Britbase Updates

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Once upon a time a congress held in Luton in 1975 entered into the press for, perhaps all the wrong reasons, with the final round accredited with the shortest game of chess ever played.

Can you name the competitors of that Round 5 game, reproduce the scoresheet, and if you don't mind, inform us how much the winner of the tournament took home with him?

Stewart Reuben might be able to help with all of those. I once won one of the Islington tournaments organised by Tony Gaffney and Ken Goodwyn by drawing by threefold repetition in six moves in the final round. Before the game I was on 5/5 and my opponent (who finished clear second) was on 4.5/5. I hasten to add this was a graded section (U160 maybe?) rather than an open.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Ken Goodwyn"

Are you sure? I would guess at George Goodwin... I may be talking rubbish of course.

And you're right about Stewart!

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

"Ken Goodwyn" Are you sure? I would guess at George Goodwin... I may be talking rubbish of course.

Sorry, you're right of course - George Goodwin.
Edit: I dug around a little and, much to my surprise, it turns out that George wasn't his first name (it was his middle name). His first name was extremely unusual and unless you happen to know it, completely impossible to guess.
Edit again: Impossible to guess, unless you explore BritBase! George once won a magnum of Claret for being the (joint) highest placed Londoner in a tournament in Islington. The report of this, with his first name given, can be found on John's BritBase Chess site.

[James Pratt]

Whilst at the British Championship at Morecambe, 1981, I saw a poster for Ken Goodwin, as I think he spelled it, a comedian with a bashful smile. He was at the height of his fame some ten years earlier and came on the telly quite often. 'The Comedians' would be unlikely to air today.
James

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Whilst at the British Championship at Morecambe, 1981, I saw a poster for Ken Goodwin, as I think he spelled it, a comedian with a bashful smile. He was at the height of his fame some ten years earlier and came on the telly quite often. 'The Comedians' would be unlikely to air today.
James

When I was about ten years old I had a collecting autographs phase which lasted just a few months and Ken Goodwin (I felt sure it was spelt Goodwyn!) was the first one I got. He must have been doing some sort of show in Portsmouth. I think I got Clodagh Rodgers' the next evening. Anyway, that's the reason for me mis-remembering George Goodwin's name.

[MJMcCready]

"Ken Goodwyn"

Are you sure? I would guess at George Goodwin... I may be talking rubbish of course.

And you're right about Stewart!

Nope but bear Stewart in mind.

Helpful clue: the winner is mistakenly attributed as England's first Grandmaster rather than the categorically distinct problemist Comins Mansfield.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Nope but bear Stewart in mind.
Helpful clue: the winner is mistakenly attributed as England's first Grandmaster rather than the categorically distinct problemist Comins Mansfield.

Part of your question was "Can you name the competitors of that Round 5 game". Well it was obviously Tony Miles and Stewart Reuben, who agreed a draw before the game started and submitted the result (signed scoresheets?) with no moves played. With this draw Tony Miles won the tournament outright. I have no idea what the first prize was or whether the tournament organisers refused to pay all or some of it.

[GrahamStuart]

Back in 2004 when I ran the original Hampshire Chess Website, John Jones supplied me with 133 games from the Portsmouth Evening News, for the period when he was the editor of the Chess Column "Chess Notes" (1960's, 1980's and 1990's). The other editors of this column were Jack Grant (Mr "Chess Notes"), Terry Hollington and Mike Drymond.

As advised at the time "The comments to the games are the original ones, which were not always by John and are acknowledged where applicable. These comments would have been made without access to any Chess Playing software, so there will be a few holes (up to you to spot them!)."

I thought I had lost these, along with most of the website, but with some assistance most of the material is now available. I will use these games on the Hampshire History Website, but there are a couple of games which are relevant for Britbase. In addition some of the Wilf Pratten Games now have additional information as well, such as the specific Hampshire Championship, but again I would like to check these first.

[Event "BCF Major Open (2)"] [Site "?"] [Date "1967.11.16"] [Round "?"] [White "Evans, G.R."] [Black "Collins, P.M ."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C02"] [PlyCount "56"] [EventDate "1967.11.16"] [SourceTitle "Chess Notes"] [Source "Portsmouth Evening News "] [SourceDate "2004.04.20"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "2024.07.11"] [SourceQuality "1"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Qb6 6. a3 Bd7 7. b4 c4 8. a4 a6 9. Na3 Nxb4 {Black gets three pawns for his piece, and an attack} ({White may have been contemplating something like: -} 9... Nh6 10. Bxc4 dxc4 11. Nxc4 Qc7 12. O-O Nxb4 13. Nd6+ Bxd6 14. exd6 Qxc3 15. Bd2 Qc6 16. Bxb4 Nf5 17. Ne5) 10. cxb4 Qxb4+ 11. Ke2 Bxa4 12. Qd2 c3 13. Qa2 Bb3 14. Qb1 Qa4 15. Ke3 Nh6 16. Bd3 Nf5+ 17. Bxf5 exf5 18. Qxf5 $2 {White has allowed himself to be diverted by a pawn sacrfice} (18. Re1 {Rather better was to attempt artificial castling} Be7 (18... Bb4 19. Nc2 $1) 19. Ke2 Bc4+ 20. Nxc4 Qxc4+ 21. Qd3 Rc8 22. Qxc4 Rxc4 23. Ba3 Bxa3 24. Rxa3 O-O 25. Rc1 Rfc8 26. Kd3) 18... Be7 19. Ng5 Bxg5+ 20. Qxg5 O-O 21. Nc2 Qd7 $1 22. Ne1 f6 {White is lost} 23. Qh4 fxe5 24. dxe5 Qf5 25. Nf3 Rac8 26. Ba3 Rc4 27. Bxf8 Rxh4 28. Nxh4 Qe4# 0-1

[Event "BCF Under 16 (6)"] [Site "?"] [Date "1967.09.21"] [Round "?"] [White "Saverymuttu, Seth"] [Black "Webb, Roger"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B09"] [PlyCount "55"] [EventDate "1967.09.21"] [SourceTitle "Chess Notes"] [Source "Portsmouth Evening News "] [SourceDate "2004.04.20"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "2024.07.11"] [SourceQuality "1"] 1. e4 g6 2. d4 d6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. f4 Nf6 5. Bd3 O-O 6. Nf3 Na6 7. O-O c5 8. d5 Nc7 9. Qe1 e6 10. dxe6 fxe6 11. Kh1 Nfe8 12. Ng5 Bh6 13. Be3 Bxg5 14. fxg5 Rxf1+ 15. Qxf1 Qe7 16. Qf2 b6 17. Ne2 Bb7 ({Better} 17... d5) 18. Nf4 Qg7 19. Rf1 d5 20. exd5 exd5 21. b4 d4 22. Bc4+ Nd5 ({NOT} 22... Kh8 23. Nxg6+ hxg6 24. Qh4+ Qh7 25. Rf8+ Kg7 26. Rf7+ Kg8 27. Qxh7#) ({While} 22... Bd5 {would transpose into the same mate after} 23. Nxd5 dxe3 24. Ne7+) 23. Nxd5 $2 (23. Ne6 {was decidedly stronger, as Seth noted by Nxd5?? on his score-sheet!}) 23... Nd6 24. Qe2 (24. Ne7+ Kh8 25. Nxg6+ Qxg6 26. Bxd4+ cxd4 27. Qxd4+ Qg7 28. Qxd6 {would also lead to a win albeit slower}) 24... dxe3 25. Nxb6+ Nxc4 26. Qxc4+ Kh8 27. Nxa8 Bxa8 28. Qxc5 1-0

The Portsmouth Evening News currently ends at the end of 1961 on the British Newspaper Archives, unless there is a physical copy this will be a great source for Chess (particularly Hampshire) when the later years are scanned.

I do have the copies from Sept 76 to June 79 and will try and add these games to John's original ones sometime.
https://hampshirechesshistory.co.uk/chess-notes/

[Matt Mackenzie]

"Ken Goodwyn"

Are you sure? I would guess at George Goodwin... I may be talking rubbish of course.

And you're right about Stewart!

Nope but bear Stewart in mind.

Helpful clue: the winner is mistakenly attributed as England's first Grandmaster rather than the categorically distinct problemist Comins Mansfield.

So it wasn't the "naturalised" Jacques Mieses?

[MJMcCready]

Nope but bear Stewart in mind.
Helpful clue: the winner is mistakenly attributed as England's first Grandmaster rather than the categorically distinct problemist Comins Mansfield.

Part of your question was "Can you name the competitors of that Round 5 game". Well it was obviously Tony Miles and Stewart Reuben, who agreed a draw before the game started and submitted the result (signed scoresheets?) with no moves played. With this draw Tony Miles won the tournament outright. I have no idea what the first prize was or whether the tournament organisers refused to pay all or some of it.

It was reported in the local newspaper that he picked up £200

[John Saunders]

Nope but bear Stewart in mind.
Helpful clue: the winner is mistakenly attributed as England's first Grandmaster rather than the categorically distinct problemist Comins Mansfield.

Part of your question was "Can you name the competitors of that Round 5 game". Well it was obviously Tony Miles and Stewart Reuben, who agreed a draw before the game started and submitted the result (signed scoresheets?) with no moves played. With this draw Tony Miles won the tournament outright. I have no idea what the first prize was or whether the tournament organisers refused to pay all or some of it.

It was reported in the local newspaper that he picked up £200

Hopefully this particular quiz sequence has now reached its conclusion. Perhaps future quiz questions could be posed on the Chess History Trivia thread rather than here on BritBase Updates.

[John Saunders]

Back in 2004 when I ran the original Hampshire Chess Website, John Jones supplied me with 133 games from the Portsmouth Evening News, for the period when he was the editor of the Chess Column "Chess Notes" (1960's, 1980's and 1990's). The other editors of this column were Jack Grant (Mr "Chess Notes"), Terry Hollington and Mike Drymond.

As advised at the time "The comments to the games are the original ones, which were not always by John and are acknowledged where applicable. These comments would have been made without access to any Chess Playing software, so there will be a few holes (up to you to spot them!)."

I thought I had lost these, along with most of the website, but with some assistance most of the material is now available. I will use these games on the Hampshire History Website, but there are a couple of games which are relevant for Britbase. In addition some of the Wilf Pratten Games now have additional information as well, such as the specific Hampshire Championship, but again I would like to check these first.

The Portsmouth Evening News currently ends at the end of 1961 on the British Newspaper Archives, unless there is a physical copy this will be a great source for Chess (particularly Hampshire) when the later years are scanned.

I do have the copies from Sept 76 to June 79 and will try and add these games to John's original ones sometime.
https://hampshirechesshistory.co.uk/chess-notes/

Graham, many thanks for posting these games and I look forward to seeing more games from this source in due course. Keep up the good work with your excellent website.

Though I already had scores of both those games, I noticed that the round numbers differed from what appears on BritBase. And I have the horrible feeling that, not only are the round numbers John Jones gives likely to be right and those on BritBase wrong, most of the other round numbers and exact dates given on BritBase for games played in the subsidiary sections at the 1967 British Championships are probably unreliable. This would have been one of the first files I uploaded to BritBase in about 1997 and I'm not even sure whether I input the games myself or took them from ChessBase as I was not yet in the habit of noting sources. I have tested this against a handful of results published in regional newspapers for players in that year's subsidiary sections and found that the games which appeared after the main championship games in the daily bulletin were not necessarily from that day's round but tended to be from the previous day's play, if not earlier. The good news is that the main championship games are unaffected - the round numbers and dates are (or should be) correct. But the round numbers and exact dates for other games will have to be removed unless I can find other sources which corroborate them. As Homer Simpson said when watching the local church burn down after his homemade rocket landed on it, "I can't feeling partially responsible for this."

[MJMcCready]

Part of your question was "Can you name the competitors of that Round 5 game". Well it was obviously Tony Miles and Stewart Reuben, who agreed a draw before the game started and submitted the result (signed scoresheets?) with no moves played. With this draw Tony Miles won the tournament outright. I have no idea what the first prize was or whether the tournament organisers refused to pay all or some of it.

It was reported in the local newspaper that he picked up £200

Hopefully this particular quiz sequence has now reached its conclusion. Perhaps future quiz questions could be posed on the Chess History Trivia thread rather than here on BritBase Updates.

Me too. Apologies for posting in the wrong place.

[GrahamStuart]

Back in 2004 when I ran the original Hampshire Chess Website, John Jones supplied me with 133 games from the Portsmouth Evening News, for the period when he was the editor of the Chess Column "Chess Notes" (1960's, 1980's and 1990's). The other editors of this column were Jack Grant (Mr "Chess Notes"), Terry Hollington and Mike Drymond.

As advised at the time "The comments to the games are the original ones, which were not always by John and are acknowledged where applicable. These comments would have been made without access to any Chess Playing software, so there will be a few holes (up to you to spot them!)."

I thought I had lost these, along with most of the website, but with some assistance most of the material is now available. I will use these games on the Hampshire History Website, but there are a couple of games which are relevant for Britbase. In addition some of the Wilf Pratten Games now have additional information as well, such as the specific Hampshire Championship, but again I would like to check these first.

The Portsmouth Evening News currently ends at the end of 1961 on the British Newspaper Archives, unless there is a physical copy this will be a great source for Chess (particularly Hampshire) when the later years are scanned.

I do have the copies from Sept 76 to June 79 and will try and add these games to John's original ones sometime.
https://hampshirechesshistory.co.uk/chess-notes/

Graham, many thanks for posting these games and I look forward to seeing more games from this source in due course. Keep up the good work with your excellent website.

Though I already had scores of both those games, I noticed that the round numbers differed from what appears on BritBase. And I have the horrible feeling that, not only are the round numbers John Jones gives likely to be right and those on BritBase wrong, most of the other round numbers and exact dates given on BritBase for games played in the subsidiary sections at the 1967 British Championships are probably unreliable. This would have been one of the first files I uploaded to BritBase in about 1997 and I'm not even sure whether I input the games myself or took them from ChessBase as I was not yet in the habit of noting sources. I have tested this against a handful of results published in regional newspapers for players in that year's subsidiary sections and found that the games which appeared after the main championship games in the daily bulletin were not necessarily from that day's round but tended to be from the previous day's play, if not earlier. The good news is that the main championship games are unaffected - the round numbers and dates are (or should be) correct. But the round numbers and exact dates for other games will have to be removed unless I can find other sources which corroborate them. As Homer Simpson said when watching the local church burn down after his homemade rocket landed on it, "I can't feeling partially responsible for this."

Thanks John - I am hoping the round numbers are correct, but looking at these two games and the ones in the file the dates (certainly for these two games) probably relate to the date published in the Portsmouth Evening News and not the date the games were played. Not having the actual newspapers means I cannot check this for all of them, but I will need to check and amend these where I can determine the date the games were played. As both of these games had a date of 21 Sept 1967 and the tournament was 7th to 18th August this does stick out as the incorrect dates.

An an aside I very much enjoyed your recent new articles on the 1955 Birmingham Training Tournament, 1970 Northern Open and 1974 England v West Germany - Many thanks for all the great work you do on your site.

[John Saunders]

I don't see any "Christmas Special" info - I have an idea I played in it..

Kevin - this message got 'lost in the post' - apologies. As far as I can see from published results, you didn't play at Hastings 1973/74 but you played in the New Year Special B section at Hastings 1974/75. All of your games from that event appear in the 1974/75 Hastings file.