English Chess Forum

BCN is sorry to report the passing of FM Mike Franklin on April 25th, 2023.

He was 92 years old.

Mike was one of England's most respected and liked players.

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

Sorry to hear. A fine player - I had the privilege of losing to him once - and a confirmed user of descriptive notation.

Very sad news about Mike.
RIP
Thanks for the lengthy tribute John.
Very informative.
Did he release any publications?

RIP, my old friend. After two wins when we were both schoolboys, I never managed to defeat him in a competitive game. Michael was a true gentleman, a calm and approachable person who rarely spoke harsh words. As a player, he had excellent strategic and blitz skills, was IM strength in his best years, and possessed a fine understanding of his favourite London and O'Kelly systems,

Nick Ivell wrote: ↑

Fri May 05, 2023 8:34 pm

Sorry to hear. A fine player - I had the privilege of losing to him once - and a confirmed user of descriptive notation.

Though ISTR a claim on here that he hardly ever kept his game scores.

A sad loss. The only time I saw him rattled was at the Portsmouth Hilton, when he went to collect more toast at breakfast time and returned to his table, to find some eager waitress had cleared the table, cleaned it and seated other customers there. He was still considerably more polite than most people would have been.

He was a tough opponent, but always a pleasure to play.

Very sorry to hear this news. I only knew him towards the end of his time playing for Richmond and Twickenham Chess Club, and he was (as others have said) a true gentleman. Thank you, John, for the fine tribute from BCN, with some lovely photos and nice games.

Very sad news. A true gentleman and to me, a friend. We travelled extensively over the UK to weekend tournaments during the 1980’s

A unique player. I will miss him . RIP Michael

Very sorry to hear this news. We must have played about a dozen times over a 40 year period. Condolences to friends and family.

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.

Here is a miniature sent by Ken Norman from Southend 1962:

[Event "Southend Premier"] [Site "?"] [Date "1962.04.23"] [Round "?"] [White "Franklin, Michael J"] [Black "Pritchard, David B"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A07"] [Annotator "British Chess News"] [PlyCount "41"] [EventDate "1962.??.??"] [SourceTitle "Ken Norman"] {[%evp 0,9,19,29,23,4,14,16,12,16,16,1]} 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. O-O O-O 5. d3 d5 6. Nbd2 Nc6 (6... c5) 7. e4 e5 8. c3 h6 (8... a5) 9. Qc2 dxe4 (9... Be6) 10. dxe4 Be6 11. Rd1 Qe7 {[#]} 12. b4 $1 Nd7 $146 13. a4 $14 f5 $6 (13... Rfd8) 14. b5 Nd8 $2 15. Ba3 Nc5 16. Nh4 $18 Kh7 17. exf5 gxf5 {[#]} 18. Ne4 $3 Bb3 (18... fxe4 19. Bxe4+ Rf5 20. Bxf5+ Bxf5 21. Qxf5+ Kg8 22. Bxc5 Qxc5 23. Ng6 $18) 19. Qxb3 Nxb3 20. Bxe7 Re8 21. Rab1 {and Black resigned} 1-0

and another from the 1963 Ilford Congress:

Wheatcroft plays MJFs favourite weapon (The O'Kelly Variation) against our hero:

[pgn] [Event "Ilford Whitsun Congress"] [Site "Ilford"] [Date "1963.06.03"] [Round "5"] [White "Franklin, Michael John"] [Black "Wheatcroft, Timothy Martin"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B28"] [Annotator "British Chess News"] [PlyCount "59"] [EventDate "1963.05.31"] [EventType "tourn"] [EventRounds "5"] [EventCountry "ENG"] {[%evp 0,59,19,38,40,41,87,26,15,1,54,32,47,27,19,26,31,-3,-12,-10,3,-10,-14, -27,22,29,58,-22,-2,-15,-2,-11,1,19,9,-3,54,26,-15,40,140,135,161,149,173,170, 170,181,193,190,190,204,212,100,140,145,421,502,535,563,563,563]} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 a6 3. g3 Nc6 4. d3 e6 5. Bg2 d5 6. Nbd2 Nf6 7. O-O Be7 8. e5 Nd7 9. Re1 Qc7 10. Qe2 b5 11. Nf1 Nd4 $6 $146 (11... Bb7) 12. Nxd4 cxd4 13. Bf4 (13. Qg4) 13... Bb7 14. h4 Rc8 15. Rec1 Qb8 16. Nh2 O-O 17. h5 Rc7 18. Qg4 Rfc8 19. Nf3 $14 Nf8 $6 20. Nxd4 (20. Bh6 g6 21. Nxd4) 20... Bc5 21. c3 (21. Bh6 g6 22. c3) 21... Qa7 22. Be3 (22. Bh6) 22... b4 23. Rf1 bxc3 24. bxc3 Qa8 25. Rab1 $1 Ba7 26. f4 (26. Bg5 Rxc3 27. Bf6) 26... Rxc3 27. f5 {[#]} Rxd3 $2 (27... Bxd4 28. Bxd4 exf5 29. Qxf5 R3c7) 28. f6 $1 $18 g6 29. Qg5 Bxd4 30. Bxd4 {and it is mate in 6.} 1-0

Very sad news. I always enjoyed meeting and chatting with him. A few decades back we met across the board and also enjoyed a correspondence game.

I have assembled a collection of his games at BritBase - https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/fr ... iewer.html - 583 games in total.

A great shame that we have lost Michael. I played him a number of times over the years and was often in the same team as him playing for Richmond & Twickenham. As others have noted, he was a true English gentleman and always had a polite word for everyone. One of his passions I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere is that he was huge fan of big band jazz (Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Count Basie etc). RIP Michael.

I can't claim to have known Michael but I once gave him a lift to a county match and recall:
- he was a talkative chap - and recounted, for example, playing table tennis with Mikhail Tal at Hastings; and,
- his home had a front door with a stained glass chess piece design.