Corrections for Britbase on pre-WW1 British Championships
Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 2:26 pm
I have corrections for two of the Britbase files.
Concerning 1904, John Saunders has written at
http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/Britkk.htm#bcf1904 that his 1904 British Championship file:
"...posted on BritBase contains significant amendments to that published by ChessBase. The biggest mistake is that the 32-move Blackburne-Michell game on the ChessBase database should actually [sic] an entirely different 59-move game Michell-Blackburne. Also, they have transposed the games of round 8 and 9. There are also a number of other minor anomalies which have been straightened out in the download. My thanks to Ken Clow for alerting me to some of these errors."
The above quote is dated 07 April 2004. I don't know what changes may have been made since then, nor what information John got from Ken Clow but I suspect that some of it was incorrect!
Looking at the Britbase file as it was this morning (20 August 2015), many of the dates of games from rounds 6-11 are incorrect because round 6 was played on the second Monday and the tournament finished on the second Saturday. (One round 6 game was played on the first Saturday by special arrangement. From memory I think it was the one involving Jacobs but I would have to check that.)
Moreover another game from a later round was not played on the scheduled date.
It is all rather complicated but will be explained in my Blackburne book, so it's probably best to await that before updating the current file as there is rather a lot to be fixed.
Notwithstanding these criticisms, John Saunders certainly deserves credit in general for his huge work on Britbase, and here in particular for inserting the correct game between Michell and Blackburne because, as stated in his quote above, Tony Gillam's 1904 tournaments book has a different game between them. Some time after John pointed this out in 2004 ChessBase has included the correct game whereas formerly it followed Gillam.
Searching just now on the ChessBase Mega Database 2011 (the most recent version I have) it looks as if they have also made the round number/date changes to copy Britbase so they have been misled about this tournament twice!
The games played on 31 August are correctly dated in the Britbase file, I think, but that's because John (as quoted above) was under the impression that ChessBase (which followed Gillam) had transposed rounds 8 and 9.
Actually Tony's book is correct in that respect. He gave round numbers not dates.
As a "checksum" I will just point out that Blackburne played Bellingham on Wednesday 31 August in round 8 and the game with Michell was in round 9 on Thursday 1 September 1904.
Unfortunately Blackburne's games against Tattersall and R. C. Macdonald remain unavailable but, thanks to John Hilbert's biography of Napier, my book does have Blackburne's game against Napier. I think Hilbert must have found it in the uncut version of Napier's own book.
Britbase gives the final date of the Congress as 4 September 1904 but that was a Sunday.
The prizegiving was actually held on the Saturday evening with BCF President F. G. Naumann presiding and his wife distributing the prizes.
Those who have access to the British Newspaper Archive can, for example, see the detailed report in the Yorkshire Post of Monday 5 September which is datelined Saturday and says "this evening".
Moving on to 1908 at Tunbridge Wells, when Palmer-Blackburne, 1908 appeared in BCM December pp. 551-552 they misprinted "43...P-B4" whereas Blackburne actually played "43...P-Kt4". That is why the end of the game as printed in BCM does not make sense which presumably explains why John Saunders could not give a complete score.
However this game from Black's 23rd move was analysed in Gunsberg's column in the Manchester Guardian on 1 September which gave the correct finish; there was also some discussion in the Guardian the next week when a reader pointed out an improvement for Blackburne at move 24.
Here is the correct score.
Britbase currently follows the BCM score which leads to an illegal move for Black at move 50.
If you post the corrected version online, John, please acknowledge that I have provided this information.
Concerning 1904, John Saunders has written at
http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/Britkk.htm#bcf1904 that his 1904 British Championship file:
"...posted on BritBase contains significant amendments to that published by ChessBase. The biggest mistake is that the 32-move Blackburne-Michell game on the ChessBase database should actually [sic] an entirely different 59-move game Michell-Blackburne. Also, they have transposed the games of round 8 and 9. There are also a number of other minor anomalies which have been straightened out in the download. My thanks to Ken Clow for alerting me to some of these errors."
The above quote is dated 07 April 2004. I don't know what changes may have been made since then, nor what information John got from Ken Clow but I suspect that some of it was incorrect!
Looking at the Britbase file as it was this morning (20 August 2015), many of the dates of games from rounds 6-11 are incorrect because round 6 was played on the second Monday and the tournament finished on the second Saturday. (One round 6 game was played on the first Saturday by special arrangement. From memory I think it was the one involving Jacobs but I would have to check that.)
Moreover another game from a later round was not played on the scheduled date.
It is all rather complicated but will be explained in my Blackburne book, so it's probably best to await that before updating the current file as there is rather a lot to be fixed.
Notwithstanding these criticisms, John Saunders certainly deserves credit in general for his huge work on Britbase, and here in particular for inserting the correct game between Michell and Blackburne because, as stated in his quote above, Tony Gillam's 1904 tournaments book has a different game between them. Some time after John pointed this out in 2004 ChessBase has included the correct game whereas formerly it followed Gillam.
Searching just now on the ChessBase Mega Database 2011 (the most recent version I have) it looks as if they have also made the round number/date changes to copy Britbase so they have been misled about this tournament twice!
The games played on 31 August are correctly dated in the Britbase file, I think, but that's because John (as quoted above) was under the impression that ChessBase (which followed Gillam) had transposed rounds 8 and 9.
Actually Tony's book is correct in that respect. He gave round numbers not dates.
As a "checksum" I will just point out that Blackburne played Bellingham on Wednesday 31 August in round 8 and the game with Michell was in round 9 on Thursday 1 September 1904.
Unfortunately Blackburne's games against Tattersall and R. C. Macdonald remain unavailable but, thanks to John Hilbert's biography of Napier, my book does have Blackburne's game against Napier. I think Hilbert must have found it in the uncut version of Napier's own book.
Britbase gives the final date of the Congress as 4 September 1904 but that was a Sunday.
The prizegiving was actually held on the Saturday evening with BCF President F. G. Naumann presiding and his wife distributing the prizes.
Those who have access to the British Newspaper Archive can, for example, see the detailed report in the Yorkshire Post of Monday 5 September which is datelined Saturday and says "this evening".
Moving on to 1908 at Tunbridge Wells, when Palmer-Blackburne, 1908 appeared in BCM December pp. 551-552 they misprinted "43...P-B4" whereas Blackburne actually played "43...P-Kt4". That is why the end of the game as printed in BCM does not make sense which presumably explains why John Saunders could not give a complete score.
However this game from Black's 23rd move was analysed in Gunsberg's column in the Manchester Guardian on 1 September which gave the correct finish; there was also some discussion in the Guardian the next week when a reader pointed out an improvement for Blackburne at move 24.
Here is the correct score.
Britbase currently follows the BCM score which leads to an illegal move for Black at move 50.
If you post the corrected version online, John, please acknowledge that I have provided this information.