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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210219
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210220
DTSTAMP:20210215T164742Z
CREATED:20190824T101505Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210215T164742Z
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SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of John Keeble (27-viii-1855 19-ii-1939)
DESCRIPTION:Death Anniversary of John Frederick Keeble (27-viii-1855 19-ii-1939)From The Oxford Companion to Chess by Hooper & Whyld : \nProblemist and chronicler who lived in Norwich all his life. He edited the chess column of the Norwich Mercury from 1902 lo 1912\, contributed many significant articles elsewhere\, investigated a number of chess questions\, and established the burial place of several great players and arranged the tending of their graves. He lived at only two addresses for 73 years\, worked for the railway company for 53 years\, and was a member of the Norfolk and Norwich chess dub for 61 consecutive years. Winner of the club championship in 1884\, he did not compete again until 1933 and then won it three years in succession. \nJohn Frederick Keeble\nHere is his (italian) Wikipedia entry \nJohn Frederick Keeble\nAn English Bohemian\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-john-frederick-keeble/
CATEGORIES:Composer,Death Anniversary,History,Problemist,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210223
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210224
DTSTAMP:20210223T110641Z
CREATED:20190823T085227Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210223T110641Z
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SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Jacques Mieses (27-ii-1865 23-ii-1954)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers GM Jacques Mieses who passed away on February 23rd\, 1954 aged 88. He was buried on the 25th of February at the East Ham Jewish Cemetery in Section J\, Row 18\, Grave 1100. We hope to update his burial record with these details when we are allowed to do so. \nJakob Jacques Mieses was born on Monday\, February 27th 1865 in Leipzig in the German state of Saxony. He came to England in 1939 and was recorded in the UK Internees Index for 1939 – 1942 on 25th April 1939 : \nHome Office internment record for Jakob Jacques Mieses\, 25th April 1939\n65 Oakleigh (now Oakley) Square\, London\, NW1\nAt the time of the 1939 register Mieses was recorded as living at 66\, Oakley Square\, St. Pancras\, Camden\, London\, NW1 and he is listed as a Professional Chess Player. \nBy the time of Hastings 1945 (27th December) Jacques had relocated to : \n8 Fitzjohns Avenue\, London NW3 5NA\nOn June 7th 1947 he was granted Naturalisation Certificate AZ27326. \nIn 1950 he was one of the twenty-seven first players to be awarded the Grandmaster title by FIDE. He was therefore the first British National to be awarded the Grandmaster title for OTB play. The next (Tony Miles) would be twenty-six years later. \nHe has The Mieses Opening named after him : \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nwhich never really caught on to any significant degree. \nIn the Scotch Game (a favourite of his with both colours) we have The Mieses Variation : \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 in the Vienna Game The Mieses Variation 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\nFrom The Encyclopaedia of Chess (Robert Hale\, 1970 & 1976)\, Anne Sunnucks : \n“International Grandmaster. Born in Leipzig on 27th February 1865\, Jacques Mieses was educated at Leipzig University and in Berlin. He came to England as a refugee from Nazi Germany shortly before the 1939-1945 war and eventually became a naturalised British citizen. \nThe early part of his chess career was devoted mainly to the study of chess theory and to chess problems. It was not until he was 23 that his tournament career really started with a tie for 2nd place at Nuremberg 1888\, followed by 3rd at Leipzig 1888. \nJacques Mieses. Source : Chess Notes by Edward Winter\nOver the next 50 years\, he played in numerous tournaments with varying degrees of success. His addiction to speculative rather than sound openings and his attempts to combine playing in tournaments with reporting them were possibly responsible for his inconsistent results. Within a few months of one of the greatest performances of his career\, when he came lst at Vienna 1907\, ahead of Duras\, Maróczy\, Tartakover\, Vidmar\, Schlechter and Spielmann\, \nFull crosstable for Trebitsch Memorial\, Vienna 1907\nhe came no higher than =16th at Carlsbad. In 1923 he achieved another great success when he came lst at Liverpool\, ahead of Maróczy\, Thomas and Yates. \nFull crosstable for Northern Counties Congress Premier\, Liverpool\, 1923\nWhile his style of play prevented him from reaching the greatest heights as a tournament player\, it was also responsible for the numerous brilliancy prizes which came his way\, one of the last being at the 1945 Hastings Congress\, when he was 80. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nAmong the many books which Mieses wrote were The Chess Pilot\, \nThe Chess Pilot\, Jacques Mieses\, Williams & Norgate. London. 1947. First Edition\nManual of the End Game \nManual of the End Game\, Jacques Mieses\, G. Bell and Son Ltd.\, London\, 1947\nand Instructive Positions from Master Chess. \nInstructive Positions from Master Chess\, Jacques Mieses\, George Bell and Sons Ltd.\, London\, 1951\nA very popular player\, Mieses had a ready sense of humour. On one occasion\, when he was in New York\, he was asked by an American who mispronounced his name “Sind sie Mister Meises?”\, ” No sir\,” he promptly replied “Ich bin Meister Mieses.” On another occasion\, when submitting an article in German to a British magazine\, he could not resist asking ” Don’t you think my German is very good for an Englishman?” \nOn his eightieth birthday\, a dinner was held in his honour in London and he was presented with a cheque by his numerous chess friends and admirers. The speech he made on this occasion was later quoted in most of his obituaries: \nI have been told that a good many people never reach the biblical span of three score years and 10; and those who do-so some most reliable statistics assure us-are most likely to die between 70 and 80. Hence\, I dare say\, ladies and gentlemen\, that I for one have now passed the danger zone and may well go on living for ever. \nHe lived for nearly nine more years\, taking his daily swim in the Serpentine in Hyde Park or some open-air swimming pool\, until only a few days before his death. He died in a London nursing home on 23rd February 1954 and was buried in the East London Jewish Cemetery.” \nJacques Mieses\nFrom The Encyclopaedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977) Harry Golombek OBE we have this from Wolfgang Heidenfeld : \n“Grandmaster\, theorist\, problemist\, tournament organiser and chess journalist. \nMieses was a spectacular player who won many brilliancy prizes but suffered as many very short defeats. As a a result the German master achieved only one full success in important international tournaments (Vienna 1907)\, but occupied good places in such events as Breslau 1889 (3rd)\, Hanover 1902 (4th)\, Ostend 1907 (=3rd)\, as well as some smaller events. \n\nIn matches he showed a heavy preponderance of losses against the top-notchers\, losing to Lasker\, Tarrasch\, Rubinstein\, Marshall\, Teichmann (twice) and Spielmann\, but he drew with Walbrodt (1894)\, Janowski (1895) and Caro (1897) and beat Leonhardt\, Taubenhaus\, and (at the age of 81) Abrahams. \nHere is the first game from October 29th 1945 annotated by Mieses from his match with Gerald Abrahams played in Glossop: \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 keeping with his sharp style\, Mieses preferred such openings as the Vienna Gambit\, the Danish Gambit and the Centre Counter-Gambit. Among his lasting achievements are his brilliancy prize games against Janowksi (Paris 1900)\, \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nReggio (Monte Carlo 1903)\, \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nPerlis (Ostend 1907) \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 Schlechter (Vienna 1908). \nPersonally a very witty man (and something of a bon vivant) Mieses did not invest his writing with the same sparkle; both as a journalist and author he was rather dry and sober. He edited the eighth edition of the famous Handbuch\, several editions of the ‘little Dufresne’\, and published several primers as well as a treatise on blindfold play and an anthology Instructive Positions from Master Chess\, London\, 1938. \nOne of Mieses’s most important contributions to chess history was the payment of travelling and living expenses during a tournament\, which he insisted on when running the famous tournament at San Sebastian 1911 – it was only thenceforth that this procedure became the norm.” \nJacques Mieses\nHere is an obituary written by DJ Morgan from British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXIV (74\, 1954)\, Number 4 (April)\, pp. 107-108 : \nLast month we made brief mention of the death\, on February 23rd at a London Nursing Home\, of the old grandmaster\, on the verge of his eighty-ninth birthday. He was the last surviving link with a distant and largely-forgotten era. Mieses entered the international arena in the days of the great Romantics\, of Zukertort\, Charousek\, and Tchigorin. He reached his heyday in the times of Tarrasch\, Schlechter\, and Maróczy. But he could never assimilate the canons of this Classical School\, derived from Steinitz and codified and promulgated by Tarrasch. He preferred the dynamic to the static. He played the Scotch Game in tournaments long after it hat been\ndiscarded by Steinitz and Blackburne; the Danish Gambit and the Vienna became in his hands instruments of great attacking potential. As Black he long favoured the Centre Counter Defence\, and with it he brought off a number of thrilling victories in such great tournaments as those of Ostend\, 1907\, Carlsbad\, 1907\, Vienna\, 1908\, and St. Petersburg\, 1909. \nNice Masters\, 1931. Standing : Daniel Noteboom\, Abraham Baratz\, George Renaud (Organiser)\, Telling (Tournament Director)\, Marcel Duchamp\, Brian Reilly (winner)\, Seated : Eugene Znokso-Borovsky\,\, Arpad Vajda\, Sir George Thomas\, Jacques Mieses\, Stefano Roselli del Turco\, Jacob Adolf Seitz. British Chess Magazine\, 1931\, page 201\nJacques Mieses was born on February 27th\, 1865\, at Leipsic\, and was educated at the university there\, and in Berlin. In the capital he joined\, at seventeen\, one of the city’s chess clubs\, and soon won the first prize in its annual tournament. Nevertheless\, his earlier days were devoted mainly to the theoretical side of the game and to problems of which he was a good composer and a phenomenal solver. His public career really began with a tie for second place at Nuremberg\, 1888\, with the third prize at Leipsic in the same year\, followed by a third\, behind Tarrasch and Burn\, at Breslau\, 1889. His subsequent achievements span the years and are recorded in the literature of the game. He played at the famous Hastings 1895 (and was its sole survivor); fifty years later he played at a Hastings Christmas Congress. His preference for the speculative and the spectacular to the then ultra-modern-prevented him from winning the major prizes of the games. As we look up the record’s we can readily see how unpredictable his performances were. Thus\, in 1907\, a first at Vienna early in the year was followed later by an equal sixteenth-eighteenth at Carlsbad. But his Brilliancy Prizes were numerous: such endings as those v. Janowski\, Paris\, 1900; v. Reggio\, Monte Carlo\, 1903 (quoted\, incidentally\, as Diagram 52 in Fine’s The Middle Game in Chess\, but without giving its source); v. Znosko-Borovsky\, Ostend\, 1907; and v. Schlechter\, Vienna\, 1908\, will always be the delight of anthologists. \nJacques Mieses\nAs well as playing incessantly in match and tournament\, Mieses wrote copiously on all aspects of the game\, analytically as well as in a literary manner\, in books as well as in magazines. Three of his little books\, The Chess Pilot\, Manual of the End-game\, and Instructive Positions from Master Chess\, have enjoyed a long and wide popularity in English. \n24th April 1935: J Mieses of Germany in play against PS Milner-Barry during the Premier Tournament of the Kent County Chess Association in the Grand Hotel\, Margate. (Photo by F. Sayers/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)\nTwo personal memories come to the writer’s mind. We first met him during the Liverpool congress-of 1923 ((1) Mieses\, (2) Maróczy). one morning we took a stroll together up Dale Street\, a stroll which developed into a tie-hunting expedition\, ending up with a fine selection on his part to take back to a Germany emerging from recent disaster. He left the impression of a courteous and cultured man\, precise in speech and with something of the military in his bearing. ln 1939\, on hearing of his whereabouts\, we called at his lodgings in Camden Town one Sunday morning. We were diffidently greeted by a seriously-crippled Mieses\, who had recently\, under great difficulties\, made his exit from a Germany once more faced with disaster. \n24th April 1935: J Mieses of Germany in play against PS Milner-Barry during the Premier Tournament of the Kent County Chess Association in the Grand Hotel\, Margate. (Photo by F. Sayers/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)\nBut the prim and chivalrous personality soon exerted itself. His many English friends rallied round him in his exile\, all culminating in the great tribute paid to him on his eightieth birthday. Mon March 15th\, 1945\, at the Lud-Eagle Chess Club\, a large number of friends and admirers gathered to pay their respects. A cheque\, subscribed to by members of the club\, was presented to the veteran master. He had\, he said in his acknowledgement\, sought asylum in England\, and he had been shown great kindness and sympathy. The final gift was a last resting-place in the East London (Ed : we now know this to be East Ham) Jewish Cemetery. – DJM. \nObituary of Jacques Mieses by DJ Morgan. British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXIV (74\, 1954)\, Number 4 (April)\, pp. 107-108.\nObituary of Jacques Mieses by DJ Morgan. British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXIV (74\, 1954)\, Number 4 (April)\, pp. 107-108.\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nJacques Mieses\nFrom Chessgames.com : \n“Jacques Mieses was born in Leipzig. He won the chess championship of Berlin at the age of 17\, and in 1888 he placed joint second at Leipzig and third at Nuremberg. \nIn 1889 he came third at Breslau (1889). He was\, however\, rather eclipsed by two great emerging talents – Emanuel Lasker and Siegbert Tarrasch. Mieses was crushed by Lasker in a match – Lasker – Mieses (1889/90) in Leipzig (December 1889 to January 1890). He also performed poorly at 8th DSB Kongress (1893) coming only 7th out of 9 against a field which was relatively weak compared to previous DSB congresses. \n1894-95 was a busy period for Mieses. He drew a match with Karl August Walbrodt. (+5\, =3\,-5) in Berlin (May-June 1894). Mieses then played in the extremely strong 9th DSB Kongress\, Leipzig (1894) (3rd-14th September\, 1894) coming 10th out of 18. He had then toured Russia giving simultaneous displays\, before travelling to Paris to play a match with David Janowski (8th January to 4th February 1895). \nVera Menchik plays Jacques Mieses in their match in 1942\n  \nMieses then crossed the English Channel to play a short match against Richard Teichmann in London (16th – 21st February 1895) which he lost by +1 =1 -4. A month later he played this match\, Mieses next professional engagement would be (which was his first tournament outside his own country) came at the famous Hastings event of 1895. Although he finished only twentieth (in a field of 22 players)\, he soon adapted to this level of play and in 1907 he took first prize at the Vienna tournament scoring ten points from thirteen games. \nIn 1909\, Mieses played a short blindfold match with Carl Schlechter\, winning it with two wins and one draw. The very next year Schlechter played Emanuel Lasker for the World Championship and drew the match 5-5. \nMieses tried his hand as a tournament organiser in 1911\, putting together the San Sebastian event that marked the international debut of future World Champion Jose Raul Capablanca. Mieses was defeated by one of Lasker’s title challengers\, Siegbert Tarrasch\, in a match in 1916 (+2 -7 =4). In 1938 Mieses resettled in England and took British citizenship. He was awarded the grandmaster title in 1950.” \nJacques Mieses.Jewish chess master from Germany; 1938 Escape from the Naziregime to England.27.2.1865 Leipzig – 23.2.1954 London.Simultaneous play in the Bar Kochba club against 25 chess players\, in the foreground: Mieses (left) against Felix A. Theilhaber.Photo\, undated\, around 1935 (Abraham Pisarek).\nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess by Hooper & Whyld : \nGerman-born Jewish player and author from Leipzig\, International Grandmaster (1950)\, International Arbiter\n(1951). He never assimilated the positional ideas of Steinitz and Tarrasch; instead he preferred to set up a game with the direct object of attacking the enemy king\, a style that brought him many brilliancy prizes but few successes in high-level play. His best result was at Vienna 1907\, the first Trebitsch Memorial tournament\, when he won first prize ( +9 =2 —2) ahead of Duras\, Maróczy and Schlechter. Later in the year he shared third prize with Nimzowitsch after Bernstein and Rubinstein in a 28-round tournament at Ostend. He played 25 matches\, mostly short\, and won six of them including a defeat of Schlechter in 1909 (+2-1). \nMieses reported chess events\, edited chess columns\, and wrote several books. In 1921 he published a supplement to the eighth edition of Bilguer’s Handbuch\, and he revised several editions of Dufresne’s popular Lehrbuck des Schachspiels\, He also organized chess events\, including the tournament at San Sebastian in 1911 for which he insisted that competitors were paid for travel and board\, a practice that later became normal. \nAfter living in Germany for 73 years he escaped the clutches of the Nazis and sought refuge in England. A prim\, courteous\, and dignified old gentleman\, still upright in bearing\, he became widely liked in his adopted country. Asked about his lameness in one leg\, caused by a street accident in 1937\, he merely answered ‘it was my turn to move\,’ Soon after naturalization he became the first British player to be awarded the International Grandmaster title. A generation before him his uncle Samuel Mieses (1841-84) had been a German player of master strength. \nIn the various publications of Edward Winter there are many and varied references to Mieses. We recommend you consult : Kings\, Commoners and Knaves\, Chess Facts and Fables and Chess Explorations to read them. \nAccording to Edward Winter in Chess Notes JM lived at the following addresses : \n\nTauchaerstrasse\, Leipzig\, Germany (Wiener Schachzeitung\, July 1904\, page 211).\nChristianstrasse 23\, Leipzig\, Germany (Düsseldorf\, 1908 tournament book\, page 176).\nWettiner Str. 32\, Leipzig\, Germany (Ranneforths Schach-Kalender\, 1915\, page 70).\nChristianstrasse 19II\, Leipzig\, Germany (Ranneforths Schachkalender\, 1925\, page 158).\n8 Fitzjohns Avenue\, London NW3\, England (Hastings and St Leonards Chess Club visitors’ book\, 27 December 1945*).\n\n\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-jacques-mieses/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering,Writer
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210304
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210305
DTSTAMP:20210304T122602Z
CREATED:20210301T142500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210304T122602Z
UID:14612-1614816000-1614902399@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Nancy Elder MBE (25-v-1915 04-iii-1981)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Nancy Elder MBE who passed away on Wednesday\, March 4th 1981\, i.e\, forty years ago in Perth\, Western Australia. \nNancy Conchar Gordon was born on Tuesday\, May 25th 1915. On the same date was born Robin Day in High Wycombe who went on  to design the polypropylene stacking chair. \nNancy was born in Kirmabreck\, Kirkcudbrightshire in the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. \nIn the 1939 register Nancy was living at 18 Thornton Avenue\, Urmston. Manchester\, M41 5DJ with a married couple\, William Furnish (a railway time keeper) and Gertrude Furnish who performed unpaid domestic duties. Presumably Nancy was a lodger. \n18 Thornton Avenue\, Urmston. Manchester\, M41 5DJ\nHer occupation was given as a teacher of music and physical training. At this time she was single at the age of twenty-four. \nIn the mid-1940s Nancy relocated from Manchester to Dundee where she continued her teaching career at Dundee High School. During that time she encouraged and coached a number of players some of whom represented Scotland. \nIn 1950 in Tealing\, Angus\, Scotland Nancy married David Livie Elder. They had a daughter Christine who played chess as a junior. Tealing has a strong connection with the Elder family. \nAccording to Alan McGowan (Chess Scotland): “She was the main instigator in forming both the Schools’ and Primary League in Dundee\, and she assisted in the organisation of the Dundee 1967 International Centenary Tournament.” \nWhen she passed away Nancy was living at 39 Whitefauld Road\, Dundee\, DD2 1RJ : \n39 Whitefauld Road\, Dundee\, DD2 1RJ\nHer passing was reported in the Dundee Courier and Advertiser  on March 6th 1981 as follows : \nNancy Elder dies after heart attack on flight\nMrs Nancy Elder 39 Whitefauld Road\, Dundee\, a former music teacher at Dundee High School and one of Scotland’s best known chess players\, has died after taking ill on a flight to Australia.\nShe was off for a long holiday which she planned to spend with relatives and friends from the world of international chess\, but\, after suffering a heart attack on a plane from Singapore\, had been in intensive care in Perth\, Western Australia. \nHer daughter Christine\, a primary school teacher in Tighnabruaich\, received daily telephone reports on her mother’s condition from a cousin and\, at the weekend\, heard that she was improving gradually. \nThe shock news of her mother’s death came late on Wednesday night. \nMrs. Elder\, who went into semi-retirement recently\, has been to the fore in chess for about 35 years at local\, national and international levels. \nNancy Elder MBE. Source : Milos Petronic\nShe has represented her country five times\, having taken part in the chess Olympiad in Yugoslavia in 1963 and 1973\, in Israel in 1976\, in Buenos Aires in 1978 and in Malta last year. \nBuenos Aires Olympiad 1978. From left: Morag McGhee\, Nancy Elder\, Owen Hindle\, Kathleen Hindle and Lynne Houston. Courtesy of Chess Scotland\nShe turned down the chance to take part on three other occasions. \nHaifa Olympiad 1976 – Scotland v Switzerland. From left: Nancy Elder\, Kathleen Hindle\, Lynne Houston. Courtesy of Chess Scotland\nShe was awarded the MBE for her services to chess in 1974. \nShe was President of Dundee Chess Club\, chairman of the congress committee of the Scottish Chess Association and on the council of the Scottish Junior Chess Association. \nSelf-taught\nShe started playing chess during her school days with her brother and the two of them were more-or-less self taught. \nIt wasn’t until after the Second World War that she received any sort of coaching\, by which time she had established her own style. \nShe retired on April 14th last year after 24 years in the music department of Dundee High School\, where she specialised in teaching the oboe. \nShe continued to teach privately. \nDundee Courier and Advertiser\, March 6th 1981\nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume CI (101\, 1981)\, Number 6 (June)\, pp. 219-220 we have this obituary from Bernard Cafferty : \n“Nancy C. Elder\, MBE\, died in Perth\, Western Australia on March 4th 1981. Mrs. Elder had recently retired after a lifetime of teaching\, her last post being in Dundee. I well remember her account of teaching under difficult conditions in World War 2 in Manchester. 15 Scottish Women’s Champion (the record for the event which she set-up at Troon in 1980). \nPrizegiving at the 1966 Scottish Championships. From the left: Michael Fallone\, Nancy Elder\, W.P. McColl\, President of Dundee Chess Club\, Kathleen Patterson\, Gerald Bonner. Courtesy of Chess Scotland\nMrs Elder was a regular competitor in the British Women’s Championship (sometimes in rivalry with her daughter Christine) and showed her playing strength with a score of 5.5/12 on board two for Scotland at the Women’s Chess Olympiad\, Malta\, 1980. \nMalta Olympiad 1980 Left-right: Kathleen\, Rosie Giulian\, Owen Hindle (Team Captain)\, Nancy Elder\, Lynne Houston. Courtesy of Chess Scotland\nI am sure she will be best remembered though for her decades of effort in the organising of chess in Scotland\, particularly for juniors and in schools\, in recognition of which she was awarded the MBE\, the only such honour ever given for services to chess ‘north of the border’ as Alan Borwell puts it in his Newsflash obituary.” \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nChess Scotland award the Nancy Elder Cup annually for an individual competition for “club level” players. \nWe are grateful to Helen Milligan who told BCN : \nMy most memorable incident was when I refused to play in the Scottish Ladies at the annual Congress\, preferring to try to improve my chess by playing in the Open section (really the B-Grade\, below the Championship proper). I got given a piece of Nancy’s mind for that – she did not approve! \nHere are her playing records from the Olympiads. \nHere is a potted biography from Chess Scotland. \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-nancy-elder-mbe-25-v-1915-04-iii-1981/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Honours,Player,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210318
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210319
DTSTAMP:20230317T091443Z
CREATED:20200402T175239Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230317T091443Z
UID:3990-1616025600-1616111999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of FM Steve Berry (18-iii-1951 04-i-2019)
DESCRIPTION:Death Anniversary of FM Stephen H Berry (18-iii-1951) \nObituary from Andrew Stone \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-fm-stephen-h-berry-18-iii-1951/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,Player,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210325
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210326
DTSTAMP:20210321T164305Z
CREATED:20190824T102732Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210321T164305Z
UID:1155-1616630400-1616716799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Sir Stuart Milner-Barry KCVO CB OBE (20-ix-1906 25-iii-1995)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Sir Stuart Milner-Barry KCVO CB OBE who passed away on Saturday\, March 25th\, 1995 in Lewisham Hospital\, London aged 88. He was laid to rest in the Great Shelford Cemetery\, Cambridge Road\, Great Shelford\, Cambridge CB22 5JJ. \nA memorial service was held for him at Westminster Abbey on 15 June 1995. \nGreat Shelford Cemetery Gravestone of Sir Philip Stuart Milner-Barry KCVO CB OBE by Geoffrey Gillon\nSignature of PS Milner-Barry from a Brian Reilly “after dinner” postcard from Margate 1936.\nPhilip Stuart Milner-Barry was born on Thursday\, September 20th 1906 in Mill Hill in the London Borough of Barnet. Mill Hill falls under the Hendon Parliamentary constituency. \nParents\nHis parents were Lieutenant-Commander Edward Leopold (1867-1917) and Edith Mary Milner-Barry (born 17th May 1866\, died 1949\, née Besant). Edward was in the  Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve\, H.M.S. “Wallington.” Prior to his war service his father was a professor of modern languages at the University of Bangor and Edith was the daughter of Dr. William Henry Besant\, a renowned mathematical fellow of St John’s College\, Cambridge University. \nStuart was the second born of six children\, There was  an older sister Alda Mary (18th August 1893-1938) and four brothers Edward William Besant (?-1911) \, Walter Leopold (1904-1982)\, John O’Brien (4 December 1898 – 28 February 1954) and Patrick James . Many of the Milner-Barry family were laid to rest in the Great Shelford churchyard. \nStuart learned chess at the age of eight and his autobiographical article below goes into more depth. \nHe was educated at Cheltenham College\, and won a scholarship to Trinity College\, Cambridge\, where he obtained firsts in classics and moral sciences. \nOn leaving Cambridge in 1927 he went to work at the London Stock Exchange (LSE). \nAccording to the 1928 and 1929 electoral rolls he was living with his mother Edith  and his brothers Walter and John O’Brien at 50 De Freville Avenue\, Cambridge CB4 1HT: \n50 De Freville Avenue\, Cambridge CB4 1HT\nIn 1931 the family had relocated to 11\, Park Terrace\, Cambridge which is nearby to Emmanuel College. Now living  with the family was brother Patrick James. \n11\, Park Terrace\, Cambridge\, CB1 1JJ\nPeriod map of the area of 11\, Park Terrace\, Cambridge\, CB1 1JJ\nHe discovered that he did not enjoy his LSE work and switched careers to became chess correspondent of The Times in 1938. \nAt the time (September 29th) of the 1939 register he (aged 33) was living as a journalist in a household of three with his mother Edith who carried out “unpaid domestic duties” and sister Alda who was of “private means”. \nHonours\nIn 1946 Stuart was awarded the OBE from the Civil Division in the  New Years Honours . The citation reads that was “employed in a Department of the Foreign Office”. A modern translation of this was he was engaged in Top Secret work at Bletchley Park alongside Alan Turing\, Gordon Welchman and Hugh Alexander and was thus honoured for his war work. More on this later… \nAfter the war he worked in the Treasury\, and later in 1966 administered the British honours system where he helped to facilitate the award of honours to other chess players ultimately retiring in 1977. \nAs well as the OBE he was made Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1962 and Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCV0) in 1975. \nA conference room was named after him at the Civil Service Club\, 13 – 15 Great Scotland Yard\, London SW1A 2HJ. \nPeter Hennessy* and The Rewarding Career of Sir Stuart Milner-Barry\n*Peter Hennessy is a renowned historian and journalist. The following was originally published in The Times in 1977 following  PSMBs retirement. \n“Few careers can have been as varied and rewarding as that of Sir Stuart Milner-Barry\, who retires today as Ceremonial Officer to the Civil Service Department and custodian of the British honours system. \nInto the 48 years since he left Cambridge with a degrees in classics and moral sciences\, he has crammed spells as a stockbroker\, chess correspondent of  The Times and member of the British chess team\, a wartime codebreaker for MI6 and a senior Treasury official before taking over administration of the nations “gongs and bongs ” nearly 11 years ago. \nThe richness of Sir Stuart’s progression is all the more striking given the difficulty he experienced in finding a job at all after university because of the Wall Street crash in 1929. His first 10 years spanned the slump of the 1930s\, when there was little for a stockbroker to do\, but fill his days reading The Times. \nIn 1938 he joined the paper full time as chess correspondent and\, along with many of the world’s leading players\, he was nearly trapped in Buenos Aires when war broke out the next year (ed. should be month rather than year). Catching the first ship home\, he finished up with that brilliant collection of dons\, antique dealers\, mathematicians and chess players billeted in Nissen huts in the park of Buckinghamshire country house\, who broke the code transmitted by the German Enigma machine. \nThe original Hut 6 building (photographed in 2004). Milner-Barry joined Hut 6 in early 1940\, and worked in the section throughout World War II. He became head of Hut 6 in Autumn 1943.\nSir Stuart eventually rose to lead hut six\, which broke the most secret messages of the Luftwaffe. Quartered in a comfortable Bletchley public house with another formidable chess player\, C. H. O’D. Alexander\, and Gordon Welchman\, the Cambridge mathematician\, he acquired a taste  for rum\, the only alcohol in plentiful supply for some reason\, and a sense of guilt about enjoying\, his stimulating\, important job\, safe while other men faced the bullets. \nHe was not tempted to stay on in the arcane world of code-breaking after the war\, unlike his friend\, the late Hugh Alexander\, as he regards such activities in peacetime as akin to reading somebody’s private correspondence\, though he recognizes the necessity of such efforts for intelligence work. Instead\, he took the reconstruction competition for the administrative class of the Civil Service and entered the Treasury. \nWhile battling with the post-war dollar shortage in Treasury Chambers he “found a wife\, carried her off and lived happily ever after”\, as he cheerfully puts it. Apart from a spell as establishment officer to the Ministry of Health\, he stayed at the Treasury until he reached the normal retiring age of 60 in 1966. \nLord Helsby\, then Head of the Home Civil Service\, asked him to stay on and take over the smooth machine that underpins the honours system\, which had been built up over many years by Sir Robert Knox. Sir Stuart has loved every minute of it. \nHe looks every inch the part\, a tall stately man of immense natural dignity\, he is the incarnation of propriety. The stresses to which the honours system has been subjected to in recent years must have caused him great distress but he is far too proper a civil servant to talk about it. His retirement at 70 has nothing to do with the alarums and excursions stimulated by the honours lists associated with Harold Wilson. \n“One of my principal jobs has been the protection of the system”\, he says. “The pleasures are very great. It’s fascinating in itself. You see so much of the history of people in every walk of like”. \nSir Stuart waxes eloquent about the beauty and uniqueness of the British honours system. He is a confirmed monarchist\, so the spontaneity of the jubilee celebrations  provides the perfect backcloth for his departure. He is succeeded by Mr. Richard Sharp\, an under-secretary at the Treasury.” \nBelow is the original article: \nSir Philip Stuart Milner-Barry OBE\nMarriage to Thelma\nIn the third quarter of 1947 Stuart married Thelma Tennant Wells in Westminster. A consequence of the “rules of the day” of the marriage was that Thelma had to resign her post in the Treasury immediately.  (Ed: this somewhat antiquated view of life was finally corrected in 1972 when the Civil Service dispensed with this rule). \nLady Thelma was to support Stuart in his chess activities for their married life. She also served as the first UK Director of Women’s Chess and made many lasting friendships in the chess world. She was buried together with Stuart in 2007. Stuart himself was President of the British Chess Federation between 1970 and 1973 as well as being Director of International Chess following his presidency. \nStuart and Thelma had three children\, one son and two daughters: Philip O. (born 1953)\, Jane E (born 1950) and Alda M (born 1958). \nDave Rumens is pleased to accept a cheque for £200 from Lady Thelma Milner-Barry for winning the 1978 Nottingham Congress with 5.5/6. Photograph provided by Nottinghamshire County Council.\nStuart was knighted on January 1st 1975 for his role as the “Ceremonial Officer of  Civil Service Department” between 1966-77. Technically the knighthood is known as a KCVO. \nMilner-Barry was Southern Counties (SCCU) champion for the 1960-61 season. \nHe first competed in the British Championship in 1931 and made regular appearences as late as 1978: a span of 47 years! \nIn their retirement  years Stuart and Thelma lived at the salubrious location of 43 Blackheath Park\, Blackheath\, London SE3 9RW. \nAutobiography\nIn June of 1933 at the age of 27 Stuart wrote an autobiographical piece for British Chess Magazine to be found in Volume LIII (53\, 1933)\, Number 6 (June)\, pp. 241-2 as follows: \nStuart Milner-Barry in 1933 taken from BCM\, 1933\, June\nP.S. Milner-Barry\nChampion of the City of London Chess Club\nI learned chess at the age of eight and played regularly after that with members of my family. My first-class practise (with due respect to my family) began at fourteen\, when Mr. Bertram Goulding Brown and  started a series of serious friendly games which has continued ever since\, almost without interruption. The vast majority of these games were begun with 1 P-K4\, P-K4\, and as we both eschewed the Lopez and the Four Knights\, we have acquired  a fairly extensive knowledge of the older forms of the King’s side openings – King’s Gambit (all sorts)\, Vienna\, Guioco Piano\, Evans’s Gambit\, Danish Gambit\, Bishop’s Opening\, etc. These games have undoubtedly born the most important influence in my development\, apart from which the serious friendly game is to me much the most enjoyable form of chess. We each have runs of success\, and there has never been much to choose between us. \n(An aside : Stuart wrote a extensive obituary of Bertram Goulding Brown which appeared in British Chess Magazine\, Volume LXXXV (85\, 1965)\, Number 12(December) pp.344-45 in which he noted: \nB. Goulding Brown was my oldest and closest Cambridge friend\, I started playing with him in 1920\, and we have played ever since\, though\, alas\, not nearly so often since the War as in the 1920s and 1930. Our last games\, when he was eighty three\, were played about a year ago in the same book-congested upstairs study at Brookside as all the others had been. Both were cut-and-thrust draws: a Kieseritzky Gambit from myself and Two Knights’ (with 4.P-Q4 for White) were typical of the openings we adopted. We were planning another this Autumn\, but he died suddenly and peacefully at the end of August\, ) \nI have also been very fortunate in playing a good deal with C.H.O’D. Alexander. Our games have taken the form of a series of short matches (first player to win three games) played with clocks. Alexander was already stronger than me when he came up to Cambridge\, and he won the University Championship from me in his first year and my fourth. \nCHO’D Alexander plays his old friend PS Milner-Barry\nAll three matches have been won by him\, the first easily and the last two by the narrowest possible margin; a fourth now in progress looks like coming to an early  and ignominious conclusion (Score 0-2-2). These results have neither surprised nor disappointed me : I would not back any player in England to do better. \n(ed. For more detail on PSMBs matches with Hugh we refer to you our article on Hugh). \nIn 1923 I won the first Boy’s Championship at Hastings\, but lost badly the following year (ed. Alexander won). \nBoy Chess Champion PS Milner-Barry (Cheltenham College)\, first boy chess champion of England\, receiving the cup from Mrs. AG Ginner\, the donor \, at the Hastings Chess Club\nSince then I have competed twice at Hastings\, once tieing with Miss Menchik in the Major Reserve for the first place and once for the last\, in the Major. In between I played in the Major Open at Tenby\, and came out fifth\, with my first important win against Znosko-Borovsky. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nMeanwhile I played four years against Oxford\, with somewhat chequered results. The first year I won against G. Abrahams\, the second and third years\, I played K.H. Bancroft and scored a (very fortunate) draw and a win\, while finally I permitted Abrahams to fork my King and Queen with a Knight\, a performance unhappily repeated by R.L. Mitchell in the following year (his Queen was pinned by a Bishop). Since then the spell has been broken. In 1931 I played in the British Championships at Worcester\, and was quite satisfied with my form\, though my score of 5 out of 11 was nothing to write home about. In February 1932\, I have the great good fortune to fill a vacant place in the Sunday Referee* London International Tournament\, an extremely exhausting but very valuable experience which I greatly appreciated. \n*The Sunday Referee was a newspaper of the time which was adsorbed into The Sunday Chronicle in 1939. \nFull Crosstable for the 1932 Sunday Referee or London International Masters Tournament\nMy score of 3.5 out of 11\, equal with Sir George Thomas and above W. Winter and V. Buerger\, was quite as good as I expected. After this came the Cambridge Tournament\, which\, though a very delightful little congress\, was a fiasco from my point of view. Three of my opponents were unkind enough to show their best form against me\, and two other games I spoilt by clock trouble. \nI do not expect to play much serious competitive chess in future. I admire sincerely the business man who is ready\, after a hard day at the office\, to undergo a further four hours of strenuous mental exertion; and who is also prepared to spend his all too brief holidays in the same exhausting pursuit. Moreover\, while many players find the atmosphere of match and tournament play a stimulus or an inspiration\, it only renders me nervous\, and though this does not affect my play it certainly interferes with my enjoyment. As long as I can play my week-end games with B.G.B.\, and inveigle Alexander from Winchester to add another to his monotonous series of victories\, I shall not much mind if I can only occasionally take part in congresses. ” \nPS Milner-Barry Cup\nIn issue #53 (April 1946)  of West London Chess Club’s Gazette we have a news item concerning a newly inaugurated trophy called the PS Milner-Barry Cup: \nissue #53 (April 1946)  of West London Chess Club’s Gazette\nSergeant on Milner-Barry\nWriting in A Century of British Chess (Hutchinson\, 1934)\, PW Sergeant records in Chapter XXI\, 1925 to 1934: \nThe City of London C.C.’s Championship Tournament which ended this (1933) spring deserves special mention; for it introduced an entirely new name on the list of champions\, that of P.S. Milner-Barry\, formerly of Cheltenham College and of Cambridge University.  Ten years previously he had won the first boys’ championship at Hastings. \nNow\, he won the City of London Championship with a score of 11 out of 14\, followed by the bearers of such noted names as R.P. Michell (10 points)\, Sir George Thomas (9)\, and E.G. Sergeant (8.5). It caused some surprise\, therefore\, when it was found that he was not selected as a British representative at Folkestone. \nGolombek on Milner-Barry\nSurprisingly and disappointingly there is no direct entry in either Hooper & Whyld or Sunnucks for Sir Stuart but (as you might expect) Harry Golombek OBE does not let us down  in The Encyclopaedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977): \n“British master whose chess career was limited by his amateur status but whose abilities as a player and original theorist rendered him worthy of the title of international master. \nBorn at Mill Hill in London\, he showed early promise and in 1923 won the British Boys Championship\, then held at Hastings. \nHe studied classics at Cambridge and developed into the strongest player there. At the university he was to meet (ed. three years later) C. H. O’D. Alexander with whom he played much chess. \nThough nearly three years younger\, Alexander exerted a strong influence over him and both players cherished and revelled in the brilliance of play in open positions. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\n24th April 1935: J Mieses of Germany in play against PS Milner-Barry during the Premier Tournament of the Kent County Chess Association in the Grand Hotel\, Margate. (Photo by F. Sayers/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)\nBy then along with Alexander and Golombek\, he had become recognized as one of the three strongest young players in the country. Whilst not as successful as they were in tournaments as the British championship in which stamina was essential\, he was a most formidable club and team match player\, as he had already shown in 1933 when he won the championship of the City of London Club ahead of R. P. Mitchell and Sir George Thomas. \nHarry Golombek OBE plays Sir Philip Stuart Milner-Barry OBE\nHe played in his first International Team tournament at Stockholm 1937 and was to play in three more such events : in 1939 at Buenos Aires where\, on third board\, he made the fine score of 4/5 ; in Helsinki 1952; and in Moscow 1956 where\, again on third board\, he was largely responsible for the team’s fine showing. \nLeft to right Baruch H Wood\, Stuart Milner-Barry\, Vera Menchik (playing in the women’s world championship (held concurrently with the 1939 Buenos Aires 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\nIn 1940 he shared first prize with Dr. List in the strong tournament of semi-international character in London and then\, like Alexander and (later) Golombek\, helped in the Foreign Office code-breaking activities at Bletchley Park for the duration of the Second World War. Staying in the Civil Service afterwards\, he rose to the rank of Under-Secretary in the Treasury and was knighted for his services in 1975. \nSir Stuart Milner-Barry talks about Malik Mir Sultan Khan\nBelow is footage (start at 1′ 55″) of Sir Stuart discussing the talent of Malik Mir Sultan Khan: \n\nAfter the war\, too\, he had some fine results in the British championship\, his best being second place at Hastings in 1953. \nHartston on Milner-Barry\nThe following article is sourced from November 1995 edition* of Dragon\, the Cambridge University Chess Club magazine: \n(*Edited by Jonathan Parker) \nA sample cover of Dragon\, the Cambridge University Chess Club Magazine\n“I first met Sir Stuart Milner-Barry when I was fifteen years old (1962) playing in a tournament in Bognor Regis who played some rustic king’s pawn opening against me\, sacrificing a pawn for nothing in particular and then astonished by writing “castles” in full on his scoresheet.  I think he used “kt” for a knight too. I thought I had discovered  a true relic from a bygone age and the more I got to know him I realised the more correct that judgement was. \nMilner-Barry was the last of the true gentlemen amateurs and was one of the few people I have ever met who played chess for the sheer love of the game. \nA few typical incidents may give a flavour of his unique personality. First and most typical was the way he would resign: with a firm handshake\, a smile and a booming whisper of ‘You are far too good for me I’m afraid!’ When I first heard those words I was totally taken aback : What was this\, a chessplayer acknowledging that his opponent was better than him? Impossible! \nOnce\, at close of play in a county match against Milner-Barry I had the extra pawn in a difficult queen and pawn ending.  We analysed a little with most variations suggesting I was winning. It was the kind of position you would send for adjudication even if you are convinced it is lost. It avoids having to resign anyway and the adjudicator may always discount the pawns. But\, Sir Stuart never thought like that. After ten minutes analysing he extended his hand and congratulated me. \nSir Stuart Milner-Barry in play against Daniel Yanofsky from round 6 of the British Championship in Hastings\, 15th August 1953\nFinally there was the splendid incident in Moscow during the (Ed. 6th) European Team Championships in the late 1970s (Ed. 1977) Stuart was then the President of the BCF and took up an invitation of his old friend the British Ambassador to the USSR (Ed. Sir Howard Smith) to visit the event.  Since he was staying at the Embassy he had a KGB tail assigned to him to follow him everywhere. On one of his morning walks Sir Stuart got lost and was not certain which bridge he should be on to get back to the Embassy. So\, he turned around and walked back to the not very secret policeman\, followed him and asked for directions! For the rest of his stay they walked practically hand-in-hand. \nWhilst most of us knew Stuart as an amiable old gent who played for Kent and in the Lloyds Bank Masters who could still play brilliant attacking games in his eighties  most knew little of his distinguished career in real life. \nSir Stuart Milner-Barry\nWe suspected with some justification  that in his civil service career he was responsible for doling out all those OBEs to chess players  in the 70s and 80s when he was in charge of the honours list. \nIt was the wartime work at Bletchley Park that was Milner-Barry’s greatest achievement. As everybody knows the allies won the Second World War mainly because of the brilliant code-breaking work of the Cambridge quartet of Alan Turing\, Gordon Welchman\, Hugh Alexander and Stuart Milner-Barry. Turing and Welchman were mathematical geniuses\, Milner-Barry was the supreme administrator and Alexander straddled the gap with great talents in both areas. \nThe astonishing achievement at Bletchley was not so  much in breaking enemy codes as maintaining complete secrecy of the entire operation for the duration of the war. Only with such people as Milner-Barry and Alexander in charge could such a large operation be run so successfully without anybody knowing about it. \nMilner-Barry’s importance in the running at Bletchley may be judged from the fact that he personally delivered the note to Winston Churchill stressing overriding importance of their work asking for more funds. \n\nCompared with that the invention of the Milner-Barry Gambit and the Milner-Barry variation of the Nimzo-Indian are minor achievements. \nSir Stuart was proof that nice guys can be chess players although one cannot help suspecting he would achieved even better results if he had even a slight streak of nastiness about him. He would surely have not let Capablanca off the hook in Margate in 1938 when the attacking player secured a winning position against the ex-champions dragon variation and he would have surely also not let the British Championship slip from his grasp in 1953 when he finished as runner-up  after losing his last two games. \nHe always performed well when playing in Olympiads (or Team Tournaments as they were known then) for England during the 1930s and 50s. He was\, after all\, one of the most naturally gifted players this county has produced.  What other Englishman has two opening (or even just one) named after him? \nWhile at Cambridge while he won the University Championship in 1928\, losing to Alexander in the following year\, Milner-Barry composed some fine problems\, a frivolity he never returned to later in his life. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nAn excellent though infrequent writer on the game\, he wrote a fine memoir of C.H.O’D. Alexander in Golombek’s and Hartston’s The Best Games of C.H.O’D. Alexander\, Oxford\, 1976.” \n\nThe Best Games of C.H.O’D. Alexander\, Harry Golombek and William Hartston. With A Memoir by Sir Stuart Milner-Barry\, Oxford University Press\, 1976\, ISBN 10: 0192175351 ISBN 13: 9780192175359\nAn Obituary from Bernard Cafferty\nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume CXV (115\, 1995)\, Number 5 (May)\, pp. 258-59 we have this obituary by Bernard Cafferty: \n“Sir Philip Stuart Milner-Barry KCVO CB  OBE (20 ix 1906 – 25 iii 1995) was the oldest of the British chess masters who came to prominence in the 1930s\, He was always thought of in conjunction with his great friends Hugh Alexander and Harry Golombek who both predeceased him. The length of Stuart’s career is amazing  – he was inaugural British Boy Champion in 1923 and was still playing for Kent first team in the Counties Championship  of recent years\, thus spanning a period of seven decades! Botvinnik spoke of him to me on my 1994 visit to Moscow. \nDavid Anderton OBE (rhs) congratulates Sir Stuart Milner-Barry OBE for winning the “Board of Honour ” game versus Edward Lasker at the 1976 Lloyds Bank Match by Telex\, London – New York. From BCM\, volume XCVI (96) Number 11 (August)\, Page 494. The venue was the Bloomsbury Hotel\, London. Photo courtesy of Lloyds Bank\nYet Stuart\, who never gained the IM title\, was always the true amateur and genuine English gentleman\, whose sense of duty and tradition was very great. It speaks volumes of him that he agonised over whether he should attend the Times Kasparov-Short match of 1993\, in a private capacity. He would have liked to watch the play\, but as a former British Chess Federation President\, 1970-73\, he felt it was his duty not to lend any extra recognition to the contest other than that assigned it by the BCF. \nBefore the war\, after graduating from Cambridge in Classics\, he took some fine scalps including those of Tartakower and Mieses and should have beaten Capablanca at Margate 1939. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nCapablanca and Stuart Milner-Barry at Margate\, England\, April 15\, 1936. AP Photos\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 worked\, rather unhappily\, in a stockbroking firm up to 1938 and it is in that capacity that his name appears on the official document that set-up the British Chess Magazine as a limited company in 1937. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nDuring the war he played his part in the Bletchley Park code-breaking undertaking along with Alexander and Golombek\, and after the war went into the Civil Service where he had a distinguished career at the Treasury. Then his career was extended as he spent his final working years in the patronage department that sifted recommendations for the honours list. \nI recall asking him in 1981 if there was any chance that Brian Reilly could qualify for an award. Stuart’s diplomatic answer was to the effect that he was now retired but would drop a word in the right quarter. \nStuart represented England at the Olympiads or 1936\, 1939\, 1952 and 1956. At the last of these he played particularly well on fourth board. He was conscious that his old friend Hugh Alexander could not take part in Moscow because of the sensitive nature of his work in the Intelligence Service. \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 playing style Milner-Barry\, a tall gaunt figure\, delighted in an open tactical fight. \nHe was The Times correspondent 1938-45\, resigning the post to let Harry Golombek take over. His best result after the war\, apart from the 1956 Moscow Olympiad\, was probably his second place in the British Championships of 1953 at Hastings. The abiding impression of his opponents over the years must have been  that here was a player who greatly enjoyed the game\, win\, lose or draw. \nCertainly\, that was my idea of him in the tussles we had from the British Championship of 1957 up to county matches in the 1980s. \nWe shall not see his like again. The England that formed his character is no longer with us.” \nMilner-Barry Variations\nThough never at home in close(d) positions\, he was an outstanding strategist in the open game and it is significant that his most important contribution to opening theory was the Milner-Barry variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defence which is essentially as attempt to convert a close position into an open one (1.P-Q4\, N-KB3; 2.P-QB4\, P-K3; 3. N-QB3\, B-N5; 4.Q-B2\, N-B3).” \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nHooper & Whyld (1996) note: \n“Sometimes called the Zurich or Swiss variation\, this is a line in the Nimzo-Indian Defence introduced by Milner-Barry in the Premier Reserves tournament\, Hastings 1928-9. This line became more widely known when it was played at Zurich 1934.” \nTwo famous opening lines are named after him – 4…Nc6 in the Nimzo-Indian (as above)\, and the gambit in the French Defence: 1.e4 e6;2.d4 d5;3.e5 c5;4.c3 Nc6;5.Nf3 Qb6;6.Bd3 cxd4;7.cxd4 Bd7;8.0-0 Nxd4; \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nStuart played this line both in correspondence and over-the-board play. If Black takes the pawn with 10…Qxe5\, White gets a fierce attack by 11\,Re1 Qd6 (else 12.Nxd5) 12.Nb5. \nThere is also a sub-variation of the Caro-Kann which is named after Sir Stuart viz: \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nwhich is a Blackmar-Diemer style pawn sacrifice. \nThere is also a Milner-Barry variation in the Falkbeer Counter Gambit to the King’s Gambit thus: \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nwhich is an ancient line that he revived at Margate 1937. \nand finally\, there is a Milner-Barry Variation in the Petroff 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\ngiving a total of five named variations. How many English players have that many? \nProblems and Compositions\nStuart developed an interest in problem composition in the 1920s \nSir Stuart Milner-Barry\, Problem\, Morning Post\, 1923\nSir Stuart Milner-Barry\, Problem\, The Observer\, 1925\nSir Stuart Milner-Barry\, Problem\, British Chess Magazine\, 1926\nFurther examples may be found on the excellent Meson Database maintained by Brian Stephenson \nMilner-Barry on The English Chess Explosion\nStuart was a great supporter of the development of British chess. Nothing would have given him more pleasure than to witness  the meteoric advances of English players in the 1970s. Indeed\, he wrote the foreword to the English Chess Explosion (Batsford\, 1980) by Murray Chandler and Ray Keene: \nThe English Chess Explosion (from Miles to Short)\, Murray Chandler & Ray Keene\, Batsford\, 1981\, ISBN 0 7134 4009 0\n“It gives me great pleasure to have been asked to write a foreword for this book. Nothing has given me more satisfaction than the flowering of British chess talent that has taken place in the past few years. \nBetween the wars\, though we had some splendid players like H. E. Atkins\, Sir George Thomas and F. D. Yates\, we were a second rate power at chess: in the great Nottingham tournament of 1936\, for example\, our quartet brought up the rear\, and that was where\, with occasional shining exceptions\, our representatives in international tournaments tended to find themselves. Similarly\, after the war in the 1950’s and 1960’s\, in spite of Alexander and Penrose\, we seldom achieved a really creditable place in the Olympiads. \nAlexander who retired early from the arena because of the exacting demands of his profession\, must have had rather a depressing time as non-playing captain. \nSir Stuart Milner-Barry OBE\nI myself date the renaissance from the Spring of 1974 when we won a closely contested match against West Germany at Elvetham Hall.\nThereafter we went from strength to strength\, with the appearance year by year of highly talented\, original and adventurous young men from the Universities – Keene and Hartston\, closely followed by Miles\, Stean\, Nunn\, Mestel\, Speelman\, and a still younger generation of schoolboy prodigies like Nigel Short. \nThe peak of our performance so far has been the third place (after the USSR and Hungary) last winter in the finals of the European Team Tournament at Skara (compared with our eighth and last place at Moscow in 1977). \nSir Stuart Milner-Barry OBE presents Dr. Jana Hartston with the ? prize\nHow did all this come about in the short space of six years? The Spassky-Fischer match of 1972 was a watershed. Since then\, and the first time\, it has been possible for able young men from universities to consider chess seriously as a full-time profession\, or at least as a career to which they devote the major part of their time and interest\, Secondly\, the fruits were being reaped of the unobtrusive but devoted spadework in junior training pioneered by Barden\, Wade and many others. Lastly\, no doubt\, sheer good fortune smiled upon us in the simultaneous emergence of a group of brilliant enthusiastic and likeable young men\, five of them already grandmasters and others likely to become so before long. \nIt is sad that Alexander\, who did so much to uphold the prestige of British chess in the doldrums\, did not survive to witness the transformation. I would like to wish the BCF President\, David Anderton\, and Alexander’s successor as captain\, all possible success for the future.” \nFooter from the foreword of The English Chess Explosion (from Miles to Short)\, Murray Chandler & Ray Keene\, Batsford\, 1981\, ISBN 0 7134 4009 0\nFurther Material\nAn obituary from The Independent by Bill Hartston \nAn article from Spartacus Educational \nHere are his games from chess.com \nMore on his time at Bletchley Park \nLocation of his grave \nHere is his Wikipedia entry \n\nSignature of Sir Stuart Milner-Barry\nAccording to Edward Winter in Chess Notes PSMB lived at these addresses : \n\n11 Park Terrace\, Cambridge\, England (Ranneforths Schachkalender\, 1938\, page 78).\n43 Blackheath Park\, Blackheath\, London SE3 9RW\, England (letter reproduced in C.N. 3809).\n\n Save as PDF
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CATEGORIES:British Championships,Death Anniversary,English,History,Journalist,Player,Remembering,Writer
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210328
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210329
DTSTAMP:20220328T115326Z
CREATED:20190823T180814Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220328T115326Z
UID:1092-1616889600-1616975999@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Comins Mansfield MBE (14-vi-1896 28-iii-1984)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers Comins Mansfield MBE who passed away on March 28th 1984 in Torbay\, Devon. \nComins was the first English born chess grandmaster when in 1972 he was awarded the the title of “International Grandmaster of the FIDE for Chess Composition” three years before the first correspondence GM and four years before the first English born OTB grandmaster. \nIn the 1976 New Years Honours list Civil Division Comins was awarded the MBE. The citation read simply “For services to Chess”. \nEarly Years\nComins Mansfield was born on Sunday\, June 14th 1896 in Witheridge\, North Devon. The birth was registered in the district of South Molton\, Devon. His parents were Herbert John (who was a banker) and Julia Emma Mansfield (née Frost). Miss Anne Comins was Herbert’s mother who he memorialised using her name for his only son. \nComins had two sisters Edith K and Margaret M plus a paternal step-sister Harriett C Mansfield. \nHe was baptised on the 18th July 1896 in Witheridge as an Anglican and the ceremony was performed by JT Benson. \nSt. John the Baptist Church\, Witheridge\, Devon courtesy of SIERKSMA’S SEQUENCES\nHe was admitted to Witheridge School on September 18th 1899 (aged three) and in 1901 Comins continued to live in Witheridge\, Devon attending Blundell’s School. The family “left the district” on August 13th 1909. \nAt the time of the 1911 Census Comins was a boarder at a school in Tiverton\, Cheshire. Possibly this was Tarporley High School. \nA Career Beckoned\nComins left school in 1914 and did not attend University. He started work at tobacco company W. D. & H. O. Wills (which became part of  Imperial Tobacco in 1901) in Bristol being a prime location for a company which relied on export markets of physical goods. \nInterruption by War\nAccording to RH Jones on the Chess Devon web site: \nIn September 1915 he joined the Royal Artillery\, and carried a small travelling set at all times\, with which to while away the long hours spent in the trenches. He never lost contact with Chandler during the war\, even though the latter was involved in a rather messy British invasion of Iraq\, (then Mesopotamia)\, and the two combined on problems by post\, one of which won 1st Prize in the Good Companions magazine in January 1918. Shortly after\, he was temporarily blinded by mustard gas\, requiring 12 months in hospital. \nGunner Mansfield courtesy of SIERKSMA’S SEQUENCES\nOn his release from hospital\, the war was over and he re-joined Wills in Bristol and his local chess club\, Bristol & Clifton. His skill over the board should not be overlooked – he soon became established in Gloucestershire as a very strong player\, winning his club championship for the first time in 1920 and the county championship continuously from 1927 – 34. From his return to Bristol he played for the county regularly\, never lower than Bd. 3 and from the time of his first county championship\, always on top board. From 1926 to the time of his move to Scotland he was also the Problem Editor of the Bristol Times and Mirror . \nAccording to the National Records Office: \nWith reference to the medal card of Comins Mansfield we have: \n\n\n\nRoyal Field Artillery\n3024\nGunner\n\n\nRoyal Field Artillery\n826184\nGunner\n\n\n\nCareer Resumption\nComins career with W. D. & H. O. Wills lasted 45 years and in 1934 relocated to Glasgow which halted his composition career until 1936 labelling his problems “Mansfield – Glasgow. His job in Scotland finished in 1950 returning to live in Carshalton Beeches\, near Croydon in South London working for a W. D. & H. O. Wills subsidiary. \nMarriage\nOn September 19th 1923 Comins married Marjorie Erica Ward (born 1899) at the Parish Church\, St. Paul\, Bedminster\, Bristol\, Gloucestershire. Marjorie died in 2003. Comins and Marjorie had three children\, Geoffrey\, Hilary and Roderick. \nComins Mansfield MBE in 1976\nAt the time of their marriage Comins was living at 25 Sommerville Road\, Bishopston\, Bristol\, BS7 9AD: \n25 Sommerville Road\, Bishopston\, Bristol\, BS7 9AD\nChess Beginnings\nComins interest in chess started at the age of nine with his father Herbert who played correspondence chess for Devon but his interest in the world of problems was initiated in 1910 with an article (First Steps In The Classification of Two-Movers by Alain C. White) on problems in British Chess Magazine. In 1914 aged 18 he joined the Bristol and Clifton Chess Club and following World War I he became club champion for the first time in 1920. Also\, Comins was Gloucestershire Champion from 1927 – 1934 before he relocated to Glasgow where he won the West of Scotland and Glasgow Championships.  At Cheltenham 1928 not only did he draw in 50 moves with FD Yates but he beat Sir George Thomas in 20 moves! \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nBCM Obituary\nFrom British Chess Magazine\, Volume CIV (104\, 1984)\, Number 5 (May)\, p. 194 : \n“Comins Mansfield (14 v 1896 – 27 iii 1984) was an outstanding figure in chess problems\, notably in the field of two-movers. Awarded the IM title for problems in 1959 and the GM title in 1972\, he served for eight years as President of the FIDE Permanent Commission for Chess Compositions. In 1976 he was awarded an MBE for his services to chess. \nComins Mansfield courtesy of Chess Scotland\nAs an OTB (over-the-board) player he won the championship of the Bristol Club and of Gloucestershire. From 1964 to 1978 he contributed the weekly puzzle to the Sunday Telegraph.” \nChessboard Delights Selected from the Sunday Telegraph 1964-1974\, Comins Mansfield\, Routledge & Kegan Paul/Sunday Telegraph\, London \, 1976\, ISBN 10: 0710082878ISBN 13: 9780710082879\nCHESS Obituary by Colin Russ\nFrom CHESS\, Volume 48 (1984)\, Numbers 921-922\, page 316 we have this rather modest mention: \n“Problem Album\nWho was Britain’s first chess grandmaster? His name start with M\, but no\, the answer is Comins Mansfield\, to whom F.I.D.E. awarded its newly created title of grandmaster for Chess Composition in 1972\, and who died in March this year aged 87. In tribute to him we recall\, two of his masterpieces\, separated by over half a century.” \nComins Mansfield\nComins Mansfield\nBCF Tourney 1974 \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 mates in two \nand \nComins Mansfield\nGood Companions 1918 \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 mates in two \nInterestingly the July 1984 issue of CHESS publishes a letter from Ken Whyld taking issue with the above. Ken wrote: \nWho was Britain’s first chess grand master? His name starts with M but no\, the answer is not Comins Mansfield (page 316 in CHESS\, No. 921-2. No\, it isn’t. It is J. Mieses in 1950. The error is repeated on page 328. Why do we\, as a nation\, have to be so snotty about those who chose to be become naturalised? \nFrom page 328 we have this detailed obituary from Colin AH Russ: \nWe regret to report the death of Comins Mansfield MBE\, peacefully at his home in Torquay on 28 March 1984. During his long life of more than 86 years\, Mansfield received every possible honour in the realm of chess problem art. \nHe was born at Witheridge\, North Devon\, on 14 June 1896\, and at 9 was taught to play chess by his father\, a keen correspondence player. One of his earliest efforts won First Prize in 1912 in the Illustrated Western Weekly News. \nOther problems of his early period were published in the Folders of the Good Companion Chess Problem Club\, of Philadelphia\, USA. This brought him into contact with Alain C. White\, who also recognised his genius and gave him every encouragement. Some of the problems at this time were composed in the trenches\, “somewhere in France”\, while Mansfield was serving in the Royal Artillery with the British Army. He was severely gassed in May 1918\, and discharged from the Army. \nHe won the West of Scotland and Glasgow Championships while stationed in that city. He was one of the founder members of\nthe British Chess Problem Society\, and served as its President. In 1947\, he started a feature in The Problemist entitled “Selected with Comments” which continued in his hands for 35 years. His weekly column in the Sunday Telegraph\, mainly confined to game positions\, ran from 1964 to 1978. \n  \nMansfield’s other venture into publishing was his “Adventures in Composition” in which he takes the reader step by step through the Process that he went through in composing 20 of his problems. \nAdventures in Composition\, Comins Mansfield\, CHESS\, Sutton Coldfield\, 1948\nThe book was edited by A. C. White and first appeared in the USA in 1942\, and was published in Britain by CHESS\, Sutton Coldfield\, in 1948. it became a classic\, and many composers could testify to the help they have received from it. \nIn “Adventures in Composition“\, Mansfield expounded his principles for making good chess problems: originality\, economy\, and artistic finish. if he found that an idea could not be set without forfeiting one of these principles\, then he put it on one side\, and turned his attention to something else. Therefore\, although one can say that some of his problems are better than others\, it is impossible to find one that is bad. \nA. C. White made Comins Mansfield the subject of his last book in the Christmas Series: “A Genius of the Two-Mover” in which he gave some 100 of the master’s 300 problems. \nA Genius of the Two Mover\, C. Mansfield by AC White\, The Christmas Series\, 1936.\nHe wrote: “The key-note of his style lies in his freshness of outlook and in a clarity of vision with which few composers have been gifted.” Brian Harley\, the distinguished author and editor of the\nfamous Observer column for so many years\, continued the story with a further 100 of Mansfield’s Problems. \nIn view of his international reputation\, it was only fitting that Mansfield should represent the BCPS at the first meeting\nof the FIDE Problem Commission in Piran in 1958\, that he should serve as its President from 1963-71\, and that in 1972 he should be awarded one of the first grand master titles\, honoris causa\, in recognition of his contribution to problem chess. He thus became the first Briton to receive this title\, before any British chess players had reached any title norms. Four years later he received the recognition of his country\, when his name appeared in the Queen’s New Year Honours list as recipient of the MBE\, for services to chess. \nSource: The Problemist\, May 1996. Photo taken March 1996 at the Mansfield Centenary Meeting at Paisley\, when Barry Barnes delivered a lecture on Comins Mansfield. Left to right: Geoffrey Mansfield (son of Comins)\, Robert Gray and Barry Barnes\, International Master of Chess Composition.\nln 1975\, Gerhard Jensch\, editor of the problem column in Schach-Echo\, brought out a supplement to “Adventures in Composition”\, containing 63 of Mansfield’s later problems\, showing how he had reacted to the changing themes and styles of the post second World War period. Barry Barnes\, the following year\, brought out “Comins Mansfield MBE: Chess Problems of a Grandmaster“\, in which he presented 2O0 problems with full solutions and comments\, many of them culled from Mansfield’s private notes and correspondence. \nComins Mansfield MBE: Chess Problems of a Grandmaster\, BP Barnes\, 1976\nIt is appropriate to finish with the comment with which E. L. Umnov concluded his introduction to Barry Barnes’s book in 1976: “Mansfield’s work is a source of pride not only to British chess\, but to chess the world over”.\nC.A.H.R. \nHooper & Whyld on Mansfield\nFrom The Oxford Companion to Chess (OUP\, 1984) by Hooper & Whyld : \n“English two-mover composer widely regarded in his time as the greatest in this field. During the life of the GOOD COMPANION CHESS PROBLEM CLUB (1913—24) he was one of the pioneers who gave new life to the two-mover. The ideas then introduced have since become traditional\, and Mansfield has adhered to them\, continuing to gain successes although not always following the latest trend. In 1942 he wrote Adventures in Composition\, an excellent guide to the art of composing. In 1957 he was awarded the title of International Judge of Chess Compositions; in 1963 he accepted and held for eight years the presidency of the FIDE Commission for Chess Compositions; in 1972 he was one of the first four to he awarded the title of International Grandmaster for Chess Compositions. \nA. C. White\, A Genius of the Two-mover (1936) contains 113 problems by Mansfield; B. P. Barnes\, Comins Mansfield MBE: Chess Problems of a Grandmaster (1976) contains 200 problems. “ \n101 Chess Puzzles and How to Solve Them\, Brian Harley and Comins Mansfield\, Sterling Publishing\, New York\, 1960\nSunnucks on Mansfield\nFrom The Encyclopaedia of Chess by Anne Sunnucks : \n“International Grandmaster of the FIDE for Chess Compositions (1972)\, International Master of the FIDE for Chess Compositions (1959)\, International Judge of the FIDE for Chess Compositions (1957). President of the Permanent Commission of the FIDE for Chess Compositions from 1963 to 1971. President of the British Chess Problem Society from 1949 to 1951. \nBorn at Witheridge in North Devon on 14th June 1896. He has composed about 1\,000 problems\, nearly all of them two-movers\, since 1911. He is regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. His outstanding ability was recognised early when A Genius of the Two-Mover in the A.C. White Christmas series of books was published in 1936. He is the author of Adventures in Composition (1944) and co-author with the late Brian Harley of The Modern Two-Move Problem. \nThe Modern Two- Move Chess Problem\, Brian Harley and Comins Mansfield\, Museum Press\, London\, 1944 & 1958\nFrom 1926-1932 he was Problem Editor of The Bristol Times and Mirror\, and he is at present Problem Editor of The Sunday Telegraph His feature “Selected with Comments” has been a permanent feature of The Problemist. A strong player\, Mansfield won the Gloucestershire Championship from 1927 to 1934. He has a recorded win over Sir George Thomas\, a late British Champion and International Master. \nMansfield made a life-times career with the tobacco firm of W.D. & H.O. Wills. He is a dedicated family man with three children. \nC. Mansfield\, 1st Prize\, Hampshire Post\, 1919 \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 two moves.“ \nSolution to Two-Mover above : 1. Qf5 ! \nHarry Golombek on Mansfield\nFrom The Encyclopaedia of Chess by Harry Golombek we have: \nBritain’s most distinguished problem compose\, output about 859\, nearly all two-movers. Very active during the period of the Good Companions\, contributing to their folders many classic examples of half-pin\, cross-check\, and other important themes. Books include Adventures in Composition (1943)\, a fascinating expose of the composers methods. President of the British Chess Problem Society\, 1949-51. President of the FIDE Problem Commission\, 1963-71\, and Hon. President since 1972. International Judge (1957); international master (1959)\, grandmaster (1972). \nCuriously RH Jones wrote \n“At Paignton\, Mansfield seemed to know Milner-Barry quite well\, but Golombek kept his distance. It is noticeable that Golombek’s Encyclopaedia of Chess (Batsford 1977) is almost unique of its kind in containing no individual entry for Mansfield; even a long 3½ page article on the history of chess problems\, which mentions numerous half forgotten composers\, contains no reference to him. This is surely no oversight and must be interpreted as some kind of inexplicable snub.” \nWe too made initially made the same error and it is true that there in individual entry for CM outside of the Problemists section.  Did RHJ miss the above entry as we initially did? \nJohn Rice on Mansfield\nFrom British Chess (Pergamon Press\, 1984) John Rice writes: \n“Comins Mansfield was born at Witheridge\, Devon on 14th June 1896. At the age of 18 he joined the Bristol and Clifton Chess Club\, and after World War 1 he soon won the club championship and the Gloucester Championship several times. For 14 years until 1978 he conducted the weekly chess features in the Sunday Telegraph. \nIn 1959 he he became an ‘International Master of the FIDE for Chess Composition’ and in 1972 one of the first four grandmasters. For 7 years he was President of the FIDE’s Permanent Commission for Chess Compositions. \nMansfield is widely regarded as being one of the three greatest composers of chess problems of all time. In 1976 was awarded the MBE for his services to chess. \nMr. Mansfield worked for 45 years in the tobacco firm W.D & H.O. Wills – first in Bristol\, then in Glasgow and finally in London. He is now enjoying retirement in Torbay. \nMr. Mansfield writes: It was in 1959 that the FIDE decided to broaden their titles to include artificial positions such as ‘problems’ (the so-called poetry of chess)\, where mate has to be forced in a specified number of moves. The Master title then came into being\, while the ‘Grandmaster’ distinction was withheld until 1972. \nComins Mansfield\nI have always felt that life is too short to deal with anything but two-movers. Here is one of my earliest successes (ed: shown here in Desert Island Chess) composed in the trenches in World War 1.” \nDesert Island Chess\nFrom The Complete Chess Addict (Faber&Faber\, 1987\,p.222)\, Fox & James we have a section entitled Desert Island Chess which includes this problem: \nC. Mansfield \nFirst Prize Good Companions\, March 1917 \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 2 \nOf it\, Alain White\, the world connoisseur wrote – ‘This may well be taken as the standard cross-check problem of the twentieth century’.  The key-move 1.Be4 looks senseless\, as it sets the black king free and apparently jeopardizes the white one by unpinning the black knight. But it threatens mate by 2.Nxc4 This knight can open fire on the white king in four ways. If 1…Ne5+\,2.Rd3 is mate. If 1…Nxd6+\, the mate is 2.Bd3. If 1…Nxe3+\, Nb5 mates\, while 1…Nd2+ is answered by 2.Nc4. \nThe next position is of a quite different type: \nCHESS\, 1950\, First Prize \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 two moves \nIt illustrates several quiet defences by a single black piece. This has a rather colourless key\, 1.Bb2\, which threatens mate by 2. Rg4. Moves of the black bishop stop this but give rises to six other mates. If 1…Bg1;2.Nc7. So the bishop must stay on its long diagonal. 1…Bg3 allows 2.Rxh4. If 1…Bf4 (unpinning the R)\, 2.Re5. If 1…Be5\, 2.Rd4. If 1…Bd6\, 2.Rc8. If 1…Bb8\, 2.Rb6. There are three other subsidiary mates\, after 1…Rf8\, 2.Rf4. If 1…d1=q\,2.Qd1 and finally if 1…Rg2  (or Rg1 or Rg3). \nIn the 1950s it became fashionable for composers to try to hoodwink solvers by arranging close tries which almost solved the problem. But this trend often militated against the merit and interest of the actual solution.  In  this problem the solver soon discovers that he must set-up a double-threat by 1.g4\,g3\,f4 or f3\, each move cutting off both a black rook and bishop. \nDie Schwalbe\, 1956\, First Prize \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 two moves \nBut which is the right move? 1.g4 threatens mate by 2.Qxe4 and Qd1\, but is defeated by 1…Nxf2. Similarly 1.g3 (threatening 2.Qe3 and Bxb3) is met by 1…Nc2. So try 1.f4 (threatening 2.Qxe4 and Bxb3)\, but this fails to 1…e3. This leaves the key-move 1.f3 which does the trick. There is a fair amount of by-play. 1…Rf4 forces 2.Bxb3.  1…Bf4 forces 2. Qxe4; while after 1.Kd4 and Nc4\, the mates are 2. Qxc3 and Bxe4 respectively. \nIn an ABC of Chess Problems\, Section III\, Composition and Solving\, page 266 onwards\,  John Rice discusses in detail the methods of Comin Mansfield and any student of solving and composition would do well to study this chapter. \nAn ABC of Chess Problems\, John Rice\, Faber & Faber\, London\, 1970\, SBN 571 08672 1\nOther Sources\nHere is an excellent biography from Chess Devon by RH Jones \nHere is a biography from Keverel Chess by RH Jones \nHere is the entry for CM from the BCPS web site \nBiography from Chess Scotland by Alan McGowan \nHere is the largest collection of his games from Britbase and John Saunders \nHere are his games from chessgames.com \nHere is his Wikipedia entry \nAmerica Salutes Comins Mansfield MBE\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-comins-mansfield/
CATEGORIES:Composer,Death Anniversary,History,Problemist,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210330
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210331
DTSTAMP:20220330T112305Z
CREATED:20200412T103328Z
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UID:4541-1617062400-1617148799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Augustus Mongredien (1807 - 30-iii-1888)
DESCRIPTION:Death Anniversary of Augustus Mongredien (1807 – 30-iii-1888) \nHere is his Wikipedia entry \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/death-anniversary-of-augustus-mongredien-1807-30-iii-1888/
CATEGORIES:Death Anniversary,History,Player,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210404
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UID:1136-1617494400-1617580799@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of BH Wood MSc FCS OBE (13-vii-1909 04-iv-1989)
DESCRIPTION:We remember “BH” Wood MSc FCS OBE who passed away on Tuesday April 4th\, 1989 in the district of Birmingham. \nHe was buried alongside his wife Marjorie in the Sutton Coldfield Cemetery Extension which was opened in 1934 as an extension to the Holy Trinity Church. \nYorkshire Childhood\nBaruch Harold Wood (generally known as BH Wood\, or simply “BH”\, by the chess world) was born on Tuesday\, July 13th 1909 in Ecclesall\, Sheffield\, Yorkshire. The registration district was Ecclesall Bierlow. \nGravestone of BH & ME Wood\, photo by Glen Livet\nThe birth record suggests that he was baptised as Harold Baruch Wood. His parent’s were Baruch Talbot (1881-1951) and Florence Muriel Wood (née Herington). He appears as Harold Baruch on the 1911 census. \n1911 Census record for the Wood household\n1911 Census record for the Wood household\nInterestingly\, the Census form was signed by Talbot Wood so maybe BHs father also did not like his own first name! At the time of the Census the family lived at 30\, Violet Bank Road\, Nether Edge\, Sheffield\, S7 1RZ. \nWelsh School Days\nBaruch attended Friars School\, Bangor (established in 1557) along with William Ritson Morry. BHW was one year and three months older than WRM so it is entirely possible that they had met. \nMarriage to Marjory\nIn October 1936 BHW married Marjory Elizabeth Farrington in Ross\, Herefordshire. When Marjory died on 7th September 1977 they were living at 146\, Rectory Road\, Sutton Coldfield\, West Midlands. Baruch and Marjory had four children\, FM Christopher Wood\, Philip\, Frank and Peggy. \n146\, Rectory Road\, The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield\, West Midlands\, B75 7RS\nHonours\nIn the 1984 New Years Honours List\, Civil Division\, BHW was awarded the OBE. The citation read simply : “For services to Chess” \nHe won the BCF President’s Award in 1983 alongside TJ Beach and Brian Reilly. \nBH Wood playing board 9 in the Anglo team in the Anglo-Soviet Radio Team Match of 1946\nThe 1946 Anglo-Soviet Radio Match\nFrom The Anglo-Soviet Radio Chess Match by Klein and Winter : \n“BH Wood was born in Sheffield in 1909. A great lover of the game\, he founded the magazine Chess in 1935\, and has written a book for beginners. He scored a notable success by winning the British Correspondence Championship on one occasion. Wood has competed in the British Championship on several occasions\, and in a number of Premier Reserves tournaments. He also played for Great Britain in the international team tournament (ed. Olympiad) at Buenos Aires in 1939. \nLeft to right Baruch H Wood\, Stuart Milner-Barry\, Vera Menchik (playing in the women’s world championship (held concurrently with the 1939 Buenos Aires 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\nHe is a graduate of the University of Wales and Birmingham University. He has been very active in recent years in giving simultaneous exhibitions and in organising correspondence chess.” \nSignature of BH Wood from a Brian Reilly “after dinner” postcard from Margate 1936.\nBetween 1938 and 1957\, BH won the championship of Warwickshire eight times. He held the record (until 2006) for the most Birmingham & District Chess League Individual titles – nine\, all won in Division 1: 1937\, 1939\, 1954\, 1956\, 1958\, 1960\, 1966\, 1967\, and 1983. He was the Records Secretary for the League from 1951-61. \nBirth of a Magazine\nCHESS Cover for volume 1\, September 1935 – August 1936. Source : Michael Clapham\nFrom CHESS\, Volume 52 (1987)\, Number 1014-15 (Christmas)\, we have the very last issue of the magazine for which BH was the Editor before becoming Founding Editor (and Paul Lamford became Editor). BH Wrote: \n“Countless people have asked me ‘Why did you start CHESS?’ I was in love with university life and has just taken an M.Sc.\, a waste of time after a good first-class honours\, and decided to have a go at replacing the old Chess Amateur\, which had closed down.  I had edited the students’ magazine in both Bangor and Birmingham. The first had been produced by The Daily Post Printers in Liverpool\, who agreed to print  1\,000 copies for £90. That £90 would be nearly £2\,400 now. \nCHESS masthead for Volume 1\, Number 1\, 1935. Source : Michael Clapham\nA year’s subscription I announced as 10 shillings (50p). \nTwo bits of luck! J.H. Van Meurs\, a Dutchman who did a lot for British Chess\, had listed in his still young B.C.F. Year Book some hundreds of chess clubs. \nW.H. Watts\, another great figure of those days\, had floated a rather short-lived magazine The Chess Budget\, donated a ‘Budget Cup‘\, for knock-out team competition and published excellent books on big tournaments\, etc. He handed me a list of keen chess players all around the world. I spent a week addressing envelopes by hand to all the clubs and people. \nTo individuals I sent single copies of CHESS; to each club three copies\, inviting payment or subscriptions. Hardly anybody failed to pay. Obviously there was a demand for a chess magazine with a lighter touch than the B.C.M. \nYears later\, I learnt why Mr. Watts had been so generous. He had fallen out with the establishment and welcomed the arrival of a new publication. \nWithin three months I was selling 3\,000 copies an issue. \nSome early ideas were chessy short stories \, cartoons and a competition for humorous anecdotes. \nI soon went to Amsterdam for the first Euwe-Alekhine match. I traced Alekhine to his hotel room with difficulty. He was officially incommunicado. He came to the door in pyjamas\, and within five minutes we had agreed to a £5 article per month. I was\, of course\, already on conversational terms with him (and remained so!). \nNow I fell into trap. 3\,000 readers in four months meant 6\,000 in eight months\, 9\,000 in  a year…? \nNot so! This is extrapolation\, a matter of calculation full of risks. \nMy preparations had been too good. In the remaining eight months of the year I picked up only a thousand more readers. Alekhine lost the title. With three months to go\, my money ran out\, I struggled to the end of the year.  The twelfth issue was pathetically thin compared with the first few but renewals staring rolling in and CHESS blossomed again. \nThe fifty-two years since have been gruelling\, unremitting toil but fascinating interest. How we bought our own presses and the effect this had on the world’s chess press – A law suit that went to appeal – How CHESS linked people in Malta\, Australia\, Hungary – Adventures in ‘simuls’\, postal chess etc. How we helped police to identify a drowned man\, etc. So many tales to tell! \nBHW \nBCF Obituary\nHere is an obituary from the BCF Yearbook 1989 – 1990\, page 14 : \nB.H. Wood\, O.B.E\nBaruch H. Wood\, O.B.E.\, founder of CHESS\, and the magazines editor for 52 years\, died at the age of 79 on 4th April. \nBorn in Sheffield on 13 July 1909\, “B.H.”\, as he was widely known in chess circles\, took up the game early playing competitively at school and at University. After graduating from the University College of Wales\, Bangor with a 1st class honours degree in chemistry\, he took an MSc at Birmingham University. Soon\, however\, his love of chess took him away from a career in chemistry\, with his launch of CHESS in 1935.  He was to continue as editor\, publisher\, for many years printer\, and often major contributor\, for over half a century. \nCHESS\, Sutton Coldfield\nThe magazine quickly won an international reputation for its frankness and outspokenness. It speaks much for the character and determination of its editor that he was able to continue publishing CHESS throughout the difficult years of the Second World War\, whilst holding a full-time job as director of a chemical research laboratory in Lichfield. \nWood will be best remembered for the magazine\, and for his other journalistic activities. He was for many years chess correspondent of The Daily Telegraph and of The Illustrated London News\, and his best known book Easy Guide to Chess went through three editions and many impressions. \nEasy Guide to Chess\, BH Wood\, CHESS\, Sutton Coldfield\, 1945\nThe above book (albeit the later Cadogan version) is available online. \nEasy Guide to Chess\nNigel Davies wrote “One of the best beginners books on the market.” \nWood’s feat in writing\, publishing\, printing and selling his own book may be unique. However\, Wood was no mean player as his draw against the then world champion Max Euwe\, who became a life-long friend\, testifies. \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 represented England in the International Team Championship at Buenos Aires in 1939\, scoring 50%. He also took first prize in international tournaments at Baarn 1947\, Paignton 1954\, Whitby 1963\, Thorshavn 1967 and Jersey 1975 and was second in the 1948 British Championship. He was British Correspondence Chess Champion in 1945. \nThe Cedars Chess Club May 1962 – Baruch is seated\, second from the right. Photograph sourced from ECF obituary.\nA life member of F.I.D.E. Wood was also an International Arbiter\, and organised 21 annual chess festivals at seaside venues from the 50’s onwards. In addition he was an active behind-the-scenes inspirer of many chess events\, and in particular was known as a driving spirit of university chess\, being until the time of his death President of the British University Chess Association. \nThe Author’s British Record Simultaneous Display. Some of the 127 schoolboys the author played simultaneously at Ilford County High School\, Winning over a a hundred of the games in 4 hours and 50 minutes.\nHe founded the Postal Chess Club and League and was for many years President of the British Postal Chess Federation. \nLetter from BH Wood to JE Upham dated 7th July 1983\n“B.H.” at Bournemouth in May 1971\nHe was awarded the O.B.E. for services to chess in 1984. \nHis wife Marjory\, predeceased him; he leaves three sons Christopher\, Frank and Philip\, and a daughter Peggy. \nBH Wood & his daughter Peggy\nand here is the article as it appeared in the Yearbook. \nBCF Yearbook\, 1989-90\, page 14\nBCF Yearbook\, 1989-90\, page 15\nGolombek on Wood\nFrom The Encyclopaedia of Chess (Batsford\, 1977)  by Harry Golombek : \n“A well known British player\, editor of Chess (starting 1935) and chess correspondent of The Daily Telegraph and Illustrated London News. A FIDE judge\, he has founded and conducted 21 annual chess festivals\, notably at Whitby\, Eastbourne and Southport. \nBH Wood playing AY “Johnnie” Green in the 1956 British Championships in Blackpool\, photographer unknown\nWinner of a number of small and semi-international tournaments : Baarn 1947\, Paignton 1954\, Whitby 1963\, Thorshavn 1967\, and Jersey 1975. \nPlayed for the BCF in the International Team Tournament at Buenos Aires 1939. His best tournament result was probably his equal second in the British Championship at London 1948. \nIn 1954 BHW was sued BH Wood for libel by William Ritson Morry over a letter BHW sent to Henry Golding of the Monmouthshire County Chess Association warning him of WRMs financial history. Here is a summary of the action : \nThe Birmingham Post\, July 15th\, 1954\nand two years in 1956 we have this telling photograph of Ritson and BH playing at the British Championships in Blackpool. It must have been an entertaining pairing for the organisers if no-one else! \nWilliam Ritson Morry playing BH Wood at the British Championships in Blackpool from 1956\nPossibly WRM was thinking this as they played: \nEverybody Loves Wood\nAmong his books are : Easy Guide to Chess\, Sutton Coldfield 1942 et seq; World Championship Candidates Tournament 1953\, Sutton Coldfield 1954. “ \nWorld Championship Candidates Tournament 1953\, BH Wood\, CHESS\, Sutton Coldfield\, 1954\nCafferty on Wood (1989)\nHere is the obituary from British Chess Magazine\, Volume CIX (1989\, 109)\, Number 5 (May)\, pages 210 – 211: \nB. H. WOOD\nBaruch Harold Wood (13 viii 1909-4 iv 1989) popularly known as “B. H.” was a significant figure of the last fifty-odd years in British chess. His life touched practically all aspects of the game as player\, both OTB and CC\, magazine publisher and editor\, organiser of club\, congress and university chess\, journalist . . . the list seems endless. In 1984 he was awarded the OBE for services to chess. \nBorn at Sheffield\, which he sometimes used as an excuse when he was accused of stubbornness\, (“It’s my Yorkshire blood\, you know”) he was educated in North Wales (Friar’s School\, and then University College\, Bangor) and at Birmingham University. \nHe started his chess magazine at Sutton Coldfield in 1935 as an impecunious graduate who could not find suitable work in the Depression\, and his lively style ensured that it was a beacon in British chess for fifty years to come! For many British chess fans he was “Mr Chess” yet it seems a miracle that he kept the magazine going in the difficult times when interest in the game was at a low ebb. He may well have subsidised it from his journalistic work (Birmingham Post\, Illustrated London News and Daily Telegraph) and from his wartime work as manager of a chemical laboratory (“The first time I ever earned a decent salary”). \nHis duodenal ulcer prevented him doing military service\, and later in life he suffered from failing eyesight and the inability to walk which resulted from his diabetes\, not diagnosed till he had suffered from it for decades. \nHe worked a seven-day week on the magazine\, and his wife who predeceased him was often unsure when he would be home such was his devotion to the work. At times he would take off for trips abroad or long simul tours through Britain while trying to keep the magazine on schedule. \nOne of his last long tours was in 1967 when he drove Botvinnik around the UK. The world champion was duly impressed by the work load and wrote a very favourable account of the trip\, revealing incidentally that Barry was still paying off the mortgage on his large house in Rectory Road\, Sutton Coldfield where the car was parked on the forecourt as the garage was the reserve storage for a large library of chess books! His ability to quote chemical formula from memory also impressed Botvinnik. \nHe brought up a family of four\, all of whom were skilled players\, apart\, perhaps from the youngest boy. Daughter Peggy\nwas prominent in women’s chess and married Peter Clarke at the time of the Botvinnik visit. Elder sons Chris and Frank were of over-200 strength\, but had seen too much of their father’s life at close hand to want to take over the business from him. He ultimately sold out to Pergamon in 1987 though negotiations had been started much earlier. It was probably too much of a wrench to let go until failing health left him with little alternative\, but he described\nthe terms as very generous. \nBarry was a gifted linguist who was welcome abroad for his un-English approach of having a go at the native tongue. As a player he was at his best in the late 1930s (a member of the 1939 Olympiad team in Buenos Aires) till the 1950s. He should really have won the 1948 British Championship when he had the enterprising idea of having Paul Schmidt as personal coach! Yet his tournament wins run on as late as Guernsey 1975 and he was playing in the First Division of the Birmingham League within a few weeks of his death. The flesh may have been weak but a great spirit kept him going to the end. \nShall we ever see his like again? \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nJulius Silverman former MP for Aston (Birmingham) writes: I am very sorry to learn of the death of Barry Wood. I knew him for about 55 years and I always found him a pleasant and interesting companion and a good friend. On the last few occasions that I have met him he seemed increasingly frail. I know that the death of his dear wife was a great blow to him. \nBarry’s contribution to Chess in this country has been enormous and his passing is the end of an era in chess journalism.\nBarry’s journalism and his imaginative editorship made Chess a fascinating journal which it was always a pleasure to read.\nIts survival for well over 50 years was a unique achievement which required persistence and dedication. He has had many\nhills to surmount. \nOne was “… the chess lawsuit of the Century …” (This ran for about two and a half years\, ending in 1940 in a victory for the magazine on appeal\, Ed). Jacques versus Chess which might have brought Chess to an end. I appeared for him as counsel. We won. I received a life subscription to Chess as part of my fee. My copy still comes to me regularly. I have never enjoyed a fee so much. \nHere is the article in its original form: \nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CX (109)\, Number 5 (May)\, page 210\nBritish Chess Magazine\, Volume CX (109)\, Number 5 (May)\, page 211\n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nBernard on Barry (2004)\nREMEMBERING BARRY WOOD (1909-1939) \nby Bernard Cafferty \nOne of the most influential figures in British chess of the 20th century was B. H. Wood\, whom I knew personally from 1951\, and whom I played regularly\, over a period of three decades\, till l moved from Birmingham to Hastings in 1981. Here are some\nmemories of the man who was thought of by many in Britain as “Mr Chess”. \nBorn in Sheffield\, Baruch Harold Wood had his secondary education in North Wales at the same grammar school as W Ritson\nMorry who was later to become his Midlands colleague and bitter rival. BH always attributed his well-known stubbornness (he never resigned early) to “his Yorkshire blood”. Wood and Morry were to be students together at Birmingham University after BH gained his BSc in Wales. Then the pair faced the hard task of finding work in depression-struck mid-1930s England. BH founded his monthly magazine CHESS in 1935\, an act of amazing optimism which only his great appetite for work could justify. The magazine was based in Sutton Coldfield\, just north of Birmingham\, at gloomy premises known as Masonic Buildings. \nThe early decades of this publication were marked by the outpouring of glorious journalism of a popular sort. The man’s love\nof the game shone through his work and he recruited such contributors as the chatty Koltanowski and the prince of annotators\nAlexander Alekhine. Later he became the long-serving columnist of the Birmingham Post\, from 1949 of the weekly Illustrated London News\, and even later of the Daily Telegraph. A feature of the magazine was its lively letters from readers which made for more interesting reading than the equivalent occasional letter to be found in the staid\nBCM. The readers also made pertinent contributions to opening theory\, especially in going through the 1946 MCO with a fine toothcomb and reporting their discoveries to Sutton Coldfield. \nBH wrote a best-selling Easy Guide to Chess which went through several editions and was far more user-friendly than other primers on the market at the time. He also designed a luxury set\, the Coldfield\, and produced various chess clocks with new features. BH was a member of the BCF Olympiad side that played in the first part of the Buenos Aires Olympiad in the autumn of 1939. After the team’s withdrawal due to the outbreak of war\, he stayed on in Argentina for a short while\, taking part in a short tournament where he met the legendary Alekhine. \nOne Hundred Victorian Chess Problems\, BH Wood\, Wayland Publishers\, London\, 1972\nBH was married to Marjorie\, a Birmingham primary school teacher\, and had three sons and a daughter. The elder two boys\,\nChris and Frank\, were strong players but not Philip. His daughter Peggy was our leading girl player of the 1950s\, and married Peter Clarke in 1962. One should note that BH was not Jewish\, as many assumed from the name Baruch – he was generally addressed as Barry by his wife and close friends. Others called him just by the initials BH. Everyone in British chess knew exactly who you meant when you said BH. Many thought of him as a sharp business-man. In any event\, the fearsome workload he shouldered meant that none of his children\, seeing this at first hand\, aspired to carry on the magazine as a family business. To many in the British chess community who had never seen top players in action\, BH was their first contact with the wider chess world due to the exhausting simul tours he made to many clubs the length and breadth of the UK. \nLater\, he organized CHESS Festivals starting from 1953. These were our earliest open tournaments\, held at attractive venues such as Cheltenham\, Whitby\, Eastbourne and Southport. These events created the opportunity for British amateurs to meet continental grandmaster opposition like Donner and O’Kelly. BH had great confidence in his ability – his MSc at Birmingham University was in chemistry\, but in 1946-7 he started studying nuclear physics privately\, telling Brian Reilly\, who was employed by him at that time\, that it was the science of the future. I have to simply marvel at this – where did he find the time? In his self-portrait in connection with the GB-USSR match of 1946 he revealed that he had been studying Russian privately with a view to taking an external degree in it at Birmingham University. \nThe post-war decade saw him at his most active. He was BCF delegate at early FIDE meetings post-1946\, the period that saw the mighty Soviet Union admitted to membership in 1947. BH was instrumental in maintaining Spain’s membership of FIDE at the same time\, despite Soviet opposition to Franco’s fascism. He claimed to me he was always a most welcome guest in Spain thereafter. \nBattles with the BCF\nBH had been exempt from military service due to a duodenal ulcer. He spent the war keeping the magazine alive in his spare time as he was put in charge of a research laboratory at the Birmingham Chemical Company. During the war the government had the power under emergency legislation to direct citizens into any sort of work that would contribute to the war effort. His comment to me on that intensive period was: “It was the first time I ever drew a decent salary”. After a short spell as BCF FIDE delegate\, he fell out with the ruling body in the early 1950s. His view was that the national body was ultra-conservative and not open to fresh ideas such as the knockout championship open to all which he organised in 1949-50. Lo and behold\, a few months later the BCF started organising regional competitions to arrange for qualification for the British Championship! BH often criticised the BCF in his magazine. In June 1950 he wrote the first of a planned series of articles on the evergreen theme “Where is British Chess Going?” and forwarded a copy to the BCF just before publication. The BCF legal eagle Professor Wheatcroft immediately threatened to take out an injunction\, so putting the frighteners on the printers. Rather than delay the July issue (not that subscribers were not used to a rather irregular schedule!)\, BH brought out the issue with white space\, on two pages\, a dramatic way of alerting the readers to the dispute. The promised articles\, which he said would appear after the dispute was settled\, never appeared. \nDW Anderton OBE plays BH Wood MBE in 1981 in a Blitz tournament outside of the National Film Theatre. Photograph courtesy of John Saunders\nThere were also tensions with BCF figures like Alexander and Golombek\, in the latter case probably due to professional rivalry and Harry G’s identification with the BCM. Another prominent figure with whom BH crossed swords was the flamboyant Liverpool barrister Gerald Abrahams who threatened to sue over a report in CHESS of gambling debts incurred “on the turf’. \nBH was no stranger to litigation. For example he had had a lawsuit with Jaques culminating in 1940 over the use of the term\n“genuine Staunton-pattern sets” in his advertising. The case was initially lost\, a potentially crippling blow\, but then won on appeal with the aid of solicitor Julius Silverman (later a prominent Birmingham MP)\, Ritson Morry\, Sir George Thomas and\nother well-wishers. When Wood-Morry hostility was at its height in the early 1950s over pro- and anti-BCF views\, BH drew attention in a letter to a Welsh chess organiser to Ritson’s short period in jail. The uncomplimentary term ‘gaolbird’ was used. A court case followed which the penurious Ritson\, having been struck off as a solicitor could hardly afford\, yet BH was cleared on the defence of justification. My fellow students and I at Birmingham University could only marvel at the daily press reports on the wrangles between two of our patrons whom we had feted at a celebratory dinner only a short while before. \nHere is the point at which to mention BH’s support for chess in the universities. He was the long-time President of the\nBUCA (British Universities’ Chess Association) and turned up at many of their events with support. He loaned equipment in the early days when not every chess club had sufficient clocks for a match – bear in mind that the austerity period in Britain lasted for years after 1945. BH also supported correspondence chess\, being the founder of the Postal Chess League\, a team event very popular in its day but now defunct. \nBH’s best playing performance was the British Championship of 1948 when he came second to Broadbent. The Midlander had actually started with 6.5 points from seven games\, but the unsatisfactory position arose that he had to meet Broadbent in the last round when each had an adjourned game still to finish off. \nBH Wood during the 1948 British Championships at Bishopsgate Institute\, London. Taken on August 30th 1948 by Keystone Press Agency\nThe tension got to BH\, he missed a clear winning chance against the Northerner and lost. Yet he should really have taken the title on the merits of the positions he had achieved. His rivals resented the fact that he had hired a second\, namely Paul Schmidt\, the Estonian player who was once thought of as almost as good as Keres in his native land. Schmidt had won the German Championship during the war in 1941. The British amateurs of 1948 were not impressed by this intrusion of professionalism and the importation of someone who carried the taint of possible Nazism. According to Brian Reilly\, Gerald Abrahams was particularly scathing. \nBH made a good impression on Botvinnik when the latter stayed at the Wood residence in Rectory Road\, Sutton Coldfield\, in 1967 (the reference for those who can read Russian is Baturinsky’s “…Tvorchestvo” trilogy on Botvinnik. The article was entitled: Albion shakhmatny i inoy. It appears on pp435 -448 of the third volume. A shortened version appears in English in Botvinnik’s autobiography Achieving the Aim). When I drew BH’s attention to the article and its peculiar title he responded with his usual erudite comment: ‘Albion? Yes\, that’s the Roman reference to the white cliffs of Dover”. For most Brummies\, “The Albion” did not mean a local pub\, but rather the West Bromwich Albion football team! \nIn theory\, the communist Botvinnik should have been distant from his host\, the Midlands entrepreneur and business man\, who drove him round to his engagements in Britain for three weeks\, but their common love of chess triumphed over ideological\ndifferences. In particular\, the speed of production of CHESS\, now on its own presses\, was compared very favourably by the Soviet Patriarch to that of Shakhmaty v SSSR. British trade unions had a different view of course\, in pre-Thatcher days\, and BH had some tricky obstacles to overcome in this field. The Muscovite Botvinnik recorded the fact that the garage of BH’s large house was full of chess books (as were various rooms – to the abiding despair of Marjorie)\, so the family car was always parked outside on the drive. BH revealed to Botvinnik that he had not been able pay off his mortgage for decades due to the variable cash flow from his business and journalism. \nBH was in love with study as a young man\, he once told me\, and he had a facility in various European languages\, which made him always welcome abroad. Over the years\, BH had a number of employees who were strong players\, such as Brian Reilly\, Owen Hindle and Robert Bellin\, but none of them lasted long. Owen Hindle\, a person of placid temperament\, stuck it out the longest\, but even he had his patience tried by the ‘boss’. One cannot hide the fact that BH was a controversial figure – perhaps the clue after all is that reference to his stubbornness and Yorkshire blood? I contributed to his magazine for many years\, but certainly never wanted to work for him full-time! \nI used to see BH in the last decade of his life only in the Hastings press room. For his age\, he still took on a fantastic workload. Peter Clarke once commented that his father-in-law gave the impression of believing he would live for ever. Finally\, Anno Domini told and BH sold his business to Robert Maxwell of Pergamon fame/notoriety in 1988. \nIn his final year\, BH suffered from diabetes\, and the resulting inability to walk meant he was confined to a wheelchair\, but he still insisted on visiting Hastings one last time\, where\, in his prime\, he had specialised in taking away Premier score sheets. Often they were taken not just to his hotel room\, but even back to Sutton Coldfield\, so hindering the work of other chess journalists unless Ritson or later\, Peter Griffiths had got in first to create the bulletin. \nWhat a character! We lack such a colourful figure nowadays. Where he still alive today\, I imagine he would still be trying to put a bomb under the BCF. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nWinter\, Jaques and Wood\nFrom Chess Explorations (Cadogan Chess\, 1996) by Edward Winter we have further detail on the Jaques court case: \n“Paul Timson\, a lawyer\, sends us reports on two legal  cases connected with chess. In 1939 B.H.Wood found himself in the dock for having advertised for sale in CHESS in 1937 ‘genuine Staunton chessmen’. The plaintiffs were John Jaques & Son\, Ltd. Sir George Thomas.\, Max Euwe and Lodewijk Prins appeared as witnesses for the defence. The case is referred to by Fred Wren in his article ‘Tales of a Woodpusher: Woodpusher’s Woodpile’\, which appeared in Chess Review\, 1949 and was reprinted in Reinfeld’s The Treasury of Chess Lore. The issues of CHESS of the time also contained a huge amount of material on the case. The decision was that ‘Staunton’ alone was permissible description\, but that the phrase ‘genuine Staunton’ implied a product made by Jaques & Son Ltd.\, as opposed to any Staunton pattern.  However\, B.H. Wood appealed and\, in 1940\, won.” \nOther Sources\nIf you can get access then we recommend the eleven-page “B.H. Wood and his chess playing family” article in the August-2009 issue of Chess Monthly written by his son Chris Wood (helped by brother Frank). \nLikewise The Chess Lawsuit of the Century is detailed in CHESS\, volume 52\, Number 1018\, pp.392 – 394 by BHW himself. \nHere is an obituary from the MCCU \nBackground information from Sutton Coldfield Chess Club \nAlekhine’s Articles for CHESS by Michael Clapham \nHere is his Wikipedia entry. \n Save as PDF
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SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of Johann Löwenthal (15-vii-1810 24-vii-1876)
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SUMMARY:Remembering IMC James Adams (04-ix-1921 27-vii-2013)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers IMC James Adams who passed away aged 91 on July 27th\, 2013 in Worcester Park\, Kingston Upon Thames\, Surrey. \nJames Frederick Adams was born on September 4th\, 1921 in Lambeth. His parents were James J Adams (DoB: 10th October 1884) who was a plumber’s mate and Lucy M Adams (née Ayres\, DoB: 22nd December 1886). He had an older brother who was William A Adams who was also a plumber’s mate and and Uncle George T (DoB: 8th March 1882) who was the plumber who presumably had many mates. \nAt the time of the 1939 register James was a telephone operator. \nThe Adams family lived at 52\, Broadway Gardens\, Mitcham\, Surrey\, CR4 4EE (rather than 001 Cemetery Lane) \n52\, Broadway Gardens\, Mitcham\, Surrey\, CR4 4EE\nFrom CHESS\, 1991\, March\, page 91 we have: \n“Whatever Happened to Human Effort? \nI am giving up postal chess after 57 years for the reason that\, like Jonathan Penrose and recently Nigel Short\, I am increasingly disturbed over the increase in the use of computers in correspondence play. It is impossible to prove but one has the feeling that many opponents see nothing wrong in using a machine and I see no pleasure in having to bash one’s brains out against a computer. I am happy in the knowledge that I won my FIDE IM title long before dedicated chess computers were ever heard of. I shudder to think of the proliferation in the use of computers in a competition like the World CC Championship. I don’t wonder that Penrose objects. \nUnfortunately\, this is the sort of thing against which it is impossible to legislate. The BCCA has banned their use but it doesn’t mean a thing. \nThe latest monstrosity is where Kasparov plays a match against another GM and both are allowed to use computers whilst the game is in progress. To me\, this is absolutely shocking. Dr. Nunn admits to the use of computers in the compilation of one of his books and I see that even ordinary annotators use a programme like Fritz to assist with their notes to a game. What happened to human effort? \nAnyway\, I have about five postal games left in progress and when they are finished I will call it a day. \nJim Adams\nWorcester Park\, Surrey \nSo who was Jim Adams? \nFrom British Chess (Pergamon Press\, 1983) Botterill\, Levy\, Rice and Richardson we have this: \nThe smoke-laden atmosphere of the chess rooms of St. Bride’s Institute\, in the heart of the City of London\, could hardly be considered a positive encouragement to any ambitions to become an International Master\, but certainly this was so in my case. Let me explain the sequence of events. \nFace-to-face\, or over-the-board chess\, had been my main interest since my war-time days as a member of the Civil Defence. Passing time between air-raids led to the adoption of many pastimes and an absorbing game such as chess was ideal. Fortunately for me\, one of my ambulance station colleagues was a very fine player named A. F. (Algy) Battersby\, later to become General Secretary of the British Correspondence Chess Association. \nHe had spent the greater part of the First World War playing chess in the Sinai Desert and\, with his tremendous experience\, he brought to the game strategical ideas and tactical skills that\, in those early days\, were well beyond my comprehension. \nArthur Frank Battersby\, BIRTH 2 JUN 1887 • Brixton\, Surrey\, England  DEATH 11 APR 1955 • Surrey\, England\n‘Algy’ was kind enough to say some years afterwards that I was ‘the best pupil he ever had’\, but whether this was true or not\, he certainly passed on to me the theoretical groundwork that was to be so useful to me in later years. Among other books\, he encouraged me to purchase the Nimzowitch classic My System\, with the kindly warning that I would not understand it at first reading but would perhaps get some grasp of the ideas at a second or third attempt. \nMy System was a revelation to me and proved to be the greatest help to an understanding of the game that I had ever received. Up to my fortuitous meeting with ‘Algy’\, my games had been of a simple tactical nature. Pieces were left en prise\, oversights and blunders were the order of the day and an actual checkmate came as a surprise not only to the loser but often to the winner as well! \nTo win a game through sheer strength of position was completely unknown to me\, but ‘Algy’ and Nimzowitch changed all that! Under their combined influence my general playing strength improved enormously and I was soon second only to ‘Algy’ in such tournaments as were held in my home town of Mitcham\, where the local chess club was revived after the war. \nOur club soon attracted a few strong players and we played regularly in county competitions and\, later\, the London Chess League. During those years chess was an absolute joy to me and all my spare time was spent at the local club or at chess matches\, whilst Saturday afternoons were spent at the now defunct Gambit Chess Room\, in Budge Row\, where I passed countless hours playing chess\, pausing only to order light refreshment from the indefatigable ‘Eileen’\, a waitress of somewhat uncertain age who almost certainly regarded all chess players as raving lunatics! \nThe ‘Gambit’ could never have been a viable commercial proposition on what we bought and it was eventually thought necessary to introduce a minimum charge depending on the time of day. Gone for ever were the days when one could spend the entire evening playing chess\, analysing\, or having a crack at the local Kriegspiel experts\, all for the price of two cups of tea and the occasional sandwich. Sadly\, it all disappeared in the aftermath of the\nwar. \nBy 1950 I had become Match Captain of the Mitcham Chess Club and\, of course\, responsible for arranging various matches. Getting a team together was not difficult as the club membership was quite large for such a lowly club. The playing standard too was surprisingly high and whilst I\, myself\, was fortunate enough to win the club championship several times it was never easy. \nOn one occasion a ‘friendly’ match had been arranged with the BBC and all was well until a ‘flu epidemic a few days before the date of the match laid most of the Mitcham players low. On the morning of the match I was left with five players for a 1O-board match! As it was only a ‘friendly’ and in order to avoid disappointing all concerned I took myself off to the Gambit and recruited a few of the ‘regulars’ to help us out. It must be remembered that most of the strongest players in London frequented the ‘Gambit’ and since those pressganged into service were extremely strong players it seemed only courteous to give them the honour of playing on the top five boards\, leaving the Mitcham ‘stars’ who\, coincidentally\, were our usual top board players\, to bring up the rear. \nNow this composite team\, in my judgement\, was probably good enough to win the London League A Division and it was no surprise when we won 10-0. Only a friendly indeed! Any Match Captain would have given his queen’s rook for such a team but\, whilst the BBC players were warned beforehand of the composition of our team\, they were not amused and further matches were not arranged! \nMr A Corish (right)\, receives the Chess Champion cup from Mr J Adams. 18th September 1958 from the Merton Advertiser\, Photographer unknown.\nRound about this time I was playing regularly in London League matches\, nearly all of which were held at St. Bride’s Institute\, where my story began. A non-smoker myself\, I found the conditions intolerable. The place seemed to be completely airless and Government warnings about the dangers of smoking did not exist! not exist! Consequently\, the entire playing area was reminiscent of the Black Hole of Calcutta! Always susceptible to headaches\, I began to return home physically ill after every match. If this was playing chess for pleasure then something was wrong! \nMr A Corish (right)\, receives the Chess Champion cup from Mr J Adams. 18th September 1958 from the Merton Advertiser\, Photographer unknown.\nHowever\, salvation was at hand. Ever since the war I had been playing a few games by post under the auspices of the BCCA (British Correspondence Chess Association )\, and my somewhat traumatic experiences at St. Bride’s were beginning to make postal chess a far more attractive way of playing the\ngame. And so my chess career started all over again! \nMy correspondence chess activities up to the 1960s were not particularly successful\, although I had managed to win three Premier Sections and finish\nequal third in the British Correspondence Championship of 1962-63. However\, during that time a group of BCCA players\, of whom I was one\, were\nbecoming somewhat dissatisfied with the Association’s attitude towards international chess and eventually a splinter group formed a rival organization which became known as the British Correspondence Chess Society. \nThe BCCS was\, almost from the start\, internationally orientated and it was possible to play foreign players\, many of master strength. With strong opposition it seemed easier to improve and my first real success came in the Eberhardt Wilhelm Cup in 1966-67 when I was able to obtain the lM norm giving me a half=master title. However\, gone were the days when a superficial analysis was enough before posting a move\, which even if it was not the best\, was generally good enough to hold one’s own with even the best of British CC players at that time. Fortunately for British chess\, the situation is now vastly different and the strongest British CC players are recognized as being among the best in the world. \nThe Eberhardt Wilhelm Cup consisted of players all of master or near-master strength and it was in one of the games I played in this tournament that I played probably the most surprising move of my life. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nTo win the full IM title involved getting one more IM norm and happily for my prospects\, I was selected for the British team in both the Olympiad Preliminary of 1972 and the European Team Championships of 1973. \nAlthough I was trifle unlucky to miss the IM norm by half a point in the European Championship I finally clinched the coveted IM title in the Olympiad Preliminary which\, although starting a few months before the European tournament\, went on so long that I was in suspense long after the European games finished. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nOne of my most interesting games in the European Team Championship of 1973 was against F. Grzeskowiak\, himself an IM and a feared attacking 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\nHere is a discussion of James Adams on the English Chess Forum initiated by Matt Mackenzie (Millom\, Cumbria) \nHere is his entry on the ICCF web site. \nHere is his entry from chessgames.com \n39 Games of James Adams (27) of thirty nine of his games. \n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/remembering-imc-james-adams-04-ix-1921-27-vii-2013/
CATEGORIES:Correspondence,English,History,Remembering
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220401
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220402
DTSTAMP:20220404T160618Z
CREATED:20200401T115720Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220404T160618Z
UID:3917-1648771200-1648857599@britishchessnews.com
SUMMARY:Death Anniversary of CM David Anderton OBE (02-viii-1941 01-iv-2022)
DESCRIPTION:BCN remembers CM David Anderton OBE who passed away on Friday\, April 1st\, 2022 aged 80. \nIn the 1977 New Years Honours List\, Civil Division\, David was awarded the OBE. The citation read simply : “For services to Chess” \nDavid William Anderton was born in the district of Walsall\, Staffordshire\, West Midlands. His mother’s maiden name was Coltart and David resided in Walsall. \nDavid was married to Doreen in 2005. \nDavid Anderton (rhs) congratulates Sir Philip Stuart Milner-Barry for winning the “Board of Honour ” game versus Edward Lasker at the 1976 Lloyds Bank Match by Telex\, London – New York. From BCM\, volume XCVI (96) Number 11 (August)\, Page 494. The venue was the Bloomsbury Hotel\, London. Photo courtesy of Lloyds Bank\nDavid was an Honorary Life Vice-President of the English (formerly British) Chess Federation. \nJohn Nunn\, David Anderton and Jonathan Speelman\n“David won the ECF President’s Award in 2009 following his stepping down as ECF legal expert. This is the citation from the 2010 ECF Yearbook : \n“As this is Gerry Walsh’s last year as President it was considered appropriate that he be allowed to choose someone receive the award. Gerry has worked with David for all his time with BCF and ECF and has selected him due to his tireless and selfless devotion to both the BCF and ECF over many years. \nDavid Anderton OBE\, ? and Teresa Needham\nMost of you will know David and will agree that this is a well deserved award. It is fair to state that David’s assistance over the years has been invaluable and that without it many areas of the Federation would have found it difficult\, if not impossible to operate. \nJim Plaskett with David Anderton OBE at the 1983 Benedictine International (Manchester)\nSince my election David has been a constant friend and confidante. He has invariable given sound advice throughout my term of office. It was John Wickham who rang me and suggested that due to my length of tenure\, a special award might be in order. \nJim accepts the 1981 Grand Prix shield from David Anderton OBE\nAfter years of selfless and generous devotion serving as ECF President\, International Director\, Captain of the England Team and legal adviser\, this seems to be a fitting tribute. \nFrom the Praxis Bath Zonal Tournament of 1987. David Anderton OBE is second from right\nDavid’s advice both legal and general\, has been invaluable in such matters as the John Robinson legacy and the change of name from BCF to ECF Limited\, and I certainly hope that this advice will continue. \nGerry Walsh” \nBob Wade OBE\, Murray Chandler MNZM and David Anderton OBE\nDavid is a FIDE Candidate Master (CM). \nFrom the BCF 1979-80 Year Book of Chess : Robert Bellin\, the new British Champion\, explains the secret to the Mayor of Chester (?) and to David Anderton\, BCF President\nWith the White pieces David exclusively plays 1.d4 aiming for a Queen’s Gambit and main lines. \nWith Black David plays the Winawer and the Classical French plus the Lenningrad Dutch. \nMrs. Joan Agar; Chairman of Leigh Interests\, presents the Leigh trophy (for 1981) to Mark Hebden. Left\, David Anderton\, BCF President; on the right Malcolm Wood\, Leigh’s Chief Executive. BCM\, 1981\, page 104\nHere are his games. \n\n\n \n\n\n    \n        \n            You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.        \n    \n    \n    \n\n\n \n\nDW Anderton OBE plays BH Wood MBE in 1981 in a Blitz tournament outside of the National Film Theatre. Photograph courtesy of John Saunders\nDuring 1989-93 David was an Executive Board Member of FIDE. \nThe England Team from the 1990 Novi Sad Olympiad : John Nunn\, Jon Speelman\, Julian Hodgson\, David Anderton OBE (Captain)\, Nigel Short\, Michael Adams and Murray Chandler\nIn 2002 David was awarded the title of International Master by the ICCF (correspondence chess) \nIn 2015 David stood down from all of his roles within the ECF. \nDavid Anderton OBE\, Paul Bazalgette (Senior Partner at Philips & Drew) and Tony Banks (GLC Arts & Recreation Department) at the 1982 Philips and Drew Kings Tournament Opening Ceremony. Photograph by Clive Field\nDavid has won the British Seniors Championship in 2003 (shared)\, 2005\, 2007 (shared)\, 2009 (shared) and 2011. \nHere is a potted biography from The Express and Star Newspaper \nDavid Anderton OBE at the 2019 British Championships in Torquay\, courtesy of John Upham Photography\nDavid is Head of Regulatory Law at Anson’s Solicitors. He is also Secretary of the Erasmus Darwin Foundation (03270753) and Director of Unionist Buildings Ltd.\, Wallsall Conservative Investments Ltd. and Wallsall Unionist Holdings Ltd. \nCM David William Anderton OBE\n Save as PDF
URL:https://britishchessnews.com/event/birthday-of-cm-david-william-anderton-obe-02-viii-1941/
CATEGORIES:4NCL,Birthday,British Championships,Honours,Official,Player,Remembering
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