English Chess Forum

Here is another Tony Miles game: [Event "Simul x36, Cork 1975"] [Site "Cork IRL"] [Date "1975.03.18"] [Round "-"] [White "McCarthy, Patrick"] [Black "Miles, Anthony John"] [Result "1-0"] [BlackTitle "IM"] [BlackElo "2435"] [WhiteNationality "IRL"] [BlackNationality "ENG"] [BlackFideId "403385"] [Ply...

I'm sorry to report that (Professor / Sir) Anthony James Leggett died yesterday, March 8, 2026. https://x.com/BSeradjeh/status/2030861721376567540 https://www.facebook.com/ayushphy/photos/a-great-physicist-has-left-ustony-leggett-the-visionary-condensed-matter-theoris/1551595340303684/ https://memor...

Here is another game from Hastings 1932/33: [Event "Hastings Major B 1932/33"] [Site "Hastings"] [Date "1932.12.31"] [Round "4"] [White "Palmer, Cecil Caythorpe"] [Black "Doyle, James J"] [Result "0-1"] [PlyCount "104"] [ECO "D61"] [Opening "QGD"] [Variation "Orthodox defence, Rubinstein variation"]...

[Event "Margate Premier Reserves B"] [Site "Margate"] [Date "1939.04.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Schultz, David Bernard"] [Black "Peters, Arthur John"] [Result "0-1"] [PlyCount "75"] [ECO "A15"] [Opening "English opening"] [EventDate "1939.04.12"] [EventType "tourn"] [EventRounds "11"] 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf...

I played both Bob Wade and Sir Stuart Milner-Barry; which is my better route? (I beat them too, despite their considerable age advantage). Both were 3, so you get a 4 either way. TH Tylor 0-1 Lasker, Nottingham 1936 PS Milner-Barry 1-0 TH Tylor, Margate 1937 (and at least three other games) TH Tylo...

My latest FT column includes some more information on this subject....... https://www.ft.com/content/82adc940-7e1d-45ec-87f2-1856b542f118 This is simply incredible! I had thought of this topic on and off for years, and had debated when to post it. Now (although I can't see the FT article directly, ...

Christopher was right - Leonard Barden played Jacques Mieses in the Hastings Premier Reserves 1948/49 (Leonard's first important tournament, Mieses' final one). Mieses played Steinitz at Hastings 1895. Both games were drawn. Yes, indeed: well done. Though the game itself is not available, a photo o...

Here is a puzzle related to this theme. I think it's quite easy, but (to me) it's interesting and worth pointing out. William Steinitz died on August 12, 1900, so 125 years ago last month. Clearly, nobody living could have played him. But is there any living person who played someone who played him ...

I use {...BCF} and [...ECF] occasionally, and have also used [...SCO]; I use [...ICU] and [...UCU] (for Irish Chess Union and Ulster Chess Union) often. I don't know of any best practice. I agree that the [...Elo] tag is used for all sorts of non-FIDE ratings. National ratings are one example, but I...

N. Lewis (Birmingham) 5a: middle initial E., played in the Glorney Cups of 1954, 1955, and 1956. I seem to have concluded his first name was Neil (https://www.irlchess.com/2021/10/24/glorney-cup-1956/) but now I see that I did not include a reference on that point, and can't seem to find one in my n...

Via the British Newspaper Archive, the Spalding Guardian, October 30, 1970 p. 27, gives results of the 5th (Spalding?) Congress (1st-3rd Kurajica, Gasic, Eley), and mentions "V. Innes-Reid (Manchester)" as winning a grading prize in the under 130 category (with 4/6).

Hugh MacGrillen (Irish champion 1973) played for Mushrooms ("we had no permanent home but popped up everywhere") in the London league in 1972 at least (https://www.icu.ie/articles/54). Did Brian Reilly (Irish champion 1959, 1960) play club chess? I have no record of him doing so. John Moles (1966, 1...

From the latest FIDE Laws of Chess: "6.7 Default time: 6.7.1 The regulations of an event shall specify a default time in advance. If the default time is not specified, then it is zero. Any player who arrives at the chessboard after the default time shall lose the game unless the arbiter decides othe...

Also from Elo: "Pressures to revise rating processes, to delay declines and to accelerate rises, are natural and never-ending, often arising in high places, often very well intentioned. Specific proposals abound, to raise ratings through processes other than improved chess play. Unsophisticated prop...

... I thought I had seen the quote in the rating of chess players past&present. In my version it (or a comparable version of it) is in section 2.53 in the section on reliability of the ratings on pages 40-43. “In ratings, we are measuring a quantity undergoing continual change from day to day, even...