Reginald Pryce Michell - A Master of British Chess: A forgotten chess master

[John Upham]

John Foley has reviewed

Reginald Pryce Michell - A Master of British Chess: A forgotten chess master

self-published from Carsten Hansen based on the original 1947 edition from Julius du Mont.


https://britishchessnews.com/2024/05/27 ... tish-chess

R. P. Michell – A Master of British Chess: A forgotten chess master, Carsten Hansen and Julius du Mont, Publisher ‏ : ‎ CarstenChess (16 Mar. 2024), ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-8793812888

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[Kevin Thurlow]

Edith Tapsell first played at Redhill and has the distinction of (so far) being the only female winner of the Redhill club championship.

A free quote from my CS book, (in the tributes/obituaries section)

"J du Mont subsequently published a book entitled, ‘RP Michell, a Master of British Chess’ in 1947, which Chess scathingly reviewed, ‘Britain is far from the top of the chess tree and there must be a hundred British players with better justification for the publication of a book of their games than Michell. Mr du Mont’s graceful pen has made the most of his subject. The price of the book (10/6 for 108pp, 36 games) is so extraordinarily high that one feels some appeal is being made to sentiment.’"

That seems harsh - he had some great results.

[John Upham]

Edith Tapsell first played at Redhill and has the distinction of (so far) being the only female winner of the Redhill club championship.

A free quote from my CS book, (in the tributes/obituaries section)

"J du Mont subsequently published a book entitled, ‘RP Michell, a Master of British Chess’ in 1947, which Chess scathingly reviewed, ‘Britain is far from the top of the chess tree and there must be a hundred British players with better justification for the publication of a book of their games than Michell. Mr du Mont’s graceful pen has made the most of his subject. The price of the book (10/6 for 108pp, 36 games) is so extraordinarily high that one feels some appeal is being made to sentiment.’"

That seems harsh - he had some great results.

Thanks for this Kevin. One can't help feeling that maybe BHWs comments were not terribly objective.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Even if you accept some validity in the critique - "a hundred British players"? Back in 1947??

Somewhat doubt.

[James Pratt]

At the urging of John Upham - no subtle soul - I have to climb down here. Clearly Michell was a lot stronger than I knew, or BH Wood cared to recall.
James