Resources and Tips for Chess History Research

[John Saunders]

A general point - if you can find a library that is still open, my experience is that the staff tend to love it if you ask them questions, that gets them searching archives instead of doing the boring stuff. Local history centres are really helpful too.

Yes, that's been my experience too, Kevin. I recall going to Richmond Library to research the 1912 British Championship (which was held just over the road from the library) and they couldn't have been more helpful.

While on the subject of libraries, they can be very useful to join as they often provide free access to subscription archives, which you can access from home. Richmond Library's online service gives me access to the Gale Databases, via which I can access the Times and Sunday Times, which are of course a treasure trove of chess material. You don't necessarily have to live in a particular area to join their online library in order to take advantage of other facilities. In order to access the Guardian and Observer newspapers, I joined the Manchester Online Library.

Until recently, I was able to access the Times Literary Supplement (Gale Database) via the Richmond Online Library. Back in the day it had a very useful chess column. However, for some reason access via Richmond Library was withdrawn. If anyone knows how it may still be accessed, I would be glad to know.

[John Saunders]

Jon D'Souza-Eva has already given us some very useful tips for using the General Register Office upthread, and he has also cited the FreeBMD website as an excellent place to research individuals for full names, birth and death dates.

On another thread we've already discussed FindMyPast. I'll give my personal view on subscription family history sites (I have long subscribed to both FindMyPast and Ancestry.) FindMyPast is my preference as it is more effective at finding people when you've only got forename initials to work from and (a big plus point) it allows you to access newspapers as well. In that respect it is a major rival to the British Newspaper Archive, to which I also subscribe. In future I may well cancel my subscription to British Newspaper Archive since, as far as I can see, it offers little or nothing extra to what you get from a FMP subscription. Does anyone know of any way in which the BNA is better than FMP? I suspect the underlying database is identical and the FMP interface seems cleaner and more responsive. I will retain my Ancestry sub as it does seem to offer some extra data which is not discoverable via FMP. Once you have the first forename it works pretty well. However, another area in which FMP scores is that it is the only site currently offering the 1921 census, though that is a paid-for extra.

Searching newspapers for chess references via FindMyPast is straightforward. You type in a name (can just be a surname) and then in the keywords field you simply type "chess" or maybe you want to search for a locality of tournament identifier e.g. "Hampshire, chess" or perhaps you are looking for game scores, e.g. "chess, kt, Hastings". I have found the keyword 'kt' to be the best way to find game scores from way back (though it obviously becomes less effective as the switch to 'N' for knight kicked in, from the early 1960s - maybe try 'k4' or something of that ilk).

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I used to access the Gale databases through a subscription to Westminster Libraries (as I worked in an area near Paddington and that was the borough the local library was in). That might still work (not sure). It is frustrating when local libraries change their subscription levels (though understandable in an era of budget cuts).

I then found I had access to a wide range of academic databases when doing a postgraduate degree a few years ago. That ended when I graduated, but it is always worth bearing those in mind when doing research.

The British Library (despite its recent travails) will have access to a number of sources (some you have to go to one of their physical sites, and access to many of those services and the online ones are still being rebuilt following the cyberattack).

Another physical site/archive that is worth considering is The National Archives in Kew, as this is quite accessible (particularly from John's neck of the woods). The public terminals there would likely allow access to the TLS and most of the Gale databases. If you get a Reading Room ticket then the joys of looking through physical documents awaits (unsure how much chess material there, but there must be lots and not all already looked at).

There are some databases that even university libraries don't always subscribe to, unfortunately. Sometimes you need to ask around to see who has access, or to see if authors of papers can be contacted via something like Researchgate or Academia.edu or similar. They will often be willing to share their papers if asked. JSTOR is also good.

Some universities provide their alumni with (limited) access to academic databases. Cambridge University do that, and I am fortunate enough to be able to access a lot of the CUP ebooks and journals that way.

There is also Senate House Library just off Russell Square, which is very accessible for a small fee and has a labrythine warren of books on its upper floors. Like the Institute for Historical Research next door, it has many obscure books, most likely not of interest but undoubtedly some chess treasures in there. If you know where to look, numerous small libraries and archives across London (and the rest of the country, everywhere will have its local archives, some are nationally important ones).

Others will have looked at the rare books in the British Library before, but always worth looking yourself if there is a reason and they are available to the public. Researchers such as Tim Harding will be able to say more about the Dutch chess archives (and those elsewhere in Europe). I am sure lots has been written about the US archives.

There are societies for chess history as well. They should be mentioned in any listing as well. It is surprisingly easy to get started in researching chess history in other countries, but some basic knowledge of the language does help (I know the focus here is mostly on British chess).

There are online newspaper archives covering other Anglophone countries. The 'Papers Past' site for New Zealand is particularly good. There is an Australian one as well. You may find trails from British chess leading you there and to other former (some less former than others) 'British' locations around the globe.

Others from those countries may be researching the same periods or people. It is always worth making contact if they have an online presence or contact address, as some (not all) will be willing to share and collaborate.

One final thought. Unpublished theses often contain information that is, well, not published! But will contain the fruits of diligent research varying from Masters level to doctoral (PhD) level, and may also help. The British Library eTHOS service is probably still down, but most good universities will have their own academic repository.

To finish away from the slight bias towards academic sources I am betraying here, there are many, many wonderful image sources out there where typing in "chess" brings up a cornucopia of wonders. Getty Images (you need to select the 'editorial' ones) and places like the Maria Evans Picture Library, and some others I have forgotten right now. Oh yes, British Pathe have great cine-reel content. Many of these places have their own (searchable) channels on YouTube and Flickr.

I'll stop there (as I have run on a bit) other than to say that it is always worth keeping careful notes of the searches you do and going back some years later to see if new content has been added. And knowing which sites come up in Google searches and which need to be interrogated separately (there are some specialist search engine, some integrated into browsers , that aggregate such searches, but I am not terribly familiar with those).

PS. The most useful systematic searching may be to pull together (from existing lists) all known newspaper chess columns. There were so many local newspapers I am sure lots remains to be researched here (Gerard Killoran and others will know more here).

[David Sedgwick]

Dear All,

My post is not really to do with Chess History Research, but it seemed to belong here.

I have been struggling to use this Forum, but Nick Faulks has visited me this afternoon and is helping me.

If I should vanish again, please send me a PM if you wish to contact me.

David

[James Pratt]

J. N. Pope of the Chess Archaeology website
Wasn't this buried years ago?
James

[Matt Mackenzie]

It was still active until earlier this week, there's a separate thread about it! It is hoped its absence will only be temporary.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi John,

"You might also have some old chess material of your own..."

By chance glancing through a March 1962 CHESS an article (page 198) referred to a game
given in September 1960 Chess (page 229). D. Drimer v K.D. Sales, Student Olympiad 1960.

CHESS originally had Driemer as White, Megabase have Drimer but Sales as Sails.

Here (Jon D'Souza-Eva) and Britbase confirmed Keith for me. Chessgames gave me Dolfi. (they do not have the game)

The game is from the famous Student event where USA came first ahead of the USSR
the quirk is Keith resigned when he had no need to. All White has is a perpetual.
(Chess 1960 are using the old Spelling Rumania for Romania )

D. Drimer (Romania) - K.D. Sales (U.K. University) U26 Ch. or Student Olympiad 1960 (1-0)


1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nxd4 Bb4 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.Bd3 d5 8.exd5 cxd5 9.0-0 0-0 10.Bg5 Be7 11.Qf3 c6 12.Rae1 Rb8 13.b3 h6 14.Bxh6 gxh6 15.Qe3 d4 16.Qxh6 Qd6 17.Rxe7

The Bxh6 idea crops a few times in that variation, though not always in the exact same position.

Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander - Alberic O'Kelly de Galway, 1954 Amsterdam Olympiad (½–½)
Same position crops up without Rb8 and b3. White takes the perpetual

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nxd4 Bb4 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.Bd3 d5 8. exd5 cxd5 9.O-O O-O 10.Bg5 c6 11.Qf3 Be7 12.Rae1 h6 13.Bxh6 gxh6 14.Qe3 d4 15.Qxh6 Qd6 16.Qg5+ Kh8 17.Qh6+ Kg8 18.Qg5+ Kh8 19.Qh4+ Kg7

I'll submit Drimer - Sales to chessgames they are using the tag; WchT U26 07th (1960), Leningrad URS

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Here (Jon D'Souza-Eva) and Britbase confirmed Keith for me. Chessgames gave me Dolfi. (they do not have the game)

Keith Donald Sales - born in 1936 and quite possibly still living. See https://www.bemrose.derby.sch.uk/news-a ... ts/alumni/

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Consider digitising it (in my ideal world every chess player would be a dab hand at using a scanner)

Do you have any hints on how to do that, John? I have a perfectly functional flatbed scanner which is OK for my needs (mostly scanning single A4 page documents) but it's not much use at scanning old magazines or books as an open A4-sized magazine or large book doesn't really fit properly. I've got quite a lot of old magazines and scarce books that I'd like to scan in if I could do it at a faster rate than 1 page every 15 minutes.

[Geoff Chandler]

Thanks Jon,

When chessgames post the game I give them the extra info. I have smashing scanner, my daughter picked it up at car boot sale
for...and this is 100% true. 20p. It was late the owner did not want to take it home. I told her she could have haggled down to 15p.

[John Saunders]

Consider digitising it (in my ideal world every chess player would be a dab hand at using a scanner)

Do you have any hints on how to do that, John? I have a perfectly functional flatbed scanner which is OK for my needs (mostly scanning single A4 page documents) but it's not much use at scanning old magazines or books as an open A4-sized magazine or large book doesn't really fit properly. I've got quite a lot of old magazines and scarce books that I'd like to scan in if I could do it at a faster rate than 1 page every 15 minutes.

I have a Canon flatbed scanner which can scan A4 documents. It's a dedicated scanner rather than a three-in-one printer/scanner/copier. I can't tell you the exact model as I'm not at home currently; besides which, it's about 15-20 years old and probably long out of production. Not hugely expensive, maybe 100 quid when I bought it.

It comes with some fairly decent utility software which I sometimes use for photos, but I prefer to use ABBYY Fine Reader 12 (no doubt other brands are available) for scanning and OCR-ing documents. For BritBase I sometimes create readable PDFs to post online but more often simply copy the text generated by the OCR component into an HTML page. The text then has to be checked for OCR errors, of course, but it's pretty good apart from 'half' characters which it is incapable of getting right, even though the software is supposed to allow you to 'teach' it how to interpret such characters. This is annoying as the material I scan for BritBase tends to be littered with 'half' characters, of course.

I agree, it's not easy or quick scanning pages from particularly fat or tightly-bound volumes, which you have to press down on the platen in order for the text nearest the 'gutter' to scan effectively. But for slimmer or looser A4 material I don't have too many problems. I can certainly do better than 1 scan every 15 minutes. The utility software allows you to set a time gap between scans - say 20-30 seconds - during which you can turn the sheet over or get the next page onto the platen - before the next scan triggers automatically. That way you can get a 40-50 page scan done in a reasonable time (and it doesn't really matter if you miss an iteration - the blank scan can be deleted later). It doesn't matter which way up you scan a page and it can also adjust automatically if it is slightly skewed on the platen. Foolscap pages (e.g. some old SCCU grading lists) are more of a problem and take longer. If you were to scan a copy of BCM, you place the double spread of two pages on the platen at 90 degrees so that they fit and scan: the software is clever enough to divide this into two A5 pages and correct the orientation.

In theory it should be possible to OCR-scan games in algebraic notation from publications and then copy & paste straight into a ChessBase/HIARCS/SCID new game window, but my advice is - don't bother! It works sometimes but not enough to make it quicker/more accurate than manual input. For a start, if the notation has figurines it doesn't work at all because of all the preparatory work you have to do. You have to 'teach' the software the symbols but it never learns them sufficiently well to be worth the bother. Even if the publication being scanned uses KQRBN, it's not much better: for example, you can't trust it not to mix up Re4 and Rc4, particularly if you are scanning from old typewritten, cheaply reproduced bulletins. Absolute non-starter, I'm afraid. Maybe other OCR software might do it, with a newer, snazzier scanner, but not the hardware/software set-up I have.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

This is more of a general genealogy tip than specifically one for chess research.

Sometimes when you're researching a woman you completely lose sight of her after her marriage, particularly if she marries someone with a common surname. What has often worked for me is to look for children born of that marriage.

So, if the subject of your research is Jane Bowdidge and she goes and marries John Smith in 1852, go to the GRO index and enter "Smith" for the surname, "Bowdidge" for the mother's maiden name, 1854 (with +- 2) for the year of birth and search for both male and female births. You might strike lucky - perhaps they gave their child an unusual name, for example Thomasina, and searching for a Thomasina Smith is going to be more fruitful than searching for John or Jane Smith.

[John Saunders]

Hi John,

"You might also have some old chess material of your own..."

By chance glancing through a March 1962 CHESS an article (page 198) referred to a game
given in September 1960 Chess (page 229). D. Drimer v K.D. Sales, Student Olympiad 1960.

Geoff,

I wrote about this game in the March 2023 CHESS Magazine. Below, the score of the game with my notes, plus sources. Incidentally, when posting game scores here, it's easier for readers if you put the header info between the PGN tags. That way, if the reader wants to add the game score to their database, all they have to do is click on the c8 square which triggers a window with the complete PGN for the game, and it becomes a simple copy and paste into their database.

[Event "WchT Students 07th"] [Site "Leningrad"] [Date "1960.07.25"] [Round "9"] [White "Drimer, Dolfi"] [Black "Sales, Keith Donald (Dr)"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C47"] [Annotator "Saunders, John"] [PlyCount "33"] [EventDate "1960.07.15"] [EventType "team-tourn"] [EventRounds "15"] [EventCountry "URS"] [SourceTitle "BritBase"] [Source "John Saunders"] [SourceDate "2024.03.28"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "2024.03.28"] [SourceQuality "1"] [WhiteTeam "Romania"] [BlackTeam "England"] [WhiteTeamCountry "ROU"] [BlackTeamCountry "ENG"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. d4 exd4 5. Nxd4 Bb4 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. Bd3 d5 8. exd5 cxd5 9. O-O O-O 10. Bg5 c6 ({The first occasion the game was published in CHESS (September 1960, p329) the moves were given as} 10... Be7 11. Qf3 c6 12. Rae1 Rb8 13. b3 h6 14. Bxh6 gxh6 15. Qe3 d4 16. Qxh6 Qd6 17. Rxe7 {whereupon editor BH Wood commented, "Black resigned but the team believes had a draw by} Qxe7 18. Ne4 Nd5 19. Nf6+ Nxf6 {- this is P. C. Gibb's analysis; but we wonder, would White not play 18 Qg5+ first?" As per the later accepted version of the score, analysis engines uphold Peter Gibbs' verdict of 'draw'; however, they also show that the attempt to win with 18 Ne4 would lose with best play by Black, starting with 18...Nxe4.}) 11. Qf3 Be7 12. Rae1 h6 13. Bxh6 {By no means a novelty: half a dozen or so games pre-date it, with Euwe, Pilnik and Alexander amongst its adherents. White had scored heavily, and still does to this day.} gxh6 14. Qe3 d4 15. Qxh6 Qd6 {The July 1957 CHESS (page 257-258) published Euwe's research team's analysis of this position. The objective assessment was that attempts to win for White were too risky, citing 16 Qg5+ Kh8 17 f4 Ng8 18 Rxe7 dxc3. This line has been tried out in some contemporary games with variable results.} (15... dxc3 $4 {loses to} 16. Re5 $1) 16. Qg5+ ( 16. Re3 dxe3 17. fxe3 $2 {is an attempt to win which backfires:} Ne4 $1 { wins for Black.}) 16... Kh8 {[diag]} 17. Rxe7 {Sources: CHESS/22/295/296 July 1957, p257; CHESS/25/369-370, September 1960, p329; CHESS/27/398, November 1961, p70; CHESS/27/405, March 1962, p198; CHESS/27/410-411, June 1962, p270} ( 17. Rxe7 {At this point Black resigned. After} Qxe7 18. Ne4 {the position does look very scary for Black, but in fact both 18...Ng8 and 18...Nd5 are good enough to draw with best play. By a computer, anyway: I'm not sure many amateur players would be comfortable picking their way through such a minefield with the king so exposed. Curiously, the position after 17 Rxe7 was not original: just six months earlier it had been reached in the game Bykhovsky-Rubel, in a match between Leningrad and Moscow, and agreed drawn after 17...Qxe7.}) (17. Rxe7 Qxe7 {Correspondence ensued in the magazine about the position after 17...Qxe7. BH Wood opined (November 1961, page 70) that White had to be satisfied with a draw by perpetual check. Michael Davis (March 1962, page 198) provided analysis supporting} 18. Ne2 {as a winning try after the recapture on e7, but A Eccles (June 1962, page 270) found a defence for Black:} Rd8 19. Ng3 Rd5 {, etc. Analysis engines go further and suggest Black is winning in this line.}) ({With the power of silicon to guide us, I think we can conclude that 17 Rxe7 is only good enough to draw, but that leaves open the question of what White should do instead. Euwe's team looked at 17 f4 and decided it didn't lead anywhere. Stockfish thinks it's OK for White but nothing special. But the monster prefers something both counter-intuitive and eye-catching,} 17. Na4 $3 {, and concludes that White is winning. Let's try to figure out how that not so dim knight on the rim contributes to the cause. Firstly, it preserves the piece (so far, so obvious) and secondly (still fairly obvious) it keeps the e-file open for the rook to join the battle. Thirdly, it keeps tabs on the c5-square, for example stopping the queen going there and offering an exchange. To the human eye this looks like poor compensation for being out on a limb on a4 in a position where White has given up a piece for a mating attack on the other side of the board, but the engine has a couple of other plus factors up its sleeve as we shall see:} Re8 18. Qh6+ Kg8 19. f4 {. White has two runways ready for rook take-offs, e1-e5 and f1-f3. Black blocks one of them:} Bg4 20. Qg5+ (20. Re5 $2 {fails to the spectacular} Ne4 $1) 20... Kh8 {and now Stockfish produces the remarkable} 21. Nc5 $3 { and suddenly the dim knight is brighter than the north star. If Black captures, White checks on h6, plays Re5 and it's all over. If} Bf8 {we see another trick from the knight:} ({after} 21... Ng8 {simply} 22. Qxg4 {and White has regained the piece with an overwhelming position.}) 22. Nb7 $1 {and the black queen is forced away from the defence of the knight.}) 1-0

[Geoff Chandler]

Thanks John,

All the way through it I was thinking I've seen this before. I even searched some old 'Chandler Corners' It never twigged it was recently. I'll use PGN tags from now on. I also messed up my search on chessgames when looking for 'Sales' thinking he never had a C.G. page.
I used that top left search box and all I got was 'Jesse Noel Sales' I should have used the advanced search thing. chessgames have this game now.

They do not have the Edmund MacDonald v George Bellingham game from your latest piece in CHESS. I was thinking of submitting but you will have the bare score and the all important full source. I actually went through it the day the mag arrived, I play out the games at the back of the issue first, these are often 'Corinthian' and IMO more enjoyable. I do not mind admitting am losing touch with modern chess at the higher level and 90% of the games I play over these days on my board are from the 1950's to the 1990's. The Golden Decades of Chess.

I can confirm 'White's small force commando force.' does look good. I tried a few lines without a computer was happy with what I was seeing.

BTW I was going to post the score here via the PGN download as advertised in the latest CHESS (page 45) but I cannot see it on the the website. What am I doing wrong this time or is it just not there.

Edit: I've broken one of my forum rules. Mentioned a game without posting it.
[Site "Craigside Tournament Llandudno"] [Date "1897.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Edmund MacDonald"] [Black "George Bellingham"] [Result "1-0"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. d4 exd4 7. e5 Ne4 8. Nxd4 Nc5 9. Nf5 O-O 10. Qg4 g6 11. Bh6 Re8 12. Nc3 d5 13. Nxe7+ Qxe7 14. Qg3 Nxa4 15. Nxd5 Qxe5 {John gives some wonderful analysis here with 16.Rae1 Qxe1 17.Nf6+ Kh8 18.Qh4!!}16. Nxc7 Qxg3 17. fxg3 Be6 18. b3 Nc3 19. Nxa8 Rxa8 20. Bd2 Ne4 "and wins"

[John Saunders]

Yes, I enjoyed working on the Macdonald-Bellingham game (which ended 0-1, BTW).

Here's the full score that was published by CHESS. Notes in quotes were by Hoffer, others by me)...

[Event "Craigside Hydro Open"] [Site "Llandudno"] [Date "1897.01.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Macdonald, Edmund"] [Black "Bellingham, George Edward H"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C84"] [Annotator "Hoffer, L; Saunders, John"] [PlyCount "40"] [EventDate "1897.01.04"] [EventType "tourn"] [EventRounds "9"] [EventCountry "WLS"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 ({"Many play here at once} 5... Nxe4 {, but there is something to be said for develop­ing instead, Be7 being an admittedly excellent move about this point for Black."}) 6. d4 exd4 7. e5 Ne4 8. Nxd4 Nc5 9. Nf5 O-O ({"The lively variation which White now enters upon renders the game interesting. Of course if} 9... Nxa4 {White gains an advantage by} 10. Nxg7+ Kf8 {, followed by} 11. Bh6 {"}) 10. Qg4 g6 11. Bh6 ({ This is played occasionally, but players of the 2020s prefer the line} 11. Bxc6 dxc6 12. Nxe7+ Qxe7 13. Qg3 Re8 14. Re1 Bf5 15. Bg5 f6 16. Bf4 {, which is roughly equal. JS}) 11... Re8 12. Nc3 d5 (12... Nxa4 $2 {runs into} 13. Nd5 $1 {when Black cannot stop White establishing a knight on f6 with fatal consequences:} d6 14. Nfxe7+ Nxe7 15. Nf6+ Kh8 16. Qxa4 b5 17. Qf4 {, etc. K. Bowden (2348)-J.Borawski,J (2222) Online Blitz 2022}) (12... Nxe5 {is playable, but White has enough play for the pawn.}) 13. Nxe7+ Qxe7 14. Qg3 Nxa4 {"This is the move that destroys all White’s chances," writes Hoffer, but 21st century technology will prove him wrong.} ({Now that Stockfish has refuted 14.. .Nxa4, Black would have to make do with} 14... Qxe5 15. Bf4 Qf5 16. Bxc7 d4 17. Bxc6 bxc6 18. Rae1 Rxe1 19. Rxe1 Bd7 {with an equal game.}) 15. Nxd5 ({"} 15. Nxa4 {apparently at once leads to a lost game."}) 15... Qxe5 {[diag]} 16. Nxc7 ({"This is rather better than} 16. Rae1 Qxe1 17. Nf6+ Kh8 18. Nxe8 ({But engines demonstrate that White has a very good chance of winning after} 18. Qh4 $3 {Despite a promising selection of defences, Black can't find a convincing way to meet White's threats such as 19 Bd2 or 19 Bf8 even though he can trade his queen for another minor piece to add to the rook and minor piece he already has in the bank, e.g.} Qb4 (18... Qe5 19. Bf4 Kg7 20. Bxe5 Rxe5 21. f4 Re6 22. Qxh7+ $1 Kxf6 23. f5 $1) 19. c4 Re5 (19... Qe7 20. Bf8 $1 h5 21. Bxe7 Rxe7 22. Qg5 {when Black's rook and two minor pieces for the queen are no match for White's small commando force.}) 20. Bd2 $1 Rh5 21. Nxh5 Qxb2 22. Nf6 $18) 18... Qxe8 {, etc. Both courses lose."}) 16... Qxg3 17. fxg3 Be6 18. b3 Nc3 19. Nxa8 Rxa8 20. Bd2 Ne4 {"and wins." Sources: Pall Mall Gazette, 12 January 1897 (which has a crosstable); Illustrated London News, 23 January 1897 } 0-1