Britbase Updates

Historical knowledge and information regarding our great game.
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Gerard Killoran
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Re: Britbase Updates

Post by Gerard Killoran » Wed Apr 20, 2022 10:27 pm

Matt Mackenzie wrote:
Wed Apr 20, 2022 10:20 pm
Erm, can't Black just play 25...Qf5 at the end of that last one?? I think something might have been misrecorded somewhere.
Now corrected. Black resigned after 24... Qe4.

25. h4 must have been a mouse slip - apologies.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Britbase Updates

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Thu Apr 21, 2022 12:16 am

Yes, 25 Nd7+ in the final position "wins the house" as they say.
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John Saunders
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Re: Britbase Updates

Post by John Saunders » Thu Apr 21, 2022 12:47 pm

Thanks for those games, Gerard. I shall get them onto BritBase pronto.

In the meantime here is a game score puzzle which I've not been able to resolve. It is from BCM, July 1905, page 280...
1905-roome-emery.png
1905-roome-emery.png (82.87 KiB) Viewed 1517 times
... which I have entered as follows...



If you look at the position after 11...Bxc4, you can see that White played 12 Qa4+ but even as I was keying the game in I recoiled in horror as it took about 1 nanosecond to see that 12...b5 wins trivially. Even if the players missed it, it is inconceivable that a player as strong as Cecil Tattersall should have missed such an obvious move when preparing the game for publication. I've skimmed through subsequent issues of BCM looking for an apology and a correction but found nothing. Is there an alternative move order which makes sense?
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David Sedgwick
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Re: Britbase Updates

Post by David Sedgwick » Thu Apr 21, 2022 2:15 pm

How about 10 Qa4 Nc6; 11 Nbd2 Be3; 12. fe3 Bc4; 13 Qc4 Qe7 ?

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John Saunders
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Re: Britbase Updates

Post by John Saunders » Thu Apr 21, 2022 3:17 pm

David Sedgwick wrote:
Thu Apr 21, 2022 2:15 pm
How about 10 Qa4 Nc6; 11 Nbd2 Be3; 12. fe3 Bc4; 13 Qc4 Qe7 ?
Yes, thanks, David, that's better than anything I've come up with. It leaves open the possibility of 12...Qxc3, though that looks like a risky pawn snatch and it's not surprising for a wary player of the black pieces to give it a miss.

Another thing of interest here is the opening variation 1 e4 e5 2 d4 exd4 3 Bc4 which BCM calls the Centre Gambit. This name was new to me until recently. I came across it whilst browsing some 1890s and 1900s material in BCM and contemporary newspapers. The variation seemed to enjoy something of a vogue at the time, at least amongst players below master strength. I googled 'Centre Gambit' and very little that was useful came up. Then I stumbled on an article in BCM, August 1898, page 324, entitled The BCM Guide to the Openings: The Centre Game, by 'Hobart'. (I discovered this was Francis Joseph Young (1847-1922) via Anders Thulin's excellent article on chess pseudonyms which pointed me to the right place in Gaige's Chess Personalia). The BCM article makes it clear that the Centre Gambit is 1 e4 e5 2 d4 exd4 3 Bc4, whereas (as is very well known) 3 Qxd4 is the Centre Game and 3 c3 the Danish Gambit. (I added a note to the Wikipedia article on the Centre Game to this effect.) The Oxford Companion to Chess makes no mention of the Centre Gambit, nor does my 1960s copy of MCO, nor Znosko-Borovsky's How to Play the Chess Openings (7th ed., 1964). As a variation it doesn't have much independent theory of its own as it usually transposes into a Scotch, Bishop's Opening or Giuoco Piano, which is probably why its name has disappeared from reference books. A few contemporary players have dabbled in it.
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Gerard Killoran
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Re: Britbase Updates

Post by Gerard Killoran » Thu Apr 21, 2022 4:41 pm

Also Black must be Alfred Emery, chess journalist.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=153918

I have to say that Chessgames seems to be more reliable these days. What do people think?

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Re: Britbase Updates

Post by John Saunders » Thu Apr 21, 2022 5:12 pm

Gerard Killoran wrote:
Thu Apr 21, 2022 4:41 pm
Also Black must be Alfred Emery, chess journalist.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=153918

I have to say that Chessgames seems to be more reliable these days. What do people think?
Thanks, Gerard. As for Chessgames contributors, I've always had a good working relationship with them.
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Brian Denman
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Re: Britbase Updates

Post by Brian Denman » Fri Apr 22, 2022 10:51 am

Alfred Emery, born Holborn, London 30.3.1865, died Pitsea, Essex 29.1.1947. Sussex champion 1895.

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Re: Britbase Updates

Post by Brian Denman » Fri Apr 22, 2022 5:02 pm

The Centre Gambit was played as early as 1830 by De Labourdonnais and occasionally in the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s, after which it seems to have appeared only rarely. I do not possess Staunton's Chess Player's Handbook, though I suspect that the title of Centre Gambit might be given there.

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Re: Britbase Updates

Post by Tim Harding » Fri Apr 22, 2022 6:18 pm

Brian Denman wrote:
Fri Apr 22, 2022 5:02 pm
The Centre Gambit was played as early as 1830 by De Labourdonnais and occasionally in the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s, after which it seems to have appeared only rarely. I do not possess Staunton's Chess Player's Handbook, though I suspect that the title of Centre Gambit might be given there.
You are half right, Brian.
The opening 1 e4 e5 2 d4 is not discussed in Staunton's Chess Player's Handbook but in his later Chess Praxis, starting page 262, it is indeed called the Centre Gambit. He says he omitted in the earlier book for reasons of space but it has now "come much more into vogue."
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John Saunders
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Re: Britbase Updates

Post by John Saunders » Sat Apr 23, 2022 12:20 pm

Thanks to Brian and Tim for help with this. I looked up the Centre Gambit in the opening section of The Complete Chess Guide by F J Lee and G H D Gossip (Edinburgh, 1910). Part 3 of the book is devoted to openings (for which Gossip seems to have been solely responsible: it is dated 1891) and uses Centre Gambit as the name for everything starting 1 e4 e5 2 d4 exd4 except for 3 c3 which he classifies as the Danish Gambit.

"At Last! The 1948 Show"... I have just posted a file for the 1948/49 Hastings tournament on BritBase. The 45 Premier games have been available for many years, on BritBase and elsewhere - chessgames.com has a well-curated page on this event - but I have added 21 games from the subsidiary sections, plus crosstables of all sections and contemporary accounts of play from newspapers and magazines.

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

You will note that I have added a (not very good) photo which I found in the Midland Bulletin. It features Jacques Mieses, Dr Hans Schenk, A R B Thomas playing in the 1948/49 Hastings Premier Reserves Major. Unfortunately the photo doesn't show their opponents - it looks rather as if it has been divided vertically to fit the space in what was an advertisement for Golombek and Morry's Hastings supplement. This is especially annoying as I'm pretty sure this was the occasion when Leonard Barden played Jacques Mieses and thus acquired his Morphy Number 3 status.
1948-49-hastings-mieses-schenk-thomas.jpg
1948-49-hastings-mieses-schenk-thomas.jpg (83.74 KiB) Viewed 1259 times
The draw for the tournament is known: Leonard drew number one, or perhaps inherited it from the player he replaced in the tournament (a Professor Runte from Germany who couldn't get to Hastings because of visa problems). This means Leonard would have played white vs Mieses in round 1, 30 December 1948, and the only other round in which Messrs Mieses, Schenk and Thomas could have all had black would have been round 8. It's much more likely to have been round 1, however, since that is traditionally when press photographers turn up to get their shots.

Unfortunately we don't have the score of Barden-Mieses - I've asked Leonard and he hasn't got it. But the photo shows us that two moves have been played: 1 e4 c5 2 x e6 where x is probably Nf3. Not much to go on but it is a start!

I've seen a few other fuzzy photos from the 1948/49 Hastings tournament (they tend to reproduce very badly in newspaper archives) but it would be good if forum sleuths could track down some better ones. And a few more game scores to add to the collection would be very welcome.
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Leonard Barden
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Re: Britbase Updates

Post by Leonard Barden » Sat Apr 23, 2022 2:46 pm

Brilliant sleuthing, John, and I have to agree with your conclusion that the pic is from round one, not round eight, because the fourth person in the row of Blacks, who you did not identify, is Donald O'Sullivan, who played White in round eight.

That in turn means that my memory, dating back to the 1940s, that Mieses played the Scandinavian against me, is false. However, my other mental picture that Mieses got his queen into difficulties at a5 in the opening and lost a piece before fighting back for a draw in around 35 moves is consistent with the e6 Sicilian in the pic leading to a misplayed line with Bb4 and Qa5

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Re: Britbase Updates

Post by Gerard Killoran » Sat Apr 23, 2022 5:18 pm

Brian Denman wrote:
Wed Apr 20, 2022 2:43 pm
If people are looking for games by Rev A P Lacy-Hulbert, I believe that he wrote a chess column for a while in the Kington Times, The column started in the early 1930s and with a probable break for the war may have gone well into the 1950s. The trouble is that I cannot remember what years the vicar edited it.
Be careful for what you wish for. Lacy-Hulbert edited the Kington Times chess column for all of this period and gave the impression of including at least one of his own games every week.

Here's an exception, but brace yourselves for a Lacy-Hulbert marathon.

Sometimes there is a story to be found when you search for the names behind a pair of initials, sometimes quite a tragic one. The BCM gave B. T. Stevenson as the White player in the tournament below. The Kington Times had P. T. Stephenson.



Cheshire Observer - Saturday 18 August 1934 p.13 also has P.T. Stephenson, probably the same P.T. Stephenson who got 2nd place in BCF 1910 Third-Class D.

From The British Chess Magazine - Volume 55 - Page 10
books.google.co.uk › books
1935 · ‎Snippet view
Found inside – Page 10
We hear that P. T. Stephenson , who occasionally competed in the Annual Congress , and who was a member of the National Liberal Club, died as the result of an accident in early November.

Most probably Philip Torrance Stephenson
Birth Aug. 23, 1871
Death Oct. 11, 1934

WALKED INTO CAR IN RAINSTORM. How a London man met his death in a rainstorm on the Brighton front a week ago was related at an inquest there Saturday. He was Philip Torrance Stephenson (63). a retired schoolmaster, of Soames Street, S.E., who was staying in the town. It was stated that he was walking eastwards the road at night with his head down because of the rain. A car appeared to startle him, with the result that he lurched forward, and his head struck the car, although the driver did his utmost to avoid him. The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death' and exonerated the driver. (Western Daily Press - Monday 15 October 1934 p.8)

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John Saunders
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Re: Britbase Updates

Post by John Saunders » Sun Apr 24, 2022 10:47 am

Leonard Barden wrote:
Sat Apr 23, 2022 2:46 pm
Brilliant sleuthing, John, and I have to agree with your conclusion that the pic is from round one, not round eight, because the fourth person in the row of Blacks, who you did not identify, is Donald O'Sullivan, who played White in round eight.
Thanks, Leonard. I've since discovered that the photo was used originally on the front cover of the Hastings and St Leonards Observer on Saturday 1 January 1949, which proves conclusively that it was taken during round 1. I shall have to see if an archive somewhere has the original.
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Re: Britbase Updates

Post by John Saunders » Sun Apr 24, 2022 10:51 am

Gerard Killoran wrote:
Sat Apr 23, 2022 5:18 pm
Sometimes there is a story to be found when you search for the names behind a pair of initials, sometimes quite a tragic one. The BCM gave B. T. Stevenson as the White player in the tournament below. The Kington Times had P. T. Stephenson.
Thanks for the game, Gerard. I've added it to BritBase and at the same time given the 1934 British Championship file a make-over to include crosstables with full forenames where known: https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pgn/1 ... iewer.html
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