Baruch Harold Wood

[Anthony Taglione]

Come on guys! Surely PMs are a more suitable vehicle for this sort of exchange?

I don't think either medium is perhaps suitable although I am trying my best to remain in the background on this one

I am ready with my finger on the button though

Cleanup on aisle seven, please.

[Stephen Saunders]

Hello

I'm interested in learning a little more about the Gijon 1951 tournament, after seeing the game Rossolimo v Euwe in a back number of NiC.
Can anyone supply some basic information (month it was played, number of players, who won etc)?

I don't really want to shell out 14 quid for Gino Di Felice's book.

Thanks in advance

[Gordon Cadden]

I am a little puzzled that my brief note has produced the rather strange remarks that it has. With regard to Mr Spivack's declaration that my 'reading skills leave much to be desired', I am a little puzzled. Yes, I reallised that Mr Mendez was writing from Spain, but as the subject of his research was an English based writer, and that he had written to a British based web site for information, deemed it likely that he intended conducting some research in Britain. Given the comparatively easy travelling distance involved this did not seem an impossible assumption to make and scarcely seemed to me to justify Mr Spivack's rudeness. With regard to Mr Burnett, I assume that his response stems from my referring to Edinburgh and Dublin as being in England when I should have written Britain. He has my apologies for this, though I scarcely think that such an error merits the somewhat acid remark. Once again, I wish Mr Mendez well in his research and hope that he fishes up some interesting material.

There was nothing 'acidic' intended in my remarks Adrian, hence the wink. I will, however, reiterate that you'd do well to avoid Dublin; not only is it not in England, the locals might be less than enamoured with being told they are still in Britain

Always a sore point with Republicans, but I'm afraid that the British Isles does include the whole of Ireland, and is recognised by F.I.D.E.

[John McKenna]

The British Isles may be recognisable to FIDE but they have struggled at times to differentiate between the constituent nations that inhabit them. One small sore point with some regarding the citizens of the Irish Republic is that they have been allowed to retain the right to vote in the UK general elections. Just another anomalistic legacy of the Empire, or what?

[Alex Holowczak]

One small sore point with some regarding the citizens of the Irish Republic is that they have been allowed to retain the right to vote in the UK general elections. Just another anomalistic legacy of the Empire, or what?

Half of the world can vote in a UK general election. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan...

So long as they're resident in the UK, citizens of pretty much any country in the Commonwealth can vote in a British general election.

[Roger de Coverly]

The British Isles may be recognisable to FIDE but they have struggled at times to differentiate between the constituent nations that inhabit them.

It's very frequent usage to say England when UK is meant, not that it makes it correct. The term British usually means UK as well, notwithstanding its alternative geographical usage. It's like the Soviet Union and Russia, with the term Russia being used when USSR was meant. Chess events helped to make this distinction when you had the republic of "Russia" competing against the others, such as the Baltic states.

The chess body in Northern Ireland is in something of a limbo at the moment. It doesn't want to be part of the Irish Chess Union, or presumably for that matter Chess Scotland or the ECF, but FIDE will now only recognise Federations as new members who represent countries that exist as separate entities for the Olympic Games. In an international chess sense, both the Isle of Man and Gibraltar are treated as being in England.

[Geoff Chandler]

Three years this thread lay dormant.

Then one day an inocent child of chess asks a question and it blows up again.

"Can anyone supply some basic information (month it was played, number of players, who won etc)"

Gijon 1951. (Gijon by the way is not also in England.)

What a great tournament. It was won by M.Euwe.

Not Max Euwe the ex-World Champion, but Michael Euwe the murderer who
was executed in 1954 for the infamous Coronation Murders.

2nd Mother Teresa who some suspected cheated by using a hidden computer.

3rd Carlo Von Nuemann Hector van Crinklecrustonhoven.
(won most of his games on time as it took ages to write down his name on the score sheet.)

4th A horse which was later eaten by the rest of the competitors.

There were 134 other players but determining their real identites
could prove difficult as having a sex change was a huge fad in 1951.

No need to thank me I got all this from WIKI.

[John McKenna]

Sorry Geoff, it's been so long I've lost the thread. Where did Baruch Wood come in the tournament?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I'm interested in learning a little more about the Gijon 1951 tournament, after seeing the game Rossolimo v Euwe in a back number of NiC.
Can anyone supply some basic information (month it was played, number of players, who won etc)?

I don't really want to shell out 14 quid for Gino Di Felice's book.

Gino Di Felice's book is available in some areas of the world as a preview in Google Books. That means only some pages are available. The tournament in question is on page 33:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rvzGokoRm-4C&pg=PA33

Now we all have to shell out £14 to assuage our guilt at reading that without having bought the book...

Anyway, the tournament was held in Gijon, Spain, from 16-31 July 1951. There were 11 players that completed the tournament (the 12th, Luis Gallego, played three games, lost them all, and didn't play any more games, not sure what happened there). Of the 11 that completed the tournament, they all played each other (i.e. 10-rounds APA). Euwe (the only grandmaster present) came first with 8/10. Thee next five places were taken by the International Masters that were present: Pilnik (7.5), Rossolimo (7), Prins (6.5), Medina Garcia (6) and Pomar Salamanca (6). Then there is a big gap to the rest of the field, who were untitled and took places 7 to 11: Toran Albero (3.5), our hero Baruch Harold Wood, who lost to all the titled players (3.5), Rico Gonzalez (3), Alvarodiaz (2) and Rodriguez (2).

The famous game Rossolimo-Euwe is here:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1042776

Well worth playing through.

[Stephen Saunders]

One small sore point with some regarding the citizens of the Irish Republic is that they have been allowed to retain the right to vote in the UK general elections. Just another anomalistic legacy of the Empire, or what?

Personally I'm OK with the Irish being British when they want to. One only need think of Hugh Alexander and what he did for us, not only in chess

[Stephen Saunders]

Then one day an inocent child of chess asks a question and it blows up again.

Not really that innocent, Geoff!

I'm wondering if you're the Chandler I played in London in 1993, although I think it was a C.Chandler who was quite a well-known postal player at the time. Whether it was you or a relative, your Tarrasch defence absolutely crushed me!

3rd Carlo Von Nuemann Hector van Crinklecrustonhoven.
(won most of his games on time as it took ages to write down his name on the score sheet.)

Good one

[Stephen Saunders]

Gino Di Felice's book is available in some areas of the world as a preview in Google Books. That means only some pages are available. The tournament in question is on page 33:

Thanks, Christopher. Yes, I did find the preview by googling but I wasn't able to get the relevant page to show up; you were cleverer! In any case, many thanks indeed for the information, which is exactly what I'm looking for. I'd be willing to buy the book if a real chess historian recommends it; one never quite knows just how accurate or complete these reference works are.

The famous game Rossolimo-Euwe is here: Well worth playing through.

I'm currently working through a stack of old NiC magazines and adding games that interest me to my personal database of annotated games, but I do like to have tournament information (year/month, no. of rounds, round nos) for each game I add. My software (ChessBase 8, Big Database 2002) has no information about Gijon at all. Perhaps I should update to a more recent version.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi John
"Sorry Geoff, it's been so long I've lost the thread. Where did Baruch Wood come in the tournament?"

He is in there somewhere but he was not Baruch Wood then.
(read the bit about the 1951 sex change fad.)
Look for a Belinda Wood, also check out Leanora Barden.
Strange year 1951. I was born in 1951.

Hi Stephen.

Not me. I don't play the Tarrasch, the IQP keeps me awake at nights.
That would have been my brother, Charlie Chandler, Murrays uncle.

[John McKenna]

Hi Geoff, I am still confused - isn't Murray now Charlie's aunt Mariah? Thing is, I googled Charlie's aunt and there are several but I haven't found Mariah. Also cannot locate my Kinks' LP Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround (Part II). It may turn up one day but it's doubtful.

[Stephen Saunders]

Hi Stephen.

Not me. I don't play the Tarrasch, the IQP keeps me awake at nights.
That would have been my brother, Charlie Chandler, Murrays uncle.

After searching my memory some more, I think it must have been this guy:-

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=24563

I'd be interested to know if anybody knows him. I think he did write at least one article for CHESS back in the days when it was still owned/edited by B.H.Wood.