English Chess Forum

7 October 2023 would have been the 90th birthday of the late Dr Jonathan Penrose OBE. A Colchester-born grandmaster of chess and correspondence chess, he dominated British chess, winning a record ten British Chess Championships between 1958 and 1968.

To celebrate his life in chess, there is to be a Jonathan Penrose Chess Park (public chess tables by the Mercury Theatre). The formal opening event for that, mainly at Colchester Town Hall, will be attended by members of the Penrose family. It will include a simultaneous exhibition of chess in which the current British Chess Champion and greatest-ever British chess player, grandmaster Michael Adams takes on all comers in the ‘Jonathan Penrose Memorial Chess Challenge’.

The Mayor and Mayoress will be present and, as the event is in aid of the Mayor’s Charities, seats at boards to play in the Chess Challenge are not free.

You can see where this is leading...

If you want to take a seat for yourself then get in touch. If you want to sponsor a seat for a junior player then get in touch. This is chess, we are not talking more than petty cash

Your involvement will be acknowledged in the event and in its publicity as well as potentially in its cherished memories.

To discuss how you can get involved please email [email protected]

Spectator information and tickets from https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/jonathan ... tdtcreator

This is getting more interesting by the day...

One of the players down to take on GM Michael Adams has MN3.

Of course you have to be into Morphy numbers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphy_number to understand what this means. Then you can begin to guess who he is.

I think it must be Stewart Reuben.

Jon D'Souza-Eva wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 21, 2023 10:26 pm

I think it must be Stewart Reuben.

He has not booked a seat yet but I would be delighted if he did!

Worth a mention is one of his games:
Stewart Reuben vs Robert James Fischer
New York blitz (1963) (blitz), New York, NY USA
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense. Anglo-Grünfeld Variation (A16) · 1/2-1/2
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044584

Spotted that Stewart Reubin was playing in the World Seniors 65+, so clearly still loving his chess. Great write up by Nigel Povah https://www.englishchess.org.uk/Seniors ... gel-povah/

Today is the day. If you would lime to watch GM Michael Adams play Ruqayyah Rida (11yrs) in the simul it will be available on this link from about 2pm
on DGT live
Broadcast link: http://bit.ly/JP-Memorial-2023

I might have the game between Mickey and Oliver Penrose at a later time...

You will be able to see photos after the enent at https://melindawildephotos.shootproof.c ... /22501621/

This will probably be Oliver's first appearance in a simul other than as simul giver since Bondarevsky v London Juniors 1947, an event in which Jonathan also played and which followed the Britain v USSR match at Holborn Town Hall.

That is really nice that members of the Penrose family are there (this was mentioned in the original post). Oliver Penrose (94 years old) is brother to the late Jonathan Penrose. I wonder if Jonathan's other siblings, Roger Penrose (92) and Shirley Hodgson (78) are also able to be there? Other members of the Penrose family include British photographer Antony Penrose, but I have no idea how involved or close the various branches of the family are. I presume some of the younger generation may be there as well. Will try and catch the broadcast later today at 2pm, and look at the photos later. Apart from the chess park itself, are there plans for any other memorials or similar (e.g. exhibits, photographic displays, publications)? Will the chess park have a plaque or information board about Jonathan Penrose?

The event had quite a few members of the Penrose family present, including Jonathan's daughters Harriet and Kate. The weather was warm and sunny and the short walk to the Jonathan Penrose Chess Park encouraged several to venture there. Roger was not at the event but sent some material that William/Bill Hartston incorporated into his speech in the opening ceremony. Shirley Hodgson made the ceremonial first move in the Mickey Adams simul. That first move ended an opening ceremony. In that ceremony, Sir Bob Russell, High Steward of Colchester explained that 7 October 2023 would have been the late grandmaster’s 90th birthday; John Burton, President of Colchester Civic Society explained the huge contribution Jonathan’s parents had made to civic life in Colchester, helping to preserve much of its valuable heritage: William Hartston, himself a twice winner of the British Chess Championship, spoke about his memories of playing with Jonathan and the latter’s remarkable transition to become a world-leading correspondence chess player. He also recounted a story from one of Jonathan’s brothers.

Sir Roger Penrose had found that, despite being younger, Jonathan could beat him at practically any game. This had included ‘Stone, Paper, Scissors’; but how could Jonathan beat him consistently in such a game of pure chance? To refute a hypothesis of mind reading, Sir Roger found a source of random numbers and translated that into a sequence of plays. He broke even that time, concluding that patterns he had unwittingly repeated were recognised and remembered. A useful attribute for a future chess champion.

At the conclusion of the opening ceremony Steve Cawley had the task of transcribing the ceremonial opening move onto a correspondence chess postcard for transmission to the Mercury Theatre where the park stands. The Jonathan Penrose Chess Park was declared formally open when the Mayor, Cllr John Jowers made the first move as written (5254, or e4). In the simul, GM Michael Adams conceded only two draws, to Mae Catabay and Ruqayyah Rida (herself twice British Chess Champion, U10 Girls). He commented ‘…some strong junior players in Colchester!’ The Colchester Junior Chess Club was well represented taking over a third of the boards.

The Mercury Theatre is hosting a permanent webpage about Jonathan Penrose. QR codes on the tables point to it as an 'information board'. It can be accessed via https://colchesster.org.uk/docs/jonatha ... erne-gate/

There are no plans for further memorials at present. The Mercury Theatre website is limiting as it cannot cope with PDF reading in situe or interactively display games, so I may expand that aspect of the ColCHESSter website. It has been remarkable how helpful well-known writers and chess players have been in making material available; not to mention many people helping with research and arrangements for the day. I just had to mention Jonathan Penrose and people would respond with affection and respect for his memory.

A big take away from what I have been doing is that I think we need a UK chess hall of fame, perhaps linked to the ECF library, to collect material and preserve it. There are some incredible resources online but they often depend on one person maintaining them. This is why I don't host the Jonathan Penrose webpage personally, but a corporate body does.

Just as a tailpiece to this....
Why have an opening event for some chess tables at Colchester Town Hall in the presence of the Mayor and Mayoress of Colchester and in aid of the Mayor’s Charities with a simul from GM Mickey Adams?

From the press release:
Steve Cawley, who served as the leader of Colchester Council during the 1990s, said ‘When I heard about the proposed Jonathan Penrose Chess Park I was delighted. Public tables for chess would encourage people to play and be a fitting way to celebrate the achievements of someone who was born in Colchester and was Britain’s leading chess player. Clearly an opening event would be needed, and I had an idea what that could be. As a chess player myself, I had taken part in the Culver Centre Chess Challenge in 1991 when the then British Chess Champion, Grandmaster Julian Hodgson, came to Colchester and played chess simultaneously against 68 players over two sessions. I still have a copy of the certificate saying I lasted 31 moves! My suggestion was taken up and the official opening event featured a simultaneous exhibition by Britain’s leading chess player, Grandmaster Michael Adams.

Leonard Barden wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 07, 2023 10:29 am

This will probably be Oliver's first appearance in a simul other than as simul giver since Bondarevsky v London Juniors 1947, an event in which Jonathan also played and which followed the Britain v USSR match at Holborn Town Hall.

That was an interesting contribution! Is that a record gap! I just had to look it up. 1947 was William Hartston's birth year.

Tim Wall mentioned the event when coving a later Keres simul https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/19 ... iewer.html

'Playing 20-25 top juniors, Bondarevsky lost only to Jonathan Penrose, A. F. Truscott, and N. Hammond He drew a couple more games, and won the rest, though his opponents included players like O. Penrose, J. A. Fuller, A. H. Trott, and myself. Keres is probably a worse simul. player than Bondarevsky (an exhibition brings out all the love of combination and sacrifice which he showed in his youth, and he frequently plays risky openings like the Danish, King’s, and Wing Gambits), but even so, the future of British chess should be bright after such a result.

Thank you, David, for the details (and the photos), and thank you to you and all the organisers for what looks to have been an absolutely fabulous event!