English Chess Forum

Anybody throw any light on these two snippets from the above column



and

Of course one assumes these are made-ups, or at best large exaggerations, but I suppose it is at least possible to mate with a bishop against two pawns

The second ancedote is, lifted, almost word-for-word, from the BCM for the previous September, reporting on what would later come to be known as the first Olympiad, a report we can read here.

Morning Justin,
Good spot with the BCM. Regarding the Bishop mate, W.H.Watts has two Bishop mates on chessgames.com but neither being v a female nor a lone Bishop. One was v H.L.Crawford who I think may have been https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Leighton_Crawford (or one his sons with the same initials.) If it is he then in a few months pose it as a chess trivia question.
Who played in the Sussex v Middlesex 1926 match but also played for Ceylon at cricket?

Final position
r7/p1B4p/8/k3p3/2Q5/8/1b2K3/1q6 b - - 6 45

William Henry Watts - H L Crawford, Sussex v Middlesex 1926

1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Qg4 Qf6 5.Nd5 Qxf2+ 6.Kd1 d6 7.Qxg7 Nce7 8.Nh3 Bxh3 9.Rf1 Qxg2 10.Qxf7+ Kd7 11.d4 Bxd4 12.Bh6 c6 13.Nf6+ Nxf6 14.Rxf6 Qg1+ 15.Kd2 Qg2+ 16.Kd3 d5 17.exd5 Bxb2 18.dxc6+ bxc6 19.Be6+ Kd8 20.Rd1 Bxe6 21.Rxe6 Re8 22.Kc4+ Bd4 23.c3 Qd5+ 24.Kd3 Bxc3+ 25.Ke2 Bd4 26.Bf8 Qxa2+ 27.Rd2 Qa6+ 28.Ke1 Qa1+ 29.Rd1 Qc3+ 30.Kf1 Qh3+ 31.Ke2 Qxh2+ 32.Kf1 Kc7 33.Rxe7+ Rxe7 34.Qxe7+ Kc8 35.Qe6+ Kb7 36.Qd7+ Kb6 37.Rb1+ Bb2 38.Bd6 Qh1+ 39.Ke2 Qxb1 40.Qc7+ Kb5 41.Qb7+ Kc4 42.Qxc6+ Kb3 43.Qd5+ Ka4 44.Qc4+ Ka5 45.Bc7