English Chess Forum

I believe that proof that the father of Alexander McDonnell was Thomas, a merchant, appeared on Edward Winter's Chess Notes, C.N. 10662, in a contribution from me. It cited, for the first time, I believe, Alumni Dublinenses , which establishes that Thomas was the father of Thomas the barrister, who...

This is a good summary of McDonnell's appalling record, for which he was handsomely rewarded by the slave drivers. 'Alexander McDonnell, a fine chess player, with a fair claim to being a World Champion, but someone who did his utmost on behalf of wealthy and unscrupulous plantation owners to impede...

It would be great if the ECF kept a page of links to chess histories - for club or county. Perhaps we can start here with a list of histories. This may inspire others to write a history of their area. I am aware that Roy Maddock compiled a 117-page history of Harrow Chess Club for its centenary in ...

I don't know Norman's handwriting but it could well be Bob's.

Thanks, Gerard, a nice interview to add to my collection. I agree that "Handisen" could be a clue to Blackburne's pronunciation but it could also be down to the reporter's poor hearing/bad note-taking. Always in such cases in the 19th century there can be problems arising from the writer's handwriti...

I don't think there is any likeness of Elijah Williams to be found. Many years ago I looked at some of his early Bath and Cheltenham Gazette columns and there were no pictures in the paper. The best hope might be in finding him in an illustrated report of the 1851 tournament but I do not recall seei...

Who was the first player in the Oxford - Cambridge university matches who suffered from blindness? P. Hart-Dyke (Cambridge 1893, 1894, 1895) is the first I am sure of; do you know of an earlier? The earliest Oxford blind player may have been T. H. Tylor (1919, 1920, 1921 and 1922) but perhaps there...

So who has the best 100% record against a reigning world champion? It is not easy to think of anyone who has a 100 per cent record in more than one game against a particular world champion while they were actually champion. Several players have won their only game against a reigning world champion,...

The first City of London Open was 23-25 February 1979 as your web page shows. But in the PGN several of the games including mine have the wrong year (1977) so you need to fix that. This was my only classical game against Murray and didn't last long as I couldn't remember the theory. The only other t...

Good luck to Stuart but not only is Covid-19 and accompanying travel restrictions/quarantines a potential worry, there is also the risk of a no-deal Brexit and the border with Spain being closed, or at least fraught. Back in 2022 maybe?

The Kilkenny chess congress (November) has just been cancelled.

IMHO it's not looking too promising for Bunratty in February either.

... As to the vaccine, I would prefer to inject myself with rat poison. At least we know what's in that. That's good to hear since there won't be enough vaccine to go round quickly when it's available - so if all the anti-vaxers like you prefer to die, the folks who welcome the vaccine will move a ...

Smooth (crushing!) win for Hikaru in Game 3...

Many Happy Returns, Leonard!

And they're off. Magnus, needing to win today's set, opens 1 c4 e5 2 g3...

LATER: Game 1 Drawn. Carlsen seems to have blown a big advantage somewhere. This is not the player who was so dominant for most of the Magnus tour. Will he stick with the Berlin now?