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Pagden-v-Nunn
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2026 10:47 pm
by James Pratt
I am looking for the score of a Pirc/Modern played in the Basingstoke Open in (I think) 1978, won by Michael Pagden against John Nunn. My database is silent but it was published in CHESS in an article, possibly sometime after, by the learned Doc who, surprisingly, lost.
Please, who can help?
James
Re: Pagden-v-Nunn
Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2026 1:39 pm
by Gerard Killoran
This one?
- Pagden - Nunn.jpg (40.56 KiB) Viewed 2532 times
Re: Pagden-v-Nunn
Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2026 6:41 pm
by James Pratt
Thanks
Re: Pagden-v-Nunn
Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2026 7:12 pm
by James Pratt
I have all the old CHESS Volumes but can't find it. They are indexed too and I know my way around them, or thought I did! Gerard, can you direct me again?
Re: Pagden-v-Nunn
Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2026 7:42 pm
by Matt Mackenzie
I think that snippet cited above may be the only reference?
Re: Pagden-v-Nunn
Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2026 9:57 pm
by James Pratt
Indeed but I could not find it. I tried every possibility and drew several blanks.
James
Re: Pagden-v-Nunn
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2026 9:46 am
by John Saunders
I didn't have any difficulty in following Gerard's lead which indicates page 178 of CHESS, Volume 44, which happens to be in the March 1979 issue of the magazine. If you navigate to that page you will find John Nunn's annotation of the game Britton-Nunn, Islington 1978 which includes a brief reference to Pagden-Nunn, Basingstoke 1977, in the notes, though not the full score. I retrieved the score of Britton-Nunn from the StarBase 4.56 database some years ago and added the opening references found in CHESS, thus...
That gives you the first 12 moves of the Pagden-Nunn game but no more and I've not been able to find the rest of the score anywhere. John Nunn annotates the Britton game in his book Secrets of Grandmaster Chess (Batsford 1997) at great length (ppn 121-130) but without mentioning Pagden-Nunn.
The same book, on page 118, has a reference to Nunn recording an outright win with 6/7 in the 1977 Basingstoke Open (which took place over the weekend of 3-5 June). He gives the part-game D.Bell - Nunn but there is no mention of a game with Pagden. The tournament result seems to have gone unreported in CHESS and BCM and I couldn't find a result for it in newspapers. Perhaps we can speculate that the point dropped by Nunn in the tournament was a loss to Pagden but who knows. Basingstoke also hosted quickplay events in that era (I played in one myself on 6 November 1977) so it could also have been played in one of those.
Re: Pagden-v-Nunn
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2026 1:39 pm
by James Pratt
The DW Bell is Dave, father of SD Bell, then both of Southampton. Bell played his usual French against Nunn. Some confusion arises that Pagden is labelled as Mark which is incorrect, no such player exists. He was called Mickey by his brother pre-Adams.
James
Re: Pagden-v-Nunn
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2026 3:18 pm
by Roger de Coverly
James Pratt wrote: ↑Mon Mar 30, 2026 1:39 pm
Some confusion arises that Pagden is labelled as Mark which is incorrect, no such player exists. He was called Mickey by his brother pre-Adams.
James
On britbase in the archive of varsity match results, John Saunders has him as Michael Ashley Pagden (Pembroke)
https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pgn/1 ... iewer.html
Re: Pagden-v-Nunn
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2026 6:45 pm
by John Upham
Michael Pagden, who emanated from Aldershot, is here second from right at the rear sandwiched by David Cummings and Clive Hill.
The next time Aldershot had a connection with a strong player was with Michael Rahal
- img_0279_smaller.jpg (336.1 KiB) Viewed 2227 times
Re: Pagden-v-Nunn
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2026 6:14 pm
by Nick Ivell
Hebden's hat brings back many memories of a bygone era I was part of (though not present in the photo).