English Chess Forum

Ian Thompson wrote: ↑

Wed May 22, 2019 12:02 am

John Upham wrote: ↑

Tue May 21, 2019 11:33 pm

Have a guess at the total budget we were allowed for monthly magazine production...

From this minuscule budget we had to pay (or not !) contributors, source photographs, typesetting, etc etc.

I probably saved them 50p three years ago by declining to annotate a game of mine from a recent tournament in return for a free copy of the magazine the game appeared in.

Yes, I think I remember that !

I recall going to a 4NCL weekend at Sunningdale, talking to John Nunn. I mentioned I had started taking photographs for BCM and was told that Petra had not been paid for a photograph of ? despite asking more than once. I was so embarrassed by this I paid Petra from my own pocket and then grovelled around attempting to put it in on expenses !

I have to admit I thought Informator had bought it and was considering getting a copy to see if I liked it.

Paul Cooksey wrote: ↑

Wed May 22, 2019 12:15 pm

I have to admit I thought Informator had bought it and was considering getting a copy to see if I liked it.

They definitely had some involvement 3 years ago. The person who approached me was Josip Asik and he had links to both the Chess Informant and BCM websites in his e-mail signature.

I think they decided to put their resources into the new American Chess Magazine instead.

(which is supposed to be good, though I have never personally read one)

Well I can find online a pdf of a 2017 BCM (with a Penguin front cover, as it happens) which claims they're now in partnership with Informant. I don't know if this would explain the presence as editor of Milan Dinic.

Paul Cooksey wrote: ↑

Wed May 22, 2019 12:15 pm

I have to admit I thought Informator had bought it and was considering getting a copy to see if I liked it.

Paul,

Ownership can be discovered from https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/comp ... 8/officers

SJL and SMT purchased BCM in September 19th 2005 and that purchase included three companies

BRITISH CHESS MAGAZINE LIMITED (00334968)
FINESSE BRIDGE BOOKS LIMITED (03913531)
CHESS MAGAZINE HOLDINGS LIMITED (03764357)

The latter being the holding company for the upper two.

FINESSE BRIDGE BOOKS LIMITED (03913531) relates to the purchase of a magazine called Bridge Plus which cost many thousands of pounds and never got off the ground. The debt from this purchase was and is a millstone around the financial neck of BCM.

Fairly soon after James and I departed BCM (Christmas 2015) there was a hook-up with Informant via Josip Asik who then took over the management of the content and appointed Milan Dinic as Editor. During this period Jimmy Adams may have been involved but the masthead of the magazine probably did not reflect this.

BCM benefited from the production resources of Informant whilst retaining some of our content providers (some of whom worked gratis).

I believe JA started the production of ACM at the tail end of 2016 and SJL has some involvement but am not sure of its extent.

ACM seems to have started December 2016 according to Chess Mind

Seems to have moved for 4 to 6 issues a year now

John Upham wrote: ↑

Wed May 22, 2019 2:35 pm

Paul Cooksey wrote: ↑

Wed May 22, 2019 12:15 pm

I have to admit I thought Informator had bought it and was considering getting a copy to see if I liked it.

Paul,

Ownership can be discovered from https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/comp ... 8/officers

But who exactly constitutes Fryern Company Secretarial Services Limited?

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Wed May 22, 2019 6:29 pm

John Upham wrote: ↑

Wed May 22, 2019 2:35 pm

Paul Cooksey wrote: ↑

Wed May 22, 2019 12:15 pm

I have to admit I thought Informator had bought it and was considering getting a copy to see if I liked it.

Paul,

Ownership can be discovered from https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/comp ... 8/officers

But who exactly constitutes Fryern Company Secretarial Services Limited?

They are the firm of accountants for the three companies mentioned earlier.

The June BCM, just out, has no corrections or anything else regarding Jimmy Adams' article.

- O.G. Urcan

For the benefit of Justin H:

Human-sized penguin fossil discovered in New Zealand

https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... ew-zealand

More to the point

Hi Justin,

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1071306

Ray notes up the infamous Penrose - Keene 1971 game but refers the C.G. reader to 'Game 88 v Arnason. (1981)
So it would appear (I'm guessing) that these notes have been taken straight from 'Grandmaster Strategy' without editing.
I do not have that book is game 88 Arnason as White.

Both are good entertaining games (with instructive value) so repeating every 10 or so years is OK. (I suppose)

When one website asked me to write for them annotating games I said I have an idea...

I could use the same game week after week with different notes. I could do it in the style of Reinfeld,
Nimzovitch, Alekhine, Tarrasch, Talking Fritz, then onto Johnny Rotten, Agatha Christie, Jerome K Jerome ...etc.
They were not keen(!). Still think it's a fun idea and a challenge....oh and what game...Morphy at the Opera. I always use that.

The anti-Midas touch again

Kevin >Some years ago, a teacher that had written various chess books got locked up for sexual abuse of children. BCM immediately took all of those books off the shelves and stopped advertising them<

Murray Chandler did more than that. Walker's LATEST book had been printed by BCM but not yet districuted. Murray had them all pulped.