English Chess Forum

I edited Audio Chess News for Michael, not the above, we did six issues. 3 Qe2 got an article. He wanted me to do RABBITS REVIEW as he wasn't happy with BP Floyd who was then the Editor, but he ended up doing it himself which suited me OK. I am not recommending Audio Chess News for 21st scrutiny. I...

Further updates - I found this really great page by Michael Clapham which explains the fate of Popular Chess after I could trace it - https://chessbookchats.blogspot.com/2018/01/ - he reports that there was indeed a final issue 15 of the original Popular Chess (which we will need to lay our hands on...

Thanks all for the continued expert sleuthing, I'll add a note on YouTube that the community consensus is for Steve Berry as narrator! Thanks also for the offer of Monster Book of Audio Chess but I actually have the master for this and it will be put up before long. Please do check your coffers for ...

OK well it looks like we have flummoxed the community with that one - also, shouldn't we be looking for a player who became GM some time in the 80s? I have a further Christmas present to announce to the community in the form of the complete run (that I've been able to find) of Mike's magazines aimed...

We're getting near the end of the tapes I have access to and now pushing through some oddities and deleted tapes without much in the way of documentation - I don't know if anyone here would be able to identify whose voice is narrating the first couple of tapes of "Get the GM Norm" here? https://www....

Thanks Roger, you've got it - I've adjusted the notes on the Basman's Best Games upload at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uio1LFi-is&feature=youtu.be to reflect this. Ironically it turns out that these positions were indeed the ones which appeared later in the booklet https://michael-basman-legacy...

Thanks, it's a possible guess - the booklet for Tape I of the Amateur Game is up here https://michael-basman-legacy.github.io/audio-chess/70.%20The%20Amateur%20Game%20I/70.%20The%20Amateur%20Game%20I.pdf but it's possible that these are diagrams accompanying tape 2 which I don't have either the tape...

Cheers Roger, interesting guess but I don't think so - I typed up the diagrams for Positions for Analysis myself in 2010 at https://michael-basman-legacy.github.io/audio-chess/65.%20Positions%20for%20Analysis/65.%20Positions%20for%20Analysis.pdf and they are quite different. John Saunders already lo...

Thanks for all the sleuthing! As the cassette digitisation project gets close to its completion (I've now put online 78 out of the 80 officially released tapes that I've got access to) bits and pieces are at the bottom of the barrel that are harder to interpret. I wonder if I could call on the ingen...

Thanks so much to Paul for his fantastic detective work and to John for his huge industry in processing these games as fast as I can scan them This is going to be a great resource.

Thanks for the catalogue, John. I thought the board might be interested in the milestone of Michael's first ever Audio Chess Cassette now online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibdPGmEBtJA - this has been freshly digitised from the master reel found in his sheds. This tape, originally entitled si...

I bet #22 is a good one. One Sunday evening in the 1970s, I remember Andrew Whiteley getting back from a weekend congress to the KIng's Head, in time for last orders, and demonstrating his last round win against Simon Webb. Black's position was completely hopeless by move 20, and he did finally res...

Thanks, I remember that T-shirt well - the other side of it said "I'm a lovely mover". I can well imagine that Mike was piqued by Sale swooping in a full 20 years after his contribution ...

Thanks for the help and kind words, all - Who is Thor?? Probably anagram of Hort? Although I seem to remember that the conceit was that the narrators would imitate him rather than him appearing himself. Thanks for the info about Otto Hardy - my father would call him "Crazy Otto" - but a photo would ...

Cheers John, I'm very glad to hear the collection is of interest to you. Sorry about the mixup with the Best Games booklet, it's indeed puzzling that the booklet labelled "Basman's Best Games 1976" doesn't match the tape of the same name, but thanks so much for attaching the relevant game records, I...