FM Mike Franklin (02-ii-1931 25-iv-2023)

[John Saunders]

Many thanks to Kevin Thurlow, Brian Denman, Roger de Coverly and James Coleman for sending some more games to add to the BritBase collection of Michael Franklin's games. The running total is now 617 (I've just added 14 games contributed by Brian Denman, plus three games MJF played against Paul Littlewood and two vs Chris Holland)

https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/fr ... iewer.html

[Richard James]

Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club's tribute to Michael Franklin here.

[Neville Twitchell]

I was very sorry to hear of the passing of Michael Franklin at the age of 92. He was a stalwart of English chess and the weekend congress scene when I started playing competitively in the 1970s. Though I did not know him personally and never played him (unsurprisingly since he was always in Opens and I was usually in Majors and Minors) he always seemed to be impeccably gentlemanly at the board and away from it, despite being a tough competitor.

[Roger Lancaster]

The number of tributes posted here within 24 hours speaks for itself - Michael, as well as being a strong player, was widely well regarded. My loss against him in the 1969 BC appears in the R&T club tribute and was, I think, the only time we actually played. Sad news, as others have said.

[Paul Habershon]

In the days when British Championship qualification was by privately arranged games, usually at players' homes, you tried to progress from the County Stage to the Zonal Stage, both all-play-all groups. The benefit of living in the weakish area of Bedfordshire (usually combined with Hertfordshire) was that it was easier to reach the Zonal and meet strong players. In my time I encountered Peter Large, Colin Crouch, Jonathan Penrose, Graham Lee, but this 1973 Zonal saw me in a group with Mike Basman, Frank Parr, P Gait, E G Lea, A Prizant, the notorious J N Walker and...Michael Franklin. I managed to score 2.5/7 but my game against Michael was not my finest hour. He gained far too many pawns for the exchange.
[Event "British Championship Zonal"] [Site "?"] [Date "1973.03.11"] [Round "?"] [White "Habershon, Paul"] [Black "Franklin, Michael"] [Result "0-1"] [PlyCount "54"] 1. e4 c5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 Qxd5 4. Nc3 Qd8 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. Be2 Nf6 7. d3 e6 8. O-O Be7 9. Bd2 O-O 10. Qe1 b6 11. Qg3 Bb7 12. Rae1 Nd4 13. Bd1 Bxf3 14. Bxf3 Nxc2 15. Rc1 Qxd3 16. Bxa8 Qxd2 17. Bc6 Nd4 18. Ba4 Qxb2 19. Qd3 Qa3 20. Kh1 Nd5 21. Bb3 Nxf4 22. Qd2 Ng6 23. Rb1 Qa5 24. Qd3 Rd8 25. Qh3 b5 26. Bd1 b4 27. Ne2 Qxa2 0-1
My other memory of Michael was at Hastings 1971/72. When he had lost to Karpov they were analysing in the White Rock Pavilion cafe and I managed to get close. Karpov's English was not good then. Michael was saying 'I don't think I made a mistake in this game' but Karpov was unable to explain clearly where he thought Michael had gone wrong.

[Nick Ivell]

Michael was a bit out of his league at Hastings but he must have felt it a privilege to take part.

The game against Karpov was unusual in that Anatoly took on an IQP - not like him to give himself a positional weakness.

[Martin Benjamin]

I knew Michael for 50-60 years from my childhood, as he became a lifelong friend of my father Bryan when they were students in London, and they played in a lot of tournaments together in the 1950s (Whitby, Bognor Regis, Scarborough and Paignton spring to mind, but I may be wrong; Leonard Barden will have better knowledge). I also played alongside him for Richmond for many years, and in his later years, I spent the occasional day at The Oval with him watching cricket. He was a kind man, who was always good natured when humorously chiding me for my slow play and propensity for getting into time trouble! I have been corresponding with him in recent years, given that his health made it difficult for him to get out, and it was a pleasure to write letters rather than emails. RIP, Michael, and condolences to Jean.

[James Plaskett]

Ahhhh... another one bites the dust.

Adios amigo.

btw, altering the tone somewhat to refer to the topic raised by Nick Faulks -

quote=NickFaulks post_id=296214 time=1683361756 user_id=6015]
A great man and a wonderful chess player.

He gave me an early lesson in the tough school of competitive chess. In one of my first Weekend Opens, I played out of my skin to end up defending KNP v KRP and demonstrated that the rook could make no progress. Eventually he gave me an opportunity to exchange the pawns, which I naturally grabbed to put the game to bed, but found instead that KR v KN offered new problems which I could not solve.
[/quote]

That ending ain´t so well understood, Señor Faulks!
In an Allegro finish at the 1983 Edinburgh Open a flag fell in a game between another departed friend, Mike Basman, and Mark Hebden where white had a rook on the a file and King on e3 whilst the black King was on e1 and his pawn on f2. I explained that this is a book draw as black promotes to a knight with check and the arbiter, therefore, ruled the game drawn.
Neither player knew the result of the ending, though.

[Owen Phillips]

I was saddened to hear of Michael's death -although he had made it to a good age-he was an integral part of my Surrey Open team that won the National County Title for the first time in 54 years-and I recall that although he was a very humble chap he nevertheless amused myself and others in our drives to matches with his occasional in passing anecdotes about his meetings with such greats as Tal and Karpov and other outstanding chess players!
Not only was he an outstanding amateur player-certainly of IM standard for many years-but he also won the SCCA Individual Title five times between 1961 and 1970 and finished level or ahead of many of our notable early GMs in those events where he participated alongside and against them.
I remember with fondness the year I shocked him (while not yet 12) at the Hammersmith Easter Open-yet he rebounded by winning a series of games against IMs and above-leading to him winning the event-despite his coming a cropper against the young unknown `whipper snapper'!.

For many years Michael was regarded as the outstanding amateur player in and around the South East of England. It was indeed a pleasure to have met Michael him and to have played him twice -the second time he ground out a revenge win against me!

RIP Michael=PS great photo of him there!

Owen.

[John Upham]

BCN has been requested to post a notice concerning the funeral of Mike Franklin as follows:

Dear John

I thought I would let you know that the date of Michael's funeral has been arranged.

It will be at 3pm on Thursday 15 June 2023 at the South London Crematorium, Rowan Road SW16 5JG.

There is a funeral notice page.

[Funeral notice for Mr Michael John Franklin](https://www.dignityfunerals.co.uk/funer ... -franklin/)

Mr Michael John Franklin sadly passed away on Tuesday, 25th April 2023. Details of the funeral date and arrangements

Kind regards

Jonathan Lee

[Ken Norman]

British Chess News have shared a link today where you can watch the funeral of Michael Franklin.

Webcast
watch.obitus.com

Username= hida9103
Password= 026248

It’s available to watch till this Friday.

I hope you are both keeping well.

[Roger Lancaster]

That ending ain´t so well understood, Señor Faulks!
In an Allegro finish at the 1983 Edinburgh Open a flag fell in a game between another departed friend, Mike Basman, and Mark Hebden where white had a rook on the a file and King on e3 whilst the black King was on e1 and his pawn on f2. I explained that this is a book draw as black promotes to a knight with check and the arbiter, therefore, ruled the game drawn.
Neither player knew the result of the ending, though.

It's tangential to this thread but, given the facts as stated by James, the arbiter appears to have been in error. On a flag fall, the game is lost unless there is no sequence of legal moves (however improbable) by which the opponent could win. Here either side could theoretically win so, no matter whose flag fell, it's a loss to that player. In fact, the same would apply even after the pawn had promoted to a knight as it's possible to arrive at a position (eg, WK on h1, WR on h2, BK on f1, BN on g3) where the king and knight deliver checkmate.

[Roger de Coverly]

It's tangential to this thread but, given the facts as stated by James, the arbiter appears to have been in error. On a flag fall, the game is lost unless there is no sequence of legal moves (however improbable) by which the opponent could win.

The rules weren't always the same as now in 1983. That particularly applied to quickplay finishes which were not, I think, in the FIDE laws at the time. Arbiters, organisers even, would likely have imposed their own interpretations on what later became the "unable to win" clauses. In this case, the arbiter may have treated the case as one where a draw claim had been made and play was under observation. Equally they may have interpreted their powers as overruling the flag if the final position was an "obvious" draw.