English Chess Forum

I'm trying to collect the chessgames of the Dutch grandmaster Jan Hein Donner (1927-1988). He played several tournaments in England of which I can hardly find any information, so I decided to register on ECF. I hope some one can help me! Donner played in 1957, 1958 and 1959 in a open tournament in Whitby, who can help to find information about these tournaments ( playing schedule, the games Donner played in these 3 tournaments)? I have some more questions, but they will follow in the coming weeks.
I'm curious if someone can help me?

I think you need to find copies of the magazine "Chess" published by BH Wood. As well as a magazine, he ran an annual chess festival for two weeks in the summer and I believe one of the seaside venues he used was Whitby.

I will ask our local chess players if they have any recorded games played at Whitby by Donner

_________________
I am speaking here for myself and not the NCCU which i am now president of

In the 1950's and 1960's BH Wood/Chess magazine ran a two week chess festival every summer. I think the first few may have been played at Bognor but maybe I am getting confused with a separate event. The event then moved to Whitby and then to Eastbourne. At Eastbourne it was played in the Town Hall. I played there for several years in the 1960's. Donner along with an IM whose name I forget, played every year. I presume Barry Wood paid them to play. Donner as you would expect normally won it and most of Donner's games would have been published in Chess magazine shortly after each festival.

_________________
No taxation without representation

Hartston said: 'A good book could be written about Donner's loses.'
Heidenfeld/Harding wrote, "Donner a defender of lost causes.."

Look on utube for the Master Game series.

When I was researching the "Spot the Continuation" column for the March 2012 issue of BCM (which had a "Wijk aan Zee" theme), I couldn't avoid noticing just how many times JHD was on the receiving end of nice combinations and continuations. Then again, he played in more WaZ tournaments than most!

_________________
Chess Images: http://johnupham.smugmug.com/Chess
IT Manager for the British Chess Magazine: http://www.britishchessmagazine.co.uk
Twitter: @jeupham
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/john.upham

A friend of mine has sent me two simul gamel that Donner played at Whitby

_________________
I am speaking here for myself and not the NCCU which i am now president of

Ron, I have all the relevant issues of the magazine 'Chess' that cover the tournaments in England in which Donner played. I can send you scans of the tournament reports; there may not be too many of Donner's games, but you will get details of the organisation of the tournaments, scores etc. Contact me at amcgowan@golden.net
I will be away from home for a few days, but will deal with this on my return.

The British Chess Magazine for this period is sure to have published some games which CHESS did not.

The thread, by mentioning only late 1950s events, does not make it clear if Mr de Haas is aware that Donner also played several times in England in the early 1950s:

Staunton Centenary 1951
Paignton 1951
Hastings 1951-52
Cheltenham 1953 (1st CHESS festival)
Bognor 1954 (Stevenson Memorial)
Hastings 1954-55
Southend 1955 (2nd CHESS festival)

Of these, only Staunton Centenary and the two Hastings are in modern databases.
Donner also played in the Dutch v British Universities match in December 1950. This took place in the Netherlands, but one or both of Donner's two games may be available in CHESS or BCM.

To anticipate a possible follow-up question, although I played Jan Hein six or seven times in these events, I don't now possess any of the game scores.

Steve Giddins has written a piece that mentions this thread, in which he provides one of Donner's games from this period and states that it is unlikely many of these games survive:

http://stevegiddinschessblog.blogspot.c ... itzen.html

Giddins says "the festivals were never the subject of a bulletin, to the best of my knowledge, and almost all of the games will have been lost". He also states that the events at Bognor Regis were 'Stevenson Memorials' (not B. H. Wood Chess Festivals). To be fair to harrylamb, what was said in the original post was "I think the first few may have been played at Bognor but maybe I am getting confused with a separate event", so harry was never making an absolute claim about events at Bognor. There is also a link to John Saunder's Britbase from Steve Giddin's blog post. Maybe some of Donner's games are there (I don't have time to check right now): http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/

The BH Wood events and their local successors as the Whitby Festival are not generally included in that archive. I checked as I wasn't even sure there had been anything in Whitby in the 1950s.

It's something archivists have neglected, namely to build databases from games published in magazines of the period. Sometimes the games affected the development of theory, in the sense that club level players ever play it, if only locally to the UK.

I don't see that those making casual eye-witness accounts from fifty or sixty years ago should be expected to research such comment with Edward Winter style cross referencing. The salient point is that if you want the detail of what went on at those events, you need the reports in the magazine archives, the level of which is going to depend on how much space the editor had available.

To add to my previous post, which seems to have been ignored by both subsequent posters and the Giddins blog:
I would hope/expect a search of early 1950s CHESS and BCMs to yield some Donner games. For example, my recollection is that at least one of his Dutch Univs v BUCA games was published, and he won the brilliancy prize at Cheltenham 1953 so that too quite likely appeared in CHESS.

B.H Wood was not connected with the Bognor Regis Tournaments.

These tournaments were organised by J.N. Fishlock-Lomax.

There were seventeen tournaments between 1953 and 1969.

The first four tournaments were held at the Southdean Sports Club, Middleton-on –Sea.

Then in 1957 the tournament transferred to the Rex Ballroom in the centre of Bognor Regis.

The final change of venue came in 1963 when Fishlock-Lomax secured sponsorship from Billy Butlin and the tournament moved to its final home at the Princes Ballroom in Butlin’s Holiday Camp.

Bognor was normally a nine round tournament with a large open named the R.H.S.Stevenson Memorial Tournament plus a number of subsidiary tournaments including for some years various SCCU Championships.

The open tournament was renamed in 1966 the Churchill Memorial Tournament following the death in 1965 of Britain’s wartime Prime Minister.

Norman Fishlock-Lomax suffered with serious health problems in the late 1960’s and very reluctantly stopped organising the Bognor Regis Tournaments. He died on 24th March 1971. He was only 63 years old.

Someone needs to persuade Malcolm to put the collected volumes of CHESS magazine, say 1935-1975 on a set of DVDs, as the Americans did with Chess Life.

Nice easy job for a student with a scanner wanting some summer work. Hitting the shelves at about £25, he could anticipate quite a few takers on this forum alone.

I know the master games on you tube and the two books that are published. What I don't know about the tournaments Donner participated in are the dates of play and in which city the games where played. Do you have this information?