Now-identified London chess tournament 1978 (Aaronson Open)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Could forumites please help in identifying a chess tournament that took place in London in 1978?

There are two games that may have taken place at this same, unknown event:

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1102928

David Goodman vs John Nunn 1-0

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1885372

Julian Hodgson vs John Nunn 1-0

The reason I am trying to work this out is that there is a claim that Julian Hodgson beat two GMs in successive rounds at an event in 1978. It is possible that his win against John Nunn was one of those (Nunn may have recently been awarded the GM title).

The claim (from the Pauline school magazine of St Paul's School for Boys stated (in December 1978):

J. Hodgson has been making headlines by his defeat of two Grandmasters in successive round[s] of a tournament at the Aaronson Tournament in Harrow. He is the youngest player ever to achieve this feat.

However, there is no trace of Hodgson playing in the Aaronson Masters in March 1978 (though Nunn did play):

https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/19 ... iewer.html

In any case, that Masters event took place at the Imperial Hotel in Central London. The Pauline reference says "a tournament" and "in Harrow", so did a subsidiary tournament take place in Harrow at a different point in 1978, with two GMs playing that Hodgson defeated?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I think I have worked it out. The answer was lurking in Britbase all along:

https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/19 ... iewer.html

Already this progressive company sponsors the open-to-all Aaronson weekend congress at the Harrow Leisure Centre. In its first year (1977) the Aaronson congress attracted 800 entrants, including GMs and IMs, a world record for a ‘first’ congress. Top prize is £1000. Managing director, Mr Ronald Aaronson, who personally visited the Aaronson Masters, takes a keen interest. Proceeds from the Aaronson Congress are channelled into the Aaronson Trust which helps young British players over a wide front.

So as well as the Aaronson Masters (at the Imperial Hotel in Central London), there were the Aaronson weekend congresses, starting in 1977, and presumably it was in the 1978 Aaronson weekend congress (at the slightly less salubrious venue of Harrow Leisure Centre) that the two games above were played at. So it is now just a case of finding Julian Hodgson's games from that weekend congress in Harrow that have survived. The Hodgson-Nunn game has been reproduced many times in books of opening tactics.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

And confirmation is here:

https://sccu-chess.com/bulletins/SCCUBu ... 78_124.pdf

SECOND AARONSON CHESS CONGRESS
Harrow Leisure Centres 15 - 17 September 1978
The Congress attracted 879 entries - an advance on last year's figure of just under 800. Open 1 V Hort 5.5/6 2-10 U Avner (Israel), G Botterill (Wales), R Emerson (Surrey), J Flesch (Hungary), G Forintos (Hungary), G Kouatly (Lebanon), B Kurajika (Yugoslavia), AJ Miles (Birmingham), JDM Nunn (Oxford) 5 199, played

It might be more difficult to get a full listing of results from that tournament. But presumably somewhere it was reported that Julian Hodgson beat 2 GMs in a row, and I suspect (99% certainty) that it was this weekend congress. Not sure why it is proving so difficult to find the reports and headlines that were published on this at the time.

EDIT: However, seeing as Nunn and Goodman did not meet in the March 1978 event (the Masters event) and that Nunn scored 5/6 in the weekend congress in Harrow in September 1978, you can't have both Nunn losses at the same event. Maybe the Goodman-Nunn game was a London League match or something like that (it was not the 1978 Robert Silk International in July)?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Found one more game from 1978 that might be from this September 1978 Aaronson Harrow weekend congress:

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1032850

George Botterill vs David Goodman 1-0

EDIT: Next steps, to find games on chessgames.com that are "London 1978" or just "1978" from those who are known to have played at Harrow in September 1978, and to see if that helps.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1102931

John Nunn vs Andrew Whiteley 1-0

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1229127

Michael Dymond vs Roger D de Coverly 1-0

[Brian Valentine]

I hope this does not put you off the scent, it's a long time ago. I played in an Aaronson weekend event 16-18/9/1977 in North London. I did not play in 1978. I have strong recollections of being in an event where Kotov was playing (GMs at weekenderswere still rare in those days). I'm pretty sure that this was an event Kotov was playing.

[John Saunders]

Chris, you missed the big clue! My immediate thought on reading your question was that any record involving young UK players must have come from Leonard. So I searched the Guardian and found the answer very quickly in the 7 October 1978 Guardian column.

The two GMs were Balinas and Nunn...

[Event "Aaronson op 2nd"] [Site "Harrow"] [Date "1978.09.15"] [Round "1"] [White "Balinas, Rosendo Carrean"] [Black "Hodgson, Julian M"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B16"] [PlyCount "70"] [EventDate "1978.09.15"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "6"] [EventCountry "ENG"] [SourceTitle "Bulletin/J Saunders"] 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Nxf6+ gxf6 6. Ne2 Bf5 7. Ng3 Bg6 8. Be2 (8. h4 {is more active - Barden}) 8... Qc7 9. f4 f5 10. O-O Nd7 11. Bd3 e6 12. Qe2 O-O-O 13. Be3 Nf6 14. Kh1 h5 15. h4 Ng4 16. Bg1 Qe7 17. Nxf5 Bxf5 18. g3 Bxd3 19. Qxd3 Bg7 20. b4 Qxb4 21. Rab1 Qd6 22. c3 Rhg8 23. Rf3 Bh8 24. c4 Bxd4 25. Qb3 Qc7 26. c5 Bxg1 27. Kxg1 Rd5 28. Qa4 a6 29. Rfb3 Rgd8 30. Rb6 R8d7 31. Kf1 Rd4 32. Qb3 Rd3 33. Qb2 Rxg3 34. Rb4 a5 35. Re4 Ne3+ {Source: The Guardian, 7 October 1978} 0-1

[Event "Aaronson op 2nd"] [Site "Harrow"] [Date "1978.09.16"] [Round "2"] [White "Hodgson, Julian M"] [Black "Nunn, John DM"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B23"] [PlyCount "57"] [EventDate "1978.09.15"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "6"] [EventCountry "ENG"] [SourceTitle "Bulletin/J Saunders"] 1. e4 c5 2. f4 Nc6 3. Nf3 d6 4. Nc3 g6 5. Bc4 Bg7 6. O-O Nf6 7. f5 O-O 8. d3 gxf5 9. Qe1 fxe4 10. dxe4 Bg4 11. Qh4 Bxf3 12. Rxf3 Ne5 13. Rh3 Ng6 14. Qg3 Qd7 15. Nd5 Nxd5 16. Bxd5 e6 17. Bb3 d5 18. Qf3 c4 19. Ba4 Qxa4 20. Qh5 Rfd8 21. Qxh7+ Kf8 22. Bh6 Bxh6 23. Rxh6 Rd7 24. Rf1 Ke8 25. Qg8+ Nf8 26. Rxe6+ Kd8 27. Qxf8+ Kc7 28. Qc5+ Kd8 29. Rh6 {Source: The Guardian, 7 October 1978} 1-0

[Roger de Coverly]

Michael Dymond vs Roger D de Coverly 1-0

That game was from the Bourne End one-day earlier in the year. I didn't play at the Aaronson.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Thank you Brian. Interesting to hear about the 1977 weekend event. I had not heard of the Aaronson weekend events before. It is slightly confusing because the second Aaronson Masters was in Harrow as well, not in the Imperial Hotel, and in April 1978. Not sure how long both events ran for (the weekenders in September and the Masters in March/April)?

I have now managed to confirm that the sparkling win over Nunn by a young Hodgson (who was 15 at the time) was indeed at the 1978 Aaronson weekend congress in Harrow (sometimes called the "Aaronson International Open"):

https://exeterchessclub.org.uk/content/ ... fter-1e4-2

"Hodgson - Nunn, Aaronson Open"

5... e6 and now 6. f5, 6.e5, 6.O-O, 6. d3, and 6.a3 have been tried. Since Grandmaster Nunn lost this dashing game to the young Hodgson, hardly anyone has tried this line!

That confirms Nunn was a GM at the time, so title had been awarded earlier in the year.

Also a BCM reference (p.483, 1978 volume):

Hodgson beat Nunn at the recent Aaronson tournament, about a month after the Robert Silk, with an f5 idea in this sort of variation.

And from CHESS (1991 volume):

One example of its power was shown in a win by a young Julian Hodgson against John Nunn at the Aaronson Open.

So the Hodgson-Nunn game is well documented.

However, I have been unable to find any trace of the other game Hodgson is said to have won against a GM, either before or after this game.

If it proves not possible to track down contemporary reports in the chess press, then I suppose Julian Hodgson himself would, you hope, remember! Even if the game has not been preserved.

I did find one other game from this 1978 Aaronson Open that has been preserved, a draw against Hungarian GM Győző Forintos by Glenn Lambert, who sadly died in 2003.

https://hampshirechesshistory.co.uk/wp- ... s-1979.pdf

From Chess Notes (1 January 1979, p.2):

The following high-quality game was played in the first round of the 1978 Aaronson Open Tournament in which the Hungarian Grand master, G. Forintos, had the White pieces against the Portsmouth Chess Club player, Glenn Lambert (who is currently graded 208 and who supplied the notes).

1. P-Q4 N-KB3; 2. P-QB4 P-K3; 3. N-QB3 P-Q4; 4. N-B3 B-K2; 5. B-B4 O-O; 6. P-K3 P-QB4; 7. QP x P N-B3; 8. P-QR3 B x P; 9. Q-B2 Q-R4; 10. R-Q1 R-K1 (this move was played in the 21st match game Korchnoi-Karpov, with the sacrifice 12. ... N-Q5 in mind. Probably stronger is 10. ... B-K2, which Karpov played in the 23rd game); 11. N-Q2, P-K4; 12. B-N5 N-Q5; 13. Q-N1 (13. P x N? P x P +; 14. N-K2 N-N5; 15. B-R4 P x P is good for Black); 13. ... B-B4; 14. B-Q3 P-K5; 15. B-K2? (Korchnoi played 15. B-B2 and won, but it was unconvincing; perhaps best of all is 15. B-B1) 15. ... N x B; 16. N x N B-K2; 17. O-O B-KN5; 18. KR-K1 P x P; 19. B x N B x B; 20. N x BP Q-R3; 21. P-QN3 QR-Q1; 22. R x R R x R; 23. P-QR4 B x N; 24. R x B B-B6; 25. R-B2 B-N5; 26. R-B1 Q-K3; 27. R-Q1 R-Q4; 28. Q-R1 Q-Q2; 29. R x R Q x R; 30. Q-Q4 Q x Q; 31. P x Q P-B4; 32. P-B3 P x P; 33. P x P K-B2; 34. P-Q5 P-KN4; 35. K-B2 K-B3; 36. K-N3 P-KR4; 37. P-R3 B-B6; 38. P-B4 B-K8+; 39. K-N2 P-N5 See Diagram: White now offered the draw, which Black accepted. [diagram] J.E.C.G.

Had to manually correct most of the OCR of the descriptive notation. Maybe some kind soul could convert into algebraic? I may try that later.

(Posting after seeing John's finding of the answer! Thanks, John! *BIG FACE PALM* that was obvious)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Many thanks John. Couple of quick questions:

(1) Are those Aaronson Open games (presumably only some have been preserved) in the databases?
(2) Does anyone know where (and when, i.e. a more precise date) the David Goodman vs John Nunn 1-0 game was played?
(3) How can one search The Guardian chess columns?

The Guardian chess columns don't seem to appear in search engines, unless I am missing something. Are they in a paywalled archive?

[John Saunders]

BTW, I already had the above games on file, along with another 28 from that 1978 Aaronson weekender. That is probably as many games as one can hope to find from any weekender in that era. I may make a file available on BritBase in due course. I don't have a complete list of who played.

As for the Goodman-Nunn game, here's what I have on file...

[Event "England"] [Site "England"] [Date "1978.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Goodman, David SC"] [Black "Nunn, John DM"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A28"] [WhiteElo "2320"] [PlyCount "47"] [EventDate "1978.??.??"] [EventType "game"] [EventRounds "1"] [EventCountry "ENG"] [SourceTitle "BritBase"] [Source "John Saunders"] [SourceDate "2025.07.03"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "2025.07.03"] [SourceQuality "1"] 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. e3 Bb4 5. Qc2 O-O 6. Nd5 Re8 7. Qf5 d6 8. Nxf6+ gxf6 9. Qh5 d5 10. a3 Bf8 11. d4 Be6 12. Bd3 e4 13. Bc2 Ne7 14. Nd2 f5 15. cxd5 Qxd5 16. f3 Qc6 17. Nxe4 Qxc2 18. Nf6+ Kg7 19. e4 Qxc1+ 20. Rxc1 Kxf6 21. Qxh7 Ng6 22. e5+ Kg5 23. h4+ Kf4 24. Kf2 {Source: BCM, January 1980, p16 (notes to Smyslov-Romanishin); Mega Database 2022} 1-0

You can see from the source details that it was published in the notes to a different game in BCM, January 1980. The other game was Smyslov-Romanishin, Tilburg 1979, annotated at great length by Jimmy Adams, who included the entirety of the Goodman-Nunn game, referring to it simply as 'England 1978'. I think I did once try to work out the event in which Goodman-Nunn was played but must have given up after eliminating the possibilities of it being from the Aaronson Masters, British Championship, Lloyds Bank Masters or Robert Silk events. One possibility is that an element of the reference given by Jimmy Adams/BCM (player name(s), place, date) may be wrong. Another possibility is that it too appeared in one of Leonard's columns! I must have another look...

I wrote the above before seeing your questions, Chris ...

(1) No. I've collected them but I doubt anyone else has.
(2) I anticipated your question - see above
(3) Join a library that offers free online access to ProQuest Historical Databases: The Guardian and The Observer. Try Edinburgh Library, Manchester Library, and probably many others.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Thank you, John!

Apologies for the malformed PGN (I still need that refresher and the template on how to insert the meta details):

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Be7 5. Bf4 O-O 6. e3 c5 7. dxc5 Nc6 8. a3 Bxc5 9. Qc2 Qa5 10. Rd1 Re8 (10... Be7) 11. Nd2 e5 12. Bg5 Nd4 13. Qb1 (13. exd4 exd4+ 14. Ne2 Ng4 15. Bh4 dxc4) 13... Bf5 14. Bd3 e4 15. Be2 (15. Bc2) (15. Bf1) 15... Nxe2 16. Nxe2 Be7 17. O-O Bg4 18. Rfe1 dxc4 19. Bxf6 Bxf6 20. Nxc4 Qa6 21. b3 Rad8 22. Rxd8 Rxd8 23. a4 Bxe2 24. Rxe2 Bc3 25. Rc2 Bb4 26. Rc1 Qe6 27. Rd1 Rd5 28. Qa1 Qd7 29. Rxd5 Qxd5 30. Qd4 Qxd4 31. exd4 f5 32. f3 exf3 33. gxf3 Kf7 34. d5 g5 35. Kf2 Kf6 36. Kg3 h5 37. h3 Bc3 38. f4 Be1+ 39. Kg2 g4

Did you have the Forintos-Lambert game (now in algebraic above)? I have not played through a game in descriptive notation for a long, long time.

How many Aaronson Masters and weekenders were there in total?

[John Saunders]

If anyone would like to download the 31 games of the 1978 Aaronson Open that I have (n.b. I've added Forintos-Lambert from upthread), you can find a link in the 1978 section of BritBase.

[Nick Ivell]

The Hodgson v Nunn game appeared in the Batsford book on the English chess explosion. It is a book full of almost forgotten brilliancies.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Hodgson beat Nunn at the Aaronson Open in 1978. It was a brilliant Grand Prix attack.

(I have quoted you from the other thread, Nick.)

It would be nice (absent Nunn and Hodgson themselves providing memories of this game) to get some memories of this 1978 Aaronson Open and its games. Was the venue a spacious leisure centre, or a typical weekender? Friday evening game, and three on Saturday and two on Sunday? I am trying to imagine a teenage Hodgson (15) and his demeanour at the board as he trashed Nunn, who at 23 was still an academic prodigy and was Dr as well as GM as I think he was also awarded his doctorate that year from Oxford (but the formal award and conferring ceremony may have been the following year).

Am also trying to get a sense of how many GMs were there. Nunn, Forintos, Hort (who did Hort draw with?), Balinas, Tony Miles, am trying to work out if J. Flesch (Hungary), G. Kouatly (Lebanon), and B. Kurajika were GMs.

Uri Avner is better known as a problemist and I don't think he ever attained the OTB GM title or even the IM title.

János Flesch was not GM until 1980, and sadly died in a car crash in Whitstable 3 years later.

Bachar Kouatly was not a GM until 1989, unless the 'G' means this is a different Kouatly? The original SCCU bulletin source does say "G" not "B", so maybe a typo or an alternative transliteration of the Arab forename?

Kurajika is better known as Kurajica, and was already a GM (title in 1974).

But there will be other GMs (such as Balinas) who finished outside the top ten. Wonder where Hodgson finished and who he played in round 3, being on 2/2! Maybe he played Hort or another GM? Played 3 GMs in a row maybe?

Balinas had been a GM for two years (title in 1976). Hort had been a GM since 1965.

John has already said he does not have a complete list of who played. I will change the thread title to say that tournament now identified.

EDIT: It seems the GMs were: Vlastimil Hort (1965), Vlastimil Jansa (1974), John Nunn (1978), Győző Forintos (1974), Rosendo Balinas (1976), Tony Miles (1976) and Bojan Kurajica (1974), so seven in total (years of GM titles in brackets). Apart from Hort, all recent GMs, and 29 years of GM experience between them.

[NickFaulks]

If anyone would like to download the 31 games of the 1978 Aaronson Open that I have (n.b. I've added Forintos-Lambert from upthread), you can find a link in the 1978 section of BritBase.

J. Saunders did well.