English Chess Forum

Another interesting initiative at BritBase: a collection of Leonard Barden's games...

https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pgn/b ... iewer.html

There are currently 438 game entries of which 64 are stubs (378 games appear in the games viewer). I am grateful to Andy Ansel, Ulrich Tamm, Brian Denman and Leonard himself for their help in gathering games and determining dates, etc. Hopefully the forum can find a few more. Please send scores and info to me via the link given below or else post new games in this thread.

I've also posted a list of the events which Leonard has taken part in together to links to other BritBase files where more info may be found. I am aware it is incomplete but will endeavour to fill in the blanks in due course. Amendments/additions to the list also welcome.

Thanks for this, John.
The second postal game (versus Lipton) was in BCM Jan 1947 p16, possibly played in the 1946 (or 1945?) British Junior CC Ch. Maybe Leonard can clarify.
The postal game v Ault was new to me.

I have four other postal games by Leonard which I will send on to you soon.
One was a win against J.A. Wall, from the 1945 BCCA Junior Championship and published in the BCCA Yearbook for 1945.
Barden was the winner with 9pts. ahead of G. Nussbaum 7.5, Wall 6, W. L. Jenkins 4; others not named.
The 1946 BCCA Yearbook p33 shows Barden won again with 9 pts, probably double-paired with 5 opponents. S. Lipton 7.KF Manning 5, Nussbaum 4, E A Goodman 3, M. Cohen 2.
The 1947 BCCA Yearbook p31 shows D. Hirsch as winner with 8 from Barden 7, C.A.H. Russ 5.5, J. Walker 5, G. W. Lines 4.5, Lipton retired.

So clearly Leonard played a lot of postal games in his early career and it would be good if more could be unearthed.

The other three games I have are from an international tournament, the Max Blumich Memorial-A 1948-50. There is a win against J. Apking which was annotated in the BCCA Magazine and two losses (one to Lothar Schmid, the other to W. Rothamel) which appeared in Fernschach.

I wonder can Leonard give us any more information or find other games from that event?

I had over 100 games going at one time, sparked by my chess hero Keres who used postal games to develop his analytical skills. It didn't work for me, perhaps because I played mainly in the National Correspondence club (source of the Ault game) where the standard was low and I once won more than 20 games in a row.

The Blumich tournament was strong, though, as it was one of the first major CC tournaments after the war, and I think I scored below 50 per cent. I recall that a German opponent Peter Firmenich, who had lost both legs while serving in the Afrika Korps, was very friendly, often wrote me long letters together with his latest move, and even travelled from his Cologne home to visit me at Amsterdam in 1954 where I was playing in the Olympiad.

I also played ten games simultaneously against Gordon Crown which were still in progress when he died, and where I would probably have lost by around 3.5-6.5 had they finished normally. I gave up postal chess
when I went to Oxford, and any surviving game scores disappeared decades ago. Sorry I can't help more.

It certainly worked for Keres! Some of his early postal games were brilliant.

EFCC do not have any extra LB games on their database, but possibly NATCOR do. https://www.natcor.org.uk/index.php/clubhouse

Have you received the game file I emailed to you, John?

Yes, thanks, Tim. I've added the games you sent me to the collection, which now numbers 443 game entries (of which 376 appear in the viewer - the rest are stubs). I've just updated it so it should be accessible.

A minor anecdote: back in the 1990s, when I worked at Chessington Computer Centre, one of the techies in the section that I managed told me that he was the youngest son of Sir John Wall, blind chess-playing high court judge, who was Leonard's opponent in one of those early CC games. J A Wall was a very strong player, though he'd not passed on his passion for chess to his son. His father being blind, the son told me he occasionally used to act as his eyes in court.

John Saunders wrote: ↑

Sat May 27, 2023 5:41 pm

His father being blind, the son told me he occasionally used to act as his eyes in court.

Presumably had he acted similarly in Parliament he could have used the phrase "The eyes have it" following a division?

John Upham wrote: ↑

Sat May 27, 2023 5:47 pm

John Saunders wrote: ↑

Sat May 27, 2023 5:41 pm

His father being blind, the son told me he occasionally used to act as his eyes in court.

Presumably had he acted similarly in Parliament he could have used the phrase "The eyes have it" following a division?

It was the best I could come up with in the circumstances.

Interested to see the name of Ault mentioned. I think he got a duck egg in the US Championship and when asked why retaliated "I've got talent". Same guy invented 'Master Mind', not our TV version, but something like Cluedo, here a game played with coloured pegs, elimination and deduction the order of the day. Is it Robert Ault? I hesitate ..
James

James Pratt wrote: ↑

Sun May 28, 2023 5:05 pm

Is it Robert Ault? I hesitate ..
James

No. My opponent was J K Ault from Staffordshire.

James Pratt wrote: ↑

Sun May 28, 2023 5:05 pm

Interested to see the name of Ault mentioned. I think he got a duck egg in the US Championship and when asked why retaliated "I've got talent". Same guy invented 'Master Mind', not our TV version, but something like Cluedo, here a game played with coloured pegs, elimination and deduction the order of the day. Is it Robert Ault? I hesitate ..
James

https://www.vice.com/en/article/884k54/ ... ersecurity

Leslie Ault, psychologist, chess scholar and the author of the Official Mastermind Handbook

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermin ... e)#History

The modern game with pegs was invented in 1970 by Mordecai Meirowitz, an Israeli postmaster and telecommunications expert.

Gerard Killoran wrote: ↑

Sun May 28, 2023 5:59 pm

James Pratt wrote: ↑

Sun May 28, 2023 5:05 pm

Interested to see the name of Ault mentioned. I think he got a duck egg in the US Championship and when asked why retaliated "I've got talent". Same guy invented 'Master Mind', not our TV version, but something like Cluedo, here a game played with coloured pegs, elimination and deduction the order of the day. Is it Robert Ault? I hesitate ..
James

https://www.vice.com/en/article/884k54/ ... ersecurity

Leslie Ault, psychologist, chess scholar and the author of the Official Mastermind Handbook

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermin ... e)#History

The modern game with pegs was invented in 1970 by Mordecai Meirowitz, an Israeli postmaster and telecommunications expert.

It was Robin - not Robert Ault who scored 0/11 at the US chamnpionships, but I suppose it's more fun to post without checking facts.

IIRC he was allowed to compete as the reigning US Junior Champion, but after that the experiment was not repeated.

Hi John,

Addition to the list of tournaments:

1948 Aug. Diamond Jubilee. Premier Reserves. B. Plymouth ENG – LW Barden 6/7, H Saunders 5.5, D Brown, HF Moxon, C Duffield, IR Napier 3, RB Copleston 2.5, SH Brocklesby 2 (8). Barden’s first adult Congress win. A Reserves C group was won by JF Barrett, a pupil of Taunton’s School, Southampton, ahead of FHC Marriott. There were 97 entries overall.

I presumably got this from the relevant CHESS Magazine, since it's not in Di Felice (the only reference guide I have to hand right now).