Chess history trivia

[MJMcCready]

Think I will have to make them a bit harder from now on.

[John Hickman]

Walter Parratt

[Kevin Thurlow]

Parratt beat Andrew Bonar Law in a casual game at Windsor (much to the King's amusement).

[MJMcCready]

Why was the King amused so?

[Tim Harding]

Walter Parratt (who played in the first Oxford-Cambridge university match and was later Master of the Queen's/ King's Music and got a knighthood) was able to play blindfold chess while at the same time playing the organ. I think he did this at Windsor but I don't have chapter and verse for that.

There's a good article about him in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

[MJMcCready]

Another question, hopefully a bit harder.

The match score was 217.5 - 182.5.

Can you name the English teams?

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Why was the King amused so?"

He didn't like Bonar Law! Apparently, over dinner, he said, "I hear old Parratt beat your head off!" (or words to that effect...)

[MJMcCready]

So this would be George V you are referring to? I am assuming Bonar-Law was Prime Minister at the time.

[Kevin Thurlow]

It was in 1911, so roughly ten years before he became Prime Minister. It's mentioned in my (I hope) soon to be available book on Civil Service Chess and I think I found the quote in the Adams biography, or maybe Edward Winter was my source. I don't have the info with me.

[MJMcCready]

Nice, keep us updated with that.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Possibly the Blake biography...

[Gerard Killoran]

Another question, hopefully a bit harder.

The match score was 217.5 - 182.5.

Can you name the English teams?

I think it was North of the Thames vs South of the Thames, 24th September 1921 at Central Hall Westminster.

[MJMcCready]

Well done Gerard!

[MJMcCready]

I have another question, Who said this and which tournament was he referring to?

'Oh, my tip to win this year's tournament?

Petrosian, not because he's ex-world champion, but because he's deaf.'

[Leonard Barden]

From memory that was Tony Miles complaining about the playing conditions at Hastings prior to the 1977-78 tournament. It might have been in his New Statesman column.