English Chess Forum

England's 7th - 9th International Master in 1954 he was very much a "marmite" player and personality when written about by others.

Steve Giddins described him as a Maverick, Anne Sunnucks wrote one of her more sympathetic articles, Golombek really wasn't a big fan, Lionel Sharples Penrose appeared to be keen, Hooper & Whyld lukewarm whilst his Swiss namesake was quite glowing in his appreciation.

His communist affiliations and tendency to become inebriated either endeared him or the opposite.

However, his writing was superb and his chess playing skills were pretty good too!

We have supplemented our article with more new material for your enjoyment.

Remembering IM William Winter (11-xi-1897 18-xii-1955)

I have a yellow covered A4 book of Winter's chess 'memoirs'. Interesting piece of work. Hopefully a few others here have a copy!?

Nell,

I've never seen this. Can you post a photo of the front cover please?

Ha!!. I have no idea how to post pictures here - last time I tried it came out with nonsense. Will have a go later when I am properly awake.

My own photo is to big, 4MB, but it is this book. Hope that helps.
One fascinating tidbit in there is that he was not much use at cricket, but was always immaculately turned out in his white, and that his father also played..
I have a record of Atkins getting a duck in a school match!! Cheers, Neil.

Neil,

Thanks for this. Is this publication (I assume privately) the material found in CHESS in 1963 etc?

John

Yep, that's the material, as I understand it. There is also some material by the compiler, under 'observations' - no idea if that was in the CHESS version.

I see that there is material on Malik Mir Sultan Khan contained in the same publication. I wonder if Danny King found this?

I should hope so - it is given in my quick article on Sultan Khan which pops up on a Google search. Then again, he claims the Capablanca simul game as a discovery, and I quoted that too - it is easily found on a BNA search - so who knows. I do not have King's book.

John Upham wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 18, 2020 11:46 am

England's 7th - 9th International Master in 1954 he was very much a "marmite" player and personality when written about by others.

Steve Giddins described him as a Maverick, Anne Sunnucks wrote one of her more sympathetic articles, Golombek really wasn't a big fan, Lionel Sharples Penrose appeared to be keen, Hooper & Whyld lukewarm whilst his Swiss namesake was quite glowing in his appreciation.

B H Wood (writing once in response to a reader's letter to Chess) was even more brutally direct: "Winter often presented a most filthy and disreputable appearance". The photo above certainly doesn't do him many favours in this regard. (Anyone else think he looks like Lenin "getting peeved and depressed" (in the well-known phrase quoted by Mike Fox and Richard James)?

"The photo above certainly doesn't do him many favours in this regard."

Looks like a chess player...

An early victory...


[Event "Mocatta Cup"] [Site "City of London Chess Club"] [Date "1916"] [Round "?"] [White "Winter, Winter"] [Black "Craig, William Alban Cunningham (Rev)"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D00"] [Opening "Dutch stonewall attack system"] 1. d4 d5 2. e3 Nf6 3. Bd3 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. f4 e6 6. Nf3 b6 7. Nbd2 Bb7 8. Ne5 Bd6 9. Qf3 Qe7 10. O-O O-O 11. g4 Rac8 12. Qh3 g6 13. Rf3 Nd8 14. g5 Ne4 15. Bxe4 dxe4 16. Ng4 f5 17. gxf6 Rxf6 18. Nxf6+ Qxf6 19. Rg3 cxd4 20. cxd4 Rc2 21. Nb3 Nf7 22. Rg2 Rc7 23. Bd2 a5 24. Bc3 Bd5 25. Rf1 Bf8 26. Nd2 Nd6 27. Qg3 Nf5 28. Qe1 a4 29. a3 Bxa3 30. bxa3 Rxc3 31. Nxe4 Bxe4 32. Qxc3 Bxg2 33. Kxg2 Qh4 34. e4 Qg4+ 35. Kh1 Nh4 36. Qg3 Qe2 37. Re1 Qf3+ 38. Qxf3 Nxf3 39. Rd1 Kf7 40. Kg2 {Illustrated London News - Saturday 27 May 1916 p.24} 1-0