English Chess Forum

Which world class player, whose career lasted several decades, only played for the first time in England in his penultimate international tournament?

King Cnut? @ Milton Keynes Open 997AD?

Mieses?

Didn't he play at Hastings in 1895?

How about Gedeon Barcza whose first appearance in England looks like Hastings 72/73. Unfortunately, he appears to have played in two or three subsequent events, albeit they were fairly minor.

Hans Renette wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 09, 2018 12:50 pm

Which world class player, whose career lasted several decades, only played for the first time in England in his penultimate international tournament?

Rudolf Spielmann at Margate,1938.

Which world class player, whose career spanned more than half a century, played a number of unconventional openings in his final tournament, including 1. g4 x2, 1. b4 x2 and 1. ...a5?

That one at least is easy - Bent Larsen. He also scored "nul points"

Were the weird openings some sort of protest, possibly?

(IIRC the same has been claimed about the similarly elderly Samisch losing all the games of one tournament on time)

Gerard Killoran wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 10, 2018 3:12 pm

Hans Renette wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 09, 2018 12:50 pm

Which world class player, whose career lasted several decades, only played for the first time in England in his penultimate international tournament?

Rudolf Spielmann at Margate,1938.

Yes, Spielmann it is!

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 10, 2018 6:10 pm

That one at least is easy - Bent Larsen. He also scored "nul points"

Were the weird openings some sort of protest, possibly?

(IIRC the same has been claimed about the similarly elderly Samisch losing all the games of one tournament on time)

Correct indeed. I don't know about his choice of openings but I believe his health was not great by then, perhaps he felt liberated in some sense of the word. One of the very few things I like about 'My Great Predecessors' that which Kasparov put his name to, is the reverence shown towards Larsen. A great, great player but certainly not the easiest to understand.

"One of the very few things I like about 'My Great Predecessors' that which Kasparov put his name to, is the reverence shown towards Larsen. A great, great player but certainly not the easiest to understand."

My father played 1.f4 with some success, but then Larsen started playing it and soon everyone knew what to do as they saw the published games. (This is of course pre-Chessbase, now you see all games, not just a few that magazines print.) So my father abandoned 1.f4 in favour of a Nf3 and b3 system. Larsen of course then started playing b3. I mentioned this to Larsen at Hastings and he roared with laughter, congratulated my father on his opening ideas, apologised, and wished him well, which was nice of him.

I think Larsen thought chess should be fun. He wasn't a fan of 30 moves of opening theory. As Bill Hartston said, you don't win games by actually doing anything, you just wait for a mistake. It's a measure of Larsen's talent that he was as successful as he was, considering his entertaining style.

He beat both Spassky and Petrosian with 1.f4. I don't think anyone else has beaten two world champions with that opening move.

Which famous chess player was called to the Bar on 7 June 1852?

John Townsend wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 02, 2018 10:45 am

Which famous chess player was called to the Bar on 7 June 1852?

With the aid of Google, I have identified Horace Lloyd, who became the father-in-law of Oscar Wilde.

I have to confess that I had not previously heard of him.

We have rather a spectacular coincidence - believe it or not, two famous chess players called to the Bar on 7 June 1852!

Congratulations to David for Horace Lloyd!

That wasn't the answer I intended! The solution outstanding is, I believe, the more famous of the two, and I will wait for someone to post it!