English Chess Forum

I am sorry to report the recent loss of Gerald Botteley and his wife Florence.
His passing was reported on the Leicestershire & Rutland Chess Association website on the 8th October.
Gerald won the British Senior/Veterans Chess Championship in 1994.
He played Gary Kasparov at Oakham in 1997 and came within a stroke of beating him.
Gerald and Gary met a few years later and Gary went up to Gerald and said "if only you had taken my pawn."
Here is the link to the game:
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1359345
Gerald was also an accomplished violin maker/restorer, musician, a published poet and writer.
Gerald, 88, passed away in Peterborough after a long illness and 8 hours later, his wife of 67 years, Florence, 91, passed away at their Oakham home.
RIP

Sad news. I didn't know Gerald but his name rang a bell. I found a game he won on my database.

Here is the the result of the 1994 British Veterans' Championship: 1 Gerald Botteley (Oakham) 6/7; 2 Malcolm R Peart (Scarborough) 5½; 3= H James Draisey, M Reuser, Roelof Westra 4; 6= James Nicolson, A Pond, A Summers 3½; 9 Joseph Soesan 3; 10 Donald Baldwin 2½; 11 David A S Buckland 2; 12 David Dickson ½. Some decent rivals for the title there, so a very good result.

Here's the Kasparov game...

[Event "Clock simul"] [Site "Oakham"] [Date "1997.11.06"] [Round "?"] [White "Kasparov, Garry"] [Black "Botteley, Gerald W"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C83"] [PlyCount "55"] [EventDate "1997.11.06"] [EventType "simul"] [EventCountry "ENG"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9. Be3 Be7 10. c3 O-O 11. Nbd2 Nxd2 12. Qxd2 Na5 13. Bc2 Nc4 14. Qd3 g6 15. Bh6 Re8 16. Qd4 f6 17. exf6 Bxf6 18. Qf4 Nd6 19. Nd4 Bd7 20. Bb3 Nc4 21. Rae1 Be7 22. Bxc4 bxc4 23. Qe5 Bf6 24. Qxd5+ Kh8 25. Qxc4 Be5 26. Nc6 Bxc6 27. Qxc6 Bxh2+ 28. Kxh2 {Source: chessgames.com} 1-0

The capture of a pawn Kasparov was referencing was presumably 16...Nxb2 instead of 16...f6.

Here's the game I found on my database, from way back in 1958. BH Wood published it in the Birmingham Daily Post as an example of Légal's mate...

[Event "Birmingham League"] [Site "Birmingham"] [Date "1958.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Botteley, Gerald W"] [Black "Robinson, M."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C50"] [Annotator "Wood, BH"] [PlyCount "15"] [EventDate "1958.??.??"] [EventType "team-match"] [EventCountry "ENG"] [WhiteTeam "South Birmingham"] [BlackTeam "Olton"] [WhiteTeamCountry "ENG"] [BlackTeamCountry "ENG"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 d6 4. O-O Bg4 5. Nc3 Nd4 $2 6. Nxe5 $1 Bxd1 7. Bxf7+ Ke7 8. Nd5# {Source: Birmingham Daily Post, 7 October 1958 - BH Wood column} 1-0

I had another look through the newspaper archive and found another win for Gerald from the 1965 National Club Championship...

[Event "National Club Ch Leics-Cedars Leicester"] [Site "Leicestershire"] [Date "1965.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Botteley, Gerald W"] [Black "Starosolsky, Roman"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B57"] [PlyCount "35"] [EventDate "1965.??.??"] [EventType "team-match"] [EventRounds "1"] [EventCountry "ENG"] [SourceVersionDate "2021.10.15"] [WhiteTeam "Leicestershire CC"] [BlackTeam "Cedars Leicester"] [WhiteTeamCountry "ENG"] [BlackTeamCountry "ENG"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 d6 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. Bc4 g6 7. Nxc6 bxc6 8. e5 Ng8 9. Qf3 e6 10. exd6 Qxd6 11. O-O a6 12. Be3 Bb7 13. Rad1 Qc7 14. Bf4 Qa5 15. Rfe1 Ne7 16. Ne4 Nd5 17. Be5 Nb6 18. Nf6+ {Source: Birmingham Daily Post, 23 February 1965} 1-0

There is another Gerald Botteley game to be found on BritBase, from the collection of Peter Griffiths' games, but having broken the principle of 'de mortuis scacchisticis nihil nisi victoriae' once already, I shall not give the score.