100 Year History of the British Chess Federation - 2 Questions

[Tim Harding]

1953...
2b. Abrahams, Aitken, Barden, Bowen, Fuller...

Thanks Gordon, is Fuller T.E.Fuller?

I'm pretty sure it would have been John Arthur Fuller.
J. A. Fuller was British Correspondence Champion in 1953-54 and 1954-55.
I actually played him in a postal tournament during the 1980s and won, but he had been very strong.
ChessBase's Mega Database has a few games by him from the early postwar years.

Never heard of a R. E. Fuller.
Maybe Leonard Barden can confirm.

[MJMcCready]

1953...
2b. Abrahams, Aitken, Barden, Bowen, Fuller...

Thanks Gordon, is Fuller T.E.Fuller?

I'm pretty sure it would have been John Arthur Fuller.
J. A. Fuller was British Correspondence Champion in 1953-54 and 1954-55.
I actually played him in a postal tournament during the 1980s and won, but he had been very strong.
ChessBase's Mega Database has a few games by him from the early postwar years.

Never heard of a R. E. Fuller.
Maybe Leonard Barden can confirm.

Hi Tim, typo on my part, it is T.F Fuller, all I know of him is that he was champion of Vauxhall club in 53. If I may ask in addition since correspondence chess is your forte, in 1968, a local player T. Garniss organized postal matches for Bedfordshire. Since we were a minor county, we were put into a tournament called the Brown-Pond Trophy. I believe it was a league of some sorts as Bedfordshire came second with 13 behind Lincolnshire with 14.5. Do you know how this trophy was granted such a derisory name?

[MJMcCready]

In addition to this I have located J.A. Fuller. Since he played for the same club twenty years later, I am assuming that he is the son or younger relative of T.F.Fuller.

[Leonard Barden]

In addition to this I have located J.A. Fuller. Since he played for the same club twenty years later, I am assuming that he is the son or younger relative of T.F.Fuller.

Sounds unlikely. John Fuller and I were rivals in London and British U18 championships in 1945-46 and also played a couple of matches, one for the London title which we drew 1-1 and the other (for which the venue was Sir George Thomas's plush Kensington flat, complete with manservant) for a place in the 1949-50 Hastings Premier, which John won convincingly. As I recall, John had a slight Australian accent. I don't recollect him ever mentioning a chessplaying relative.

[MJMcCready]

Thanks Leonard, much appreciated. Just a coincidence then.

[Kevin Thurlow]

" Since we were a minor county, we were put into a tournament called the Brown-Pond Trophy. I believe it was a league of some sorts as Bedfordshire came second with 13 behind Lincolnshire with 14.5. Do you know how this trophy was granted such a derisory name?"

I think it was named after a Mr Brown-Pond.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Sir Richard Clarke was also at great pains to point out that the gradings were only a guide to performance, not strength, and that someone who was 1a was not necessarily "better" than someone who was 1b. Not many people take not of that now, even assuming they ever did!

[MJMcCready]

" Since we were a minor county, we were put into a tournament called the Brown-Pond Trophy. I believe it was a league of some sorts as Bedfordshire came second with 13 behind Lincolnshire with 14.5. Do you know how this trophy was granted such a derisory name?"

I think it was named after a Mr Brown-Pond.

That would give it some plausibility but still... .

[Gerard Killoran]

Re T. F. Fuller

From:

The British Chess Magazine - 1953 - Volume 73 - Page 181

'Living Chess Displays were a feature of many coronation celebrations. On West Hoe Recreation Ground, Plymouth, British Champion, R. G. Wade, drew with Mrs. R. M. Bruce, our Lady Champion. At Wardown Park, Luton, a game between T. F. Fuller and Miss Eileen Tranmer (Lady Champion, 1947 and 1949) was left unfinished.'

[MJMcCready]

Re T. F. Fuller

From:

The British Chess Magazine - 1953 - Volume 73 - Page 181

'Living Chess Displays were a feature of many coronation celebrations. On West Hoe Recreation Ground, Plymouth, British Champion, R. G. Wade, drew with Mrs. R. M. Bruce, our Lady Champion. At Wardown Park, Luton, a game between T. F. Fuller and Miss Eileen Tranmer (Lady Champion, 1947 and 1949) was left unfinished.'

Thanks, doesn't come with pictures does it?

[Colin Patterson]

Also an interesting read is the March 1955 BCM (article - The World's 200 Strongest Players by RWB Clarke). Clarke has by then gained access to hundreds of playing records of foreign players as part of his calculations for BCF players. Consequently he has been able to band the world's top 200 Masters into his own creation of Master grades M-1 to M-11.

M-11 is the premier grade and contains only Botvinnik; M-10 has Keres, Smyslov, Reshevsky; M-9 Averbakh, Bronstein, Petrosian, Taimanov ... and so on. First BCF player is Alexander, graded as M-4. Down at M-1 is Golombek, Penrose and Persitz.

Later, Clarke laments the devaluing of the GM title (possibly the earliest I've come across), citing how the original 1950 list of 27 has shot up to 41 in a fairly random and anomalous manner. He advocates scrapping FIDE's procedures and awarding the title only to those who firmly establish themselves at M-8 or above. This would reduce the number to 14, based solely on his 1955 list. Radical stuff!