Who was L. Alexander?

[Kevin Thurlow]

I have now watched a short film, "The Battak of Sumatra (1929)", (on Youtube) which doesn't feature anyone playing chess. Some of the captions contain words which might make some people faint with horror these days. The captions are rather critical of the dance style of the Battak, (starts about 10 minutes in) which I think is harsh - the Battak were obviously many years ahead of their time.

[Richard James]

The original image appears to be copyrighted.

A licence to use it on a blog will set you back at least £150!

[John Saunders]

BCM promised more annotated games from this match in the June 1944 issue but, infuriatingly, that issue is missing from my collection. Can anyone else oblige?

The June 1944 issue published the L Alexander-Simonson and Hanauer-Mieses games, both annotated by Dr Aitken. Stockfish 12 is not very impressed with the annotations.

Many thanks for responding to my plea, Richard. Brian Denman also did so via email, so I must thank him too. Brian points out that the June BCM also referred to the match being played on 22 April, which was a Saturday and perhaps more likely to be the true date of the match.

Technical issue: for some reason the images Richard has displayed in this thread are not appearing on my screen whereas the ones Gerard has inserted in his posts are fine. Nobody else has mentioned a problem so maybe it's just me having the problem. Any ideas? I'm accessing the forum via a Chrome browser on a laptop running Windows.

[Richard James]

Technical issue: for some reason the images Richard has displayed in this thread are not appearing on my screen whereas the ones Gerard has inserted in his posts are fine. Nobody else has mentioned a problem so maybe it's just me having the problem. Any ideas? I'm accessing the forum via a Chrome browser on a laptop running Windows.

They work for me in Microsoft Edge, my usual browser, but not in Google Chrome. I'll try something different.

[Mick Norris]

Ditto re the images in Richard's posts

Chrome on an Android phone FWIW

[Ian Thompson]

The original image appears to be copyrighted.

Is it really, though? Copyright law is complex, so I don't know the answer. One source on US copyright law says that photographs published before 1976 are protected for 75 years, so this one would be out of copyright under that law. Another source on English copyright law says they are protected for 70 years after the death of the creator, so you'd have to know who took it and when they died to determine whether or not it was still in copyright.

[Mike Gunn]

"Surrey's interclub cup competition is called the Alexander Cup and is presumably named after either L or FFL Alexander."

FFL, it's stated in "50 Years of Battersea Chess" (assuming I remembered the title correctly.) I did inform one of your Surrey colleagues a few years ago, but he never acknowledged receipt.

Thanks, Kevin. You could even have told me as I remember the same question (identity of the Alexander in Surrey's Alexander Cup) being answered a few years ago. Anyway, here's an acknowledgement ...

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Thanks, Kevin. You could even have told me as I remember the same question (identity of the Alexander in Surrey's Alexander Cup) being answered a few years ago. Anyway, here's an acknowledgement ..."

Thanks! I might have told you briefly, but it was someone else that I told in detail...

[Richard James]

An impressive positional victory against a strong opponent, published, with annotations by Mieses, in the January 1944 BCM.

[Event "West London Chess Club Championship"] [Site "?"] [Date "1943.11.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Alexander, Laurie"] [Black "Thomas, George Alan"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D46"] [PlyCount "89"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] [SourceVersionDate "2020.11.02"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 c6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 Be7 7. e4 dxe4 8. Nxe4 Nxe4 9. Bxe4 Bb4+ 10. Bd2 Bxd2+ 11. Qxd2 O-O 12. O-O Qe7 13. Rad1 Rd8 14. Qe3 Nf8 15. Rd2 Ng6 16. Rfd1 Bd7 17. Ne5 Be8 18. g3 Rac8 19. c5 Nxe5 20. dxe5 Rxd2 21. Rxd2 Rd8 22. Rd6 Rd7 23. f4 g6 24. Qa3 a6 25. Qc3 Qd8 26. h4 h6 27. Kf2 Kf8 28. Qd2 Ke7 29. Qb4 Kf8 30. Bf3 h5 31. Qd2 Rxd6 32. Qxd6+ Qe7 33. Ke3 Qxd6 34. cxd6 Bd7 35. Kd4 b6 36. b4 Ke8 37. a4 Kd8 38. a5 bxa5 39. bxa5 Kc8 40. Kc5 Kb7 41. g4 hxg4 42. Bxg4 Be8 43. h5 gxh5 44. Bxh5 Ka7 45. Bxf7 1-0

[Geoff Chandler]

An L. Alexander game from the Aitken score books (book 2) by coincidence I was entering
this game into PGN format on Saturday roughly about the same time Gerald started this thread.
I know this because after entering this game I showered, shaved, masked up and went to work.
(thinking why bother shaving if I'm wearing a mask?)

Alexander plays the Cochrane Gambit. Aitken adds a ! after white's 19th move.

L. Alexander - J. Aitken, Oxford, 21.10.1933 (1-0)

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nxf7 Kxf7 5. Nc3 Bg4 6. f3 Be6 7. d4 d5 8. e5 Nfd7 9. Be3 Bb4 10. Be2 Nc6 11. O-O Ne7 12. f4 Nf5 13. Bf2 g6 14. g4 Nh4 15. a3 Bxc3 16. bxc3 h5 17. gxh5 Bh3 18. hxg6+ Nxg6 19. f5 Bxf5 20. Bg3 Ne7 21. Bg4 Ke6 22. c4 c6 23. Bxf5+ Nxf5 24. Qg4 Qg8 25. Qxf5+ Ke7 26. cxd5 Qxd5 27. Qg5+ Ke8 28. Qg6+ Kd8 29. Qd6 Re8 30. Qxd5 cxd5 31. Rf7 Rc8 32. Rb1 b6 33. Rb5 Rxc2 34. Rxd5 1-0

[NickFaulks]

I tried the Cochrane Gambit years ago, on a whim, and won a super game. I looked it up afterwards, learned that it lost by force and have been too frightened to play it since.

[Matt Mackenzie]

I tried the Cochrane Gambit years ago, on a whim, and won a super game. I looked it up afterwards, learned that it lost by force and have been too frightened to play it since.

Is that so? I thought the theoretical consensus was "slightly dodgy, but playable".

Of course if Black knows what they are doing White shouldn't expect more than a draw. If.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Nick and Matt,

First time I played as White I lost, but that me going sac-happy not the opening.
Returned to it a few times and won some nice games.
I worked out a good Black trap. Here

rnbq1b1r/ppp2kpp/3p1n2/8/3PP3/8/PPP2PPP/RNBQKB1R b KQ - 0 5

Black plays 5...d5!? It's playable. You tempt White into going for qucik kill with a Queen sac.

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nxf7 Kxf7 5. d4 d5 6. e5 Ne4 7. Qf3+ Kg8 8. Qxe4 {8.....dxf4 9.Bc4+ mates but....} 8... Bb4+ {...the Black King now has a flight square on f8.so dxe4 next move.} *

[Richard James]

Entirely coincidentally, I was researching the Cochrane Gambit this morning.

Cochrane's 5. Bc4+ is certainly unsound. The main line 5. d4 and 5. Nc3, the modern engine choice as well as that of Laurie Alexander, are both slightly dodgy but worth a punt in blitz games.

Laurie Alexander, whoever he was (and I haven't got much further), was clearly a man ahead of his time.

On move 19, Stockfish 12 replaces Aitken's ! with a ?, claiming that 19... Qg5+ was winning for Black. He seemed to miss a lot of tactics in his annotations.

[JustinHorton]

I seem to remember Topalov playing it against Kramnik