English Chess Forum

Gary Lane (pictured here partly obscured on the right) sent me this picture of the Kasparov Simul - this was taken in Limehouse Studios. I can see Neil Carr and Pete Wells, Eric Schiller too - any other ideas anyone?

They were all discussing the games via video link.

Stuart Conquest is behind Gary.

Interesting photo - can anyone make out the position they are discussing?

I recognise the two behind Kasparov - is one of them Dimitri Agnos??

Hi Sarah

The three at the back left look like (l to r) Malcolm (though I don't think it is as the years don't work), Chris Holland and Pierre Lunais, who played for Centymca at that time.

There seem to be have been a number of Kasparov simuls.

The March 1984 BCM has a report by Stuart Conquest on a clock simul played after the conclusion of the December 1983 match against Korchnoi. This was ten boards with Eric Shiller as arbiter. As it was sponsored by computer makers Acorn, it was played on screen rather than on board. No mice, touch screens or touch pads so moves had to be typed in.

Simon! Hello!

Yes it does look like Malcolm.

I shall see if Gary can shed any more light on who why what...

Roger - I think Gary said it was versus the USA so would be the NY London satellite simul .

Sarah de Lisle wrote:Roger - I think Gary said it was versus the USA so would be the NY London satellite simul .

I think we need a "time-line" as to how many simuls there were and whether they were reported in the mainstream or specialist press of the time.

I can remember at the time, the Evening Standard in 1983 being able to report an evening meal their reporter was able to share with Kasparov without a KGB presence. The reporter might have been Dominic Lawson but I would not be certain.

Just heard back from Gary: this was the New York match. Five players in London and 5 in the USA via video conferencing.

You can see it was The London Docklands Match. People were wearing appropriate tee shirts. So it was half in London and half in NY. They all played on normal chessboards.
I called the moves over from London to NY by telephone. Kasparov wouldn't give the simul if Campo was there. So he was sent off to NY to take charge of the match. It was impossible to get the NY youngsters to take the match seriously. A couple of times I requested them to quieten down. When Campo arrived after a couple of hours, he promptly made the same request.
Dmitrios Agnos is indeed in the photo.

Roger is referring to a different clock simul by Kasparov. In the Acorn Computer 1983 Candidates matches the moves were indeed typed in. Les Blackstock did that from above. Barry Wood wondered why the moves didn't transmit instantly, so he was fooled. t wasn't until 1986 that the Intelligent Chess Software boards became electrosensitive.

It is my fault Susan Walker (later Arkell, later Lalic) fainted in the simul. I had recommended to ICS that the square the piece had last moved to should flash to show the move. I didn't know about photo-sensitive epilepsy at that time. Gavin Crawley took over the position just out of the opening and drew.

I have a video of another of Garry's clock simul against NY youngsters. Sophia Gorman was the arbiter, well possibly Rohde by then. Garry threw a hissy because one of his opponents forced a draw from a standard position. He thought that improper in a simul. Another player reached the same position, varied from the forced draw and lost.

I spent quite a lot of time with Sophia this May.

Sorry to take the thread off track. One could take any number of old photos or videos and spark remininsces.

Stewart - thank you so much for those memories. I am friends with Sophia on Facebook and also remember Jamie. You must have worked with her a lot over the years, she was at Lloyds Bank Masters every time I think. I can remember asking her (and you) for tickets to the last night party.

Gary said London won 5-0 I think.

Stewart Reuben wrote:I have a video of another of Garry's clock simul against NY youngsters. Sophia Gorman was the arbiter, well possibly Rohde by then. Garry threw a hissy because one of his opponents forced a draw from a standard position. He thought that improper in a simul. Another player reached the same position, varied from the forced draw and lost.

is that American Gambit? If so, it's in three parts on YouTube.

(Sorry, I'd check myself but very short of time.)

Stewart Reuben wrote:I have a video of another of Garry's clock simul against NY youngsters. Sophia Gorman was the arbiter, well possibly Rohde by then. Garry threw a hissy because one of his opponents forced a draw from a standard position. He thought that improper in a simul. Another player reached the same position, varied from the forced draw and lost.

The other player (Alex Fishbein) also got a draw, but after a long endgame. Kasparov's tantrum was bizarre as it was him that initiated the drawing sequence; he just gambled that neither player would take the draw, but Daniel Edelman did.

Stewart Reuben wrote: I have a video of another of Garry's clock simul against NY youngsters. Sophia Gorman was the arbiter, well possibly Rohde by then. Garry threw a hissy because one of his opponents forced a draw from a standard position. He thought that improper in a simul. Another player reached the same position, varied from the forced draw and lost.

I think that one was in the 1990s.

The August 1984 BCM reports on the Docklands simul as after the USSR v Rest of World match. Sunday July 1st was the date and Kasparov was reported as winning 8.5-1.5.

The three draws were Lane, Adams and Neil Carr with the other two players being Stuart Conquest and Cathy Forbes. The five Americans are reported as Wolff, Younglove, Eckert, Truong and Gurevich.