English Chess Forum

Several political cartoons in the 1830s, seen in the John Johnson collection of ephemera at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, had a chess theme. Some from 1832 were at the time of the Reform Bill. This lithograph from 1837 was adapted from Moritz Retzsch's Satan playing at chess with man for his soul ...

Correction to what I just wrote: before Wolfgang there was Brian Reilly, born in France. He played for Ireland at Warsaw 1935 (and beat Reuben Fine, I believe)

I see Ireland won 4-0 today. And they have GM Alex Baburin on board 3. Actually, all three rounds have been 4-0 for Ireland so far! :shock: Actually of course Ireland lost 0-4 in round 2 (to Poland). Apart from Alex the team is young, including four fairly recent Irish champions (Adam Collins won t...

Who, in another bit of trivia, won his final club championship at the age of 90. Thanks for that detail about Blake which is new to me. I think Joseph Henry Blake (since you brought him to our attention) is worthy of a more detailed profile so I have dredged up the following from my old notes for m...

Joseph Henry Blake (1859-1951)

The question is: where is it now, and will any form of access be possible for researchers? The best outcome would be if it has been purchased by a library, but that is not likely. I agree it is not likely. Unfortunately at the time this auction was "live" I wasn't reading the Forum and was unaware ...

I only went to St. Bride's a few times because Athenaeum chess club in the early 1970s used to play at home in a large basement room of a cinema at or near Leicester Square. We only played away to London University (in alternate seasons) and Metropolitan chess club. At that time Metropolitan were ba...

The Lowenthal lot sold for £7040 GBP.

I found this one of General Roberts and Kruger from the time of the Boer War.

It was an advertisement in the Illustrated London News, and I think the reference is 7th April 1900, page 491.

The Jhunjhnuwala brothers (originally from Hong Kong) play in this event every year. Only four actually play but the fifth may sometimes travel with them perhaps. The sixth is, I think, either deceased or didn't move to USA. I never knew the forenames of numbers 5 and 6.

https://www.chessmail.com/assets/cartoons/Bateman-cartoon.jpg Unfortunately I have lost my note of where this Bateman cartoon was published. Maybe somebody can supply? When I was researching my PhD (around 20 years ago now) I collected several more historical chess cartoons that are not on my prese...

The priority should be to win the 65+ which is the "real" Seniors, especially in the World Teams which is probably always going to be won by the American professionals so long as they continue to be well subsidised to play. The advances made by Italy and Iceland lately show that even in the Euros En...

I am glad to read from the above that a Women's 65+ team for the Euros in Crete (late Aug/early Sept) might be possible. Unfortunately Ingrid Lauterbach has now transferred to GER and Dinah Norman's health might be an issue, though perhaps she can be persuaded by the prospect of a medal? Susan Caldw...

I have now updated my pages at www.chessmail.com and have some pointed things to say about the English selections on my British seniors page. I point out that England remain the holders in the European 50+ and 65+ but they won't defend those titles later this summer without some changes. In particul...

Coventry will be transformed into a city of chess next summer as the University of Warwick hosts the 2026 British Chess Championships By no means the first time the University of Warwick campus has hosted the British Championship. It was there in 1970 and again in 2015. ... Staying off campus could...