Bognor 1968

[Gerard Killoran]

Some familiar names here:

Bognor Regis Observer - Friday 03 May 1968 p.20.png (929.77 KiB) Viewed 2455 times

[John Townsend]

Ah, yes, Otto Hardy. In the sixties, he analyzed an aggressive move for Black in the Classical Defence to the Ruy Lopez:
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bc5 4.c3 d5. It was reputed to be not quite right. I looked into it and, on the strength of its surprise value, decided to add it to my (limited) repertoire. Unfortunately, over the years the opportunities to play it proved very few, mainly because I found White often chose 4.O-O in preference to 4.c3. Still, I had a good record with it when it did come up.

An article about it by Hardy appeared in CHESS magazine, under the somewhat ambitious title Taming the Ruy! Some fascinating variations ...

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I recognise Basman, Griffiths, Norman Littlewood, de Veauce, and Reuben. I am sure more can be identified. Is the full crosstable available for this event?

Why do two players have an 'O' on their pairing card? Bourbour and Lea?

[Richard James]

I recognise Basman, Griffiths, Norman Littlewood, de Veauce, and Reuben. I am sure more can be identified. Is the full crosstable available for this event?

Why do two players have an 'O' on their pairing card? Bourbour and Lea?

https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pgn/1 ... iewer.html

BritBase is your friend!

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

I think F G Hill might be Frederick George Hill (13th May 1904 to 1984) who was a pharmacist and optician. On the Bonor and Arun chess site there is a report of a Fred Hill who "... had to come up with 'a bell metal pestle and mortar' at short notice, when an electric buzzer for a lightning tournament failed to deliver".
http://www.bognorandarunchessclub.co.uk/archive.html

[Matt Mackenzie]

Kazic, Bozic, Doda and Ghitescu are fairly well known internationals listed there.

Saverymuttu was a promising young player who just seemed to vanish after the early 1970s.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Saverymuttu was a promising young player who just seemed to vanish after the early 1970s.

He's still around (in the UK) and was playing chess as recently as 2023.

[Colin Purdon]

SC Love was a member of Eastbourne Chess Club in the early 1970s, and I believe he was a keen congress player.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Last place was Reza Gholi Khan Bourbour. Born in 1907 and died in Oxford on the 2nd January, 1982. I can only find a couple of tournaments that he played in on BritBase.

[GrahamStuart]

Kazic, Bozic, Doda and Ghitescu are fairly well known internationals listed there.

Saverymuttu was a promising young player who just seemed to vanish after the early 1970s.

Saverymuttu was Hampshire Individual Champion twice:

1969
https://hampshirechesshistory.co.uk/ham ... ship-1969/
This includes a number of games, including a win against Bob Cullinane who played in the championship a number of times.

1970
https://hampshirechesshistory.co.uk/ham ... ship-1970/
Bob Cullinane also played in this championship and it includes photos of both Bob and Seth (sourced from other sites).

Bob played for the Hampshire County team from 1962 to 1982 and I think he was an ex teacher. He did win the Portsmouth Individual Championship twice (1974/75 and 1976/77).
https://hampshirechesshistory.co.uk/por ... ss-league/

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I should have looked on BritBase! Oops...

https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pgn/1 ... iewer.html

Couple of observations (skip down to number 2 for a bit of contemporary politics!):

(1) From the CHESS reports, it is clear that the style of writing in those days was a bit more flamboyant than nowadays (I like the old style!) - I may try and pull out some of the games mentioned below (unless others look at them first):

(a) "The young American player Browne scored a bright win with an unusual final position in which his opponent’s queen is lost in the middle of the board." (b) "Basman played a King’s Gambit and came out of the opening with a good looking position. In the diagrammed position it is tempting to think that White has the better ending, but Karaklaic showed that Black can cause difficulties." (c) "Doda made a determined effort to win and sacrificed a pawn at move 16. He later recovered it and established a dangerous passed QNP, but he had to allow Gasic a passed KP which was sacrificed for perpetual check." (d) "It was left to two of the younger members of the cast to supply the real thrills of the round with a king hunt which the ghost of Capt. Bolland must have cheered until it was hoarse. [De Veauce - Green]" (e) "Franklin played well against Karaklajic and soon had a fine looking position which caused the spectators to cherish hopes that he would win. After he had gained a pawn the diagrammed position arose and to everyone’s sorrow the game ended abruptly in repetition..." (f) "The showpiece of the round was Basman's miniature against Griffiths." (g) "There was an error in the pairings in this round, for Green (3) could have played Gasic (3), whereas they were each paired with a 2½. Fortunately, this did not affect the struggle for the leading places, but it is important to avoid such irregularities because they affect the efficiency of the Swiss System." (h) "It was a situation in which a Capablanca, a Rubinstein or an Alekhine would have been warming to the task of exploiting Black’s isolated pawn in the ending; but, alas, we do not seem to have any budding Capablancas, Rubinsteins or Alekhines in Britain in these days of “Keep Death off the Chessboard.”" (i) "Phillips came very close to winning the special prize outright in his game with Franklin... This game went on even whilst the remaining prizes were being distributed and Mr. Fishlock Lomax was just about to postpone the ceremony pending a result when the players agreed on the draw."

(2) The BCM report is more compressed and in its way a bit more judgmental. It is interesting comparing the style of W Ritson Morry (CHESS) and A[ndrew]. P. Sombor (BCM). I will only quote one line from the BCM report, as someone who features has already been mentioned in this thread:

"The prize for the best junior (under eighteen) was shared by Congdon and Saverymuttu. The latter is perhaps the more talented of the two, but his handling of the openings at present can be most charitably described as somewhat too original."

The most unexpected find of the evening relates to the other junior, Congdon (in full, Timothy George Congdon):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Congdon

Congdon stood as UK Independence Party candidate for the Forest of Dean constituency in the 2010 General Election, obtaining 5.2% of the votes cast and saving his deposit. In October 2010 he stood unsuccessfully for the leadership of the party. In 2014 he stood down as UKIP's economic spokesman after being called a "hypocrite" for agreeing to have wind turbines installed on his property in Scotland, going against the party's policy on renewable energy. In 2015 he was replaced as the UKIP candidate for Forest of Dean by Steve Stanbury. Congdon supported Britain's exit from the European Union in the UK's 2016 EU referendum.

Is this the junior chess player from the 1968 event? Amazing if so. Quick, someone tell Rac... (er, maybe not).

He came third in the 1966 British Boys’ Under 16 Championship, a full point behind the joint winners. A search for "Congdon" brings up nothing on this forum, so I presume no-one has noticed this chess-economics-politics connection before now?

Raymond Keene wrote about this for The Spectator in his column of 11 January 2014:

Daniel Johnson, Dominic Lawson and Tim Congdon all had the potential to become chess masters. However, all three chose alternative routes, establishing their reputations in the fields of journalism, politics and economics. [...] Professor Tim Congdon is active in internet chess and can include a victory in the southern counties junior championship among his laurels.

Keene then quotes an internet game Congdon won.

And from Downturn UK: Wise Council (The Daily Politics, BBC Radio 2: November 2008 to February 2009)

Professor Tim Congdon CBE, was one of the Treasury's Panel of Independent Forecasters (the so-called wise men) advising the Chancellor as the economy recovered from its previous recession between 1992-97. He is a member of the Institute for Economic Affairs' shadow monetary policy committee and in 2007 wrote a book on the history of government intervention in the economy: Keynes, The Keynesians And Monetarism. He was the founder of forecasting consultancy Lombard Street Research and in 1997 was awarded the CBE for services to economic debate. In 2000 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Business Economists. He is a regular contributor to the Times, the Telegraph and Standpoint magazine.

Current job: Fellow of the Society of Business Economists and commentator
Worst job: Demolishing a stable block as a student
Hero: John Maynard Keynes
Hobbies: Playing too much computer chess and listening to too little poetry

The burning question [sarcasm alert], of course, is whether chess helped Professor Congdon more than it will help RR in relation to the UK economy...

[Back to the scheduled chess programming from Butlins Holiday Camp in Bognor Regis in 1968, where a young Congdon little knows what future awaits him...]

(3) The event is described as the "1968 (16th) Churchill Memorial". Why 16th? Is the Churchill the tournament is named after Winston? Surely not, as he died in January 1965. Unless it only became the Churchill Memorial from 1965 onwards? Or maybe it was named after a different Churchill? Does anyone know the answer to this?

EDIT: Answered my own question here. Flicking back through the BritBase links, it was the Stevenson Memorial Tournament before 1965, so clearly it was renamed for Winston.

(4) Colin Purdon says "SC Love was a member of Eastbourne Chess Club in the early 1970s, and I believe he was a keen congress player.". BritBase says "Stanley Charles Love (Wimbledon)". I presume the two are not incompatible. But there are four players in the event listing without forenames:

J D Flynn (Middlesex)
W D Muir (Portsmouth)
R E Smith
A Ballard

Any suggestions?

(5) I am curious as to the origins of the name "Urmas O Aavelaid". Australia is mentioned. I think the name is Estonian in origin. The full name appears to be Urmas Olav Aavelaid. I won't quote here the dental practice history. I wonder how old he was at the time of the 1968 event?

(6) Reza Gholi Khan Bourbour's naturalisation certificate and the record of his naturalisation in the London Gazette (1948) record him as a "Goat Breeder" from Iran. Despite looking, I have nothing further to add here, sadly.

(7) After the above, the actually well-known chess players (the "internationals" as they are called above) seem prosaic in comparison, but they are all in their own ways interesting snapshots of foreign masters of that time, and the four International Masters have Wikipedia articles:

Zbigniew Doda (1931-2013) [Poland]
Theodor Ghițescu (1934-2008) [Romania]
Bojan Kurajica (born 1947) [Yugoslavia - Croatian-Bosnian]
Nikola Karaklajić (1926-2008) [Yugoslavia - Serbian]

Doda and Karaklajić, the oldest of the four, never became GMs. Kurajica (21 years younger than Karaklajić) became a GM in 1974. Ghițescu was granted an honorary Grandmaster title in 1986. Karaklajić has an interesting music/radio background. I have been able to find out less about Aleksandar Bozic and Bozidar Kazic, which is slightly strange as they were the ones that were said to be "fairly well known" earlier in the thread - were they well known at the time?

Does anyone know Hakan Akvist's dates? I got a death year below, but have failed to find a birth year. How old was he at the time? The CHESS report describes him as a "very strong Swedish player".

Here is a game of his:

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1153699

Hakan Akvist vs Royal Goode
"No Goode Game Goes Unpunished" (game of the day Dec-27-2020)
Swedish Championship (1966), Malmo SWE, rd 10, Jul-12
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense. Queen's Knight Variation (A16) · 1-0

Akvist died earlier this year [2020] and was national selector for Sweden in the 80's and 90's. He was a strong player and achieved 2 IM norms.

(8) You also see the young Walter Browne and Michael Basman before they gained any titles.

(9) Still no idea why there would be an 'O' next to the names of Lea and Bourbour. It may be nothing, just something like the fixing backing showing through. Maybe those who remember such pairing boards being used, did they involve velcro or something similar?

(10) Eugene O'Hare, "six-time Ulster Chess champion", Olympiad player for Ireland in the 1960s, has an obituary here: Eugene O'Hare 1918-2008.

[Matt Mackenzie]

How good a player was Daniel Johnson (son of "Loony Bins" Paul) then - peak grading?

[John Saunders]

I should have looked on BritBase! Oops...
...
(9) Still no idea why there would be an 'O' next to the names of Lea and Bourbour. It may be nothing, just something like the fixing backing showing through. Maybe those who remember such pairing boards being used, did they involve velcro or something similar?

Chris, I would have thought the answer to the latter question was pretty obvious had you looked more closely at the BritBase page, or more specifically the crosstable. What you are looking at in the photo (BTW, many thanks to Gerard for posting it) are the first round pairings, with the names of the people who had White. The clincher is Congdon - there is no name to his right so he didn't have an opponent and the crosstable tells you he had a first-round bye. Then you look for Bourbour and Lea's first round games in the crosstable and you find they both lost. So it's reasonable to deduce that the '0's are for them losing their games and presumably being the first casualties of the round. The photo may be showing the arbiter about to display the result of Bozic's game (or maybe he's just posing for the photographer). Another clue, incidentally, is that press photographers tend to turn up for first rounds of tournaments when the organiser has taken the trouble to notify them in advance (and I'm pretty sure the Bognor organiser Norman Fishlock-Lomax would have done that as the considerable press inches he garnered for Bognor showed he was very savvy when it came to getting the press interested in tournaments). That said, when you find a press photo of a chess tournament, you cannot assume that it's the first round without other evidence to back it up.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

That all makes perfect sense now. I wonder when that style of pairing board fell out of use? I am only familiar with the ones where you slot pairing cards in.

[Richard James]

Kazic.jpg (40.06 KiB) Viewed 2171 times