Minor Pieces website

[Richard James]

I've copied all my Minor Piece articles from British Chess News to a new website.

Please feel free to look around and subscribe if you're interested.

https://minorpieces.uk/

[MJMcCready]

Done so already but will have another look or two.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Have also subscribed. I wonder if it is possible to have the original publication dates included?

Minor Piece 1 is all the way down on page 9:

https://minorpieces.uk/page/9/

https://minorpieces.uk/2025/03/28/minor ... arnshaw-1/

Without the original publication dates, it can get confusing (this was not published in March 2025).

Was that one back in 2020 at some point?

[Richard James]

Have also subscribed. I wonder if it is possible to have the original publication dates included?

Minor Piece 1 is all the way down on page 9:

https://minorpieces.uk/page/9/

https://minorpieces.uk/2025/03/28/minor ... arnshaw-1/

Without the original publication dates, it can get confusing (this was not published in March 2025).

Was that one back in 2020 at some point?

I could do - but it would take time which I don't have at the moment. There are other things I'd like to do as well, but it's taken me some time to rescue them all via the Wayback Machine, hack them all around and update/rewrite where necessary.

At some point I'll add the articles I wrote on Richmond Junior Club 1975-2006.

[Richard James]

https://minorpieces.uk/2025/05/22/minor ... y-gunning/

Ralph & Harry Gunning were London bus drivers, chess problemists and members of Twickenham Chess Club.

You don't want to miss this first new style Minor Piece.

[John Clarke]

It looks from all this as though the British Chess News site is now either totally defunct or experiencing something a lot more serious than "temporary" problems. Anyone in a position to provide an update?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

It might be best to ask about BCN in a different thread?

Regarding Richard's latest Minor Piece, I thought for a long while that problem 9 (#2 Ralph & Jack Gunning, London Evening News 26-05-1958) was cooked, but I manged to miss an obvious interposition that knocks out all the other 'solutions' I had found. Oops. Some nice chess problems there as well as the excellent history.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Researching this sort of thing is difficult enough, but the really tricky job is writing it up into an engaging story, and Richard does a fantastic job at that.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Researching this sort of thing is difficult enough, but the really tricky job is writing it up into an engaging story, and Richard does a fantastic job at that."

Yes - it also frequently raises related issues. I noticed a reference to WHM Kirk and wondered if he had commuted from Wimbledon to play, or if he lived somewhere else then. (I realise people do move house...)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Apologies that the following is nothing about the chess...

There appears to be a bit of a mystery around Herbert Gunning (the eldest brother of Ralph and Harry), where Richard says:

Herbert had lost his life in 1916, a prisoner of war in Turkey.

However, if that is based on this source:

HerbertBroadbentGunning.jpg

Then "Turkey" is being used as shorthand for the Ottoman Empire, as Kut el Amara is this famous WWI siege: Siege of Kut (south of Baghdad in what is now Iraq). That ended on 29 April 1916 and Herbert's death is {a day before that (technically, those who became POWs were after that date).} much later, in August

EDIT: Oops. I was confusing April and August. Herbert was among those unfortunate enough to be POWs, surviving until August.

But there is no Herbert Gunning for that date in the CWGC database. The only death of a Gunning that I could find on that date was this entry for a "J. Gunning" who "served as Smith":

Gunner J GUNNING (Served as Smith).

Gunning_ServedAsSmith.jpg

Given the different initial ('H' vs 'J') it is possible there has been some mis-identification here. Although born in Isleworth, he does not appear to be on the Isleworth War Memorial. It is probable that he does appear on one of the local war memorials in the Twickenham area due to his parents living there, and possibly also where he was living before the war broke out.

There is a Herbert Gunning recorded on a war memorial for Trafalgar Junior School in Twickenham, but have not been able to find a photo online of that war memorial (some school war memorials can be hard to research).

[Richard James]

Yes, Herbert Broadbent Gunning enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery in 1909 under the name of John Smith. No idea why.

I've now added some documents to the article, along with three further Gunning games (all losses, I'm afraid) kindly provided by Brian Denman.

Many thanks to everyone for their generous comments. I hope you enjoy some of the other articles as well.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Coming back to this, the chess aspects that struck me were (I am copying here from the comment I made over there and expanding on them here):

(1) You wonder why the section was founded "against much opposition" in 1926 (this is from the 1952 Hastings and St Leonards Observer news report)?

I wonder if the 1926 General Strike was before or after the chess section was founded? You can imagine some AGM of the London Transport sports section or union (I have no idea how these organisations structured themselves and if it was a purely internal element or if there was any union involvement, I am guessing not).

Was the opposition from management, or was it from other bus drivers? Why would you oppose the setting up of a chess club? Was it seen as dangerous and decadent, as counter-productive to a work ethic? Or maybe frivolous? Or was it just petty office politics?

(2) The Busmen's Chess Review publication sounds amazing. I wonder what format it was and how many pages they managed to fill and how often they published?

(3) Is there footage of the 1953 televised celebrity simul? Good to see the name of Kenneth Inwood (Kingston Chess Club) there! Lovely quote about C.H. O'D. Alexander having to "orate divertingly every half hour or so" - would there have been silence the rest of the time? I am not convinced it would have been riveting television viewing! But then colour TV was very new! It is worth pondering the list of names that B.H. Wood mentions there.

Does anyone here have memories of this event, or similar events? The closest now would be the Trafalgar Square Chess Festival, does that get some televised coverage? But still not quite the same thing.

[Richard James]

(2) The Busmen's Chess Review publication sounds amazing. I wonder what format it was and how many pages they managed to fill and how often they published?

There's an article about the Busmen's Chess Review in the November 2022 edition of The Problemist Supplement here.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

(2) The Busmen's Chess Review publication sounds amazing. I wonder what format it was and how many pages they managed to fill and how often they published?

There's an article about the Busmen's Chess Review in the November 2022 edition of The Problemist Supplement here.

Thank you Richard. A delightful trawl through some outstanding chess problems from BCR in that article by David Shire. A full four pages and commentary on the history and the social history as well. Also Soviet and Indian problem composers.

Amazing that it caught on to such a degree in a particular grouping, or maybe it says something about who went into the bus driving profession in those days.

Maybe the opposition was because chess was considered too 'socialist'? Would that have been the case in 1926? As opposed to later on, after WW2? I should know this...

I wonder if any other 'works' chess teams encountered opposition?

[Richard James]

https://minorpieces.uk/2025/05/29/minor ... e-gifford/

HWB Gifford was the first unofficial Dutch chess champion, also competing in the 1878 Paris tournament.

My latest Minor Piece attempts to unravel the mystery of his identity.