English Chess Forum

Remembering Henry Atkins (20-viii-1872 31-i-1955)

New (hopefully) material on his early life


One of THE giants of British chess.

My article has a photograph of his father, as I recall, plus a cricket scorecard!!. Sorry, on phone so can't link at the moment. Curiously I have been past Wyggeston school just a few days ago.

Worth noting in that Amsterdam 1899 cross table that Arnold van Foreest's great-great-grandson Jorden is playing in Wijk Aan Zee now.

Here's a game, not in Britbase, where Atkins plays the King's Indian and his opponent replies with the Saemisch (or should it be the Lambert?) Variation.

Atkin's resource with 17...d5! is very clever.

[Event "Southern Counties' Chess Union Tournament"] [Site "Southampton"] [Date "1897.09.01"] [Round "4"] [White "Lambert, Charles James"] [Black "Atkins, Henry Ernest"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "E80"] [Opening "King's Indian: Saemisch variation"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. f3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nc3 Nbd7 6. Be3 O-O 7. Bd3 Ne8 8. Nge2 c6 9. Qd2 e5 10. d5 Nc7 11. Bc2 cxd5 12. Nxd5 Nxd5 13. Qxd5 Nb6 14. Qd3 Be6 15. b3 Rc8 16. Kf2 f5 17. Rad1 d5 18. exd5 e4 19. Qd2 f4 20. Nxf4 Bf5 21. Ne6 Bxe6 22. dxe6 Qh4+ 23. g3 Qg4 24. f4 Qf3+ 25. Kg1 Rcd8 26. Qe1 Bc3 27. Qf2 Rxd1+ 28. Bxd1 Qxd1+ 29. Kg2 Qd3 30. Rf1 Nc8 31. g4 Ne7 32. Bc5 Re8 33. f5 gxf5 34. gxf5 Bf6 35. Qg3+ Qxg3+ 36. Kxg3 b6 37. Be3 Nc6 38. Kf4 Be5+ 39. Kxe4 Bxh2 40. Bf4 Bxf4 41. Rxf4 Rd8 42. Ke3 Rd1 43. Rf2 Kf8 44. Kf4 Kg7 45. Rh2 Re1 46. Rg2+ Kf6 47. Rh2 Rf1+ 48. Ke4 Rxf5 49. Rh6+ Kg5 50. Rh5+ Kxh5 51. Kxf5 Nd4+ 52. Kf6 Nxe6 53. Kxe6 Kg4 54. b4 h5 55. c5 bxc5 56. bxc5 h4 57. c6 h3 58. c7 h2 59. c8=Q h1=Q 60. Ke5+ Kg3 61. Qc3+ Qf3 62. Qxf3+ Kxf3 63. a4 a5 64. Kd5 Kf4 {British Chess Magazine 1897 p.390} 1/2-1/2

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 31, 2021 11:29 am

Worth noting in that Amsterdam 1899 cross table that Arnold van Foreest's great-great-grandson Jorden is playing in Wijk Aan Zee now.

Oh that's interesting. I wonder if any other similar examples could be cited (not from the present tournament obviously).

"Arnold van Foreest's great-great-grandson Jorden"

I only looked it up as "van Foreest" didn't sound a common name. It's not unusual for chess to go father to son, but it might be unusual to go that many generations? Dropping down a few hundred rating points, I learnt from my father (150 or so at his best), but his father didn't play at all. My father was a member of Streatham in the 1950s, when Nigel Povah's grandfather was a member too.

There was also Arnold's elder brother Dirk van Foreest, three times Dutch champion. It's a real chess dynasty.

Jorden's younger brother Lucas is also a GM and their sister Machteld (born 2007) might have a FIDE title by now if it weren't for the pandemic. Her rating is already 2116.

Also on the FIDE list, and presumably siblings or cousins, are Nanne (also born 2007, male, 1843) and also Pieter and Tristan who are lower rated.

The Woking club some (well, many) years ago was at least half "Williams", from memory, (not all related) but I seem to recall Simon and Howard, maybe Tony(?) being at the top end. Sounds as if the van Foreests could field a useful team!

Who wrote this?

Aleister Crowley. It's all in his Confessions, though not in those exact words.

"Aleister Crowley."

A former resident of Merstham (a suburb of Redhill), Surrey, but sadly left the area before the local club was formed.

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 03, 2021 9:32 am

Merstham (a suburb of Redhill)

I'm not sure that Merstham residents would be happy with that description now, and they certainly would not have been in Crowley's day.

"I'm not sure that Merstham residents would be happy with that description now, and they certainly would not have been in Crowley's day."

Probably not, but the official postal address was "number road name, Merstham, Redhill, Surrey". With the advent of postcodes, I suppose you could get away with "number, postcode" but that would be a bit unfair on the Post Office staff!

In Crowley's day, both places were fairly small. Having said that, nobody seems to know where "The Grange" (his parents' house) was. It seems to have been between Merstham and Redhill.

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 03, 2021 9:32 am

A former resident of Merstham (a suburb of Redhill), Surrey,

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 03, 2021 1:02 pm

the official postal address was "number road name, Merstham, Redhill, Surrey".

All that's telling you is that Redhill is the post town for Merstham.

Although Merstham isn't that far away from Redhill (and might be a suburb of it), remote villages could be many miles away from their post town with open countryside between them.

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 03, 2021 1:02 pm

In Crowley's day, both places were fairly small. Having said that, nobody seems to know where "The Grange" (his parents' house) was. It seems to have been between Merstham and Redhill.

You can see it on this map: right at the top and towards the right, just off the A23. There are roads called Grange Drive and Grange Close there now.

For anyone who doesn't know about it, the National Library of Scotland OS Map collection is very helpful for anyone doing historical research in the UK. It's also completely free to use.