Page 33 of 93
Re: Chess history trivia
Posted: Tue May 28, 2019 5:02 pm
by Matt Mackenzie
Yes, he was an advocate of the far right "Europe a (White Christian) Nation" construct that can still be found on the fringes here and there.
Re: Chess history trivia
Posted: Tue May 28, 2019 7:07 pm
by John Saunders
This is rather a weird coincidence. I've just read this thread an hour or so after researching a bit of chess history which led me unexpectedly to a website about Oswald Mosley.
I've just put up a new item at BritBase with games played by the strong Hampshire player Wilfred Pratten (1908-1985).
The link is here. I was researching Pratten's opponent's names and stumbled upon one I recognised in the 1926 BCM, p55 - Clement Bruning, who at that time was a schoolboy at Ealing Priory, with BCM showing him scoring 4/9 in the 1926 London Boys' Chess Championship. Pratten had drawn with said Bruning in the process of retaining his 1925 British Boys' Championship.
Anyway, Clement Bruning was an unusual name so I thought I would drop it into google and see what happened. I got a surprise - a page about British fascists who died during the war. Turns out Bruning was a pre-WW2 member of the British Union of Fascists and eventually died in a German concentration camp in 1942. Nobody seems to know quite what happened or why. I haven't researched it any further but, anyway, the guy was a chess player and quite a good one if he was able to draw with Pratten back in 1925. He would certainly have trounced his party leader.
Re: Chess history trivia
Posted: Wed May 29, 2019 9:55 am
by Richard James
John Saunders wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2019 7:07 pm
This is rather a weird coincidence. I've just read this thread an hour or so after researching a bit of chess history which led me unexpectedly to a website about Oswald Mosley.
I've just put up a new item at BritBase with games played by the strong Hampshire player Wilfred Pratten (1908-1985).
The link is here. I was researching Pratten's opponent's names and stumbled upon one I recognised in the 1926 BCM, p55 - Clement Bruning, who at that time was a schoolboy at Ealing Priory, with BCM showing him scoring 4/9 in the 1926 London Boys' Chess Championship. Pratten had drawn with said Bruning in the process of retaining his 1925 British Boys' Championship.
Anyway, Clement Bruning was an unusual name so I thought I would drop it into google and see what happened. I got a surprise - a page about British fascists who died during the war. Turns out Bruning was a pre-WW2 member of the British Union of Fascists and eventually died in a German concentration camp in 1942. Nobody seems to know quite what happened or why. I haven't researched it any further but, anyway, the guy was a chess player and quite a good one if he was able to draw with Pratten back in 1925. He would certainly have trounced his party leader.
Another weird coincidence. Bruning, or, to be precise, Brüning, was one of five sons of a German father and English mother. I'm not sure whether any of his other brothers played chess or shared his political sympathies.
Here's the record of his father's naturalization in 1903. Note the address: Rydal Mount, Albany Park, Kingston-upon-Thames, which is just round the corner from the residence of a much respected British chess historian.
Re: Chess history trivia
Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2019 12:43 pm
by John Townsend
There is no act of Parliament compelling a man to begin with king's pawn.
Who wrote this?
Re: Chess history trivia
Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2019 12:58 pm
by Christopher Kreuzer
John Townsend wrote: ↑Sun Nov 03, 2019 12:43 pm
There is no act of Parliament compelling a man to begin with king's pawn.
Who wrote this?
Was it Thomas Middleton in
A Game at Chess?
Re: Chess history trivia
Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2019 1:11 pm
by John Townsend
An ingenious idea, Christopher, but it isn't the answer. (It's a pity, as it would have made a good answer to a different trivia question!)
Re: Chess history trivia
Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2019 3:14 pm
by Kevin Thurlow
The obvious guesses would be Andrew Bonar Law or Sir Richard Barnett
Re: Chess history trivia
Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2019 3:27 pm
by John Townsend
Thank you, Kevin. Both wrong, unfortunately!
Re: Chess history trivia
Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2019 7:01 pm
by Colin Purdon
I would guess Howard Staunton, on the grounds that he often began with the Queen's Bishop pawn.
Re: Chess history trivia
Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2019 8:17 pm
by John Townsend
Sorry, not Staunton!
Re: Chess history trivia
Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2019 6:29 pm
by Colin Purdon
I'll try the eponymous player of the other Bishop's pawn then - Henry Bird?
Re: Chess history trivia
Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2019 7:33 pm
by John Townsend
Sorry, Colin, it's not Bird!
It's time for a clue. The answer is someone well known. Think what age this may have been written in, then guess a person likely to have written it, or a likely place to write it.
Re: Chess history trivia
Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2019 7:48 pm
by David Sedgwick
John Townsend wrote: ↑Mon Nov 04, 2019 7:33 pm
It's time for a clue. The answer is someone well known. Think what age this may have been written in, then guess a person likely to have written it, or a likely place to write it.
Ray Keene?
Re: Chess history trivia
Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2019 10:53 pm
by Kevin Thurlow
If it were University Challenge, I would say "Winston Churchill" as that's always the answer to something.
We are all of course suggesting it's someone English (or Canadian in one case).
Re: Chess history trivia
Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2019 11:19 pm
by Nick Grey
Enoch Powell?
Or someone misquoting Bobby Fischer.