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Jeremy Morse

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 1:08 pm
by Jon Mahony
I’ve recently got into reading the Inspector Morse novels (although I liked John Thaw, I always found the TV show a bit dull - might have another go now!) And after having a Google around I found the character of Morse was partly based on a friend and rival Crossword setter of Colin Dexter's, Jeremy Morse - he was also an amateur chess player and even published a Chess puzzle book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chess-Problems- ... 989&sr=8-3 which I’ve had for years but never actually noticed the author’s name on the cover till now.

Do we know if he was active on the English tourney circuit at any time and if he was any good? I can find very little about him as a Chess player or any of his games.

Re: Jeremy Morse

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 1:24 pm
by Christopher Kreuzer
Jon Mahony wrote:Do we know if he was active on the English tourney circuit at any time and if he was any good? I can find very little about him as a Chess player or any of his games.
I vaguely remember that he might have taken part in the House of Lords vs Commons chess matches, but it seems I've thinking of someone else entirely, as he doesn't seem to have ever been a parliamentarian.

Still, I found these interesting articles:

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/commons.html
http://www.ukauctionnews.com/2010/11/ch ... venir.html

I think Morse may also have sponsored various chess activities and events.

He is also a PCCC (Permanent Commission of the FIDE for Chess Compositions) honorary master for chess composition:

http://www.saunalahti.fi/~stniekat/pccc/hm.htm

Re: Jeremy Morse

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 1:28 pm
by Richard James
Sir Jeremy was at least partly responsible for the sponsorship of the Lloyds Bank Masters (Leonard and Stewart will know much more than me about this) as well as various chess problem events.

I'm not sure that he was ever active as a competitive player - I don't recall seeing his name in any tournaments.

Re: Jeremy Morse

Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:27 am
by Colin Patterson
Speaking of Jeremys ... and following a post by Mr James ... I've often wondered if Jeremy James was a player of any note. I suspected he was just a TV presenter with a rudimentary knowledge of the game, but may be doing him a disservice. Does anyone know?

Re: Jeremy Morse

Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:50 am
by Gordon Cadden
Sir Jeremy Morse is a Problemist, and not an OTB player. His book CHESS PROBLEMS: TASKS AND RECORDS was published by faber and faber, 1995. He was chairman of the Lloyds Banking Group from 1977 to 1993.

Re: Jeremy Morse

Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 10:35 am
by Jon D'Souza-Eva
Colin Patterson wrote:Speaking of Jeremys ... and following a post by Mr James ... I've often wondered if Jeremy James was a player of any note. I suspected he was just a TV presenter with a rudimentary knowledge of the game, but may be doing him a disservice. Does anyone know?
Justin Horton spotted Jeremy James commenting on a cricket match a couple of years ago and brought up the subject of chess on TV:

(from http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/fe ... third-test)
10th over: West Indies 29-0 (Gayle 12 Smith 14)
Well I never, here's Graeme Swann coming around the wicket to Smith with a slip and a silly point. Actually that wasn't what I was exclaiming about. It appears that, much to Justin Horton's delight, it is the Jeremy James of The Master Game: "Ay, guilty, I was that" writes Jeremy, before adding a little cryptically (/disturbingly) "Mixed chess is almost as lethal as mixed hockey. Forget those dreamy erotic scenes of a King tracing a woman's lovely naked curves; think being hit very hard over the head with it. Much, much more dangerous than an orange." Well Jeremy you have a lot of big fans making their feelings felt in my inbox. Here's a long rant about you and your show from Jeremy Douglas. PS: if you're not Jeremy James or another party involved in the making of the Master Game, you may not want to read all of this. Or indeed any of it.)

"Yes Yes the "Master Game". That was absolutely superb, back in the days when the BBC knew how to televise chess. But this arcane knowledge had been utterly lost by the time of the Kasparov-Short match. The key insight was to show the game AFTER it happened, rather than live as was inexplicably the case during the World Championship match. They also got the players to do a "stream of consciousness" commentary to give the impression of a live game and show you why they made the moves they did. It was straightforward and excellent.

I have no idea why the BBC and Channel 4 both messed up their chess coverage to quite the extent they did. The only thing worse than Carol Vordermann on Channel 4 was the *Newsnight* - yes, *Newsnight* team trying to cover the match on the BBC. I guess they thought "Oh these people seem quite intelligent, and you have to be intelligent to play chess, so these intelligent people would be good at covering chess even though they don't necessarily know the rules"... wrong wrong wrong... aargh... it pains me to remember it..."