Britbase Updates

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Nice finds. In the Hutchings-Bennett game, White's penultimate move should be 37.Qg8 (not 37.Qh8).

Spooky that both games ends with White playing Qf8.

[Roger de Coverly]

For the record, it was the Marlow Congress of 1969 that BH Wood is writing about. There were actually only 5 rounds, but with adjournment sessions, it could have seemed like two games on the Sunday. Additionally there was a simul on the Sunday evening, more often than not given by Hartston. He might have played in that.

A postponent of his Monday morning game in Southport makes sense, as otherwise he would have been playing the morning round in Marlow at the same time.

[John Upham]

For the record, it was the Marlow Congress of 1969 that BH Wood is writing about.

Did the Marlow Congress traditionally have a buzzer / lightning tournament on the Friday evening or was that a more recent feature of the Berks & Bucks Congress?

[Graham Borrowdale]

[quote="Roger de Coverly" post_id=323523 time=<a href="tel:1766240538">1766240538</a> user_id=538]
For the record, it was the Marlow Congress of 1969 that BH Wood is writing about.

Did the Marlow Congress traditionally have a buzzer / lightning tournament on the Friday evening or was that a more recent feature of the Berks & Bucks Congress?
[/quote]

My memory is that the Marlow Congress was the most spaced out event, with just 5 rounds over Friday evening and Sat/Sun/Mon, with adjournment sessions, a master simul, and the buzzer lightning after the last round on Monday.

[John Saunders]

Yes, Graham's right about the 'spaced-out-ness' of the Marlow Congress. I hasten to add that no hallucinatory drugs were involved, though strong drink could have been a factor - the owner of the local brewery opened the congress in 1969.

The reason I am able to share this arcane snippet of information is that it appeared in the 1969 Marlow Congress Souvenir Programme, a copy of which is still in my possession. I have scanned it and made it available online...

https://www.saund.org.uk/pdf.js/web/vie ... gramme.pdf

... adorned with various scribblings by my teenaged self. However, some of these are quite useful: one records Gerald Bennett's score of 3½/5 in the Late Open section in a four-way tie for first place before his return to Southport.

The Marlow tournament schedule is recorded on the final page. Round 1 on the Friday evening, round 2 Saturday morning, then adjournments played off on Saturday afternoon, and round 3 on Saturday evening. Sunday morning was reserved for more adjournment sessions from rounds 1, 2 and 3 (all of which were four-hour sessions). Round 4 was played on Sunday afternoon, to a finish. On Sunday evening there would be a simul given by one of the players in the Masters section - in 1969, RDK did the honours, scoring +17=7-1. Round 5 started on Monday at 9.30 and was also played to a finish, with prizegiving scheduled at 3.30pm. After the prizegiving came the lightning tournament, utilising the legendary tape loop of tournament director Alex Niedzwiedzki saying "Vite to moof... [10-second pause] bleck to moof... [10-second pause]" as a result of which everyone who ever participated in these events can do a perfect imitation of Alex's deep and sonorous Polish accent: a strange form of immortality but one richly deserved by this fondly-remembered organiser.

I believe this schedule still applied a decade or so later when the tournament had moved to Amersham and became known as the Berks & Bucks Congress. Later still it did make a brief return to Marlow but by then had changed to a six-round event, leaving little room for side events and 'free periods' (i.e. sessions at the pub). In this regard the Marlow Congress in the early 1970s was as important a part of a young chess player's general education as a study of Nimzowitsch, with the riverside town's magnificent choice of pubs - O my Wethered and my Brakspear, long ago.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

O my Wethered and my Brakspear, long ago.

Cricket on the mind? Another late-night session of hope springing eternal?

[No more! Might jinx it...]

[John Saunders]

O my Wethered and my Brakspear, long ago.

Cricket on the mind? Another late-night session of hope springing eternal?

[No more! Might jinx it...]

Cricket used to be my favourite TV spectator sport but since it largely disappeared behind a paywall I've fallen out of love with it and discovered other sports. Any residual interest I have in cricket is retrospective (not unlike my interest in chess). I enjoy trying to recall the names of players who appear in photo quizzes on social media. It always astonishes me how I can dredge up the names of obscure county cricketers of the 1960s but cannot remember what I did yesterday. Similarly, much of the culture of cricket remains with me but it's as if from a past life and doesn't represent the me of today. So be clear that my late-night posts here have nothing to do with cricket!

[Gerard Killoran]

Nice finds. In the Hutchings-Bennett game, White's penultimate move should be 37.Qg8 (not 37.Qh8).

Oops. A mouse-slip. I blame too many mince pies.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Only just noticed that the immediate 37.Qf8 is also mate.

[Gerard Killoran]

Only just noticed that the immediate 37.Qf8 is also mate.

Time trouble perhaps, or did Barry Wood also make a mistake?

[Matt Mackenzie]

Its not that hard to miss a mate in one if you have seen another line which is a totally forced win anyway.

[Nick Ivell]

I am very similar and the Cardus quote did not escape me (I think he was talking about Maclaren, maybe Spooner).

Sometimes I think my chess education took place in a different world. Of course it was pre-engine, so there was no easy way to spot my mistakes. Does anyone read Nimzowitsch these days? I doubt it. I suspect any knowledge of Nimzo is limited to the Salwe game, maybe Johner and of course the immortal zugzwang game.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Cardus quote? Where is this? Which post are you referring to?

This Cardus?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Cardus

[Christopher Kreuzer]

In a somewhat vain attempt to find out more about Alex Niedzwiedzki:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2726

What is the story with that half-formed thread from 2011? Split off from another thread? Someone's posts were deleted?

There is a nice photo here:

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-cont ... r-2008.pdf

One of four people to receive the President’s Awards for Services to Chess in 2008.

And an account of his early life (John will forgive me, I think, for the segue):

Alex was born in 1924, in what was part of Poland, that is now Ukraine, and after a chequered young life during World War 2 years. Escaping from the Germans, then being recaptured and made to work in a large railway marshalling yard in Austria which became a target for the Allied Bombing raids. After a period of time here, he was captured by the advancing American troops and interned; then on being processed joined the Free Polish Army, stationed in Northern Italy. Now classed as a stateless person he was offered U.S.A. or U.K. as a place to move too; Alex chose the latter.

The rest of that section of the PDF details his services to chess.

[J T Melsom]

I assumed John Saunders was replacing the Lancashire cricketers Hornby and Barlow with the names of the local breweries. If John were to return to his own stomping grounds he might well enjoy Rebellion , the Winter Royal is based on the old Wethered's recipe. But Wiki suggests that the quote isn't Cardus but Frances Thompson ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry_about_cricket. )