Boxing Day Treat: The Memoirs of William Winter

[John Upham]

The full memoirs of IM William Winter are now available at

http://britishchessnews.com/2020/12/18/ ... s-memoirs/

There is a huge amount of material covering all phases of his life including

home life, JM Barrie, cricket, World War One, work as a solicitor, politics, university life, British and other chess players, Teaching, earning a living,
personal relationships, communism, journalism, tournaments, Olympiads, writing and a whole lot more.

A few words used in the 1950s had to be replaced to cater for modern day political correctness and acceptance.

Fascinating stuff!

Enjoy!

[Gerard Killoran]

From Winter's match with Scott, a game seemingly not in the online databases:

[Event "Match"] [Site "Hastings"] [Date "1919.04.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Winter, William"] [Black "Scott, Roland Henry Vaughan"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D47"] [Opening "QGD: semi-Slav, Meran, Wade variation"] 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 e6 3. c4 c6 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 8. Bd3 Bb7 9. O-O a6 10. e4 c5 11. e5 cxd4 12. Nxb5 Ng4 13. Nbxd4 Ngxe5 14. Nxe5 Nxe5 15. Qa4+ Qd7 16. Qxd7+ Kxd7 17. Bc2 Bd6 18. Bg5 f6 19. Bh4 Ng6 20. Bg3 Nf4 21. Ba4+ Ke7 22. Rfe1 Be5 23. Bxf4 Bxd4 24. Rad1 Rhd8 25. Bc7 e5 26. Bxd8+ Rxd8 27. Rc1 Kd6 28. Rc2 e4 29. Rd1 Ke5 30. Rc7 Bc8 31. Re7+ Kf4 32. g3+ Kf3 33. Rd2 Bxf2+ 34. Rxf2+ Ke3 35. Rf1 Bg4 36. Re1+ Be2 37. Rd7 Rxd7 38. Bxd7 Kd2 39. Rxe2+ {Exeter and Plymouth Gazette - Thursday 08 May 1919 p.4} 1-0

[Roger de Coverly]

There is a mention of Winter in the latest New in Chess Yearbook. That's in the context of his notorious game against Capablanca at Hastings in 1919 where his Bishop got entombed on g3. The article was about Bg5 in the Italian, however the Winter game was a Four Knights.

This appears a critical position where the move Qd2 (instead of Nd5) sets a trap to prevent .. g5 . As a consequence, an engine scores the position as a small edge for White.

[SetUp "1"] [FEN "r1bq1rk1/ppp2pp1/3b1n1p/2p1p3/4P2B/2NP1N2/PPP2PPP/R2Q1RK1 w - - 0 10"]

But this is what actually happened as they went into an ending. Capa won, on much of the board, he is a piece up.
[SetUp "1"] [FEN "r4rk1/ppp5/3b1p1p/2p1p1p1/4P3/3P1PBP/PPP2P2/R4RK1 w - - 0 16"]
White to move

The whole game

[Event ""] [Site "Hastings (England)"][SetUp "1"][Date "1919.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Winter William (ENG)"] [Black "Capablanca Jose Raul (CUB)"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C49"] 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Bb4 5.O-O O-O 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.d3 Bd6 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bh4 c5 10.Nd5 g5 11.Nxf6+ Qxf6 12.Bg3 Bg4 13.h3 Bxf3 14.Qxf3 Qxf3 15.gxf3 f6 16.Kg2 a5 17.a4 Kf7 18.Rh1 Ke6 19.h4 Rfb8 20.hxg5 hxg5 21.b3 c6 22.Ra2 b5 23.Rha1 c4 24.axb5 cxb3 25.cxb3 Rxb5 26.Ra4 Rxb3 27.d4 Rb5 28.Rc4 Rb4 29.Rxc6 Rxd4 0-1

[Nick Ivell]

Winter must have had nightmares about that game. Capablanca was the last person you wanted to play against with a dead bishop.

[Matt Mackenzie]

As if that wasn't enough, Winter blew a totally won position against Capa during Nottingham 1936. Which might better explain his agreeing a draw in the last round against Botvinnik, when he stood much better, compared to conspiracy theories about "helping a fellow Commie".