English Chess Forum

The Michael Basman Legacy Foundation is pleased to announce that the majority of the Audio Chess Cassettes that he tirelessly worked
on between 1975 and 1986 are now online at Michael Basman Legacy together with scans of the accompanying booklets.

Highlights of the channel so far are the blockbusting 4-tape St. George's Opening on the only opening to defeat Karpov in his encounters with British players, and highlights of the Southampton 1986 British Championship starring mind blowing samples from the likes of Mark Condle, Stuart Conquest and Julian Hodgson.

These tapes will be invaluable to historians of the 1970s and 80s chess scene as well as a fund of insightful analysis and training materials that will be an evergreen resource.

So far the channel has digitised 62 out of the 108ish tapes that Mike produced, and more content is appearing all the time, but the channel needs your help. After an exhaustive search of his sheds and estate, there are several tapes for which no masters or copies could be found, and this is an appeal for members of the forum to get in touch if you have any of the following. Please hunt through your attics and garages!

Most urgently we need:

Global Opening
The Macho Grob
Thor Speaks

but all of the following are missing too and would be gratefully received to complete the archive:

The English Defence for the 80s (Full Analysis Otto Hardy)
Versow Opening
Petroff Defence
Budapest Defence
Tchigorin Defence
Modern Ideas in the English Defence
The Central Attack
Nimzo-Indian, Leningrad Attack
Bring Back the Kings Gambit
Sicilian Scheveningen
Sicilian Najdorf
Colle System
The Open Ruy Lopez
Ruy Lopez Central Attack (5. d4)
The French Defence Repertoire
Chess Openings: King's Indian/ Nimzo Indian
The Amateur Game II
Piece and Pawn Interplay
Train Yourself
Korchnoi-Karpov
The Korchnoi Tapes
The One and Only Tony Miles
Practical Endgame Techniques
Chess for Starters

Please like and subscribe to the channel as we bring Audio Chess into the Century of the Fruitbat.

This is invaluable material - many thanks for posting it on YouTube.

It can be enjoyed on many levels. I started off by listening to the recorded voices of long-departed players such as Simon Webb and David Hooper, as well as Mike himself and Tony Miles (whose voice is already preserved for posterity in Master Games videos). Also, thankfully still with us, Bernard Cafferty with his guide to Russian for chess players. Anyone wanting to know how Alekhine, etc, is to be pronounced now has a definitive source (Bernard's in-depth knowledge of the language is superior to many native speakers).

The booklets accompanying the recordings are linked to in the text of each video. One of these links I found to be defective but I worked out that the following link allows you to browse them all: https://michael-basman-legacy.github.io/audio-chess/

I then enjoyed listening to Basman's best games of 1976. The link to the booklet for it was the defective one but you can seek it out above via the link given in the previous paragraph. However, it is a bit confusing as it doesn't feature the scores of the four games which Basman goes through in the recording. Very odd! No matter: I have those scores and have added them as comments to the YouTube recording so people can load up the games on a database screen and then move the pieces around whilst listening to the recording. I've long been planning a Basman game file for BritBase and this will only spur me on to making it a reality.

Was Mike Basman a Terry Pratchett fan? I thought the "Century of the Fruitbat" reference sounded familiar!

Cheers John, I'm very glad to hear the collection is of interest to you.

Sorry about the mixup with the Best Games booklet, it's indeed puzzling that the booklet labelled "Basman's Best Games 1976" doesn't match the tape of the same name, but thanks so much for attaching the relevant game records, I've edited the video description to redirect viewers to your comments.

I've long been planning a Basman game file for BritBase and this will only spur me on to making it a reality.

That's lovely to hear, and do let me know if there is any help I can offer. In the next room here there are several boxes labelled "Games", some going back to the 50s, and I'd be grateful for your guidance on what is a priority for conservation.

Was Mike Basman a Terry Pratchett fan? I thought the "Century of the Fruitbat" reference sounded familiar!

I have to say that it is actually me who was the Terry Pratchett fan, although Mike did buy me a couple of the books back in the day

Oh yes I did want to add to my earlier request for help, I'd be grateful if anyone would be able to lay their hands on a 1970s photo of Otto Hardy.

If you haven't already, you might want to get in touch with the Braille Chess Association (of which I am a supporter) as I know they have some of Basman's old recordings available. I made use of them when co-authoring The Polish Defense: Systems for Black Based on ...b5 (Russell Enterprises, 2022).

https://braillechess.org.uk/

This archive is a truly superb resource and I echo JS's comments entirely.

Strangely enough after many years I played the David Hooper tapes as I'd never heard his voice previously.

I have a large number of these tapes (including "missing" ones) and my plan a few months ago was not only to digitise the audio (I bought the equipment to do this) but to add a visual layer over the top (via Chessbase) showing the positions as described audibly. Two Lotus Seven (The Prisoner) restorations (and a TVR restoration) then got in the way and the Basman project fell by the way side.

I suspect Francis Bowers may have more of these tapes somewhere in on of his many chess lock-ups. Mine are safely stored along with the paperwork that goes with each.

Listen to Otto Hardy if you have not already!

MJB was a true pioneer and innovator and I really enjoyed working with him as photographer for UK Chess Challenge. Sadly that has come to an end with mobile telephone images taking over.

I hope to contribute to this archive / project in due course.

Antranig Basman wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 22, 2025 12:17 pm

Most urgently we need:

Global Opening
The Macho Grob
Thor Speaks

I contacted Thor on your behalf, but he hasn't seen his copy of that, or any other of Mike's tapes, since moving in 1987.

It's great to see this material being made available for a new generation and wish you well in your quest for the missing tapes.

Otto Hardy background here:

http://www.mccu.org.uk/players/otto_hardy.htm

viewtopic.php?t=1596

Who is Thor??

Antranig Basman wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 22, 2025 11:57 pm

That's lovely to hear, and do let me know if there is any help I can offer. In the next room here there are several boxes labelled "Games", some going back to the 50s, and I'd be grateful for your guidance on what is a priority for conservation.

That sounds interesting. I assume you are referring to a collection of game scores (scoresheets and/or scorebooks). As regards priorities: if they are records of Mike's own games then I'd suggest we try to get them all digitised. I've got at least one volunteer ready to help me get them input. If possible, I'd like to cast an eye over them myself first to assess how much work will be involved. Email me (see below) and we can discuss.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 23, 2025 11:53 am

Who is Thor??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor

John Saunders wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 23, 2025 1:20 pm

I assume you are referring to a collection of game scores (scoresheets and/or scorebooks).

I seem to recall Mike Basman recording moves at rapidplay events in a baby scorebook. So there's probably a lot of material in the collection. Some of the games he quoted in his book on 1. g4 came from rapidplays. I'm in it when I tried 1. g4 e5 2. h3 Ne7. Annoyingly he didn't play Bg2 allowing Ne7-g6-f4 or h4.

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 23, 2025 2:53 pm

John Saunders wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 23, 2025 1:20 pm

I assume you are referring to a collection of game scores (scoresheets and/or scorebooks).

I seem to recall Mike Basman recording moves at rapidplay events in a baby scorebook. So there's probably a lot of material in the collection. Some of the games he quoted in his book on 1. g4 came from rapidplays. I'm in it when I tried 1. g4 e5 2. h3 Ne7. Annoyingly he didn't play Bg2 allowing Ne7-g6-f4 or h4.

Yes, I have pictures of Mike doing that as recently as 2018 at a rapidplay. But it was a scorepad rather than a scorebook from which he would remove the scoresheet after each game. I can't imagine any arbiter would object to that. Your game against him, at Leighton Buzzard in 1988, appeared in his Killer Grob book.

On a related note I have been asked by the Oxford Dictionary for National Biography to write MJBs new entry.

Thanks for the help and kind words, all -

Who is Thor??

Probably anagram of Hort? Although I seem to remember that the conceit was that the narrators would imitate him rather than him appearing himself.

Thanks for the info about Otto Hardy - my father would call him "Crazy Otto" - but a photo would be great if anyone can find.

On a related note I have been asked by the Oxford Dictionary for National Biography to write MJBs new entry.

That's exciting news! Do get in touch if you could do with any help filling in some info. Note that some of info in obits is corrupted.

I've contacted John Saunders and BCA offline, thanks for the tips.

The digitised master reels came back today so there is more stuff ready for the archive, including Tape #1, Sicilian with 4 ... Bc5.

Antranig Basman wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 24, 2025 1:35 pm

The digitised master reels came back today so there is more stuff ready for the archive, including Tape #1, Sicilian with 4 ... Bc5.

The Basman-Sale Variation (Mike never liked the reference to the Sale bit) was my first AC cassette.

Mike promoted the tape via various presentations including this one at the Wimpy Bar in Camberley run by Camberley Chess Club member, Ken Preston-Wyse in 197? (I will dig out the date over the weekend).