English Chess Forum

With all the media coverage of Leicester City winning the Football Premier League, it reminded me of possibly the biggest ever upset in chess tournaments when Glenn Flear a GM from Leicester ( was he a GM at the time?) won London 1986 as a last minute replacement, just back from honeymoon if I remember correctly.
Does anyone have any memories of this and is there any chance for chess to get a bit of the media action, we could play up the link to Kings and Leicester I.e. Richard III , Leicester play at King Stadium, Chess King and I think the 1986 tournament may have been called the Kings tournament?

Mark Hannon wrote:... is there any chance for chess to get a bit of the media action ....

I would think not.


On the subject of great chess upsets, off of the top of my head I can’t think of a better tournament upset than Glenn Flear’s London win. If we’re going to include individual games, then R Alan Barton’s win over Stuart Conquest a few years back (2011/2012 or thereabouts) must be up there. I’d played Mr B not long before at Paignton. People I can 1/2 - 1/2 against don’t normally go on to beat British Champions.

Well, there was the time the USSR got asked to nominate someone for a tournament that they thought was a junior tournament, and they sent off an unrated 16-year-old to it. Said teenager cruised through the tournament unbeaten and got a GM norm.

(You've guessed it: the unrated 16-year-old was one Garry Kasparov.)

Oh, Casablanca at San Sebastian must be worth a shout. The one he only got to play because Marshall insisted he be invited.

Oh, Casablanca at San Sebastian must be worth a shout.

I'm sure Humphrey and Ingrid would have had something to say on the matter if the producers had switched the location.

Planinc at Ljubljana?

What is the furthest a rank outsider has got towards a shot at the world title?

Comparing chess and football is difficult, as individual vs team and cerebral vs physical differences.

The better comparisons might be with chess team events (leagues and cups). Even an individual match is a one-off. Have there been events where a lowly-rated team has ended up winning a league? I suspect not. Upsets in football are relatively common (draws and defeats). In chess, the stronger player wins much more often than not, so you don't get sustained upsets over a whole season.

Mark Hannon wrote:With all the media coverage of Leicester City winning the Football Premier League, it reminded me of possibly the biggest ever upset in chess tournaments when Glenn Flear a GM from Leicester ( was he a GM at the time?) won London 1986 as a last minute replacement, just back from honeymoon if I remember correctly.
Does anyone have any memories of this and is there any chance for chess to get a bit of the media action, we could play up the link to Kings and Leicester I.e. Richard III , Leicester play at King Stadium, Chess King and I think the 1986 tournament may have been called the Kings tournament?

He got married during the event and was an IM at the time.

Tournament was previously called: Phillips & Drew Kings, but renamed GLC Chess Challenge, though the GLC was abolished that same year.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:Have there been events where a lowly-rated team has ended up winning a league? I suspect not.

One has happened just now! Check out 4NCL Division Four South.

Thanks for the information Christopher. There's another coincidental link then - GLC abolished in 1986 , Ken Livingstone thrown out by Labour in 2016.
I think Plaskett went the whole Tournament without a draw, even managing to rouse Boris Spassky to beat him on the day I was spectating.

IM Jack Rudd wrote:

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:Have there been events where a lowly-rated team has ended up winning a league? I suspect not.

One has happened just now! Check out 4NCL Division Four South.

Sussex Martlets 2?

http://www.4nclresults.co.uk/2015-16/4n ... export/#t3 (*)
http://www.4nclresults.co.uk/2015-16/4n ... export/#t4
http://www.4nclresults.co.uk/2015-16/4n ... export/#t1
http://www.4nclresults.co.uk/2015-16/4n ... export/#t1 (*)
http://www.4nclresults.co.uk/2015-16/4n ... export/#t1
http://www.4nclresults.co.uk/2015-16/4n ... export/#t1 (*)
http://www.4nclresults.co.uk/2015-16/4n ... export/#t1 (L)
http://www.4nclresults.co.uk/2015-16/4n ... export/#t1 (*)
http://www.4nclresults.co.uk/2015-16/4n ... export/#t1 (L)
http://www.4nclresults.co.uk/2015-16/4n ... export/#t1 (*)
http://www.4nclresults.co.uk/2015-16/4n ... export/#t1

Five matches where they were outrated, great result but doesn't look that impressive. Is there something I'm missing here?

Put the info to the publicity officer - I remember the tournament - spectated at a number of the days. Not sure whether it was some more sponsorship money left over (GLC as well as others). Some excellent tournaments but this one especially & organisers/arbiters on the forum will know.

Selby as in snooker is Leicester too. Been on five live all morning - also rugby & basketball successes.

So now all we need is Gary big ears on BBC TV not wearing much & analysing their success.

Get him to wear appropriate attire to play Glenn & the junior team at chess too? (that may break the budget).

Leicester used to be good about the time I was born - I think they blew the league one season right at the last few games.

My football team Kingstonian had a FA cup run - we drew at Bristol City when Graham Poll allowed FIVE minutes injury time when only 3 ought to have been played. That sort of thing does not happen in ECF competition. The next round was away to Leicester City but it was not to be.

Most remarkable was getting back from Telford in time for watching the Chelsea match in my local. Fancy Hazard scoring too? A nephew delivers pizza to Chelsea players living a few miles away. Anyway Leicester deserve their win. Excellent manager, & team spirit.

Julian Way captains a Kingston team & we have been calling him the Tinkerman (Claudio) all season for rotating his players & getting weaker players beating stronger players. We were successful but not winners. We were out graded in most matches.

To finish this cycle Julian was in the Celtic Tigers team that won yesterday achieving back to back promotions to division 1. So congratulations to that team too.

Just found this interesting blog post about Flear's 1986 tournament win
Generally chess team results over an event scored by game points would be more predictable than a football event where the whole team's performance is summed up by win , lose or draw. I recall the upset wins in football of the European Nations cup by Denmark and latter Greece, but not anything similar in chess, though the more widespread use of match points rather than game points nowadays makes more team upsets possible.

http://chesstales.blogspot.co.uk/2007/0 ... -1986.html

IM Jack Rudd wrote:Well, there was the time the USSR got asked to nominate someone for a tournament that they thought was a junior tournament, and they sent off an unrated 16-year-old to it. Said teenager cruised through the tournament unbeaten and got a GM norm.

(You've guessed it: the unrated 16-year-old was one Garry Kasparov.)

Though of course 15 year old Gazza had scored 50% at the USSR Championship the previous winter, something that did not go totally unnoticed (even in the notoriously parochial English chess press)

He still had no rating when travelling to Banja Luka because they were only issued ONCE A YEAR back then

Imagine that now?

EDIT: actually Jack, you might be getting your K's mixed up? Back in 1966 the Soviets sent two players to an event in (then) Czechoslovakia, in the mistaken impression it was a junior event when it was in fact open to all.

The players in question were Kupreichik and (of course) Karpov - the latter of whom ran away with it.

Mark Hannon wrote: I think Plaskett went the whole Tournament without a draw, even managing to rouse Boris Spassky to beat him on the day I was spectating.

That's correct: not a half against his name and he was the only player to beat Flear.

I'm reminded that a few seasons ago, Sporting nearly went through a whole season of thirty-eight games without a draw, their sole lapse being just a few rounds before the end. (Coincidentally, as Jim might have it, I am in Gijón right now.)