English Chess Forum

Mention has been made earlier of Hector William Shoosmith. He was born at Rickmansworth on 12.1.1877 and died on 31.3.1912 at Ramsgate. On playing through his games, I feel that he had the potential to become British champion. However, he did not play in any of the GB v USA cable matches and, just w...

Thanks for this, Richard. I had felt that the punctuation in the South African graves report left it ambiguous as to whether it was just the son, who lived in the country or the parents also.

I am returning to the subject of Edward Empson Middleton and wondered if Richard James has any thoughts on the following: John Edward Empson Middleton was born in London in 1925 and there was also a daughter, Patricia A Middleton, who was also born in the city about three years later. There is also ...

I am not a biographical expert like Richard seems to be, but I believe that Ruchon was Miss Alice Grace Ruchon, born Hackney 1876, died Bexhill 1948. She was a member of Hastings CC for some time.

Richard and John, thanks for the information about the Middletons. I feel that I can now update my original article. There is no doubt that the junior Middleton was a very strong player, but it is interesting that I do not possess the scores of any of his games after 1923. Perhaps after he left his ...

I enclose the score of one more game from the Major Open event. John, thanks for quoting the precise date for the game between Major Rawlins and Holmes. According to my notes the Middleton/Schumer game was played in round 8 (19.8.1913). I was particularly interested in Richard's account of the Middl...

I enclose another game played by Major Rawlins. However, as John is currently studying the 1913 BCF Congress at Cheltenham, he may have already seen this game. [pgn][Event "BCF Congress, Cheltenham 1st Class 'B' "] [Site "?"] [Date "1913.08.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Rawlins, Major FH"] [Black "Holmes...

I notice that the BCF Year-Book of 1912 includes (on page 204) one game from the Major Open section of the 1911 BCF Congress at Glasgow. [pgn ][Event "BCF Congress, Glasgow, Major Open"] [Site "?"] [Date "1911.08.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Dewing, LCG."] [Black "Wenman, FP."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C66"...

I noticed that there were games in the 1914 BCF yearbook, which John had not included in BritBase. I am not sure whether that was because John did not consider the standard high enough. Anyway I have keyboarded those extra games. Unfortunately I do not know in what rounds they were played and the da...

I enclose a couple of games from the Major Open event at Richmond. [Event "BCF Congress, Richmond, Major Open"] [Site "?"] [Date "1912.08.14"] [Round "3"] [White "O'Hanlon, JJ."] [Black "Waterman, JC."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A46"] [PlyCount "54"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bf4 Nbd7 4. e3 g6 5. Bd3 Bg7 6....

Standards have of course risen enormously in chess. Richard Edward Lean (1867-1937) was a very exciting player in that he liked gambits and attacking. Unfortunately his play was not always sound and his games were often short, whether he won or lost. For those who have read Bruce Hayden's 'Cabbage H...

Thanks for your help, Roger. I hope that people can make sense of this! [Event "British Championship, Chester"] [Site "?"] [Date "1914.08.12"] [Round "3"] [White "Louis, A."] [Black "Lean, RE."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C44"] [PlyCount "61"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 d5 4. Qa4 dxe4 5. Nxe5 Qd5 6. Nxc6 b...

Thanks for this, Roger, but I am afraid that I cannot still get this to work. The only text file that I have is Word, which probably would not work. Otherwise I could enter the eight games individually, but that also has not worked because after I saved a draft, I could not later find what I had sav...

Gerald, I have seven more games played by Lean and one game from the British Ladies' Championship. I am not sure, however, about transferring all these games into the Forum. Do you input them one by one, which seems arduous, or do you know of a way to list a group of games on to the website? Otherwi...

I have now checked through my notes from a few years ago and I see that 40 Rg2+ Kh8 was actually played in the Noel-Johnson v Winter game. I am sorry that I made a mistake when transcribing the game into ChessBase.