English Chess Forum

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.

[Event "LLoyds Bank C.C. vs Imperial C. C."]<br> [Site "London"]<br> [Date "1930.??.??"]<br> [Round "?"]<br> [White "Felce, Harold George"]<br> [Black "Sultan Khan, Mir"]<br> [Result "1-0"]<br> [ECO "B32"]<br> [Opening "Sicilian: Labourdonnais-Loewenthal variation"]<br> <br> 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e5 5. Nf3 Nf6 6. Bc4 Be7 7. Nc3 d6 8. O-O<br> Be6 9. Bxe6 fxe6 10. Qe2 O-O 11. Bg5 Nh5 12. Qe3 Nd4 13. Bxe7 Qxe7 14. Nxd4 exd4<br> 15. Qxd4 Nf4 16. g3 Qg5 17. Kh1 Qh5 18. Qd1 Qh3 19. gxf4 Rxf4 20. f3 Raf8 21.<br> Qe2 R8f6 22. Qg2 Qh5 23. Ne2 Rh4 24. Ng3 Qe5 25. Rf2 Rfh6 26. Qg1 Qf4 27. Raf1<br> Qe5 28. f4 Qa5 29. f5 e5 30. f6 Rg6 31. fxg7 Rf4 32. Rxf4 exf4 33. Rxf4 Qe5 34.<br> Qxa7 Kxg7 35. Qb8 Rf6 36. Rxf6 Kxf6 37. Qh8+ {Cheltenham and Gloucestershire<br> Graphic, December 20, 1930 p.4} 0-1
I also found this...
... 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

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

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

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...

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.

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.

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.

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?)

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.

[Event "Simultaneous Exhibition"]<br> [Site "Oxford"]<br> [Date "1933.11.25"]<br> [Round "?"]<br> [White "Sultan Khan, Mir"]<br> [Black "Aitken, James Macrae"]<br> [Result "0-1"]<br> [ECO "C36"]<br> [Opening "KGA: modern defence (4.exd5 Nf6)"]<br> <br> 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 d5 4. exd5 Nf6 5. c4 c6 6. dxc6 Nxc6 7. d4 Bb4+ 8.<br> Nc3 O-O 9. Bxf4 Bg4 10. d5 Re8+ 11. Be2 Qb6 12. dxc6 Rad8 13. Bd2 Bxc3 14. bxc3<br> Ne4 15. Nd4 Bxe2 16. Qb3 Bxc4 17. Qxb6 axb6 18. O-O-O Nf2 19. cxb7 Bd5 20. Bg5<br> f6 21. Bf4 {...and Black wins in 56 moves. The Glasgow Herald - Dec 23, 1933<br> P.8} 0-1

21...BxQKtP is my guess from the length. White's next two are 22 B-B7 and 23 BxP.

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.

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

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.

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

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.)