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 obituary from The Times of London \nThe Chess Teacher\nChess: Sixty years on with Caissa & Friends\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-alan-phillips-28-x-1923-24-vi-2009/
CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering,Writer
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200621
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200622
DTSTAMP:20210621T084120Z
CREATED:20190824T095122Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210621T084120Z
UID:1146-1592697600-1592783999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Sir Richard Clarke KCB CB OBE (13-viii-1910 21-vi-1975)
DESCRIPTION:BCN Remembers Sir Richard Clarke KCB OBE who passed away on June 21st 1975. \nAccording to chess-poster.com : “Clarke died in the University College Hospital\, in London\, on 21 June 1975 and was cremated at Golders Green three days later. He was survived by his wife Brenda Pile (married in 1950\, née Skinner) and their three sons.” \nOne of those sons is Charles Rodway Clarke along with his brothers Mark G and Timothy Rodway. \nRichard William Barnes Clarke was born on August 13th\, 1910 in Basford\, Derbyshire. The birth was registered in Ilkeston in the district of Erewash. His parents were a secondary and technical school schoolmaster of science\, William Thomas Clarke and Helen Rodway Clarke (née Barnes). Richard was baptised on October 1st 1910 in St. Lawrence (Anglican) Church in Heanor\, Derbyshire. \nThe 1911 census records the family living at “Iona” which was a modest property in Fletcher Street in Heanor which had six rooms.  Richard was seven months old and he had a three year old sister\, Stella Helen Clarke. The family retained a nineteen year old domestic servant\, Ada Mary Brown who has been born in Codnor\, Derbyshire. \nRichard was educated at Christ’s Hospital\, London followed by Clare College\, Cambridge. At University he studied mathematics specialising in statistics. He was ranked at the sixth “wrangler“. Subsequently he was awarded the Frances Wood Prize by the Royal Statistical Society. \nIn 1944 Richard was awarded the OBE for his work as Planning Officer for the Ministry of Production followed by Companion of the Bath in 1951 for his work as Under Secretary at HM Treasury and in 1964 he was made Knight Commander of the Bath for his work as Second Secretary at HM Treasury. \nAccording to chess-poster.com : “He was commonly known as Otto Clarke” and according to his son Mark the nickname “Otto” was possibly because of Clarke’s “forceful” personality was considered Germanic. According to Sir Sam Brittan\, “it was because his round glasses and the bridge over the nose looked like OTTO.” \nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess by Hooper & Whyld : \nCreator of the British system of grading. He gave up active chess after leaving Cambridge University where he played second board between C.H.O’D. Alexander and Jacob Bronowski. \nAt first a financial journalist (one of the two who created the Financial Times Index)\, he became\, at the outbreak of the Second World War\, a temporary civil servant\, remaining to become one of the most distinguished of them\, and to receive a knighthood. \nAccording to Arpad E. Elo in “Ratings of Chessplayers Past and Present” : “In the chess world\, rating systems have been used with varying degrees of success for over twenty-five years. Those which have survived a share a common principle in that they combine the percentage score achieved by a player with the rating of his competition. They use similar formulae for the evaluation of performance and differ mainly in the elaboration of the scales. The most notable are the Ingo (Hoesskinger 1948)\, the Harkness (Harkness 1956)\, and the British Chess Federation (Clarke 1957) systems. These received acceptance because they produced ranking lists which generally agreed with the personal estimates made by knowledgeable chessplayers.” \nHere is an article in full reproduced from British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXXIII\, Number 2\, February\, 1963\, pages 49 -53 : \nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXXIII\, Number 2\, February\, 1963\, page 49\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXXIII\, Number 2\, February\, 1963\, page 50\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXXIII\, Number 2\, February\, 1963\, page 51\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXXIII\, Number 2\, February\, 1963\, page 52\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXXIII\, Number 2\, February\, 1963\, page 53\nThe June 1975 issue of British Chess Magazine announces his passing and promises that a tribute would follow : it never did. \nSir Richard Clarke (13-viii-1910 21-vi-1975)\, National Portrait Gallery\, Rex Coleman\nHere is his Wikipedia entry \nHere is a small article from chess-poster.com \nHere is detail about the Clarke Grading System \nand more about chess ratings systems in general \nThe Economic Effort of War\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-sir-richard-william-barnes-clarke/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Honours,Remembering
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200620
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200621
DTSTAMP:20210616T140110Z
CREATED:20200412T102259Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210616T140110Z
UID:4536-1592611200-1592697599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Johannes Zukertort (07-ix-1842 20-vi-1888)
DESCRIPTION:BCN Remembers Johannes Hermann Zukertort (07-ix-1842 20-vi-1888) \nJohannes Hermann Zukertort (07-ix-1842 20-vi-1888)\, from the Illustrated London News\nFrom the July 2012 editorial in British Chess Magazine we had this report : \n“Johann Hermann Zukertort’s (1842-1888) grave was rededicated last month in London’s crowded Brompton Cemetery\, largely thanks to an initiative led by Stuart Conquest. The resting place of one of the leading players of the nineteenth century was recorded but the grave had fallen into terrible dis-repair. See BCM 1888\, pp.307-8 and p.338-340 for the obituary of the great man. We read that his death ‘was terribly sudden’\, that he was buried on 26th June\, 1888 and that ‘several pretty wreaths were laid on the coffin …’” \nGM Stuart Conquest at the re-dedication of Zukertort’s grave at Brompton Cemetery in June 2012\, photograph by Ray Morris-Hill\nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess by Hooper & Whyld : \nPolish-born Jew\, from about 1871 to 1886 second player in the world after Steinitz. From about 1862 to 1866 Zukertort\, then living in Breslau\, played many friendly games with Anderssen\, at first receiving odds of a knight but soon meeting on even terms. They played two matches in Berlin\, Zukertort losing the first in 1868 (+3 = 1—8) and winning the second in 1871 (+5 — 2). \nIn 1872 a group of London players\, anxious to find someone who could defeat Steinitz\, paid Zukertort 20 guineas to come to England. He came\, he stayed\, but he failed to beat Steinitz. \nZukertort took third place after Steinitz and Blackburne at London 1872\, the strongest tournament in which He had yet played\, and later in the year was decisively beaten by Steinitz in match play ( + 1=4—7). Zukertort settled in London as a professional player. \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 won matches against Potter in 1872 ( + 4=8—2)\, Rosentalis in 1880 ( + 7=11-1)\, and Blackburne in 1881 ( + 7=5-2)\, He also had a fair record in tournament play: Leipzig 1877\, second equal with Anderssen after L. Paulsen ahead of Winawer:-* Paris 1878\, first ( + 14=5—3) equal with Winawer ahead of Blackburne (Zukertort won the play-off\, +2=2); Berlin 1881\, second alter Blackburne ahead of Winawer; and Vienna 1882\, fourth equal with Mackenzie after Steinitz\, Winawer\, and Mason. \nJohannes Herman Zukertort (07-ix-1842 20-vi-1888)\nThe world’s nine best players were among the competitors in the double-round London tournament of 1883 when Zukertort achieved his greatest victory: first prize (+22—4) three points ahead of Steinitz\, the second prize winner\, in seven weeks and a day he played 33 games (seven draws were replayed) and towards the end he relieved the strain by taking opiates\, the cause of his losing his last three games. This victory led to the first match for the world championship\, a struggle between him and Steinitz\, USA\, 1886. After nearly ten weeks of relentless pressure by his opponent Zukertort lost (- 1 – 5=5 —10) i winning only one of the last 15 games. His spirit crushed\, his health failing\, he was advised to give up competitive chess\, but there was nothing else he could do. I am prepared\, he said\, l to be taken away at any moment.’ Seized by a stroke while playing at London’s famous coffee-house\, Simpson’s Divan\, he died the next day. \nJohannes Zukertort playing Wilhelm Steinitz\nLike Anderssen\, his teacher\, Zukertort had a direct and straightforward style\, and in combinative situations he could calculate far ahead. Having a prodigious memory he could recollect at will countless games and opening variations\, a talent which may have limited his vision. (For his match with Steinitz in 1872 his extensive opening preparations brought him only one win. Steinitz was the better player in unfamiliar situations.) As an annotator and analyst Zukertort was outstanding in his time\, and much of his work in these fields appeared in the Chess Monthly which he and Hoffer edited from 1879 to 1888. \n\nZukertort read widely and what he read became\, as he said ‘iron-printed in my head’. Hoffer recalls Zukertort holding a visitor from India spellbound with a convincing and detailed account of a tiger-hunt\, although it must have been outside his experience. Zukertort’s own account of his early life was reported in the Norfolk News\, 16 Nov. 1872\, He claimed aristocratic (Prussian and Polish) descent\, and fluency in nine languages. “He learnt one language to read Dante\, another to read Cervantes\, and a third\, Sanskrit\, to trace the origin of chess\,’ Besides the study of theology\, philology\, and social science he is also an original thinker on some of the problems that perplex humanity \, ” He is ‘an accomplished swordsman\, the best domino player in Berlin\, one of the best whist players living\, and so good a pistol shot that at fifteen paces he is morally certain to hit the ace of hearts . \, \, has found time to play 6\,000 games of chess with Anderssen alone … a pupil of Moscheles\, and in 1862-6 musical critic of the first journal in Silesia … is also a military veteran … he served in the Danish\, in the Austrian\, and in the French campaign \, \, \, he was present at the following engagements\, viz\, in Denmark\, Missunde\, Duppcl\, and Alsen; in Austria\, Trauienau\, Koniginhof\, Kdniggratz (Sadowa)\, and Blumcnau; in France\, Spicheeren\, Pange (Vionville)\, Gravelotte\, Noisevillc\, and all other affairs before Metz\, Twice dangerously wounded\, and once left for dead upon the field\, he is entitled to wear seven medals besides the orders of the Red Eagle and the Iron Cross\, . . . He obtained the degree of M.D. at Breslau in 1865\, having chiefly devoted his attention to chemistry under Professor Bunsen at Heidelberg\, and to physiology at Berlin under Professor Virchow … is now on the staff of Prince Bismarck’s private organ\, the Allgemeine Zetiling\, and is chief editor of a political journal which receives “officios’” from the Government at Berlin. He is . . . the author of the Grosses Schach Handbuck and a Leitfaden \, and \, . . was for several years editor of the Neue Berliner Schachzeitung. ’ There is some truth in the last sentence: he was co-author of the books\, co-editor of the chess magazine. \nA. Olson\, J. H. Zukertort (1912) is a collection of 201 games with Swedish text. \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 by Anne Sunnucks \n“One of the leading players of the last century\, Zukertort was born in Riga on 7th September 1842. His father was a Prussian and his mother a Pole. When he was 13\, his family moved to Breslau. After studying chemistry at Heidelberg and physiology at Berlin\, he obtained his doctorate of medicine at Breslau University in 1865. He served as a doctor with the Prussian Army during his country’s wars against Denmark\, Austria and France and was decorated for gallantry. \nZukertort was a man of many talents. He had a prodigious memory\, and it was said that he never forgot a game he had played. He spoke 11 languages\, and he was an excellent pistol shot and fencer but it was journalism and chess that he chose for a career. \nZukertort learned to play chess when he was 18\, and two years later he met Anderssen and became his pupil. Within three years he had become one of the strongest players in North Germany. He first drew attention to himself as a blindfold simultaneous player. In 1868\, he gave a simultaneous blindfold display against seven players in Berlin. This was his first blindfold performan@\, and it was so successful that he gave several further performances\, almost immediately increasing the number of his opponents to 12. \nBetween 1867 and 1871\, he was joint editor with Anderssen of the Neue Berliner Schachzeityng. In 1871 he played a match against Anderssen\, probably the second strongest player in the world at that time\, and beat_him by 5-2. Following this victory\, he was invited to take part in the 1872 London Tournament. He came 3rd and\, probably because he was disappointed at his result\, immediately challenged – the winner\, Steinitz\, to a match for the title of World Champion. Steinitz had claimed this title after his victory over Anderssen in 1866. Zukertort lost the match by + 1 -7 :4. \nA Zukertort Postage Stamp from Guinea\nMeanwhile\, Zukertort had decided to make England his permanent home and became a naturalised Englishman in l878. \nZukertort tied with Anderssen for 2nd prize in a master tournament in Leipzig in 1877\, but his first major international event was Paris 1878\, when he tied for lst place with Winawer and won the play-oft. In 1880 he beat the French champion\, Rosenthal\, in a match 7-1\, and the following year he beat Blackburne +7 -2 – 5. The greatest performance of his career came in 1883\, when in the London Tournament he won lst prize\, three points ahead of Steinitz\, who came 2nd. His victory was certain two weeks before the end of the tournament when he had a score of  22 out of 23. With victory secure\, he went on to lose his last three games\, the strain having proved too much. \n\nZukertort was advised by his doctor to give up serious chess but he refused and within a short time left England for a chess tour of the United States\, Canada and Europe. On his return from this tour\, he left almost immediately to play a second match for the world title against Steinitz. This took place in 1886. Zukertort was in no fit state of health\nfor such a match\, and it proved too much for him. He lost by +5 -10 =5 and returned to England a physical and nervous wreck. \nZukertort never fully recovered. He continued to play chess\, but with little success. He died at Charing Cross Hospital on 20th June 1888 of cerebral haemorrhage\, following a game at Simpson’s ‘Divan’.” \nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess by Harry Golombek : \n“One of the most talented players of all time and possibly an English Prussian Polish Jewish grandmaster\, the antecedents and early career of Zukertort are shrouded in mystery\, a mystery that was the more complete in that the only account of these comes from Zukertort with a lack of corroboration so great that perhaps he really was telling the truth. Whatever the truth may be it is certain that he was a great chess player\, one of those who carry with them the aura of certain genius. According to Zukertort\, then\, he was born in Lublin of mixed Prussian and Polish descent and his mother was the Baroness Krzyzanovska. The name of his mother sounds incredibly like an invention of W. C. Fields and it is difficult to believe that his father’s name\, Zukertort\, was not Jewish. \nAgain according to Zukertort he studied chemistry at Heidelberg and physiology at Berlin\, claiming to have obtained his doctorate of medicine at Breslau University. His versatility was astonishing. He spoke nine languages including Hebrew and was acquainted with several more. He had been a soldier\, having fought in several campaigns for Prussia against Austria\, Denmark and France; and once had been left for dead on the battlefield. \nA music critic\, editor of a political paper\, on the staff of Bismarck’s newspaper\, the Allgemeine Zeitung; gifted with a memory so colossal that he never forgot a game he played; a consummate fencer\, a blindfold simultaneous player of undoubted repute (he had played as many as fifteen simultaneously blindfold) and a grandmaster with justified pretensions towards the world title: most of these attributes we have to take on Zukertort’s word. But there is enough left that is substantiated to show his great importance in the history of chess. \nHis early chess career had much to do with Anderssen whom he beat in a match\, when Anderssen had grown old\, in 1871 in Germany by +5-2\, having lost a previous match to him in Berlin in 1868 by +3 -8 =1. On the strength of his win over Anderssen in the second match he was invited to play in a small but strong tournament in London in 1872 where he came 3rd below Steinitz and Blackburne. Immediately afterwards he played a match with Steinitz in which he was overwhelmingly defeated by +1-7 =4.It is unlikely that this was for the World Championship since no mention was made of the title at the time and the stakes were small\, £2O for the winner and £l0 for the loser. \nDespite this disastrous loss\, which contained the seeds of further disasters\, Zukertort felt that London was his true home and decided to stay in England\, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1878. His results in tournament and match play from then on showed a steep upward curve. He was 2nd in London 1876\, lst in a small tournament in Cologne 1877 and :2nd at Leipzis that year. He came lst in a big tournament at Paris 1878 where he tied with Winawer and won the play-off. \nIn 1880 he won a match in London against Rosenthal by +7 -l =11 and in the following year he was 2nd to Blackburne in Berlin. He was no less than 3 points behind Blackburne but he avenged this by beating him in a match in London the same year by +7 -2 =5. \nA comparative setback came in a great tournament at Vienna in 1882 when he tied for fourth place with Mackenzie\, below Steinitz\, Winawer and Mason but in 1883 came the peak of his career when\nhe won lst prize in the great London tournament\, 3 points ahead of Steinitz and 5.5 points ahead of Blackburne who came 3rd. \nThe remarkable nature of his victory is to be seen from the fact that he was sure of first prize with some two weeks still to go when he had a score of 22/23. But\, ominously\, his health was giving way and he had been sustaining himself by the use of drugs. He lost his last three games. It is very probable that this high point in his career was also the time when his health began to deteriorate under the excessive nervous strains by his conscious efforts to out rival Steinitz. \nThus\, though he had been warned by his doctor he refused to abandon serious play and in 1886 he played his match for the World Championship against Steinitz in the USA\, losing by +S -10 =5. The strain was this time too great an and he returned to England with his health completely shattered. \nThis was reflected in his subsequent results. =7th in London 1886 and =3rd in a smaller tournament at Nottingham that year\, he had disastrous results throughout 1887: =l5th at Frankfurt-am-Main\, 4th in a small tournament in London and a match loss there to Blackburne by +1-5:8. \nIn the last year of his life he was =7th in London in 1888 playing to the last possible moment\, he died from a cerebral haemorrhage after a game at Simpson’s Divan. \nDespite a career that stopped as if it were halfway\, Zukertort is clearly one of the chess immortals and there is about his best game a sort of resilient and shining splendour that no other player possesses.” \nZukertort was buried in the Brompton Cemetry. He are details. \nThe grave was rededicated in 2012 thanks to the efforts of many chess enthusiasts. \n\nSeveral opening variations have been named after Zukertort : \nThe Zukertort Defence in the Vienna Game\, a variation advocated by Zukertort from 1871. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nAfter 6 exd5 Bg4T 7 Nf3 Black castles\, sacrificing a piece for counterattack : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nThe Zukertort Opening\, 1.Nf3 abhorred by Ruy Lopez\, used by Zukertort always as a preliminary\nto 2.d4\, now the fourth most popular opening move\, after 1.e4\, 1.d4\, and 1 c4. \nThe Zukertort variation\, in the Spanish opening\, favoured by Zukertort in the 1880s : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nbut laid to rest soon after. \nThe Zukertort Variation in the Philidor Defence : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nPossibly the Colle-Zukertort Opening is the most well-known \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 still continues to be written about to this day. \nHe was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2016. \nHere is an interesting article from the ruchess web site. \nDominic Lawson wrote this article in 2014. \nAn interesting article from chess.com \nHere is his Wikipedia entry \nJohannes Zukertort: Artist of the Chessboard\nEminent Victorian Chess Players\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-johannes-zukertort-07-ix-1842-20-vi-1888/
CATEGORIES:Birthday,Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200619
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200620
DTSTAMP:20210620T094213Z
CREATED:20190823T181141Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210620T094213Z
UID:1094-1592524800-1592611199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Robin Matthews (16-vi-1927 19-vi-1983)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Robin Matthews CBE\, FBA who died in Cambridge aged 83 on June 19th 2010. Probate (3367272) was granted in Ipswich\, Suffolk on September 6th\, 2010. \nRobert (Robin) Charles Oliver Matthews was born in Edinburgh on Thursday\, June 16th 1927. Born on the same day was England cricketer\, Tom Graveney. \nHis English father\, Oliver Harwood Matthews became an Edinburgh solicitor and his mother was Ida Matthews (née) Finlay.  Robin had a daughter Alison. \nAcademia\nHe was educated at Edinburgh Academy and then Corpus Christi College\, Oxford becoming a Fellow of All Souls College\, Oxford. He went on to become a highly successful economist authoring at least twelve publications on the subject. \nAccording to Wikipedia “He was the Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford from 1965 to 1975 and the Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge from 1980 to 1991. He was also the Master of Clare College\, Cambridge from 1975 to 1993.” \nFor a detailed description of this part of his life there is an excellent obituary / biography from the Australian economist\, Geoffrey Harcourt. \nProblem Composer\nBrian Stephenson (BCPS) writes : “Probably the UK’s greatest composer of ‘mate in 3’ #ChessProblems . His chapters in the book you note were what got me hooked on chess composition. Nearly all of his output can be viewed at The Meson Database” \nBlack Correction: Quaternary Play \nFirst Prize\, The Observer\, 1964 \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nMate in three \nAccording to David McKittrick in The Independent: \n“Outside academia\, Matthews was keen on chess\, in particular setting problems and publishing two books on what are known as three-mover directmates\, in which white is to move and checkmate black in no more than three moves against any defence. \nAlthough this might be thought a particularly narrow point of interest\, one enthusiast said of him that his writings “demonstrated a deep knowledge along with the feeling of wonder and curiosity about the subject”. \nRCO Matthews\nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess by Hooper & Whyld: \n“British Composer\, International Judge of Chess Compositions (1957)\, International Master for Chess Compositions (1965)\, economist\, appointed Master of Clare College\, Cambridge in 1975. He has specialised in orthodox three movers and is among the world’s leaders in this field.” \n\nHere is an obituary from The Daily Telegraph \nand an obituary from The Independent \nChess Problems : Introduction to an Art\nFrom The Encyclopedia of Chess by Anne Sunnucks : \nInternational Master of the F.I.D.E. for chess compositions (1965) and International Judge of the F.I.D.E. for Chess Compositions (1957). President of the British Chess Problem Society for 1971 and 1972. Professor of Economics at Oxford University. \nCyclic Overload Doubled \nFirst Prize\, British Chess Magazine\, 1968 \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nMate in three \nBorn on 16th June 1927. Professor Matthews has composed about 200 problems\, about 40 of them 1st prize winners\, mainly strategic three-movers\, He is one of the world’s best three move composers. \nNowotnys \nBritish Chess Magazine\, 1967 \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nHis best problems give clear-cut expression of complex themes\, with proper attention given to key-move and by-play in the best English tradition. \nChess Problems : Introduction to an Art\nThe results are massive rather than elegant\, but carefully constructed. Themes he has specialised in include overload White self-weakening and reciprocal change.” \nR.C.O. Matthews\nBritish Chess Magazine\n1956 \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 three moves \nFrom Wikipedia : \n“Robert (Robin) Charles Oliver Matthews (16 June 1927 – 19 June 2010) was an economist and chess problemist. \nMatthews was born in Edinburgh. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy and Corpus Christi College\, Oxford\, and was a Fellow of All Souls College\, Oxford. He was the Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford from 1965 to 1975 and the Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge from 1980 to 1991. He was also the Master of Clare College\, Cambridge from 1975 to 1993.” \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-robin-co-matthews/
CATEGORIES:Composer,Death Anniversary,History,Problemist,Remembering,Writer
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200516
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200517
DTSTAMP:20210516T144229Z
CREATED:20190823T085838Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210516T144229Z
UID:1054-1589587200-1589673599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Harold Murray (24-vi-1868 16-v-1955)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Harold Murray who passed away on Monday\, May 16th\, 1955. \nHarold James Ruthven Murray was born on Wednesday\, 24th June 1868 in Camberwell\, London. He was the eldest son of Sir James Augustus Henry Murray 1837–1915 and  Ada Agnes Ruthven 1845–1936. Sir James was famously the first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. \nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXV (125\, 1955)\, Number 8 (August)\, pp. 233-4 we have this obituary from DJ Morgan: \n“The great historian of chess died in May last\, at the age of eighty-six. Some of the early results of his researches into the origins of the game were published in this magazine\, and a reference to the “B.C.M.” volumes for the first fifteen years of this century will reveal a wealth of articles of permanent value. A tribute to our late and\ndistinguished contributor has been unavoidably delayed. \nMurray was the eldest son of Sir James A. H. Murray\, the pioneering editor of the great Oxford English Dictionary\, and was born in Camberwell on June 24th\, 1868. He went to Mill Hill School\, took an Open Mathematical Exhibition to Balliol College\, Oxford\, and left the University\, in 1890\, with a First Class in the Final Mathematical School. Subsequently\, teaching engagements took him to Taunton\, Carlisle\, and Ormskirk. From 1891 to 1900 he was Headmaster of Ormskirk Grammar School\, which he left to become a Board of Education Inspector of Schools. \nTaunton gave him an enthusiasm for chess. At Ormskirk he helped to found a club\, which he captained from 1896 to 1900. His interest in the history of the game had been aroused in 1893\, and when\, in 1897\, he received encouragement from such a notable authority as Baron von der Lasa\, historical research became his ruling passion. In his own words his aim was to trace the development of the modern European game from the first appearance of its ancestor\, the Indian chaturanga\, in the beginning of the seventh century of our era. \nMany books had been written on the history of chess\, but none had covered exactly the whole story as he envisaged it. Hyde\, in 1694\, and another Englishman\, Forbes\, in 1860\, had in the main confined their attention to Oriental chess. Other investigators\, such as Sir William Jones on Indian chess (1790)\, Cox on Burma chess (1803 and 1807)\, and Bland on Persian chess (1852)\, had published their conclusions in journals of Asiatic studies. The great German writer\, von der Lasa\, in 1897\, treated almost exclusively of the European game. Van der Linde alone had dealt with both Oriental and European chess\, but it was in three distinct works (1874-81). \nVan der Linde was able to incorporate the results of Weber’s examination of the early references to chess in Sanskrit literature\, and to show that Forbes’s History was both inaccurate and misleading. \nSince the publication of Linde’s Geschichte there had been many additions to our knowledge of various aspects of chess history\, mostly scattered in isolated papers. So\, continues Murray\, he set about collecting and collating all available material and making it easily accessible to English readers. \nMurray was able to call on the help of acknowledged scholars in the many languages\, obsolete and obsolescent\, into which his researches led him. Above all\, his work was largely based upon his own studies of original materials. The manuscripts and rare books in the unrivalled collections of J. G. White\, of Cleveland\, Ohio\, and of J. W. Rimington Wilson in this country\, were placed unreservedly at his disposal\, as were the resources of other collectors and libraries. \nAs an example of his devotion to his work\, he made a thorough study of Arabic\, and it was his knowledge of this language which enabled him to make his remarkable discovery of the chess-work of Allajlaj\, a Mohammedan chess master of the tenth century. The fascinating story of the recovery of these oldest recorded games is told in the “British Chess Magazine” of November\, 1903. \nMurray thus brought a fine scholarship to his immense task. He had\, in addition\, the true historian’s gifts of meticulous research\, of grasp of detail\, of the critical sifting of evidence; to this scientific technique was added the art of lucid exposition.\nIn his hands\, it can be said\, the chess-player’s elements of time\, space\, and material were used to range through most of the centuries of the Christian era. \nA History of Chess\nThe History appeared in 1913\, from the same University Press\, he was proud to think which\, more than 200 years before\, had published Thomas Hyde’s Mondragorios seu Historia Shohiludii. The huge volume of 900 pages\, lavishly illustrated and with scores of chess diagrams\, was received with world-wide acclamation. From ancient “Indian Board-games” to “Steinitz and his School\,” the vast field had been covered with great authority. The book is in two parts\, “Chess in Asia” and “Chess in Europe\,” but through it all runs the absorbing story of how the game\, in play and in problem\, in its practice and in its laws\, has developed and spread. From India to Persia\, to Islam as a result of the Mohammedan conquest of Persia\, from Islam to Spain\, and thence to Christian Europe\, chess has followed the great political and religious movements. It is very improbable that chess was played in England before the Norman Conquest. That it was familiar to the Norman Kings in the eleventh century is certain from the evidence of the word exchequer\, which was applied to the table “upon which the accounts were worked out by means of a cloth divided into strips about a footwide\, on which counters\, representing the moneys\, were placed and moved.” \nThis must suffice. The work is one to browse in and to dip into through the years. Murray has left an enduring monument\, the greatest book ever written on the game. We can but touch briefly on other aspects of his varied and active life. Following his retirement from the Board of Education\, in 1928\, he took an active interest in Local Government work. He became Chairman of the Fernhurst Parish Council\, and was a member of the Midhurst R.D.C.\, 1931-55\, being Chairmain of its Housing\nCommittee from 1938 to 1948. \nIn 1952 he published A History of Board Gomes Other Than Chess. \nA History of Board Games other than Chess\nHe also wrote a Shorter History of Chess and a History of Draughts (both unpublished)\, and spent much time working on mathematical problems connected with Knights’ Tours and Magic Tours. His work on these investigations is also unpublished\, but a good deal remains in typescript in fairly complete form. \nApart from his interest in board games and mathematics\, he was interested in genealogy\, and did research on his own and his wife’s families. Up to his death he was working on local history and was writing a history of Heyshott\, the village to which he retired. Walking\, in his younger days\, and bird-watching in his middle years\, were amongst his otter recreations. \nA game of chess he. always enjoyed\, but not under the rigorous conditions of matches and tournaments. \nHis son\, Major D. M. J. Murray\, Royal Engineers\, was killed in Hong Kong in 1941. The chess world’s sympathy with his second son Mr. K.C. Murray of the Antiquities Service\, Nigeria\, and with his daughter\, Miss K. M. E. Murray\, M.A.\, Principal of the Bishop\nOtter College\, Chichester\, is but a small expression of its sense of indebtedness to their distinguished father.-D. J. M.” \nFollowing this obituary a letter from Alex Hammond appeared in British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXV (125\, 1955)\, Number 9 (September)\, page 270 as follows: \n“Dear Mr. Reilly\,\nMurray was\, indeed a very great man\, though a few of us were privileged to know him intimately\, as his nature was shy and retiring. \nFor myself\, I shall always treasure his memory\, as when I wrote my The Book of Chessmen he gave me freely of his knowledge\, and saved me from many errors. \nAny person who attempts to write on chess history will always find real difficulty in discovering anything of interest which does not appear in his monumental “History.” \nProbably his like will not be seen again\, as such patient industry\, deep knowledge\, and tremendous perseverance are unlikely to be combined in a single personage again. \nYours sincerely\,\nAlex Hammond\n16 Burlington Arcade\, London\, W1 \nThe Book of Chessmen\, Alexander Hammond\, Arthur Barker Ltd.\, London\, 1950\nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess (Oxford University Press\, 1984 & 1996) by Hooper & Whyld: \n“Foremost chess historian\, school inspector. His A History of Chess (1913)\, perhaps the most important chess book in English\, was the result of about 14 years of research inspired by Lasa\, and grounded on van der Linde’s work. During that period Murray contributed 35 articles to the British Chess Magazine \, some of which outlined his discoveries. Most of the 900-page History is concerned with the evolution of modern chess from its oriental precursor up to the 17th century. He learned Arabic so that he could read important manuscripts\, and in addition to his own circle he was able to solicit help from colleagues of his father Sir James A. H. Murray\, editor-in-chief of the Oxford English Dictionary; who was also aided by J. G. White\, with both advice and the loan of rare books from the Cleveland collection\, and by many others. His book includes an authoritative account of both Mansubat and medieval problems. (See also history of chess.) In 1952 he published a companion volume\, A History of Board Games other than Chess. \nWhile the scholarship of his chess book has never been questioned it is too detailed for the average chess-player. Aware of this problem\, Murray wrote a briefer work approaching the topic in a more popular way. The manuscript\, unfinished at his death\, was completed and published in 1963 as A Short History of Chess. (See Civis Bononiae.) \nA Short History of Chess\nFrom The Encyclopaedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977)\, Harry Golombek OBE : \n“Chess historian and a Board of Education Inspector of Schools. Appropriately enough\, a son of the pioneering editor of the great Oxford English Dictionary\, he became interested in the history of chess in the early 1890s. Up to this time the historical writings on chess in English had been unhistorical. In order to fit himself for the task Murray learned several languages including Arabic and he also studied the true historians of chess\, the German writers\, Van der Linde and Von der Lassa. \nIn his own words his aim was to trace the development of the modern European game from the first appearance of its ancestor\, the Indian chaturanga\, in the beginning of the seventh century of our era. This he did in a vast work of some 900 pages published in Oxford in 1913. An immense amount of painstaking research had gone into the work and only a man of Murray’s great learning could have attempted it. \nIt at once became the standard book on the subject and has remained so ever since. Murray left behind among his papers an unfinished work A Short History of Chess which took the history of the game up to 1866 which gave a clearer and more readable account of the history of the game than his main work. This was brought up to date by Goulding-Brown and Golombek and published in Oxford in 1963.” \nFrom The Encyclopaedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1970 &1976)\, Anne Sunnucks : \n“The chess historian who wrote the History of Chess\, published by Oxford University Press in 1913. Murray was born in Camberwell on 24th June\, 1868\, the eldest son of Sir James Murray\, the first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. After graduating from Balliol College\, Oxford\, with a First Class in the Final Mathematical School\, in 1890 Murray became a master at Queen’s College\, Taunton\, where he learned to play chess. He later taught at Carlisle Grammar School and in 1896 became the headmaster of Ormskirk Grammar School. About 1893 his interest in the history of the game was aroused\, and four years later\, encouraged by the great German writer and authority on the game\, Baron Von der Lasa\, his historical researches began.\nFrom 1901-1928 he was a Board of Education Inspector of Schools\, an appointment which made it difficult for him to play much chess. He began to turn his attention more and more to the history of the game\, contributing articles to The British Chess Magazine and Deutsches Wochenschach. He made the acquaintance of J. J. White of Cleveland\, Ohio\, owner of the largest chess library in the world\, and was given access to this collection\, as well as one owned by J. W. Rimington Wilson in England. White’s library contained a number of Arabic manuscripts\, and\, in order to be able to study them\, Murray learned Arabic. The History of Chess took him 13 years to complete. \nOn his retirement from the Board of Education\, Murray served as Chairman of Fernhurst Parish Council and was a member of Midhurst R.D.C. from 1931-1955 and was Chairman of its Housing Committee from 1938-1948. His other interests\, apart from chess\, were genealogy\, local history\, walking and bird watching. In 1952 he published A History of Board Games Other than Chess. \nAfter his death A Short History of Chess was found uncompleted among his papers. Additional chapters were added by B. Goulding Brown and H. Golombek\, and it was published in 1963.” \n(Bertram Goulding Brown was a tournament chess player and a contributor to British Chess Magazine. He was born 5 July 1881 and died 22 August 1965 in the United Kingdom.) \nYou may read the entire book here \nFrom Amazon : \n“Harold James Ruthven Murray was born on 24 June 1868. His first book A History of Chess was published by Oxford University Press in 1913. Murray covered the first 1\,400 years of the game’s history in definitive detail. He died on 16 May 1955. He left several more manuscripts which are being held by Oxford University.” \nAccording to Edward Winter in Chess Notes HJRM lived 53 Hagley Road\, Edgbaston\, Birmingham\, England (Ranneforths Schach-Kalender\, 1915\, page 71). \nHere is his Wikipedia entry \nand here is an excellent article from Edward Winter. \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-harold-james-ruthven-murray/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Remembering,Writer
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200503
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200504
DTSTAMP:20210503T125607Z
CREATED:20190822T222848Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210503T125607Z
UID:1018-1588464000-1588550399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of David Hooper (31-xiii-1915 03-v-1998)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers David Hooper who passed away in a Taunton (Somerset) nursing home on Sunday\, May 3rd 1998. Probate (#9851310520) was granted in Brighton on June 24th 1998. \nPrior to the nursing home David had been living at 33\, Mansfield Road\, Taunton\, TA1 3NJ and before that at 5\, Haimes Lane\, Shaftesbury\, Dorset\, SP7 8AJ. \nFor most of the time between Reigate and Shaftesbury David lived in Whitchurch\, Hampshire. \nDavid Vincent Hooper was born on Tuesday\, August 31st 1915 in Reigate\, Surrey to Vincent Hooper and Edith Marjorie Winter who married in Reigate\, Surrey in 1909. On this day the first French ace\, Adolphe Pégoud\, was killed in combat. He had scored six victories. \nDavid was one of six children: Roger Garth (1910-?)\, Edwin Morris (1911-1942)\, Isobel Mary (12/01/1917-2009)\, Helene Edith (1916-1982) and Elizabeth Anne Oliver (1923-2000) were his siblings. \nRecorded in the September 1939 register David was aged 24 and living at 94\, High Street\, Reigate\, Surrey: \nHistorical Map showing 94\, High Street\, Reigate\, Surrey\nIn 2021 this property appears to be a flat (rather than bridge) over the River Kwai Restaurant: \n94\, High Street\, Reigate\, Surrey\, RH2 9AP\nLiving with David was his sister Isobel who was listed a “potential nurse”. David’s occupation at this time was listed as Architectural Assistant and he was single. We think that three others lived at this address at the time but they are not listed under the “100 year rule”. We know that David was also a surveyor and went on to attain professional membership of the Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA). \nIn the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette May 27th 1944 there appeared this report of a simultaneous display on Empire Day (May 24th) at Dr. Marsh’s house: \nBath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette\, May 27th 1944\nand from The Western Morning News\, 9th April 1947 we have: \nWestern Morning News\, 9th April 1947\nand then from The Nottingham Evening Post\, 16th August 1949 we have: \nNottingham Evening Post\, 16th August 1949\nIn 1950 aged 35 David married Joan M Higley (or Rose!) in the district of South Eastern Surrey. \nDavid Hooper (seated right) in play at the West of England Championships in Bristol\, Easter\, 1947. His opponent \, ARB Thomas \, was that year’s champion. Among the spectators is Mrs. Rowena Bruce\, the 1946 British Ladies’ Champion. BCM\, Volume 118\, #6\, p.327. The others in the photo are L – R: H. V. Trevenen; H. Wilson-Osborne (WECU President); R. A. (Ron) Slade; Rowena Bruce; Ron Bruce; H. V. (Harry) Mallison; Chris Sullivan; C. Welch (Controller); F. E. A. (Frank) Kitto.\nKen Whyld wrote an obituary which appeared in British Chess Magazine\, Volume 118 (1998)\, Number 6\, page 326 as follows : \nDAVID VINCENT HOOPER died on 3rd May this year in a nursing home in Taunton. He had been in declining health for some months. Born in Reigate\, 31st August 1915\, his early chess years were with the Battersea CC and Surrey. \nDavid Hooper (left) in conversation with Alan Phillips. Location and photographer unknown.\nHe won the (ed. Somerset) County Championship three times\, and the London Championship in 1948. His generation was at its chess peak in the years when war curtailed opportunities\, but he won the British Correspondence Championship in 1944. \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 games from that event are to be found in Chess for Rank and File by Roche and Battersby. \nChess for the Rank and File\nAlso at that time\, he won the 1944 tournament at Blackpool\, defeating veteran Grandmaster Jacques Mieses. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nDavid was most active in the decade that followed\, playing five times in the British Championship. \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 highest place there was at Nottingham 1954\, when\, after leading in the early stages\, he finished half a point behind the joint champions\, Leonard Barden and Alan Phillips. \nDavid was in the British Olympic team at Helsinki 1952\, and in the same year accidentally played top board for England in one of the then traditional weekend matches against the Netherlands. British Champion Klein took offence at a Sunday Times report of his draw with former World Champion Dr. Euwe on the Saturday and refused to play on Sunday. Thus David was drafted in to meet Euwe\, and acquitted himself admirably. Even though he lost\, the game took pride of place in that month’s\nBCM. \nAlan Phillips plays David Hooper on August 20th 1954 in round five of the British Championships in Nottingham\, photographer unknown\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nIn the following game\, played in the Hastings Premier l95l-2\, he found an improvement on Botvinnik’s play against Bronstein in game 17 of their 1951 match\, when 7.Ng3 was played because it was thought that after 7.Nf4 d5 it was necessary to play 8 Qb3. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nIn his profession as architect David worked in the Middle East for some years from the mid-1950s\, and when he returned to England he made his mark as a writer. His Practical Chess Endgames \nPractical Chess Endgames (Chess Handbooks)\, David Hooper\, Routledge & Kegan Paul\, London\, 1968\, ISBN 0 7100 5226 X\nhas an enduring appeal. Two of his books appeared in the Wildhagen biographical games series on Steinitz\, and Capablanca. The last was written jointly with Gilchrist. \nWilliam Steinitz : Selected Chess Games\, David Hooper\nWith Euwe he wrote A Guide to Chess Endings; \nA Guide to Chess Endings\, Dover (1976 reprint)\, ISBN 0-486-23332-4\nwith Cafferty\, A Complete Defence to 1.e4; \nA Complete Defence to 1.P-K4 A Study of Petroff’s Defence\, Bernard Cafferty & David Hooper\, Pergamon Press\, 1967\, ISBN 0 08 024089 5\nA Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames; \nA Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames\, David Hooper\, Bell & Hyman Limited\, London\, 1970\, ISBN 0 7135 1761 1\nA Complete Defence to 1.d4; \nA Complete Defence to 1d4: A Study of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted\, Bernard Cafferty & David Hooper\, Pergamon Press\, ISBN 0-08-024102-6\nand Play for Mate; \nPlay for Mate (1990)\, DV Hooper and Bernard Cafferty\, ISBN-13: 978-0713464740\nwith Brandreth The Unknown Capablanca\, \nThe Unknown Capablanca\, David Hooper & Dale Brandreth\, Batsford\, London\, 1975\, ISBN\, 0 7134 2964\nand with Ken Whyld\, The Oxford Companion to Chess. \nThe Oxford Companion to Chess\, 1st Edition\, David Hooper & Ken Whyld\, Oxford University Press\, 1984\, ISBN 0 19 217540 8\nKen Whyld \nFrom The Encyclopaedia of Chess by Harry Golombek : \nBritish amateur (an architect by profession) whose best result was =5 in the British Championship at Felixstowe 1949 along with\, amongst others\, Broadbent and Fairhurst. \nHooper abandoned playing for writing about chess and has become a specialist in two distinct areas. He is an expert on the endings and has a close knowledge of the history of chess in the nineteenth century. \nHis principal works : Steinitz (in German)\, Hamburg\, 1968; A Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames\, London 1970. \nHere is an interesting article from Edward Winter \nHere is his brief Wikipedia entry. \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-david-hooper/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering,Writer
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200414
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200415
DTSTAMP:20220419T083516Z
CREATED:20200413T172919Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220419T083516Z
UID:4595-1586822400-1586908799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Theophilus Willcocks (19-iv-1912 14-iv-2014)
DESCRIPTION:Remembering Theophilus Harding Willcocks (19-iv-1912 14-iv-2014) \nAn innovator in both mathematics and fairy chess. \nHere is an excellent article on squaring.net \nAn article from matplus.net \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-theophilus-harding-willcocks-19-v-2014/
CATEGORIES:Composer,Death Anniversary,Problemist,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200410
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200411
DTSTAMP:20220410T124454Z
CREATED:20190824T103915Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220410T124454Z
UID:1157-1586476800-1586563199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of CGM Keith Richardson (02-iv-1942 10-iv-2017)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers CGM Keith Richardson who passed away on Monday\, April 10th\, 2017. \nKeith Bevan Richardson was born in Nottingham\, on Thursday\, April 2nd 1942. On this day : The LA Times urges security measures against Japanese-Americans and US auto factories switch from commercial to war production. \nKeith’s parents were Arthur (30) and Hilda May (née Nicholls\, 25). He married Sandra Sowter on the 11th of September 1971 in Sutton Coldfield\, Warwickshire. They had two children\, Neil and Ian. They lived at 19\, The Ridings in Camberley\, Surrey. \nSadly\, Keith was diagnosed in the 1990s with Parkinson’s disease and became unwell whilst playing in a chess tournament in Cannes in April 2017 and passed away on the 10th of May 2017. Keith was 75. He continued to actively play chess into his final year. \nCGM Keith Richardson\nKeith was the Treasurer of the Friends of Chess during the period known the English Chess Explosion (late 1970s and 1980s). \nKeith received the ECF President’s Award in 2015 for services to the management of the BCF Permanent Invested Fund (PIF) together with Dr. Julian Farrand and Ray Edwards. \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 CHESS\, Volume 41 (1975)\, Numbers 729-730 (September)\, pp. 380 the news of Keith’s success was initially reported: \n“BRITAINS’ FIRST CHESS GRAND MASTER \nThe first grand master title to be won by a British player has been achieved in the field of correspondence chess by Keith B. Richardson\, aged 33\, of Camberley. \nThe title of Correspondence Chess grand master is awarded by the lnternational correspondence Chess Federation. Keith Richardson fulfilled the norm by sharing third place in the final of the 7th World Correspondence Chess Championship with a score of 11 points from 16 games. The tournament began in February 1972 and results of the last adjudicated games were recently announced making J. V. Estrin U.S.S.R. first with l2 points; J. Boey Belgium scored 11.5; K. B. Richardson G.B. and Dr. V. Zagorovski U.S.S.R. 11. \nThere are only 25 Correspondence Chess Grand masters throughout the world.” \nThis was followed in the next month’s issue by a correction and more depth in CHESS\, Volume 41 (1975)\, Numbers 731-732 (October)\, pp. 30-31: \n“K. B. Richardson\, though the first Britain to become a grand master by play was preceded by Comins Mansfield as grandmaster of problem composition\, a title he gained in 1972. Our report last month did not make this clear. \nKeith B. Richardson was born 2 April 1942 and was educated at Nottingham High School. At 16\, he passed Grade 8 in Royal\nSchools of Music at pianoforte. At Durham University\, he obtained a B.A. in French and German and was awarded the University Palatinate (equal to a ‘blue’) in cricket and fives. He could have become a professional cricketer or a concert pianist but\nmade his career instead with Barclays Bank which brought him to London and a home in Camberley\, Surrey\, where he has settled down with his wife\, Sandra (from Sutton Coldfield!). They now have two baby sons\, Neil aged three years and Ian who is only two months old – both born since the final of the 7th World Correspondence Chess Championship began. \nCGM Keith Bevan Richardson (from a Barclays publicity article)\nKeith’s other interests include bridge and squash. He plays squash for his bank and is Secretary of the London Squash League. As a young chess player\, Keith won the Notts. under l4 Championship\, held the Notts. under l8 Championship for four years and the Notts. Championship for two years and was British Junior Champion in 1962. In 1963\, he was Durham County Champion and joint winner of the British Universities’ Championship which he won outright the following year. He was twice captain of the British Universities Students’ Olympiad team. He held the Midlands Championship (Forrest Cup) for three years and was joint London Champion and London Banks’ Champion in 1970 but has been content to hold the latter title since then and concentrate on correspondence chess. \nKeith Richardson aged 20 at the 1963 Niemeyer Under-21 Tournament in Groningen. The forerunner of the European Junior Championship\nNiemeyer Under-21 Tournament\, Groningen 1963. The forerunner of the European Junior Championship.\nIn 1964\, Keith Richardson was runner up for the British Correspondence Chess Championship and at the same time won a Master Class tournament of the lnternational Correspondence Chess Federation (I.C.C.F.) which qualified for a place in the World C.C. Championship semi-final. He came second in the 1965-67 semi-final and tried again in the 1968-71 event which he won. At the same time\, he was representing Great Britain on Board 5 in the 1965-67 I.C.C.F. Olympiad Preliminary and on Board 4 in the 1968-71 event. His score of 5 points from 7 games helped the British team to win its section in the 1968-71 Preliminary and qualify for a place in the I.C.C.F. Olympiad Final which started in 1972. When Keith began play in the World C.C. Championship Final involving l6 tames\, he was also asked to take Board 3 in the Olympiad Final involving another 9 games. \nHe accepted – a mistake which might possibly have cost him the World C.C. Championship! His next assault on the World title will be in 1979 and in the meantime he plans to play in the next I.C.C.F. Olympiad Preliminary and write a book on the 7th World C.C. Championship. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nIn this position\, with Black in Zugzwang\, the game went for adjudication (after more than three years’ play\, a very necessary evil): \n“In order to substantiate White’s claim for a win\, it was necessary to submit three pages of analysis proving that every possible move loses for Black. If the knight moves\, White’s king claims an entry. If Black moves the bishop along the a7-g1 diagonal\, White plays Ba5. If the Black bishop moves on the d8-a5 diagonal\, White plays Bd4 : KBR” \nThe game was adjudicated a win for White. This was only defeat inflicted upon the new World Champion. \nCGM Keith Richardson in 1975\nThis article was followed (with some glee no doubt) by an article in  British Chess Magazine\, Volume LIXIV (95\, 1975)\, Number 12 (December)\, page 526 as follows: \n“Keith B. Richardson recently became the third British player to receive a grandmaster title (the other two both in 1972\, are Comins Mansfield for chess composition’ and R.W. Bonham’ correspondence grandmaster of the blind). The title of Correspondence Chess Grandmaster is awarded by the International Correspondence  Chess Federation  (ICCF) and Keith Richardson fulfilled the norm by sharing third place in the final of the 7th World Correspondence Championship. Leading scores in the tournament (February 1972 – Summer 1975): 1. Y. Estrin (USSR) 12/16; J.Boey (B) 11.5; 3-4 K.B. Richardson (ENG)\, V. Zagorovsky (USSR) 11; etc. \nKeith\, born 2nd April1942\, was educated at Nottingham High School and Durham University-. He won the Nottinghamshire U-14 Championship\, held the Notts U-18 championship for four years\, the senior Notts  Championship for two years and was British Junior Champion in 1962. In 1963\, he was  Durham County Champion and joint winner of the British Universities Championship  which he won outright the following year. He was twice captain of the British team in Students Olympiads. \nKeith Richardson from BCM\, 1984\, page 545\nIn 1964 Keith left university to make a career with Barclays Bank.  In the same year he was runner-up in the British Correspondence Championship and won an ICCF master tournament which qualified him for a place in the World Championship final. He came second in the 1965-7 semi-final\, tried again\, and won the 1968-71 event thus gaining entry to the 7th final. \nKeith Richardson lives in Surrey at Camberley. He is married and has two baby sons – both born since the final of the 7th World Correspondence Championship began. At present he is writing a book on the 7th Championship and\, for a change playing some OTB (over-the-board) chess in the London League for the Athenaeum club\, to which he makes a great contribution – it is a marvellous feeling to know  that the player next to you (on your side!) is a grandmaster. \nKeith Richardson playing for BCM Dragons in the Four Nations Chess League (4NCL\, courtesy of John Upham Photography.\nThe following three games are – Keith’s best from  the -championship. In them he defeats three of the five Russians in the\ntournament (his overall score against the Russians was 3.5/5 – a wonderful achievement.” \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 printed version of the above report: \nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume LIXIV (95\, 1975)\, Number 12 (December)\, page 526\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume LIXIV (95\, 1975)\, Number 12 (December)\, page 527\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 by Hooper & Whyld : \n“English player. International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster (1975)\, bank manager. Around 1961 Richardson decided that over-the- board play\, which had brought him some successes as a. junior\, would interfere with his professional career and he took to postal chess instead. His best performance in this field was his sharing of third place with Zagorovsky after Estrin and Boey in the 7th World Correspondence Championship\, 1968-71. ” \nIn October 1984 Keith took part in the A. E. Axelson Memorial tournament organised by the Swedish CC Committee and with fifteen grandmasters was one of the strongest CC tournaments in history.  Keith finished in 11th place ahead of Boey. \nIn 1991 Jonathan Berry wrote a potted biography in  Diamond Dust\, International Chess Enterprises\, ISBN 1-879479-00-1 as follows : \n“Camberley\, Surrey\, England. Born 2 April 1942. Married with two sons. Bank Manager. \nHe was British Under-21 Champion in 1962. At Groningen 1962/63\, he was placed 2nd in the European Junior Championship. At Bristol 1967 he was equal 5th in the British Championship. \nIn CC\, he gained the IMC in 1968\, GMC in 1975. In CC WCh VII\, he won the semi-final with 9.5/12\, and placed =3rd in the final\, 11/16. In CC WCh X\, he again tied for third in the final with 10/15. Playing board 3 for Britain in OL-VIII\, finals\, 1972-76\, he scored 7.5/9\, the highest score on any board. He won the Prefors Memorial\, 1976-1980\, 9.5.12” \n1976-1980 Prefors Memorial\nKeith was a founding member of Camberley Chess Club in 1972. \n\nA one-day tournament (The Keith Richardson Memorial) in memory of Keith was started in 2017 and has been held four times in total being played on-line for the first time in 2021. \nKen Coates presents Clive Frostick with the trophy for the 2019 Keith Richardson Memorial Tournament.\nFrom Chessgames.com : \n“Keith Bevan Richardson was born in Nottingham\, England. Awarded the IMC title in 1968 and the GMC title in 1975\, he finished 3rd= in the World Correspondence Championships of 1975 and 1984.” \nHere are his games from chessgames.com \nAn obituary from Ray Edwards / ECF. \nHere is an excellent biography by Peter Rust from the web site of the Hamilton Russell Cup \nBarclay’s Bank pay tribute to Keith on the corporate site. \nHere is an entry from the Belgian chess history web site. \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-keith-bevan-richardson/
CATEGORIES:4NCL,Correspondence,Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200331
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200401
DTSTAMP:20220401T132443Z
CREATED:20200716T120224Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220401T132443Z
UID:7455-1585612800-1585699199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of IMC Ken Messere OBE (16-iv-1928 31-iii-2005)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Ken Messere who passed away on Thursday\, March 31st 2005 aged 76 in Paris-16E-Arrondissement\, Paris\, France. \nKenneth Charles Messere was born on Monday\, April 16th\, 1928 in Richmond-on-Thames\, Surrey. His father was Charles (George) Messere (1901-1974) or Eisenberg and aged 26. His mother was Gertrude Marie Newman (1899-1978) and aged 29. \nKen had three siblings: Barbara Marie Messere (1930–2005)\, Hugh Martin Messere (1932–1985) and Derek R Messere (1934–2012) \nKen attended St. Peter’s College\, Oxford from 1946 – 1951 to read philosophy and is reported in the 1951 St. Edmund Hall Magazine\, as a member of the Trillick (debating) Society as follows: \n‘ That this House would rather be a live Communist than\na dead Democrat.’ The proposer established to his own satisfaction that democracy was founded on ‘selfishness\, capitalism and bourgeois hypocrisy.’ He did not satisfy J. F. R. Bonguard of St. Peter’s Hall who opposed\, using arguments taken from Hindu philosophy. K. C. Messere of St. Peter’s Hall\, spoke third and added some able arguments. \nIn June 1954 Ken married Mary Elizabeth Humphrey (1929-2003) in Ealing. They had a son Miles Jonathan Messere born in 1964 who passed away in 1965. \nPrior the time of his passing his wife Mary was living at 142B\, Herbert Road\, Woolwich\, London\, SE18 3PU. \nIn 1991 he was awarded the OBE (Civil Division) in the Queen’s Birthday honours list. The citation reads: Kenneth Charles Messere\, lately Head of Fiscal Affairs Division\, OECD\, Paris. \nKen appears each year from 1953 to 1967 in the noted publication Britain\, Royal And Imperial Calendars the function of which is to list entries for those engaged in UK public service. He worked for HM Customs and Excise. Prompted by this we consulted the venerable A History of Chess in the English Civil Service by Kevin Thurlow (Conrad Press\, 2021) on page 447 and found \n“He played for Customs. In 1964\, he went to work for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and was head of fiscal affairs from 1971 – 1991. In 1954 he began playing postal chess and became a leading player. He won a semi-final of the 5th World Correspondence Championship (1961 – 64) and became the first English player to compete in a World Championship Final.” \nThere are 31 games listed at his personal entry at chessgames.com starting with games from 1965. \nChessbase’s Correspondence Database 2020 records 69 games the earliest being from 1958 listing Ken’s federation as being France. \nFrom British Chess (Pergamon Press\, 1983) we have this lengthy contribution from Ken himself: \n“Between the ages of 6\, when I learnt to play and 23 (ed: 1951)\, when I ceased to be a student\, chess had a relatively low priority among various time-competing interests and activities\, so I never got around to studying theory. Things changed when I became a civil servant and needed a replacement for philosophy as an intellectually absorbing subject which could be argued about with friends over beers\, and for the next 12 years chess became my main interest. \nSince 1964 I have been working for the OECD in Paris\, where my friends are not chess enthusiasts and\, although chess remains a major pleasure\, my commitment to it has lessened. Nowadays\, out-side correspondence chess\, I play only occasional blitz games. \nComing late to serious chess has probably had at least some influence on my deficiencies and stylistic preferences. The deficiencies include an inability to visualize ahead with sufficient clarity to support accurate analysis\, slow sight of the board which leads to silly errors through time trouble or failing stamina and less familiarity with theory than my better opponents. As to chess style\, I have had to play romantically and subjectively to get good results. \nIf a game takes the form of a clear-cut position\, where strategical objectives are clear and superior technique prevails\, then mine generally does not. Consequently I have tended to play either sharp gambits or counter-gambits or to try to render the position sufficiently obscure for imagination and intuition to assume maximum importance. In keeping\, my chess heroes have been Alekhine\, Bronstein and Tal who revel in fantasy\, however much Alekhine may claim that it is logically based. \nWhen I took up competitive chess seriously in 1952\, I made some progress and won a few minor tournaments\, but in view of the defects already mentioned\, it soon became clear that my potential for improvement was limited and that nearly all my games were aesthetically flawed. Fortunately\, these defects represent no great handicap at correspondence chess\, where I found myself pleased with a reasonable proportion of the game I played\, and in addition\, capable on the day (or more accurately over the years) of winning against almost anyone. Thus\, against world champions I have two wins and one loss\, (see below). I also have 80 per cent from five games against Russian grandmasters\, even if a meagre 28 per cent from my eighteen games against all correspondence grandmasters. In 1954 when I began playing postal chess competitively\, I did sufficiently well in a few British Postal tournaments to be accepted at a reasonably high level in the official international tournaments. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nNot without luck (see Diagram l)\, I secured the 75 per cent necessary in two seven-player tournaments to qualify for the fourteen player preliminaries\, the winner of which was to qualify for the following world championship. In the 1961-64 preliminaries\, I played the best chess of my life\, including valid opening innovations\, imaginative pawn and piece sacrifices and even a technically efficient win in a queen and pawn end-game. I won the tournament with eleven wins\, one draw and one loss\, 1.5 points ahead of Maly of Czechoslovakia and two points ahead of Masseev\, the Russian favourite\, thereby obtaining my first norm towards the International Master title. My first annotated game is the win against Maly (ed: to be inserted once we have tracked down the game score!) which was typical stylistically and also crucial\, since if he had won it\, he would have qualified for the World Championship instead of me: the second against Bartha of the United States is the most compulsive and difficult tactical game I have ever played\, the last five moves alone requiring over 100 hours of analysis. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nIMC Ken Messere OBE (16-iv-1928 31-iii-2005)\nThe quality of my chess in the 1965-68 World Championship was much inferior. The tournament began disastrously. I went in for three losing variations as Black and made a suicidal clerical error in the opening so that after 3 months I had four losses from four games. Later\, there were compensations. I won against V. Zagarovsky\, the reigning world champion (the third annotated game) and obtained just (but only just) the necessary 33.3% per cent to obtain the correspondence chess international master title. For this I needed a win and draw from my last two games which\nafter 3.5 years\, had to be adjudicated. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nFortunately\, the win and draw were relatively clear\, though this would not have been so a few moves earlier. An an illustration of how the threat of adjudication breeds irrationality\, Diagram II gives the closing stages of my win against J.Estrin of the USSR – a more recent correspondence chess world champion. My only other game against a world champion was against the winner of this tournament\, Hans Berliner of the United States\, with whom I collaborated on a book of the tournament. The collaboration was stimulating but not without friction\, since I had to write 75 per cent of the book to see it ever finished. It took a year to complete\, 3 years to appear (published by BCM) but in the end was well-reviewed\, sold over 2000 copies and royalties are still (gently) drifting in. \nThe Fifth Correspondence Chess World Championship\, Hans Berliner & Ken Messere\, British Chess Magazine\, BCM Quarterly Nunber 14\, 5th December 1971\, ISBN 978-0-900846-05-2.\n  \nIn the early seventies\, in order to reduce numbers of games\, I retreated altogether from individual tournaments\, just playing twice for England in the Olympiads. Whether team play did not suit my style\, or whether my technique had improved but imagination withered\, I drew nine of my seventeen games from the two tournaments\, winning four and losing four. As England looked likely to aspire to medals for the first time ever\, my 50 per cent would not help matters and I gladly retreated to first reserve\, which to my dismay required taking over five unfinished games of Hugh Alexander\, who died during the tournament\, and who\, for me\, has always been England’s most attractive player and writer. My most uncomfortable decision in correspondence chess was a rejection of Hugh’s intended continuation in one of these games\, {Diagram III). Of these five games\, I lost one and drew four and England won a bronze medal. \nIn 1974 was invited to compete in the Potter Memorial Tournament of four postal grandmasters and nine international masters. After so many years of responsible’ team chess for England\, I went beserk and sacrificed a pawn in ten of the twelve games\, trying later to salvage inferior end-games. Result 33 % per cent. B. H. Wood invited me to write a book of the tournament\, to which a number of the players contributed and this was published in 1979. \nThe Potter Memorial\, Ken Messere\, CHESS (Sutton Coldfield)\, 1975\nAlso in 1979 I began to play in another invitation tournament of thirteen players organised by the Australian Correspondence Chess League\, which became a memorial to CJS Purdy\, its president and the first world postal champion\, who died soon after the tournament began. At the time of writing\, this tournament\, comprising four grandmasters (including one former world champion and two runners-up) and eight international masters\, is still in its early stages.” \nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXV (125\, 2005)\, Number 5 (May)\, page 226 we have this obituary: \n“Kenneth Charles Messere (16 iv 1928\, Richmond – 31 iii 2005\, Paris) was one of Britain’s strongest correspondence players (he held the correspondence IM title) and well-known author of books on the subject. After graduating from Oxford University\, Ken Messere went to HM Customs and Excise\, and thence to the Organisation for Economic Development (OECD) where he became head of the fiscal affairs division and a world expert on fiscal law. He reached the final of 1965-8 world correspondence championship\, beating world champions Zagorovsky and Estrin\, and wrote the book of the tournament with Hans Berliner (published by BCM)” \nFrom The Potter Memorial by Ken Messere\, CHESS (Sutton Coldfield)\, “Chess for Modern Times” Series\, 1975 we have this potted biography: \n“Compiler of this book\, took 3rd place in 1957 and 2nd in 1968 in the championship of the Postal Chess Club. Scores of 4.5 out of 6 in the ICCF Masters 1957-8 and 4/6 in the 1959-61 Championship took him to victory with 11/5 out of 13 in the 1961-3 semi-finals\, securing him his first international master norm and qualifying him for the 5th World Championship 1964-7 in which he scored 5.5\, just enough for the IM title\, with wins over Zagorovsky\, then world champion and Estrin\, world champion now. Ken Messere collaborated with Berliner\, who won it\, in a book on the tournament. \nHe then switched to play exclusively as a member of the British Olympiad team\, taking over 2nd board when Alexander died. \nThe switch back from rather cautious team play to enterprising individual games in 1974-7 provides some of the subject matter of this book.” \n  \nThe Tax System in Industrialized Countries\, Ken Messere\, Oxford University Press\, 1998\, ISBN 10: 1982933135 / ISBN 13: 9781982933135\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-imc-kenneth-charles-messere-16-iv-1928-31-iii-2005/
CATEGORIES:Correspondence,Death Anniversary,History,Honours,Player,Remembering,Writer
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200316
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200317
DTSTAMP:20260817T141220Z
CREATED:20201106T193152Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260817T141220Z
UID:11055-1584316800-1584403199@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Reginald Bonham MBE MA (31-i-1906 16-iii-1984)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Reginald Bonham (known as “Bon”) who passed away\, this day\, March 16th in 1984 in Worcester\, Worcestershire. \nIn 1970 New Years Honours\, Civil Division he was awarded the MBE for “Services to the blind”. Interestingly\, in 1992 his sister Mary also received an MBE for “Services to the blind” This is surely an unusual happening. \nReginald Walter Bonham was born on Wednesday\, January 31st 1906 : the same day as the Ecuador–Colombia earthquake which measured 8.8 on the Richter Scale. \nHe was born in St. Neots\, Huntingdonshire\, Cambridgeshire. \nIn the 1911 census aged 5 he lived in the High Street\, St. Neots with William R Bonham (father\, master butcher\, aged 45)\, Edith Mary Ann Bonham (mother\, 38)\, Howard William Bonham (6)\, Maurice George Bonham (3) and Ernest Charles Bonham (1). The family had a servant / domestic duties assistant called Elise Annie Goss aged 18. The census did not record any disability for Reginald. \nReg\, like others in his family\, suffered from deficient eyesight and was therefore unable to attend a “mainstream” school. \nFrom 1922 – 1925 he attended the Royal Worcester College for the Blind (originally Worcester College for the Blind Sons of Gentlemen) in Whittington Road\, Worcester\, WR5 2JX. The Headmaster (GC Brown) encouraged his chess and rowing talents and in 1926 he was sent up to St. Catherine’s College\, Oxford to read mathematics. \nReginald was a highly competant rower\, competing for his college and reaching the trial stage for the Oxford Varsity crew. \nIn 1934 Reg founded the Braille Chess Magazine. \nIn the 1939 census he was recorded as living at 4\, St. Catherine’s Hill\, Worcester\, WR5 with his wife\, Josephine Bonham (born 24th September 1904). Reginald was listed as being a Mathematics tutor at the Royal Worcester College for the Blind (originally Worcester College for the Blind Sons of Gentlemen) in Whittington Road\, Worcester\, WR5 2JX. The college is now named New College Worcester. Their home was around a mile from the College. Josephine was listed as carrying out “unpaid domestic duties”. \nHe taught a combination of Braille and mathematics and was an amateur thespian and keen bridge player. \nRW Bonham and a Braille chess set set-up incorrectly\nInterestingly RWB in 1939 was an ARP (Air Raid Precautions) Warden and a St. John Ambulance volunteer for the College. \nHe was Worcester champion twenty times and four times Midlands champion winning the Birmingham Post Cup twice. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nOn June 6th 1947 Bonham played in Birmingham in a match between Great Britain and Czechoslovakia playing Ladislav Alster and won this attractive game : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nIn 1951 he founded the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) and continued as its President for 23 years. The IBCA affiliated to FIDE in 1964. see http://www.schachkomet.de/ibcachp4.htm for historical detail. \nHe was Blind World Champion in 1958 and Correspondence Blind World Champion in 1957\, 1959\, 1961\, 1964 (jointly) and 1966. \nOne of his students was broadcaster Peter White MBE who described Bon in his autobiography See it My Way \nSee it My Way\, Peter White\, 1994\nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume XCII (92\, 1972) Number 6 (June)\, page 216 we have this item in News in Brief : \n“At the closing ceremony of the 4th Chess Olympiad for the Blind at Pula\, Yugoslavia (April 6-18) the International Braille Chess Association awarded the title of Correspondence Grandmaster of the Blind to R.W. Bonham of Worcester\, for having won the Postal Championship more than three times.” \nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume CIV (104\, 1984) Number 5 (May)\, page 194 we have this obituary : \n“We regret to announce the death in March of two early winners of the grandmaster title (the other was Comins Mansfield MBE). \nR.W.Bonham (31 i 1906 – 16 iii 1984) died at Worcester\, where he had long served as a Master at the Royal Worcester College for the Blind. In the 1950s he took part in the British Championship with success. Many older players will remember him fingering his special board before announcing his move and checking his clock with its markers outside the glass face. \nHe was also active in postal play\, taking part in international events in the decade after the war when few British players ventured “into Europe”. A note in the 1972 BCM (page 216) records the award of the title Correspondence GM of the Blind by the International Braille Chess Association\, so his omission from the recent book British Chess seems rather unfortunate. \nAmong the titles won by Reginald Bonham were British Correspondence Championship\, shared in 1947 with J. Cairncross and shared in 1951 with E. Brown) and Midland Champion (1947 and 1950). \nHe was also (with Wormald) joint author of those fine little books Chess Questions Answered and More Chess Questions Answered.” \nSadly\, RWB did not merit articles in Sunnucks or Golombek’s Encyclopedias or Hooper’s and Whyld’s Oxford Companion or\, as mentioned previously\, British Chess. \nHere is a short biography from Ray Collett and here is his Wikipedia article. \nMore information here. \nThe Braille Chess Association has this entry in its Hall of Fame. \nChess Questions Answered\, RW Bonham & RD Wormald\, Jordan & Sons Ltd\, London\, 1945\nMore Chess Questions Answered\, RW Bonham & RD Wormald\, Jordan & Sons Ltd\, London\, 1948\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/11055/
CATEGORIES:Blind,Death Anniversary,History,Honours,Player,Remembering,Writer
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200226
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200227
DTSTAMP:20260817T141227Z
CREATED:20200709T181114Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260817T141227Z
UID:7201-1582675200-1582761599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary for CGM Adrian Hollis (02-viii-1940  26-ii-2013)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers CGM Adrian Hollis who passed away in Wells\, Somerset on Tuesday\, February 26th 2013  at the age of seventy-two. \nAdrian Swayne Hollis was born in Bristol\, Avon on Friday\, August 2nd 1940. During this critical period the Luftwaffe was wisely extending its Battle of Britain targets to include Britain’s airfields. Furthermore\, Bristol was bombed heavily between June 1940 and May 1944. The longest period of regular bombing\, known as the ‘Bristol Blitz’ began in autumn 1940 and ended the following spring. The first bombs of the Bristol Blitz fell at around 6 pm on Sunday 24 November 1940. \nAdrian was the only child of MI5 director general Roger Henry Hollis KB CBE (later to become Sir Roger Hollis) and Evelyn Esme Hollis (née Swayne) who was Roger’s first wife. Roger was from Wells and Evelyn from Burnham-on-Sea and they were married on July 17th 1937 in Wells Cathedral with Evelyn’s father performing the ceremony. \nAdrian won a scholarship in classics to Eton College and then went up to Keble College\, Oxford where he took a first in mods and greats. Whilst at Keble Adrian represented Oxford in four varsity matches between 1959 and 1962. Indeed\, his support for varsity matches was maintained for many years attending a large number into and beyond the Lloyds Bank era. Stalwart organiser Henry Mutkin would always be sure to extend an invitation. \nIn 1961 Adrian become the youngest ever West of England Champion at the age of 21. \nAdrian met Margaret Mair Cameron Edwards in 1967 at St. Andrew’s University where he taught Classics and she taught German. They married and had two daughters\, Jennifer (b. 1974) and Veronica (b. 1977) and a son. \nHe was the Games Editor for the British Correspondence Chess Association (BCCA) resigning in 1969. \nIn 1984 Adrian was forced to endure allegations against his father by Chapman Pincher (in CPs book Too Secret too Long) that Sir Roger had been a Soviet spy / mole. These allegations were demonstrated to be false. He may well also have been aware of allegations against his friend and chess mentor Graham Mitchell earlier in 1963. Ironically\, it was Adrian’s father who initiated the investigation into Graham. Again\, the rumours were shown to be unfounded. \nAdrian became a director of the company Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Limited on the September 1st 1996 and resigned on May 12th 2007. He was also a Vice President of the West of England Chess Union (WECU). \nBetween 2003 and 2007 (according to the Electoral Roll) Adrian lived at 63\, Bainton Road\, Oxford\, OX2 7AG : \n63\, Bainton Road\, Oxford\, OX2 7AG\nand following his retirement (and the time of the 2008 electoral roll) Adrian had moved to Pound House\, Southover\, Wells\, BA5 1UH : \nPound House\, Southover\, Wells\, BA5 1UH\nAdrian has written many learned papers and has had two books published : \nFragments of Roman Poetry C.60 BC-Ad 20\, AS Hollis\, Oxford University Press\, 2007\nand \nOvid Metamorphoses VIII (Schools Edition): Bk. 8\, AS Hollis. Oxford University Press\, 2008\nDuring his time at Keble College\, Adrian engaged with and mentored many chess players including Jonathan Rowson (1996)\, David Norwood (1988)\, Julian Way\, David Goodman (1977) and Dharshan Kumaran (1993). \nCGM Adrian Hollis\nJulian was a personal student of Adrian’s and was kind enough to tell us : \nI do remember Adrian well. He could quote Latin verse ad infinitum. He was an expert on Ovid.\nIn terms of chess he had a huge pile of Informators in his study still in their cardboard packaging. He was very kind to me and insisted I play above him for Keble in the intercollegiate matches. \nI gave him a copy of Developments in the Orthodox QGD which I had written in 1987. He was quite taken back when I didn’t want any money for it. He seemed to have quite a lot of respect for me. \nI once asked him why he had given me a place at Oxford. He replied that he couldn’t have rejected someone with my passion and enthusiasm.\nI kept in touch with Adrian until his passing. He gave me a lovely reference when I resumed my studies in 2007 at Kingston University.\nI remember him as a kind and unassuming man. He became a lifelong friend. \nCGM Adrian Hollis\nFrom British Chess (Pergamon Press\, 1983) Botterill\, Levy\, Rice and Richardson : \n“I was born on August 2nd\, 1940\, educated at Eton and Christ Church\, Oxford and now teach Classics at Keble College\, Oxford. I learned the moves at the advanced age of thirteen from a cousin who himself could have made a good chess player had he not been seduced by Philosophy and brain-teasers; all that remains in the mind from these encounters is a vision of perpetually losing my rooks to fianchettoed bishops. \nAdrian Hollis. Source : The Potter Memorial\nMy first ever tournament was the London Boys’ Championship 1956-7. In the opening round fate allotted me Black against David Rumens. As it happened\, the brochure included a game of his from the previous year in which he had answered 1.d4 with 1…Nc6\, quite enough\, in my opinion\, to condemn his utterly. \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(Ed: The above position did not impress Adrian hugely.) \nThis view seemed confirmed when within twelve moves of an advance French I was two pawns up. Then\, however\, aided by my over confidence he worked up a fierce attack\, and I just escaped with a draw. Nevertheless\, I won the tournament; an opponent remarked how quickly I played my moves. \nThereafter the game was never so easy\, but I did reasonably\, well\, winning the championships of the British Universities\, West of England and East of Scotland\, and playing for England quite regularly during the 1960s (including 7.5/12 in six Anglo-Dutch matches). \nLeonard Barden\, Henry Mutkin\, Adrian Hollis and Bob Wade observe Nick Ivell vs Ken Regan at the 1983 Varsity match\nThe high spot of my over-the-board chess was the series of World Student team championships from 1960 to 1964 in glamorous places (Leningrad\, Helsinki\, Mariánské Lázně\, Budva and Cracow); most enjoyable of these being Budva\, 1963 where one could bathe every day in the Adriatic and I won the (?) gold medal on Board 1 with 7.5/9.\, the year after Spassky (this must look good in the records\, unless they happen to reveal that for the first time in preliminary and final sections\, and that England did not qualify for the top final). \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nMy best chess was probably played at Mariánské Lázně\, 1962\, where in successive rounds I had favourable draws with Radulov and Hort\, coming close to beating the latter. Ironically\, I was awarded the British Master title after I had virtually retired from over-the-board 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\nIn 1964 I decided that henceforth for me ‘serious’ chess would mean correspondence\, while OTB became a pleasant social activity. My introduction to the postal game had been made about 1955 by a colleague of my father’s\, International Master Graham Mitchell\, to whom I owe an enormous debt for the patience and kindness with which he played a series of games\, bearing with me when I lost interest in worsening positions. The switch to postal play was caused by a number of factors\, negative and positive : an impending move to Scotland\, where there was less OTB chess\, frustration at constantly spoiling good positions through mistakes in time pressure – on the other hand a feeling that correspondence chess should suit an academic temperament\, and a particularly fascinating game played in 1963-4 with Michael Haygarth (see below) on which I spent so much time and energy that I almost feared it would ruin my post-graduate exams. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nIn 1964-5 I qualified for the British Championship by winning a candidates’ section with 100%\, and then competed three times in the British Championship itself (1965-6\, 1966-7\, 1970-71)\, winning on each occasion (the first time jointly with S. Milan) and remaining unbeaten. International play also proved successful\, and I soon collected the two norms necessary for the IM title (Ed: awarded in 1970). \nLinda Brownson (Newnham & Basildon)\, left\, playing Maria Eagle (Pembroke & Formby) being observed by John Nunn\, Adrian Hollis and Harry Golombek posing for the obligatory “staring at the board” picture for the 1981 Varsity Match sponsored by Lloyds Bank.\nThe first chance for the Grandmaster title came on Board 1 in the Seventh Olympiad final. Despite a rare loss with the White pieces(my only defeat with white for a stretch of 15 years)\, things went well\, including a lucky win against the reigning World Champion\, Horst Rittner\, and the enticing prospect beckoned if only I could beat the Russian Moiseyev. He held a slight advantage since the opening\, but I thought I saw the chance of tempting him to an incorrect sacrifice. Back came his move; he had indeed made the sacrifice and the envelope burnt a hole in my pocket during an important meeting (my mind was elsewhere). After a mere two days’ thought I sent my reply. The post between England and the USSR takes about a month for the return trip. Soon after posting my move\, as I was walking from the Ashmolean Museum to Keble\, just passing the front gate of St. John’s\, the realisation of what I had overlooked hit me\, and there followed an inexorable wait for the death blow which I now saw only too clearly. \nSo no Grandmaster title\, but Great Britain still took the bronze medals\, and I scored 6/9 (+5=1-2). \nBob Wade\, Harry Golombek and Adrian Hollis observe Penny Coxon (Newnam) and Anita Rakshit (St. Hilda’s) during the 1983 Varsity match sponsored by Lloyds Bank\nAnother opportunity came when the British Postal Chess Federation organised a tournament (1974-6) in memory of its former secretary RJ Potter.  This started inauspiciously for me with a heavy defeat at the hands of Grandmaster Endzelins of Australia.\, a country which has so far provided my least favourite opposition (not only is the postage extremely expensive\, but my score to date is 0/2). \nFrom The Potter Memorial\, Ken Messere\, Chess (Sutton Coldfield)\, 1979 we have this potted biography from Ken Messere : \nThe Potter Memorial\, Ken Messere\, Chess (Sutton Coldfield)\, 1979\n“Adrian Hollis is 36\, was educated at Eton and Oxford\, has written two books on the poet Ovid and is a Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Keble College\, Oxford. He is a British Master at over the board chess and has been Champion of British Universities\, West of England and East Scotland. \nIn 1964\, he went to teach at St. Andrews University where his wife\, Margaret\, taught German. They were married and moved to Keble College in 1967 and now have two daughters. Jennifer is nearly five and Veronica is two. \nAdrian began to concentrate on correspondence chess in 1964 and won the British Correspondence Chess Championship jointly in 1966 and outright in 1967 and 1971. He won the I.M. title in 1970 and his fine score of 6/9 on top board for Great Britain in the I.C.C.F. VIIth Correspondence Chess Olympiad Final contributed to the team’s winning the bronze medal in this event.” \nand now back to Adrian’s British Chess article… \nThereafter my fortunes improved; one opponent accepted too trustingly some faulty analysis by Szabo in Informator (for a while it seemed that the Hungarian might earn me not one but two points). The East German Dr. Baumbach failed to find an improvement in a line with which I had been successful in the Seventh Olympiad Final. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nAlso\, I had a win with the Black pieces against the Russian Kopylov. The result was a score of 9/12 (+8=2-2)\, which sufficed for the grandmaster title and first place half a point ahead of the Finn Kauranen. \nSince then I have played quite well on second board behind Keith Richardson in the Eighth Olympiad Final (+5=7-0)\, and very badly indeed (scoring just about 50% in the Heilimo Memorial Tournament organised from Finland (I was much impressed by the strength of the Finnish players\, most of whom I had not encountered before). Having twice narrowly failed\, I would still like to qualify for the Final of the Individual World Championship. Of course life becomes increasingly busy\, but the examples of Hugh Alexander and Graham Mitchell encourage me to believe that one can continue to play well at postal chess longer than over-the-board. So perhaps around the year 2000\, when the children are grown up….” \nAdrian Hollis and Harry Golombek observer Andrew Dyson (Trinity) having played 1.d4 versus IM William Watson (Merton) during the 1984 Varsity match sponsored by Lloyds Bank\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 British Chess Magazine\, Volume CXXXIII (133\, 2013)\, Number 4 (April)\, pp.194-5 we have this obituary written by James Pratt : \nAdrian Swayne Hollis (2 viii 1940 Bristol – 26 ii 2013 Wells)\, British Master and Correspondence Grandmaster (1976)\, three times British Correspondence Champion\, has died. He played most of his OTB chess as a young man\, finishing seventh equal at the British Aberystwyth\, 1961\, when he beat\, amongst others\, A.R.B. Thomas and former champion\, Alan Phillips. He gave future champion\, Jonathan Penrose\, a tough fight in the last round before conceding the half-point. He played in the Hastings Premier\, 1962/3 and emerged with a plus score in the Anglo-Dutch matches. He was an occasional reviewer for BCM. \nIt was\, of course\, in the realm of postal player that he shone most brightly! \nIn 1966 we see him playing board two for England\, below Slade Milan\, and\, two years later\, Adrian scored 9/12 in a World Postal Qualifier\, narrowly missing a place in the final. In 1971 he won the British Correspondence Championship\, easily outdistancing a tough field. He played top board for England in the 1972-7 Olympiad. In 1974-6 he won the Reg Potter Memorial. In the ninth Olympiad – 1982-5 – Adrian Hollis was undefeated on board two. And England took the Gold Medal! \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nObituary from Raymond Keene in The Specatator \nObituary from Kenneth Shelton in The Independent \nObituary from ? in The Times \nObituary from John Rhodes in The Chess Improver \nObituary from Bob Jones of Keverel Chess. \nWikipedia article. \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-for-cgm-adrian-swayne-hollis-02-viii-1940-26-ii-2013/
CATEGORIES:Correspondence,History,Player,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200113
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200114
DTSTAMP:20230213T142309Z
CREATED:20200417T141944Z
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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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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200110
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200111
DTSTAMP:20260817T141234Z
CREATED:20200504T085859Z
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UID:5221-1578614400-1578700799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Roland Scott (25-iii-1888 10-i-1953)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Roland Scott who passed away in Monte Carlo on Saturday\, January 10th\, 1953. \nRoland Henry Vaughan Scott was born in either Barnes or Holloway depending which Census record is correct. His parents were Walter Frederick Scott\, a GP who was born in April 1960 and died in 1891 when Roland was three years of age. \nHis mother was Lucie Vaughan was born in 1855 and died in October 1933. \nRoland had two sisters\, Nina Vaughan Scott and Lucie / Lucia Audrey Scott (who died before her first birthday) and a brother Guy Francis D Scott who lived until 1977. \nIn 1891 Roland lived in Tottenham\, in 1901 in Hampstead and in 1911 in St. Pancras where he was listed as a law clerk. \nIn 1917 The London Gazette lists him as a lieutenant in the Norfolk Regiment. \nThe 1920 electoral rolls for the Gospel Oak polling district lists Scott as voter #2006 living at 2\, Estelle Road\, North St. Pancras which is now in Belsize Park\, NW3 2JX. At the same address was his sister Lucie and in 1921 they were joined by brother Guy. \nIn July 1922 in the district of Brighton Roland married Irma Clareboudt. No children from the marriage are recorded. \nThe 1939 register lists Scott as “War Disabled ? Officer Retired In War 1914” (invalided from army) and Irma as a saleswoman (born 25th July 1895) living at 42\, Sherwell Lane\, Paignton\, Torquay\, TQ2 6BD. \n42\, Sherwell Lane\, Paignton\, Devon\, TQ2 6BD.\nThe April 1953 British Chess Magazine (Volume LXXIII\, Number 4\, page 101 onwards) contained this obituary from DJ Morgan: \nIt is with much regret that we record the death\, on January 10th\, at Monte Carlo\, of R. H. V. Scott. He had long been out of active chess\, but older readers will need no reminding of the 1920 British Champion\, with his quiet manner but attacking chess; one who was composure itself at the table but aggressiveness personified on the board. \nThe son of a doctor\, Scott was born in 1889. He was nineteen before taking to the game\, but a ready aptitude combined with great enthusiasm led to rapid progress. He joined the Hampstead Club in 1908\, and in his first tournament\, the Third Class\, came out first. ln the years that follow he pursued the game with much energy. \nAt the B.C.F. Congress\, Glasgow\, l9ll\, he won the only section of the First Class. In 1913 and in 1914 he was Hampstead Club Champion. In 1913 he was tenth in the British Championship\, at Cheltenham\, and equal fifth to sixth at Chester in the following year\, defeating Yates and drawing with Blackburne. \nIn 1915 he came second in the City of London Club Championship\, but won that of the Metropolitan Club. During the same year he lost a short match with Sir G. A. Thomas 1-3. The war years\, with a commission in the Norfolk Regiment\, intervened\, but chess filled his available moments. \nIn 1916 he defeated L. I. Estrin\, a young Russian who was Hampstead Champion\, 5-2 in a match. ln 1919 he lost a match with Winter at Hastings (2-4)\, and shared seventh to eighth positions with Dr. Olland (Holland) at the B.C.F. Hastings Victory Congress\, with victories over Olland\, \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nR. P. Michell\, Marchand\, and Conde. Then came the B.C.F. Edinburgh Congress of 1920\, Scott became British Champion\, losing only\nto Sir G. A. Thomas. \nIn this year he also drew a match\, 3-3\, with Marchand\, of Holland\, also at Hastings. There followed three more appearances in the championship\, Malvern\, 1921 (equal fifth to sixth); Southsea\,1923 (equal third to fourth); and Southport\, 1924 (fourth). And with this Scott passed out of British chess. Ill health and failing eyesight\, direct results of sufferings and injuries endured on active service during the war\, began to take their toll. On medical advice he sought a warmer climate\, and the Riviera henceforth became his home. \nWe find him sharing seventh to eighth positions at the Hyères Congress\, in 1926\, and coming equal fifth to sixth\, with B. Reilly (our Editor’s first international tourney we believe)\, at Hyères\, 1927. \nThe days of active play were over\, but his great interest in the game remained. Scott was a natural attacking player\, more likely\, perhaps\, to win the Brilliancy Prize than the First Prize. \nEdo rating profile for RHV Scott\nWe have given the bare outline of a career that was all too short\, one cut down\, in a sense before reaching full maturity. Contemporary records sometimes expressed the need for more stability in Scott’s chess\, but they chronicle games of his that speak forcibly of the imaginative\, refreshing\, and invigorating qualities of his play. We offer an early game\, the Brilliancy Prize winner\, City of London C.C. Championship\, 1913-14. White’s 20th move sets the game alight. \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 British Chess Magazine\, Volume XLI (1920)\, Number 10 (October)\, page 305 we have the following report of his exploits winning the 1920 British Championship in Edinburgh: \n“We are glad to be able to present to our readers a photograph of the new champion\, Mr. R.H.V Scott. He informs us that it is his most recent one\, taken in 1917 when subaltern in the Norfolk Regiment. He saw service with the latter in France\, and\, as is probably know to most of our subscribers\, was badly gassed\, from the effects of which is now happily quite recovered. \nHis victory in the recent Congress in Edinburgh is welcome from at least two points of view; one\, that he is one of our youngest first class players (ed: he was 32 at the time\, a veteran by the standards of 2022!)\, having been born in 1889 (ed: this should have been 1888)\, and therefore may justifiably be expected to improve still further with experience and some curbing of his impatience in defence; and\, two\, that he claim to represent the more brilliant school of chess\, that of Pillsbury\, Marshall\, Charousek\, and Morphy\, rather than the more solid school\, of say\, Steinitz and Rubinstein\, who theory was the pilling up of small advantages. \nScott has an excellent “nose” for attack\, and has some exceedingly “chessy” ideas. During the congress he put a much greater restraint on himself than is his wont\, and we believe this to be the reason he so improved on his previous records. \nHe had what might be described as the worst of the draw\, since he had Black against Sir George  Thomas\, EG Sergeant and RP Michell. Some writers have described him as lucky to win\, but a study of his games and a comparison with those of others in the tourney go to prove that he played more far-sightedly than any of the others. \nWe are quite aware that the form of any player is variable\, and we have seen Sir George Thomas play much better chess and much less strainedly than he did at Edinburgh. EG Sergeant was generally playing quite at his best\, but once or twice his play deteriorated\, perhaps as the result of a sleepless night\, he then seemed bereft of ideas\, and allowed the clock to beat him. This also was the case with Michell\, who had many a rush to save his flag falling before the necessary moves were made. Now Scott almost invariably had time to spare. \nPerhaps the worst reversal of form was that of JH Blake; but he had been working very hard and late for some time right up to the day the Congress commenced\, and was not really in a fit state of health to take part. \nScott has twice before competed for the Championship; in 1913 where he finished eighth\, and in 1914 when he was fifth\, beating FD Yates\, the then Champion and drawing with JH Blackburne. \nHe has won several brilliancy prizes in congress and club tourneys\, and was the champion of the Hampstead Chess Club (where he may have been said to have learnt the game) in 1913 and 1914. He was first acquainted with the moves in 1908. \nHe is keen on all sports\, and puts his whole energy into each line he may be taking. With yet more self-restraint we think his chess will still further improve\, and we venture to prophesy this will not be the last British Chess Championship he will win.” \nIn his memoirs William Winter wrote this: \n“I also had the opportunity of playing a number of semi-serious games with RHV Scott and D. Miller\, two of the leading London amateurs. Scott was probably the most brilliant combinative played England has ever seen and had already won almost every honour except the British Championship\, which fell to him in 1920. \nSince those days I have played over hundreds of games\, including the beautiful brilliancies of the modern Russian school\, and Scott’s best combinations stand up quite well beside them. There were however weaknesses in his play which I shall discuss later. Miller was just the opposite type\, a dour solid player exceptionally hard to beat. He is\, I am glad to say\, still with us\, but Scott died a few years ago – he had been out of chess for a long time.” \nand this: \n“It is entirely legitimate\, and can prove very useful until one comes up against an opponent like Capablanca who had no weaknesses of any kind. ln Scott’s case\, one of his foibles was an aversion to exchanging queens\, and I took full advantage of this in the first two games of the match both of which I won with comparative ease; but Scott was not finished yet.’ In the third game he tied me up in a variation of the Sicilian which I had not previously seen\, and in the fourth I made the fatal mistake in going for an early win of material and allowing him a king’s side attack. Things now looked bad for me. I had the black pieces in the fifth game and I dared not play my favourite Sicilian defence because I could not discover a satisfactory answer to his new line.” \nStrangely\, none of the Encyclopaedia’s by Golombek\, Sunnucks or Hooper & Whyld felt that RHVS merited an entry. However Gaige does not forget. \nHere is an interesting article from “introuble2” entitled 100 years ago… chess in London during World War I in which Scott is mentioned. \nHere is an excellent article from John Saunders \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 Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-roland-henry-vaughan-scott-25-iii-1888-10-i-1953/
CATEGORIES:2023,British Championships,History,Player,Remembering
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