Media comments on chess

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J T Melsom
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by J T Melsom » Mon Nov 01, 2021 1:42 pm

Story in the Mirror about the Lewis brothers from High Wycombe. Raymond who I'm pretty sure was an exact contemporary and Brian his elder brother who attended Bourne End club. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/m ... d=IwAR30hN

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John Saunders
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by John Saunders » Mon Nov 01, 2021 7:21 pm

J T Melsom wrote:
Mon Nov 01, 2021 1:42 pm
Story in the Mirror about the Lewis brothers from High Wycombe. Raymond who I'm pretty sure was an exact contemporary and Brian his elder brother who attended Bourne End club. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/m ... d=IwAR30hN
I also played (and drew) against Stean in the simul mentioned in the newspaper, which was actually over 40 boards, not 20. It was played at Bourne End on 3 June 1978. I made a note in my scorebook that Matthew Rose, Barry Sandercock and Paul Girdlestone won their games. It was a charity simul, with players sponsored per move they lasted, which I guess is extra-tough on the simul giver as everyone plays to the bitter end.
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Simon Rogers
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Simon Rogers » Thu Nov 04, 2021 5:43 pm

I watched a TV programme this afternoon that I recorded a couple of weeks ago:
Friday 22nd October 2021. Channel 5, 8pm to 9pm.
Susan Calman's Grand Day Out
The episode was a tour around North West Wales. After 20 minutes of the programme, there was a visit to Portmeirion.
Susan met up with members of The Prisoner Appreciation Society.
Susan said "Today the fan club are re-enacting a classic scene. A game of human chess in the show, where rebellion has dangerous consequences."
Susan was asked to play the white queen.
A gentleman then called out the moves
He said "White queen to King's rook five."
Susan said "Help, that's me."
In the next clip the gentleman said "White queen to King's Bishop seven, take pawn, checkmate."
Susan then said " Don't mind if I do."
There was a round of applause.
Susan then said "I won at chess, human chess."
There was also a clip from an episode of the Prisoner from 1967 titled "Checkmate" which featured the start of a human chess game with the first move "Pawn to Kings four"

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Thu Nov 04, 2021 6:06 pm

Black was more cooperative than I would have been.

In about 1984 we had a living chess display with children playing the pieces. They wore tee shirts with chess emblems. It was sponsored by the London Dockland Development Corporation. TV came to film in a one hour programme, popping in three times in the programme. The presenter played a piece, perhaps a queen. I built a game on the spot where the presenter moved three times, delivering mate on his third visit.
I think it was broadcast live, so I and the children never got to see the programme.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Thu Nov 04, 2021 9:34 pm

J T Melsom wrote:
Mon Nov 01, 2021 1:42 pm
Story in the Mirror about the Lewis brothers from High Wycombe. Raymond who I'm pretty sure was an exact contemporary and Brian his elder brother who attended Bourne End club. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/m ... d=IwAR30hN
That is a great story (love the fact that one of the trophies is a replica Lewis chessman), and so sad that both Raymond and his son "lost access to chess" once in secondary school. Is there a way to reach out to them and see what possibilities there are for improving access to chess right now in that area? Does the ECF do anything in connection with events such as Black History Month?

I wonder if more is know about "Mr Green" (the school teacher who inspired the school chess club)? Hmm. The book is available for £3.32 on Amazon Kindle, so you know what, I am going to fork out for it and see what more is said in the book.

[Such a great story I almost resisted the temptation to point out the slight (presumably journalistic) slip: i.e. the line "but if someone psychically hit us then we would fight back".]

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Thu Nov 04, 2021 9:57 pm

Checkmate: The Black Schoolboy Who Beat a Chess Grandmaster at 12 by Brian Lewis (2021, StoryTerrace, 60pp).

The book is a short and easy read (5 chapters), and a very nice read (with little side trips into chess history and culture - these are the parts of the book some might quibble over, but they do add to the book).

The teacher's full name is "Roger Green" (which is one of the most common names possible, so might be a bit hard to find out more).

There is also a mention of another junior chess champion, a John Doyle who became U12 champion (not clear at what level, maybe "All of England Schools Chess Competition").

Who was the chairman of Bourne End Chess Club at that time (1978)? He is mentioned in the book, but not named.

What is missing is any actual chess games. But in a way that is not the point of the book.

J T Melsom
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by J T Melsom » Thu Nov 04, 2021 10:25 pm

I'm not reaching out to anybody - as that's a bit of modern jargon I strongly dislike. I have however made a note to pursue in a spare moment
The educational structure in Bucks of grammar and secondary modern may well not have helped players maintain interest after primary school, but the challenges at the present time are arguably even more basic than that. Junior chess is sadly under resourced across the board.

I also have a Lewis chess-man trophy as Wycombe Primary Schools Chess Association U8 champion. This was won in a play-off against an U7 from the same school Bledlow Ridge. The WPSCA event attracted some 800 pupils playing over the autumn and winter. The first couple of rounds were held at three separate schools with qualifiers winner and tied runners-up from four player all play all groups progressing each evening. The groups were open in the sense of not being in age bands. The final six players played the final over two evenings. I reached the final in my last year, having lost to the U9 or U10 champion on the way and then surviving a three way play-off in either the quarter or semi-final. Although the numbers participating were significant, it did not capture players from schools who weren't members of the chess association. This motivated Brian Lacey who is acknowledged in the Obituaries part of this forum to set up his own event which was open and which I recall got better publicity than the longer established event. (but this did happen a long time ago.

John Doyle would have been outright champion in 1979 or 1978. I have some but not all the old WPSCA yearly bulletins as well as old EPSCA event programmes from zonals and finals, but Brian Lacey had a better archive having subsequently taken over from WPSCA, and I'm not sure what has happened to those. I have no recall of Mr Green even though other masters running the association would be familiar.

J T Melsom
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by J T Melsom » Thu Nov 04, 2021 10:29 pm

I suspect the reference to Bourne End may well refer to the junior part of Bourne End club, which benefitted enormously from the attendance of pupils from Clayton's school, but other posters may know more.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Thu Nov 04, 2021 11:02 pm

As related in the book, Brian Lewis played adults and progressed up the club's ladder (where you beat those immediately above you) and ended up playing for "the first team" which "played against other clubs" (though I will add the caveat here that it is always necessary to check such claims). It may well be that he beat some adult players, but was playing for the junior section's first team, which may well have played against adult teams in local leagues (this seems more likely).

I wonder if Michael Stean remembers giving this simul?

(Are these WPSCA and EPSCA archives being preserved? Because they date from the era of the chess explosion, they do have some historical value.)

J T Melsom
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by J T Melsom » Thu Nov 04, 2021 11:20 pm

As I said the archive materials that I have are minimal , and I don't know what happened to Brian Lacey's papers. Sadly in order to maintain a good archive, you need somebody with a keen sense of the historical importance of the materials and the space to retain them whilst putting them into an accessible format. We've lost too many people in recent years without getting residual documents from their estates. It is a project that needs to be addressed whilst people are still with us.

Other memories of Wycombe junior chess and the Lewis brothers are being shared on Facebook but I don't think they are public.

I don't think I'll speculate further about Bourne End chess club in 1978, especially as my debut in the Bucks League wasn't until 1984. :wink:

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Roger de Coverly » Thu Nov 04, 2021 11:32 pm

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Thu Nov 04, 2021 9:57 pm
Who was the chairman of Bourne End Chess Club at that time (1978)? He is mentioned in the book, but not named.
it would have been either the late Fred Day or the late George Parker. They had exchanged roles at around that time, the other being Secretary. George lived in Bourne End and Fred in Wycombe. Fred seems more likely as a detour via Micklefield is plausibly on a possible route to Bourne End.

I don't ever recall Brian playing alongside me in the first (adult) team, but I do seem to recall him playing in one or more of the lower teams.

I might suspect that he didn't get through the exam or selection maze of the Eleven plus. Four of the local selective schools would all have had chess teams in that era, namely Borlase in Marlow, RGS and John Hampden in Wycombe and Challenor's in Amersham.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by JustinHorton » Fri Nov 05, 2021 1:26 pm

Jenny Turner, writing on Hannah Arendt in the London Review of Books (hopefully not paywalled) has Arendt playing chess with Walter Benjamin:
she ran into Benjamin at Lourdes, where he was waiting for visa papers, and spent ‘a few weeks’ with him, playing chess, before leaving for Montauban.
I knew Benjamin played chess, but the next bit is new to me.
They opened Benjamin’s suitcase and entertained their fellow passengers by reading the ‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’ out loud: the homunculus in the chess set, the storm from paradise, the ‘state of emergency’ that is simply the normal condition of the oppressed.
The homunculus in the chess set - what's that about?
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

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Roland Kensdale
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Roland Kensdale » Fri Nov 05, 2021 4:06 pm

JustinHorton wrote:
Fri Nov 05, 2021 1:26 pm
Jenny Turner, writing on Hannah Arendt in the London Review of Books (hopefully not paywalled) has Arendt playing chess with Walter Benjamin:
she ran into Benjamin at Lourdes, where he was waiting for visa papers, and spent ‘a few weeks’ with him, playing chess, before leaving for Montauban.
I knew Benjamin played chess, but the next bit is new to me.
They opened Benjamin’s suitcase and entertained their fellow passengers by reading the ‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’ out loud: the homunculus in the chess set, the storm from paradise, the ‘state of emergency’ that is simply the normal condition of the oppressed.
The homunculus in the chess set - what's that about?
Not as exciting as it sounds, just a wee player hiding in an automaton, like 'The Turk' or Ajeeb: the first paragraph of https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/CONCEPT2.html

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JustinHorton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by JustinHorton » Fri Nov 05, 2021 4:09 pm

Yes, it seems to be Turner's phrase not Benjamin's
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com

Simon Rogers
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Simon Rogers » Fri Nov 05, 2021 8:49 pm

A Question of Sport BBC1 7.30pm to 8.00pm
In tonight's episode of the sports quiz, the first round was pictures of sport stars.
When it was Sam Quek's team turn, there was a picture of the former World Heavyweight Champion boxer, Lennox Lewis sitting behind a chess set.
Sadly Sam's team didn't recognise him.
The episode is repeated tomorrow afternoon on BBC1 4.00pm to 4.30pm.

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