English Chess Forum

I no longer play competitively, but I knew Janos fairly well as I played for Mansfield CC for some years and often gave him a lift. He came to this country after the Hungarian uprising against Soviet rule in 1956; he told me that he crossed a river into Austria under fire, was in a refugee camp for ...

Of course! A clear case of Senior Chessplayer Moment.

This was an event for U21s. I turned up to watch, and there was a spare board as someone did not turn up. Bert Hopkins pressured me to play although I was 22, and I duly sat down, but missed the photo. I was soon up a pawn as black in a Sicilian, but as usually happens the master grinds you down whe...

Hi David ! As an early member of Cedars Chess Club, I'm still standing. I lost contact with you when my account was hacked and Microsoft blocked it. I tried to find you via Saxmundham Chess Club, but without success, and I asked Neil Graham to let me know if you surfaced, as I was sure you would whe...

As runner-up Dave won an expensive Swiss watch - which was impounded by British customs on the return journey ! (He later got it back).

Bielicki won the World Junior by beating David Rumens in the last round (he had White against DRs Dutch Defence). Had Rumens won he would have been World Junior champ instead.

Grigory Levenfish drew a match against Mikhail Botvinnik in 1937.

Re Gerald Abrahams, I played him once (draw) and he did indeed have a distinctive voice. This was probably due to his courtroom manner - he was a barrister - and his Liverpool Jewish background. He did not suffer from a lack of confidence, and his offer of a draw seemed as if he was bestowing a grea...

Dave did indeed live and work in Mexico in the 1960's - for the office supplies company Kalamazoo, I believe. Apropos his driving skills, he told me that he wrote off a car there, turning it completely over, but this didn't seem to faze him.

Greetings Dave Mabbs! I belonged to CEDARS chess club in the 1950s as I lived a mile or so away, and went to Harrow Weald Grammar School with David Levens. I knew Dave Rumens very well: indeed I once shared an hotel room with him at one of B.H.Wood's Eastbourne congresses (an experience never to be ...

Greetings from Nottingham, Ian. You'll just have to buy it in DVD when it's available (like me ).

Thanks for that - maybe the lady herself will tell us sometime. The name Zivile SARAKAUSKIENA does not roll easily off an English tongue, does it? I have just discovered by Googling in German that she is the sister of Dagne C.

As a matter of interest, can anyone tell me how you pronounce the name of the England women's player Dagne CIUKSYTE ?

Reading the posts on Arthur Hall reminds me of other strong players of that era: for example Danny Wright. He played in the Hastings Premier, was approaching IM strength, then stopped playing. What happened to him? Is he still with us? Googling around I notice that there are 2 Danny Wrights listed o...

I have only just discovered (by looking on the Other Forum) that Roland Payne died on 22.11.2014 aged 76, so another of my generation has gone. He was London Boy U18 champion in, I think, 1956, and at that time seemed incredibly strong to me. However, he never realised his potential, but was a speci...