Mir Sultan Khan

[Luis Mendez]

Dear chess friends:
I posted on my blog a compilation of the biography of Mir Sultan Khan. The story of his life has always interested me. In the books of writers, RN Coles and Anne Sunnucks I found very interesting data.
You can read the post on my blog, the google translator is on the left of the text.
http://comentariosdeajedrez.blogspot.com
If any of you know of any interesting book on Mir Sultan Khan, please tell me. I also like to have a newspaper article.
Thanks in advance.
Best regards from Gijon - Spain
Luis MC

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

I don't think it's true that Sultan Khan first learned Chaturanga, which is a long extinct game. My understanding was that he learned a version of chess which was similar to the modern form, the most important difference being that pawns could not advance two squares on their first move.

[Colin Patterson]

There are short passages on Sultan Khan in Hartston's books 'The Kings of Chess' and 'Guinness Book of Chess Grandmasters'.

One humorous tale recounted by WRH in the latter - no idea if Coles corroborates this - refers to an occasion many years after his return to India, when Sultan Khan was shown the World Championship games of Botvinnik-Bronstein and was reputed to have dismissed them as the games of two very weak players.

[Leonard Barden]

There are short passages on Sultan Khan in Hartston's books 'The Kings of Chess' and 'Guinness Book of Chess Grandmasters'.

One humorous tale recounted by WRH in the latter - no idea if Coles corroborates this - refers to an occasion many years after his return to India, when Sultan Khan was shown the World Championship games of Botvinnik-Bronstein and was reputed to have dismissed them as the games of two very weak players.

From Edward Winter's Chess Notes:
5037. Sultan Khan
Regarding our feature article on Sultan Khan Leonard Barden (London) comments on the following passage quoted by us from page 215 of The Guinness Book of Chess Grandmasters by W. Hartston (Enfield, 1996):

‘Eighteen years later, however, [i.e. in 1951] when he [Sultan Khan] was shown the moves of the games in the world championship match between Botvinnik and Bronstein, he is reputed to have dismissed them as the games of two very weak players.’

After mentioning that the source of this reputed dismissal was unknown to us, we also quoted William Winter in CHESS, February 1963, page 148:

‘I remember vividly my first meeting with the dark-skinned man who spoke very little English and answered remarks that he did not understand with a sweet and gentle smile. One of the Alekhine v Bogoljubow matches was in [a] progress and I showed him a short game, without telling him the contestants. “I tink”, he said, “that they both very weak players.” This was not conceit on his part. The vigorous style of the world championship contenders leading to rapid contact and a quick decision in the middle game was quite foreign to his conception of the Indian game in which the pawn moves only one square at a time.’

Leonard Barden informs us:

‘Hartston’s story about Botvinnik-Bronstein had appeared in one of my columns. My own source was the Pakistani A. Kitchlew, a strong player who competed in the Hastings Challengers’ tournament in the 1950s and 1960s and a few years ago won a lower section at Jersey when in his eighties. Kitchlew and I both played for the Linguists Club of Kensington, London, team in the National Club Championship around 1956, and he then told me that he knew Sultan Khan and that Sultan had indeed made the comment I quoted. I had and have no reason to believe he was embellishing the tale.

It seems quite a reasonable remark from a world-class player about the 1951 match, where the quality was uneven.’

[Colin Patterson]

Thanks Leonard, I have just re-read the full account in that 1963 edition of Chess and reminded myself of how well written Winter's Memoirs were.

I also think it would be a joy to read a serialised Barden Memoirs one day. Is there any prospect? Maybe the current editor of Chess is reading this.

[Richard James]

I also think it would be a joy to read a serialised Barden Memoirs one day. Is there any prospect? Maybe the current editor of Chess is reading this.

Seconded!

[Geoff Chandler]

Oh yes please.

[Jessica Fischer]

I will gladly third a suggestion that Mr. Barden publish his memoirs.

Such a volume would be invaluable to chess history research, not to mention chess history enjoyment.