Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Historical knowledge and information regarding our great game.
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Gerard Killoran
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Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by Gerard Killoran » Fri Sep 29, 2017 2:01 pm

I found this game of Sultan Khan where he lost to the Surrey player, Harold George Felce - the son of the better known George Albert Felce.


Cheltenham and Gloucestershire Graphic, December 20, 1930.jpg
Cheltenham and Gloucestershire Graphic, December 20, 1930.jpg (61.1 KiB) Viewed 2950 times
I also found this...
Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 02 December 1933 p..17.jpg
Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 02 December 1933 p..17.jpg (52.62 KiB) Viewed 2950 times
The Glasgow Herald - Dec 23, 1933 P.8.jpg
The Glasgow Herald - Dec 23, 1933 P.8.jpg (57.61 KiB) Viewed 2950 times
... but I can't decipher the game. Can anyone do better?

The image can be found on this page

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=n ... %2C8087179
Last edited by Gerard Killoran on Sat Sep 30, 2017 12:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Fri Sep 29, 2017 2:51 pm

Would the "J M Aiken" be J M Aitken"?

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Gerard Killoran
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by Gerard Killoran » Fri Sep 29, 2017 5:37 pm

Kevin Thurlow wrote:Would the "J M Aiken" be J M Aitken"?
Yes, or James Macrae Aitken to give him his full name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Macrae_Aitken

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John Saunders
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by John Saunders » Fri Sep 29, 2017 7:17 pm

Thanks, Gerard. Since I had an enforced break in work here in the Isle of Man (the tournament website has just crashed with the message 'bandwidth exceeded'!), I thought I might as well update Britbase...

http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/sul ... iewer.html

Don't think I will be taking the Glasgow Herald challenge, though...
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Richard James
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by Richard James » Fri Sep 29, 2017 9:09 pm

I think you have the result wrong, both in the original post and as copied to Britbase. It was a win for White, not for Black.

I'm also not going to be taking the Glasgow Herald challenge.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Fri Sep 29, 2017 10:17 pm

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d5 4.exd5 Nf6 5.c4 c6 6.dxc6 Nxc6 7.d4 appears to be the start of it.

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John Saunders
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by John Saunders » Fri Sep 29, 2017 11:28 pm

Richard James wrote:I think you have the result wrong, both in the original post and as copied to Britbase. It was a win for White, not for Black.

I'm also not going to be taking the Glasgow Herald challenge.
Well spotted, Richard. I've now fixed it on BritBase.
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John McKenna

Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by John McKenna » Sat Sep 30, 2017 12:31 am

As the "challenge" game was played in a simul the moves may be more difficult to reconstruct. It is a KGA - 'Modern' Variation and... 6.dxc6 is a side line, which seems to have only been reintroduced in Veraga,Pablo v. Cassidy,Paul (Chile-Ireland match) at the 1966 Havana Ol.
IM Jack Rudd wrote:1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d5 4.exd5 Nf6 5.c4 c6 6.dxc6 Nxc6 7.d4 appears to be the start of it.
Probably then 7... Bb4+ 8.Nc3 O-O 9.Bxf4 B(g4, maybe?) 10.d5 Re8+ 11.Be2 Qb6 12.dxc6, and to follow something like 12... (B-KB4?) 13.B-Q2 BxKt+ 14.PxB Kt-(Kt5?) 15.Kt-Q4 (B-N3?) 16.Q-Kt3 (QR-Q1?) 17.QxQ PxQ 18.O-O-O Kt... 19.PxP... 20.B-Kt5 P-B3 21.B-B4... 0-1 (in 59 moves?)

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Gerard Killoran
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by Gerard Killoran » Sat Sep 30, 2017 12:36 am

John Saunders wrote:
Richard James wrote:I think you have the result wrong, both in the original post and as copied to Britbase. It was a win for White, not for Black.

I'm also not going to be taking the Glasgow Herald challenge.
Well spotted, Richard. I've now fixed it on BritBase.
My fault, sorry. Fixed now.

I'm very disappointed by my attempt at crowd sourcing failing so quickly. Can someone leg it up to Glasgow library (or the National Library of Scotland) and have a look at the hard copy of the Herald? Has Geoff Chandler nothing better to do?

Here's my attempt - which seems to cover all the decisive action.


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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by JustinHorton » Sat Sep 30, 2017 8:55 am

21...BxQKtP is my guess from the length. White's next two are 22 B-B7 and 23 BxP.
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John Saunders
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by John Saunders » Sat Sep 30, 2017 9:12 am

Gerard Killoran wrote:
I also found this...

Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 02 December 1933 p..17.jpg
Thanks, Gerard. I have also added the part-game versus Aitken to BritBase. I echo your exhortation for someone to look up a paper copy of that score. Incidentally, the above clipping raises a minor quibble. It mentions the Craddock game on 25 November 1933 (which is already on BritBase, collected from the Times Literary Supplement) and then refers to the simul (and thus the Aitken game) being played on "Saturday last" - but that was also 25 November 1933 by my reckoning. Were both simul and match played on the same day? From the way it is worded one senses that these were separate occasions.
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Michael Flatt
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by Michael Flatt » Sat Sep 30, 2017 9:44 am

Many newspaper archives have been digitised and made available online.

There are a number of different collections where the Glasgow Herald may be found.

See https://www.nls.uk/collections/newspapers/online

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JustinHorton
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by JustinHorton » Sat Sep 30, 2017 10:00 am

JustinHorton wrote:21...BxQKtP is my guess from the length. White's next two are 22 B-B7 and 23 BxP.
So I'd propose:

21 ... BxQKtP
22 B-B7 R-B1
23 BxP RxPch

Black's 24th appears to be very short.
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Richard Bates
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by Richard Bates » Sat Sep 30, 2017 10:16 am

JustinHorton wrote:
JustinHorton wrote:21...BxQKtP is my guess from the length. White's next two are 22 B-B7 and 23 BxP.
So I'd propose:

21 ... BxQKtP
22 B-B7 R-B1
23 BxP RxPch

Black's 24th appears to be very short.
Don't think so - White's 24th looks like ?xKt, so black's 23rd is probably KtxK/QR

John McKenna

Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by John McKenna » Sat Sep 30, 2017 11:56 am

Until a more legible copy of the paper is found I'll try to follow on from Justin & Richard and speculatively suggest -

21... BxQKtP 22.B-B7 R-?? (Q2?) 23.BxP NxK(?)R 24.RxN BxP 25.R-Kt1 B-Q4 26.P-QR4 R-K6 27.R-Kt3 RxR 28.PxR K-B2 29.P-R5 B-B4 30.K-Kt2 P-??

Most of that is plausible, and probably correct, but where did the Black QR go on move 22? And, which Black pawn last moved (on Black's 30th), was it the R, or the Kt, pawn?

(I stand correct on the total number of moves it was 56 not 59 as I supposed - White resigned at his 57th.)
Last edited by John McKenna on Sat Sep 30, 2017 12:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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