Chess history trivia

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

I wonder if the answer to (iii) could be Denis Victor Mardle? I can't find many games of his online, but he was very strong in the early 1950s.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Matt didn't actually give the answer to (i), presumably to give others a go at working it out. I think it's John Toothill.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Indeed it is. He is still much missed by everyone in Cumbrian chess.

[Mick Norris]

In relation to v, I was in Blackburn Art Gallery and Museum, and Cathedral, yesterday, lots of East Lancashire info but nothing I could see about chess

We are talking about over 70 years ago, so I am unsure whether Mike Conroy would be old enough

[Kevin Thurlow]

I knew the Tattersall answer, readers might care to know:-

"The Times obituary commented, ‘His Notes on Carpet-Weaving and Knotting, written for the Victoria and Albert Museum, has proved a very popular little book. Tattersall also wrote on chess.’"

Mardle was graded 220ish in the late 50s, and won the West of England championship more than once. He played in the Hastings Premier once and struggled, and gave up OTB chess shortly afterwards, partly through pressure of work. Interestingly, he took over CHO'D Alexander's role at GCHQ when Alexander retired.

[James Pratt]

Come on! Not Mardle, but Toothill yes. Not Conroy but ... shall I spoil it?

James

[James Pratt]

i Toothill
ii Tattersall
iii Barden, of course
iv Glinski
v Cafferty obviously ...

Glad you liked.

James

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

I found a game where Leonard Barden beat Donner on top board in a BUCA vs Dutch Universities match. However this seems to have been played in December 1950 rather than in 1951:
(Transcribed from the PDF on the John Saunders' BritBase site https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/britbasedocuments.html):
[Event "Dutch Universities vs BUCA match"] [Site "Utrecht, Netherlands"] [Date "1950.12.12"] [Board "1"] [Result "1-0"] [White "Leonard William Barden"] [Black "Jan Hein Donner"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Bb4 5. e5 h6 6. Bd2 Bxc3 7. bxc3 Ne4 8. Qg4 g6 9. Bc1 Nxc3 10. Bd3 c5 11. dxc5 Nc6 12. Nf3 Qa5 13. O-O Qa4 14. Qxa4 Nxa4 15. Be3 Bd7 16. Rab1 O-O-O 17. Rb3 Na5 18. Ra3 Nc4 19. Bxc4 dxc4 20. Nd2 Kc7 21. Nxc4 Bc6 22. Nd6 Rd7 23. Rb1 a5 24. h3 Rxd6 25. cxd6+ Kd7 26. c4 g5 27. Rxa4 Bxa4 28. Rxb7+ Kc8 29. Rxf7 Rd8 30. Ra7 Rd7 31. Rxa5 Bc6 32. Ra6
(edit: I see it's already on chessgames: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2619280)

[John Saunders]

I found a game where Leonard Barden beat Donner on top board in a BUCA vs Dutch Universities match. However this seems to have been played in December 1950 rather than in 1951:
(Transcribed from the PDF on the John Saunders' BritBase site https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/britbasedocuments.html):
(edit: I see it's already on chessgames: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2619280)

Jon, there was no need to transcribe from the PDF as there is a game viewer on BritBase to view (and download) the games from the PDF. I uploaded it long ago.

It also appears in the collection of Leonard Barden's games which I uploaded to BritBase more recently.

However, I noticed that you ascribed an exact date to the game (1950.12.12) whereas I had previously only given a month (1950.12.??). Re-reading the PDF, it shows that the BUCA trip started on Friday 8 December 1950 and seems to indicate that the match against the Dutch universities took place on Tuesday afternoon/evening (12 Dec) and Wednesday (13 Dec). The score table shows that Leonard's win occurred in the second round, so I think the game date should be 13 December 1950.

I'm about to upload the game to BritBase with the updated date as follows:

[Event "NED-GBR Universities"] [Site "Utrecht"] [Date "1950.12.13"] [Round "2.1"] [White "Barden, Leonard William"] [Black "Donner, Jan Hein"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C12"] [PlyCount "63"] [EventDate "1950.12.12"] [EventType "team-match"] [EventRounds "2"] [EventCountry "NED"] [SourceTitle "BritBase"] [Source "John Saunders"] [SourceDate "2023.12.16"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "2023.12.16"] [SourceQuality "1"] [WhiteTeam "Great Britain"] [BlackTeam "Netherlands"] [WhiteTeamCountry "GBR"] [BlackTeamCountry "NED"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Bb4 5. e5 h6 6. Bd2 Bxc3 7. bxc3 Ne4 8. Qg4 g6 9. Bc1 Nxc3 10. Bd3 c5 11. dxc5 Nc6 12. Nf3 Qa5 13. O-O Qa4 14. Qxa4 Nxa4 15. Be3 Bd7 16. Rab1 O-O-O 17. Rb3 Na5 18. Ra3 Nc4 19. Bxc4 dxc4 20. Nd2 Kc7 21. Nxc4 Bc6 22. Nd6 Rd7 23. Rb1 a5 24. h3 Rxd6 25. cxd6+ Kd7 26. c4 g5 27. Rxa4 Bxa4 28. Rxb7+ Kc8 29. Rxf7 Rd8 30. Ra7 Rd7 31. Rxa5 Bc6 32. Ra6 {Sources: CHESS, January 1951, p83; Universities Chess Annual, November 1951, p3} 1-0

[Mike Gunn]

The "first theories of hexagonal chess" was probably by Glinski. I lived in Clapham Park from 1973 to 1975 and this gentleman opened a shop on Abbeville Road marketing equipment for playing the game (his invention). I still have the board I bought from him and I have probably got the book somewhere, too.

(edit: just spotted James gave the answers above!)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Władysław Gliński (article in Portuguese Wikipedia)

Do you recognise Gliński from that photo?

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

However, I noticed that you ascribed an exact date to the game (1950.12.12) whereas I had previously only given a month (1950.12.??). Re-reading the PDF, it shows that the BUCA trip started on Friday 8 December 1950 and seems to indicate that the match against the Dutch universities took place on Tuesday afternoon/evening (12 Dec) and Wednesday (13 Dec). The score table shows that Leonard's win occurred in the second round, so I think the game date should be 13 December 1950.

Hi John. I got a calendar for December 1950 up on my screen and stepped through the days described in the report of the trip and ended up with the date of Tuesday 12th, 1950, for the date that the game was played. However since it was a two round match, I did wonder if the second game would have been played on the following day. I sometimes play the McCutcheon variation of the Frence Defence myself but I have to say that the way that Leonard demolished it in this game has put me off it.

[Mike Gunn]

Władysław Gliński (article in Portuguese Wikipedia)

Do you recognise Gliński from that photo?

Yes, that's him - I had a few chats/ games of hexagonal chess with him when I spotted him in the shop (he employed a full-time manager).

[Roger de Coverly]

However since it was a two round match, I did wonder if the second game would have been played on the following day

Almost certainly I would think. It would be another two decades or longer before quickplay finishes became the norm, so playing schedules would have to allow for adjournments and games crawling along for ever at 16 or 20 moves to the hour.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Yesterday was the tenth anniversary of the death of the well known London player Sandys Dickinson (1950-2014). What did he have in common with the first official British Champion, Cecil De Vere (1846-1875)?