We remember Joseph Edmund Peckover (15-xi-1896 – 16-iv-1982)
From The Encyclopedia of Chess by Anne Sunnucks :
Born in London on the 15th November 1896, Peckover has lived in New York since 1921. He has composed about 70 endgame studies :
JE Peckover , 1st Prize, Problem 1958 – 59 Award July 1960.
Here is his Wikipedia entry
Here is his entry on chesscomposers.com
Save as PDFBCN remembers IM Colin Crouch (14-x-1956 16-iv-2015)
From Chessgames.com :
“Colin Stamford Crouch was born in Bushey, England. He was an International Master, and the author of a number of chess books.”
Here is an obituary from the ECF written by Stewart Reueben
An obituary from Kingpin Magazine
An obituary from The Telegraph written by Malcolm Pein
Colin was Southern Counties (SCCU) champion in the 2000-01 season sharing the title with Jeff Goldberg.
An obituary from The Guardian by David Crouch
Save as PDF
BCN remembers Herbert William Trenchard (08-ix-1857 15-iv-1934)
From Wikipedia :
“Herbert William Trenchard (8 September 1857, Thorncombe – 15 April 1934, London) was an English chess master.
He took 11th and tied for 4-5th in London in 1886, shared twice 3rd at Cambridge 1890 and Oxford 1891, tied for 4-5th at Brighton 1892, took 2nd at London 1892 (B tourn), tied for 3rd-4th at Woolhall Spa 1893, and took 3rd at London 1896,[1]
He also participated at Vienna 1898 (Kaiser-Jubiläumsturnier, Siegbert Tarrasch and Harry Pillsbury won) and took 19th place there.[2][3]”
Here is a fascinating article about the National Liberal Club Chess Circle
Save as PDFBCN wishes a happy birthday to Peter Markland born on Friday, April 13th, 1951
From the rear cover of “Sicilian:…e5 :
“P.R. Markland is a British Master, and a member of many English international teams, including those at the 1972 and 1974 Olympiads, and is also a British correspondence international”
Peter first qualified to the British Championship in 1967 (Oxford) and obtained an IM and GM norm at Hastings 1971.
In 1984 he became a Grandmaster for correspondence chess (GMC).
Peter became a banker and lives in Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP13.
Following excellent recent work by Paul McKeown, the English Chess Federation made a request to FIDE to grant Peter the much overdue title of FIDE Master. This was awarded in 2021.
From British Chess (Pergamon Press, 1983) we have this contribution from Peter himself:
“1951 seems to have been a vintage year for chessplayers and although I cannot claim to count myself in the company of Andersson, Karpov, Ribli and Sax we do all share the same year of birth.
Although I learned the moves at the age of 5, I only took any real interest in the game at 13 when I began to play schools chess. Compared with such as Nigel Short I was a very late starter!
I was educated at Bolton School and played for Bolton and Lancashire in my early years. This was fortunate in that all three of these teams enjoyed great success in the late 1960s. In all three teams I played along side Martyn Corden who was to precede my rise to international level himself by playing in the Siegen Olympiad team in 1970. In 1967, I qualified for the British Championship at my first attempt and I was pleased to score 5/11. The following year the school team won The Sunday Times tournament playing without Martyn Corden in the finals.
Up to this time I had concentrated chiefly on junior teams and had won the NCCU junior titles. Over Christmas and New Year of both 1966-7 and 1967-8 I travelled down to play at the Devon Junior Congress at Plymouth but in 1968 I decided to try my luck at Hastings. This proved to be one of the turning points of my career.
I was placed in the Challengers Reserves for 1968-9 and after the first round loss (to the eventual winner) my play gained momentum and I qualified for the Challengers the following year. The intervening year passed quietly with a trip to Ireland in the Glorney Cup. I went up to Balliol College, Oxford in October 1969.
The Hastings Challengers tournament 1969-70 began when I met the same opponent as in the previous year in the first round. This time I managed to come out on top. By the time the last round came, I had played most of the leaders and had 6/8 including two pleasing wins with my favourite defence at the time – the Sicilian Pelikan variation.
In the last round I was paired against de Veauce who had a reputation as a good strategist and whom I hoped to unsettle tactically. I had white and my plan failed. He outplayed me in the opening and middlegame and I sacrificed my isolated centre pawn to activate my pieces.
So I then had to wait had to wait to see the other results before I could confirm a somewhat lucky place in the Premier.
In 1970 I had the opportunity to travel with the student team to the Olympiad in Haifa. My score of 5.5/7 was reasonably pleasing but the standard of opposition was far from good.
At the end of the year came the Hastings Premier – a tournament which I can only describe as the highlight of my career. I began nervously and lost a nondescript game to Uhlmann in the first round. My confidence grew with two comfortable draws with Portisch (the eventual winner) and Keene. In round four I met the surprise leader, Mestrovic (who had 3/3) and perhaps partly due to the fact that this game was played on 1st January I won convincingly in 18 moves.
The next four rounds brought an uneventful draw with Wade and three exciting encounters with Byrne, Krogius and Gligoric all of which after several reversals of fortune ended in draws.
In the last round I was to play Hort who needed to to win to gain a share of first prize. He played a horribly passive opening and by move 14 I was already well on top. To try to compensate he snatched a queenside pawn and gave me the chance to play the type of move one can only dream about!
This victory meant an equal second on 5/9 with Gligoric, Hort, Krogius and Uhlmann and both a GM and IM norm.
As a result of this I became a regular member of the England side. During 1971 my results were erratic, possibly caused by too much play. I was pleased with my 3.5 score in my first Clare Benedict, although I lost my first game for England due to nervousness and I was first equal with George Botterill in the Slater Young Masters at Hastings (again). Here I declined a last round draw offer, blundered almost next move and lost to an up-and-coming junior by the name of Michael Stean! On the debit side my performances in the British Championship, The Oxford International Congress and the Robert Silk tournament left room for improvement.
Whilst playing with Bolton in the National Club Championship, we had never won the competition although we had reached the semi-finals many times. This year, 1971, playing for Oxford University, we won the tournament beating our old rivals Cambridge University in the final on board count.
The Hastings tournament of 1971-72 saw me firmly entrenched near the bottom. It is very difficult in this type of international tournament when one becomes marked as an out-of-form player. All the other players make extra efforts to beat you and this drains your strength further.
My main problem at Hastings was a lack of defence to 1.e4. I lost five games against this move. In the last round I had a very interesting struggle against Karpov who needed to win this game to tie first with Korchnoi who had beaten him in the previous round, but the strength of 1.e4 proved too much.
The summer of 1972 saw the advent of my University finals and thus I played very little for the first six months of the year – even I had to decline an invitation to the Teeside GM event. Later in the year I played in the student Olympiad in Graz and then in the Olympiad is Skopje.
In the preliminaries we had drawn Yugoslavia and Switzerland, who were the only other teams likely to qualify for the ‘A’ final. We missed qualification narrowly and I think that every team member had one poor result in the qualifying rounds – mine being a scraped draw against a Syrian team.
We won the ‘B’ final by beating the Israeli team in the last round and I felt pleased by my score of 11.5/16 with no losses. Indeed, in my last round game with Balshan I was quite rightly instructed to agree a draw in a winning position to secure the team’s first place.
I feel that this tournament from my point of view aptly demonstrates the difference in title norms in the early 1970s and today. I played five players who had no Elo ratings and only four titled players. Hence an IM norm would not have been available under any circumstances. The main reason for the lack of Elo ratings in 1972 was that the new system had only just been introduced and for many players this was their first Elo-rated tournament. In the last Elo list, all but one of the sixteen players are rated, there are now four GMs and five IMs amongst my opponents and the norm figures would be 10.5/16 and 12.5/16 for IM and GM respectively.
Here is my best game from the Olympiad. It is indicative of an early combination prevailing through into a winning ending.
In 1973 I was once more plagued by too many invitations and played indifferently throughput the year. The only bright spots were my score of 3/7 on boards 3 and 4 of the European Team Finals and second place in the Woolacombe International.
1974 was once again an Olympiad year. The England team won the Clare Benedict for the first time in Menorca and I was able to contribute 5/6 winning both a board prize and the best score prize. I was drafted into the Olympiad team as a late replacement and although we qualified easily enough for the ‘A’ finals this was in no way due to my efforts as I had a 50% score in the preliminaries.
We had qualified for the ‘A’ final with one round to spare and our last group match against the USE (from which the score was to be carried forward) began the final matches. It had been decided, as a tactical measure and in our view of our differing styles, that I should take black whenever we had this colour on the fourth board, so that Whiteley and Stean could utilize a greater proportion of whites. This worked to a limited extent and indeed, Stean obtained an IM Norm. Also, as it worked out I played in matches against seven of the top eight teams (being rested against Yugoslavia) and only three teams below us. In the end, I was pleased with my +3 =1 -4 with black in the finals to give overall a 50& score.
During 1973 and 1974 I was co-author of two books in the Batsford opening series, both with Tim Harding on Sicilian Defence variations.
I also wrote a best game collection of Karpov which was by far the most interesting of the three books to write.
At about this time, I decided to embark upon a career in banking and to abandon that of a professional chessplayer. Since then I have concentrated on correspondence chess.
Having received master certificate, I entered a European and World tournament in both of which I finished first. The second of these two results qualified me for the world Championship Semi-finals. But first attempt in the eleventh championship ended in failure to qualify.
As a result of an invitation received by the BPCF I played in the Eino Heilimo Memorial Grandmaster event. I have , however, qualified as a postal IM by scoring the required seven points and had an outside chance of trying for first place at one stage.
Here is my best game from this event.
Here is his brief Wikipedia entry.
The English Chess Forum has discussed Peter.
Peter’s games are here.
Save as PDFBCN wishes happy birthday to IM Harry James M Grieve (12-iv-2001).
He was born in Guildford and spent most of his childhood a resident of Fleet in Hampshire before moving to Camberley, Surrey.
Here is an article from Harry’s school, RGS Guildford.
Harry is studying mathematics at St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge having previously been a pupil and member of the strong chess team of Royal Grammar School, Guildford with team mates such as Alex Golding.
He started his evening league chess in the Cody Sports and Social Club with Fleet & Farnborough Chess Club (same as Simon Williams) and then transferred his allegiance to the stronger Farnham chess club playing top board in many matches.
He was recruited to the AMCA 4NCL team by IM Andrew Martin and then played for the BCM 4NCL team and now plays for Guildford in 4NCL and Farnham in the Surrey Border League.
Round 5 of the Caplin Hastings International Chess Congress featured the board 10 clash between one of England’s stronger Grandmasters, Danny Gormally (2508) and FM Harry Grieve (2299).
Here is their game :
Following this game Harry needed 2.5/4 to obtain his first IM norm.
In January 2022 Harry travelled to Roquetas de Mar in Almeria, Spain for the 33rd Roquetas de Mar Open where he scored 7/9 and his first IM norm. Harry kindly agreed to annotate his best game from this event for BCN:
Here is hoping that further norms will be shortly forthcoming!
At the fourth FIDE Council of 2022 Harry was granted his full IM title.
His performance at the Chessable British Chess Championships 2022 of 7.5/9 was sufficient to gain his first GM norm exceeding the requirement by 0.5 points.
During the 2022 / 2023 4NCL Harry played for “The Sharks 1” on various boards with his team taking full advantage of the FIDE 80 point rule to vary their board orders. Harry played in every round and scored 9.5/11 earning his second GM norm.
Surely the third and final one will be achieved in 2023?
Save as PDFRemembering Rev. Charles Edward Ranken (05-i-1828 12-iv-1905)
From The Encyclopedia of Chess by Harry Golombek :
“A leading member of the formidable band of reverends who played such a strong role in early Victorian English chess, he is described as ‘one of the writing rather than the fighting clergy in chess’ in P. W. Sergeant’s Century of British Chess. Though he learnt chess at an early age’ he made his first really earnest study of the game when he was an undergraduate at Wadham College, Oxford 1847-50, in particular devoting himself to a theoretical study of Staunton’s Handbook, which he rightly regarded as a great landmark in chess literature.
On leaving Oxford he competed in the provincial section at London l85l where he came second to Boden.
In 1867 he became vicar of Sandford-on-Thames and lived at Oxford where, in collaboration with Lord Randolph Churchill (Winston’s father), he founded the Oxford University Chess Club
and became its first President.
Resigning his living at Sandford in 1871, he went to live at Malvern where he stayed till his death. He played in many of the congresses organized by the Counties Chess Association, his best result being 1st in the first class section at Malvern 1872 with a score of 12 points, followed by two other reverends, Thorold 11.5 and Wayte 10.5. It was at this congress that he brought about a reconciliation between Staunton and Löwenthal who had been estranged for a considerable time.
He played in the Yizayanaqaram tournament at London 1883 and started well but his health gave way after the first week and he divided fifth place with G. H. D. Gossip.
His chief importance during the later stages of his chess career was as a writer, first as editor of the Chess Player’s Chronicle in 1877 and later as a member of the staff of the British Chess Magazine in which he wrote on many aspects of chess but specialized in analysis (of the openings, middle-game and the endings)’ In 1889 he published, in collaboration with E. Freeborough, Chess Openings Ancient and Modern. (London)’ ( H’G’)
The Ranken Variation is a good line for White in the Four Knights Opening, analysed in the Chess Players Chronicle, 1879 by
first president of the Oxford University Chess Club.”
Save as PDFBirthday of FM Erik Oskar Michael Charles Teichmann (11-iv-1961)
Erik was born in Westminster, London, his mother Jenny (née Jorgensen) being Danish and his father was Max Teichmann (thanks Richard James!). Jenny Teichman was a Philosopher.
They lived in London for two years and then emigrated to Melbourne, Australia until Erik was six when Erik and his mother moved to Cambridge, England. Erik played much chess in England including the British U-18 and U-21 championships, Lloyds Bank events.
This was written about Erik when he was 17 just prior to the Spassky vs the BCF Junior Squad simultaneous display :
“Perse School and Cambridge city. Rating 190. Cambridgeshire men’s champion. 2nd British under-18 championship, 1978.”
and the Islington, Lewisham, Charlton and other opens swisses. Erik played for Oxford University (Magdalen College) in the 1982 (100th) Varsity Match drawing with Gareth Anthony (Trinity Hall).
In 1985 Erik emigrated once more to Australia living in Eltham, Melbourne and became a lifestyle guru and coach.
Erik became a FIDE Master in 1990 and his peak rating was 2388 in July 2010.
From Chessgames.com :
“FIDE Master Erik Oskar Michael Charles Teichmann won the Nova Scotia Open in 1999.”
Here is Erik’s favourite game :
Erik now lives in Lyon, France with his girlfriend, both being Buddhists.
Erik has been faithful to the Polish or Sokolski Opening and anyone contemplating playing this should study his games. Erik very recently played Tony Kosten in France and maybe we will see him on our shores once more to play in 4NCL !
Save as PDFBCN remembers Henry Edward Bird who passed away this day, April 11th in 1908.
From The Oxford Companion to Chess by David Hooper & Ken Whyld :
“English player, accountant. He played in 13 strong tournaments, with erratic results; his best achievements were: Vienna 1873, a tie with L. Paulsen for fifth place; Paris 1878, fourth place shared with Mackenzie; Manchester 1890. third prize shared with Mackenzie after Tarrasch and Blackburne. He also played in numerous minor tournaments, notably tying with Gunsberg for first prize at London 1889. His most important match was against Steinitz in 1866 for the first to win eleven games. He was adjudged the loser when he was
called to the USA on business, the score standing +5 = 5—7 in favour of his opponent. This was a creditable result in the circumstances, for he played each game after a day’s work (Steinitz, however, was not so strong a player as he later became.) In 1886 Bird drew a match with Burn(+ 9—9). One of the most ingenious tacticians of his time, Bird played in the attacking style prevalent in his youth. He usually chose openings that were regarded as bizarre, although many of them, e.g. the Dragon Variation, have since gained acceptance.
Bird was probably the best known and longest serving habitue of the London coffee-house known as Simpson’s Divan. ‘A rosy-cheeked, blue-eyed, fair-headed boy’, he first attended around 1846 and was a constant visitor for more than 50 years, after which he was described as ‘majestic in stature, in girth, in the baldness of his great head, less majestic in the litter of tobacco ash upon his waistcoat … with a pleasant smiling countenance’. He suffered from gout which eventually so incapacitated him that he was largely confined to his home for the last years of his life.
Besides writing booklets on railway finance he wrote several books on chess. They are not without interest although the content is sometimes inaccurate and often disorganized. Bird’s Modern Chess and Chess Masterpieces (1887) contains more than 200 games, about half of them his own. Chess History and Reminiscences (1893) contains an account of contemporary players and chess affairs.
Bird-Mason New York 1876 French Defence, Exchange Variation :
For this game Bird was awarded the BRILLIANCY PRIZE.
The Bird Attack is variation in the Italian opening strongly advocated by Stamma and no less strongly by Biro. In May 1843 saint-Amant played it against Staunton in their first match and five years later Bird adopted the variation, playing it in many tournaments, notably with fair success at Vienna 1882, London 1883, and Nuremberg 1883.
The Bird Defence, a reply to the Spanish opening given in the first edition of Bilguer’s Handbuch, 1843. Pioneered by Bird, e.g. against Anderssen in 1854, and used on occasion by grandmasters such as Tarrasch, Spielmann, and Spassky, this defence has not gained wide acceptance.
The Bird Opening, sometimes called the Dutch Attack by analogy with the Dutch Defence. In 1873, after an absence of six years from chess, Bird played a match with Wisker. ‘Having forgotten familiar openings, I commenced adopting KBP for first move, and finding it led to highly interesting games out of the usual groove, I became partial to it. ’ Bird had also forgotten unfamiliar openings, for
1 f4 (given by Lucena) had been played by Bourdonnais, Williams, and others of that period. However Bird’s consistent adoption of the move led to its becoming a standard opening, although
never popular.
From Wikipedia :
Henry Edward Bird (Portsea in Hampshire, 14 July 1830 – 11 April 1908) was an English chess player, and also an author and accountant. He wrote a book titled Chess History and Reminiscences, and another titled An Analysis of Railways in the United Kingdom.
Although Bird was a practicing accountant, not a professional chess player, it has been said that he “lived for chess, and would play anybody anywhere, any time, under any conditions.”
At age 21, Bird was invited to the first international tournament, London 1851. He also participated in tournaments held in Vienna and New York City. In 1858 he lost a match to Paul Morphy at the age of 28, yet he played high-level chess for another 50 years. In the New York tournament of 1876, Bird received the first brilliancy prize ever awarded, for his game against James Mason.
In 1874 Bird proposed a new chess variant, which played on an 8×10 board and contained two new pieces: guard (combining the moves of the rook and knight) and equerry (combining the bishop and knight). Bird’s chess inspired José Raúl Capablanca to create another chess variant, Capablanca Chess, which differs from Bird’s chess only by the starting position.
It was Bird who popularized the chess opening now called Bird’s Opening (1.f4), as well as Bird’s Defense to the Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4). Bird’s Opening is considered sound, though not the best try for an opening advantage. Bird’s Defense is regarded as slightly inferior, but “trappy”.
According to Edward Winter Bird lived at these addresses :
Save as PDFBCN remembers CGM Keith Richardson who passed away on Monday, April 10th, 2017.
Keith Bevan Richardson was born in Nottingham, on Thursday ,April 2nd 1942. On this day : The comedy film My Favourite Blonde starring Bob Hope and Madeleine Carroll was released.
Keith’s parents were Arthur (30) and Hilda May (née Nicholls, 25). He married Sandra Sowter on the 11th of September 1971 in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire. They had two children, Neil and Ian. They lived at 19, The Ridings in Camberley, Surrey.
Sadly, Keith was diagnosed in the 1990s with Parkinson’s disease and became unwell whilst playing in a chess tournament in Cannes in April 2017 and passed away on the 10th of May 2017. Keith was 75. He continued to actively play chess into his final year.
Keith was the Treasurer of the Friends of Chess during the period known the English Chess Explosion (late 1970s and 1980s).
Keith received the ECF President’s Award in 2015 for services to the management of the BCF Permanent Invested Fund (PIF) together with Dr. Julian Farrand and Ray Edwards.
From CHESS, Volume 41 (1975), Numbers 729-730 (September), pp. 380 the news of Keith’s success was initially reported:
“BRITAINS’ FIRST CHESS GRAND MASTER
The first grand master title to be won by a British player has been achieved in the field of correspondence chess by Keith B. Richardson, aged 33, of Camberley.
The title of Correspondence Chess grand master is awarded by the lnternational correspondence Chess Federation. Keith Richardson fulfilled the norm by sharing third place in the final of the 7th World Correspondence Chess Championship with a score of 11 points from 16 games. The tournament began in February 1972 and results of the last adjudicated games were recently announced making J. V. Estrin U.S.S.R. first with l2 points; J. Boey Belgium scored 11.5; K. B. Richardson G.B. and Dr. V. Zagorovski U.S.S.R. 11.
There are only 25 Correspondence Chess Grand masters throughout the world.”
This was followed in the next month’s issue by a correction and more depth in CHESS, Volume 41 (1975), Numbers 731-732 (October), pp. 30-31:
“K. B. Richardson, though the first Britain to become a grand master by play was preceded by Comins Mansfield as grandmaster of problem composition, a title he gained in 1972. Our report last month did not make this clear.
Keith B. Richardson was born 2 April 1942 and was educated at Nottingham High School. At 16, he passed Grade 8 in Royal
Schools of Music at pianoforte. At Durham University, he obtained a B.A. in French and German and was awarded the University Palatinate (equal to a ‘blue’) in cricket and fives. He could have become a professional cricketer or a concert pianist but
made his career instead with Barclays Bank which brought him to London and a home in Camberley, Surrey, where he has settled down with his wife, Sandra (from Sutton Coldfield!). They now have two baby sons, Neil aged three years and Ian who is only two months old – both born since the final of the 7th World Correspondence Chess Championship began.
Keith’s other interests include bridge and squash. He plays squash for his bank and is Secretary of the London Squash League. As a young chess player, Keith won the Notts. under l4 Championship, held the Notts. under l8 Championship for four years and the Notts. Championship for two years and was British Junior Champion in 1962. In 1963, he was Durham County Champion and joint winner of the British Universities’ Championship which he won outright the following year. He was twice captain of the British Universities Students’ Olympiad team. He held the Midlands Championship (Forrest Cup) for three years and was joint London Champion and London Banks’ Champion in 1970 but has been content to hold the latter title since then and concentrate on correspondence chess.
In 1964, Keith Richardson was runner up for the British Correspondence Chess Championship and at the same time won a Master Class tournament of the lnternational Correspondence Chess Federation (I.C.C.F.) which qualified for a place in the World C.C. Championship semi-final. He came second in the 1965-67 semi-final and tried again in the 1968-71 event which he won. At the same time, he was representing Great Britain on Board 5 in the 1965-67 I.C.C.F. Olympiad Preliminary and on Board 4 in the 1968-71 event. His score of 5 points from 7 games helped the British team to win its section in the 1968-71 Preliminary and qualify for a place in the I.C.C.F. Olympiad Final which started in 1972. When Keith began play in the World C.C. Championship Final involving l6 tames, he was also asked to take Board 3 in the Olympiad Final involving another 9 games.
He accepted – a mistake which might possibly have cost him the World C.C. Championship! His next assault on the World title will be in 1979 and in the meantime he plans to play in the next I.C.C.F. Olympiad Preliminary and write a book on the 7th World C.C. Championship.
In this position, with Black in Zugzwang, the game went for adjudication (after more than three years’ play, a very necessary evil):
“In order to substantiate White’s claim for a win, it was necessary to submit three pages of analysis proving that every possible move loses for Black. If the knight moves, White’s king claims an entry. If Black moves the bishop along the a7-g1 diagonal, White plays Ba5. If the Black bishop moves on the d8-a5 diagonal, White plays Bd4 : KBR”
The game was adjudicated a win for White. This was only defeat inflicted upon the new World Champion.
This article was followed (with some glee no doubt) by an article in British Chess Magazine, Volume LIXIV (95, 1975), Number 12 (December), page 526 as follows:
“Keith B. Richardson recently became the third British player to receive a grandmaster title (the other two both in 1972, are Comins Mansfield for chess composition’ and R.W. Bonham’ correspondence grandmaster of the blind). The title of Correspondence Chess Grandmaster is awarded by the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) and Keith Richardson fulfilled the norm by sharing third place in the final of the 7th World Correspondence Championship. Leading scores in the tournament (February 1972 – Summer 1975): 1. Y. Estrin (USSR) 12/16; J.Boey (B) 11.5; 3-4 K.B. Richardson (ENG), V. Zagorovsky (USSR) 11; etc.
Keith, born 2nd April1942, was educated at Nottingham High School and Durham University-. He won the Nottinghamshire U-14 Championship, held the Notts U-18 championship for four years, the senior Notts Championship for two years and was British Junior Champion in 1962. In 1963, he was Durham County Champion and joint winner of the British Universities Championship which he won outright the following year. He was twice captain of the British team in Students Olympiads.
In 1964 Keith left university to make a career with Barclays Bank. In the same year he was runner-up in the British Correspondence Championship and won an ICCF master tournament which qualified him for a place in the World Championship final. He came second in the 1965-7 semi-final, tried again, and won the 1968-71 event thus gaining entry to the 7th final.
Keith Richardson lives in Surrey at Camberley. He is married and has two baby sons – both born since the final of the 7th World Correspondence Championship began. At present he is writing a book on the 7th Championship and, for a change playing some OTB (over-the-board) chess in the London League for the Athenaeum club, to which he makes a great contribution – it is a marvellous feeling to know that the player next to you (on your side!) is a grandmaster.
The following three games are – Keith’s best from the -championship. In them he defeats three of the five Russians in the
tournament (his overall score against the Russians was 3.5/5 – a wonderful achievement.”
and here is the printed version of the above report:
From The Encyclopaedia of Chess by Hooper & Whyld :
“English player. International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster (1975), bank manager. Around 1961 Richardson decided that over-the- board play, which had brought him some successes as a. junior, would interfere with his professional career and he took to postal chess instead. His best performance in this field was his sharing of third place with Zagorovsky after Estrin and Boey in the 7th World Correspondence Championship, 1968-71. ”
In October 1984 Keith took part in the A. E. Axelson Memorial tournament organised by the Swedish CC Committee and with fifteen grandmasters was one of the strongest CC tournaments in history. Keith finished in 11th place ahead of Boey.
In 1991 Jonathan Berry wrote a potted biography in Diamond Dust, International Chess Enterprises, ISBN 1-879479-00-1 as follows :
“Camberley, Surrey, England. Born 2 April 1942. Married with two sons. Bank Manager.
He was British Under-21 Champion in 1962. At Groningen 1962/63, he was placed 2nd in the European Junior Championship. At Bristol 1967 he was equal 5th in the British Championship.
In CC, he gained the IMC in 1968, GMC in 1975. In CC WCh VII, he won the semi-final with 9.5/12, and placed =3rd in the final, 11/16. In CC WCh X, he again tied for third in the final with 10/15. Playing board 3 for Britain in OL-VIII, finals, 1972-76, he scored 7.5/9, the highest score on any board. He won the Prefors Memorial, 1976-1980, 9.5.12”
Keith was a founding member of Camberley Chess Club in 1972.
A one-day tournament (The Keith Richardson Memorial) in memory of Keith was started in 2017 and has been held six times in total being played on-line for the first time in 2021 and then reverting to OTB in 2022.
From Chessgames.com :
“Keith Bevan Richardson was born in Nottingham, England. Awarded the IMC title in 1968 and the GMC title in 1975, he finished 3rd= in the World Correspondence Championships of 1975 and 1984.”
Here are his games from chessgames.com
An obituary from Ray Edwards / ECF.
Here is an excellent biography by Peter Rust from the web site of the Hamilton Russell Cup
Barclay’s Bank pay tribute to Keith on the corporate site.
Here is an entry from the Belgian chess history web site.
Save as PDF
BCN Remembers Julius du Mont (15-xii-1881 07-iv-1956
From British Chess Magazine, Volume LXXXVI, Number 5, 1956 we have this obituary written by DJ Morgan :
In our February issue we wrote an appreciation of one of the distinguished past editors of this magazine, R. C. Griffith. He had been followed in the chair in 1938 by our present Games’ Editor, and when he, in turn, was called in 1940 to sterner duties, he was succeeded by Julius du Mont. During the war years, and through the difficult post-war period, till 1949, he held the reins. As we wrote on another occasion, “His had been difficult years: the “B.C.M.” had survived when so much else had succumbed during the stress and strain of total war.” lt is with regret that we now record his death on April 7th, in a Hastings nursing home, at the age of seventy-four, after a protracted illness.
du Mont was born in Paris-a little-known fact which he himself once disclosed to us-on December 15th, 1881. lt was there also that he received his education. His early bent and ambitions were musical. The tradition that chess and music have a close relationship may be traced as far back, at least, as Philidor’s great eminence in both. du Mont was truly in the line of such dual personalities. He pursued his musical studies at the Frankfort-on-Main Conservatoire and at Heidelberg, and soon became established as a concert pianist.’ Later he achieved great success as a music teacher, and among his pupils was the well-known concert pianist, Edna lles. The French and German background also explains his facility as a linguist.
He came to England as a young man and brought with him a considerable talent for chess. Settling in London, he rapidly improved as a player, and successes followed. At the Kentish Congress, Tunbridge Wells, 1912, he came equal second and third. He was Champion of the strong Hampstead Club for two years, and Middlesex Champion in 1913 and 1915. He quickly mastered our language and showed this during the First World War by writing a manual on the Lewis gun. After the war, music kept its place in his life, but more and more chess became his main activity. He forsook playing and turned to journalism and authorship, and his output of books is evidence of his gifts and industry. Titles come readily to mind: Chess Openings lllustrated, Centre Counter Defence (1919) and Centre and Danish Gambit (1920); The Elements of Chess (1925) ; Ihe Basis of Combination in Chess (1938) ; 200 Miniature Games (1941); More Miniature Games (1953); (with Dr. Tartakower) 500 Master aomes of Chess, two volumes (1952), to which was added a third volume in 1954, 100 Master Games of Chess. He also translated Edward Lasker’s Chess Strategy, and Alekhine’s two volumes of My Best Games of Chess (the first with M. E. Goldstein).
The wealth of material ready to hand combined with a foreigner’s gift of lucid expression in “the other tongue” made his books very popular. To the great value and importance of these books, a whole generation of chess-players will readily testify.
For some years, du Mont was chess editor of The Field and of The Manchester Guardian. During the last war he organized chess championships for the Armed Services. We pay tribute to his services to the game, to his many kindnesses and friendships to its players, and, in particular, to his devotion to this magazine.-D. J. M.
D. C., who enjoyed a long friendship with our late Editor, writes to us as follows-
By the death of J. du Mont, the chess world has lost an eminent and popular personality. That this popularity was well deserved will be apparent even to those who knew him only slightly.
Essentially kind, he performed many generous acts, and having, by his own efforts, become the best-known British writer on chess, he not only filled this position with modesty and dignity, but was liberal in the help he gave to those starting on the road he had so successfully followed.
In the tournament room-where his presence was always welcome-he was invariably quiet and courteous, and although gifted with a fine wit, he never used it
unkindly. He *as an excellent companion, and players at many congresses will recall the happy times they spent in their visits to him at all hours of the evening. It is sad to think that these gatherings have now irrevocably reached their end: to quote A. E. Housman’s beautiful lines-
They come and were and ore not
And come no more anew.
But as long as a literature of chess remains, the name of Julius du Mont will not be forgotten. His many friends, however, have no need of his writings in order to keep alive their memory of him.
In Chess Secrets I learned from the Masters, Edward Lasker, Hollis and Carter, 1952 :
J. Du Mont became the author of a number of interesting monographs on chess openings, and for many years he was the Editor of the British Chess Magazine. It was he who translated my own translation of Schachstrategie which I attempted in the summer of 1913. Naturally, my English was not fit to be printed. Du Mont had to rewrite everything I had written, and except for his untiring labours Chess Strategy might never have been published. He gave the book a certain literary flavour, which no doubt added greatly to its popularity. It went into fourteen printings before it was replaced by Modern Chess Strategy in 1945.
Du Mont was a pianist of note and I took lessons from him; however, the time I took from my chess activities to practise the piano was shamefully meagre. No wonder I have been told more than once that as a pianist I am a good chess player.”
From Chess World, Volume 11, Number 6, June 1956, page 128 we have this appreciation from ME Goldstein:
“I first met du Mont at the Hampstead Chess Club 37 years ago (1919). He was one of a team of strong players , which included RC Griffith PW Sergeant, H. Saunders (runner-up in a British Championship) and W. Winter.
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Here is his Wikipedia entry.
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