Mike Alcock

[Peter Ackley]

Sadly I must report the passing of Mike Alcock. Hopefully someone who knew him better can post more on his numerous achievements - I only knew Mike after I moved north in 2016.

Until ill health overtook him a few years ago, Mike was a stalwart member of Chesterfield Chess Club. He was a very strong player. He represented Derbyshire at County level on many occasions and won the Derbyshire Individual Championship on no less than 15 occasions between 1972 and 2013. He was also Club Champion on six occasions. He will be greatly missed by all his chess friends in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire.

[John Swain]

I'm very saddened to hear about Mike's death. I met Mike at Notts League matches on many occasions in the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s but seem to have played him only once, in 1988 in a Gambit I v Sutton I encounter, when he was graded 209. I always found Mike to be very pleasant and courteous. My sincere condolences to Mike's family and friends. RIP.

[Simon Rogers]

I'm very sorry to hear about Mike.I met him a few times.
Very strong player and played many league matches and county matches. He was also a regular at Congresses.
I believe Mike was the Derby chess club champion in 1971, 1972 and 1973. He was also Chesterfield chess club champion in 2015 and 2016.
There is a game of his on chessgames.com from the 1981 British Chess Championship where he lost to Ian Robert Watson.
I will miss him.
RIP

[LawrenceCooper]

Sad news. I played him six times between 1989 and 1996 in a mixture of club, county and tournament games. Checking the rating database he had a peak rating of 199 and we had some hard fought games with entertaining analysis afterwards.

[Neil Graham]

Mike was originally from Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire I believe. He played in 1960 British Under 18 Championship at Leicester where he scored 7/11 (13th=) in a field of 63 players. In the 1963 Under 21 Championship at Bath, Mike was 7th overall with 6.5/11 losing just two games to the joint winner Mike Basman and also Harry Lamb. At this time Mike was shown as Durham, so I guess he was at University there.

By profession, Mike was a teacher and firstly lived in Derbyshire before moving to Ravenshead in Nottinghamshire. He was Nottinghamshire champion in 1977-8, 1981-82 & 1984-5. He qualified for the British Championship in 1981 under the old BCQC rules where he scored 5.5/11 (+4; =3; -4) - for some reason I seem to think that there was some sort of recompense for winning games in this Championship which accounted for the smaller than average number of draws. The winner in 1981 was Paul Littlewood and certainly a couple of exhibition games were arranged between Mike and Paul in North Notts, one of which was in the window of a local Building Society. For over 25 years Mike was the top board for Sutton-in-Ashfield (now Ashfield) Chess Club and during that time the club won it's one and only Nottinghamshire Chess League Championship in 1988-89. As well as chess, Mike was active in local politics and stood for the County Council as a Labour candidate. However Ravenshead was (and is) a staunch stronghold for the Conservatives and along with his party colleagues was soundly beaten.

In the 1990's there was tragedy with the loss of a member of his immediate family. Mike decided that Ravenshead held too many memories and moved to the Dronfield area where his chess was primarily played for the Chesterfield club with the successes outlined above despite his failing health.

All the games for the 1981 British Championship are held on Britbase including Mike's wins plus other games of his in the Midlands Individual Championship which was held at Derby for many years. Mike's grading certainly reached 200+ in old figures and he was one of the strongest players in the East Midlands over the board, In addition he played in the British Postal Chess Championship in those times where there was no computer assistance and achieved a rating of 2300+ .

[LawrenceCooper]

Sad news. I played him six times between 1989 and 1996 in a mixture of club, county and tournament games. Checking the rating database he had a peak rating of 199 and we had some hard fought games with entertaining analysis afterwards.

Thanks to both John and Neil for clarifying that Mike had indeed been graded over 200. I had a feeling he had but the database didn't go back far enough for me to check.

[Dragoljub Sudar]

His highest grade since 1986 was 209 in 1987-88 and he may have been higher before then.

The Derbyshire site states that Mike (1942-2025) won the Derbyshire Indivdual Championship at least 15 times between 1972 and 2013.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"In addition he played in the British Postal Chess Championship in those times where there was no computer assistance and achieved a rating of 2300+ ."

A friend at EFCC informs me that a Michael Alcock (presumably this one) played some games in the period 1987 to 2003 with a highest rating of 2380 in 1993. He finished 8th out of 13 in World Championship 17 Semi-final 5.

The World Championship result is certainly impressive.

[Ian Thompson]

A friend at EFCC informs me that a Michael Alcock (presumably this one) played some games in the period 1987 to 2003 with a highest rating of 2380 in 1993. He finished 8th out of 13 in World Championship 17 Semi-final 5.

Whilst not wishing to detract from the achievement, it's perhaps worth pointing out to those not in the know that the qualification series to get to an ICCF World Championship Final was:

• Master tournament
• World Championship Semi-Final
• World Championship Three-Quarter Final
• World Championship Final

so he was two steps away from getting to a World Championship Final, not the one step you might think from the tournament name.

If memory serves me correctly, he would have needed to either win two 7 player Master tournaments, or come first or second in one 15 player Master tournament to qualify for the Semi-Final. He was a good enough player that he would most likely have been given a place in a Master tournament based on OTB strength and not had to qualify for it by winning lower level tournaments.

[Neil Graham]

May I add and amend my obituary report above?

Mike played in the 1979 British Championship at Chester scoring 4/11 although he had achieved 4/8 after the eighth round including wins over Sheila Jackson and Colin McNab (and a loss to Jonathan Penrose). It was this tournament where the sponsors, Grieveson Grant & Co, offered a £5 win bonus for each game won by non-prize winners in the Championship rather than the 1981 Championship that I quoted above. The report (kindly shown on Britbase) shows a 36% increase in decisive games. £5 at that time was not an insignificant sum whereas today it buys a cup of coffee.

Can I move on to the world of Correspondence Chess? Otb had nothing to do with qualification. The British Correspondence Chess Championship was a huge pyramidal structure with one Championship section and numerous Candidates and Reserve Sections. I have the cross-table for the 1982-3 event where the Championship, a 12 player all-play-all was won by the Scottish master Douglas Bryson with 8/11. His sole defeat was to Mike, who was 5th= with 6/11. Under the one Championship section, over 150 players fought for promotion - there were six "Candidate" sections - I assume the winners took their place in the following years Championship and under that another six "Reserve" sections where players could go forward into the Candidates. One presumes entry into the international ICCF arena was via these events. What is clear to see is that Mike was in the highest echelons of British correspondence chess players in the 1980's.

[Ian Thompson]

Mike played in the 1979 British Championship at Chester scoring 4/11 although he had achieved 4/8 after the eighth round including wins over Sheila Jackson and Colin McNab (and a loss to Jonathan Penrose). It was this tournament where the sponsors, Grieveson Grant & Co, offered a £5 win bonus for each game won by non-prize winners in the Championship rather than the 1981 Championship that I quoted above.

I played in the 1981 British Championship. The £5 win bonus was on offer then.

One presumes entry into the international ICCF arena was via these events.

One would be wrong. ICCF tournaments in the 1980s were organised into 5 levels, the lowest being class III and the highest (non-World Championship) level being Master Class. There was no requirement to play in British Championship events first. The level you started at was determined by your existing playing strength. I, for example, started in the Higher Class in 1980. It took me 3 attempts before I won one of those to get promoted to the Master Class, 5 attempts to win one of those before getting a World Championship Semi-Final place, and one attempt in that before getting a World Championship 3/4 Final place.

I see that Mike and I both played in the 1984/85 British Correspondence Championship. It was probably the strongest ever championship at that time. Maybe it still is.

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