Britbase Additions

[John Saunders]

A couple of additions to Britbase (British Chess Games Archive) might interest people...

270 games of Ian Wells - http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/wel ... iewer.html

The lion's share of the credit here is due to Sean Parker who has collected and input more than 100 of Wells' games from the last few years of his life, including a number from club, county and school chess. I've added some more, including those from Wells' final, fateful tournament in Brazil. Of the 270, only about 60-70 have previously appeared on commercial or online databases so we've made a substantial addition to Wells' collection. Note that I have also attempted to sort out where Ian Wells' games have become mixed up with those of his near contemporary Peter Wells. If anyone has any more games or corrections to offer, do please keep me posted.

1981 ARC Young Masters, Chichester - http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/198 ... iewer.html

I unearthed a bulletin with all 138 games of this event, very few of which currently appear on other databases. It was a six-round tournament held over three days at Westergate School, 27 February to 1 March 1981, with a fairly brisk weekend-style time control, so not FIDE-rated, but the field was very strong, headed by Miles, Nunn, Chandler, Hebden, Arkell, Plaskett, Conquest, Peter Wells, Levitt, etc. It included three players who are no longer with us, Ian Wells, Colin Crouch and Neil Carr. Some really entertaining encounters amongst them. Again, if anyone has any corrections or additions to make (some of the games are short of moves), do let me know.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The first game in that 1981 ARC Young Masters, Chichester, collection is indeed very entertaining: John Nunn demolishing a Shaun Finlayson with an exchange sacrifice I don't fully understand, but which did the business. Well worth a look if they are all like that!

John, does your site have cross-tables? I was trying to work out who won the tournament. Ah, I see the 'What's New' section says it was won by Murray Chandler.

[John Saunders]

I do sometimes include crosstables. I'll see if I can manufacture one from the ChessBase file (of course, if you add the games to your ChessBase database, you can generate a crosstable for yourself). 46 players took part: 1 M Chandler 5½/6, 2 P Littlewood 5, 3-6 A Miles, S Taulbut, J Hall, G West 4½, 7-10 Ian Wells, J Nunn, R Britton, P Large 4, etc.

The games were generally very entertaining, perhaps because ratings weren't at stake. The first prize was £850 but I would guess that a handful of the highest rated players received a fee. It was invitation only. The tournament director was Peter Barton, and the tournament bulletin staff were Mr R Moffat, Mr R Jackson and Miss N Sweetman. Chief controllers TE Hollington and PJ McEvoy. (None of whom I have heard of! Surprising as I was fairly active in those days, but it wasn't my part of the world. Do the names mean anything to anyone else?) The time control was 40 in 105 minutes, with 25 minutes then added for the remaining moves.

A couple of things I am still hazy about. One of the players was I Welch (not to be confused with I Wells, who is not to be confused with P Wells. All three were in the field). I have assumed he was called Ian Welch but I confess I am not familiar with the name. Anyone know him? Also, the back-marker (½/6) was DL Lee, who I think was David L Lee, but might have been Darren L Lee. Does anyone know for certain?

[Richard James]

I do sometimes include crosstables. I'll see if I can manufacture one from the ChessBase file (of course, if you add the games to your ChessBase database, you can generate a crosstable for yourself). 46 players took part: 1 M Chandler 5½/6, 2 P Littlewood 5, 3-6 A Miles, S Taulbut, J Hall, G West 4½, 7-10 Ian Wells, J Nunn, R Britton, P Large 4, etc.

The games were generally very entertaining, perhaps because ratings weren't at stake. The first prize was £850 but I would guess that a handful of the highest rated players received a fee. It was invitation only. The tournament director was Peter Barton, and the tournament bulletin staff were Mr R Moffat, Mr R Jackson and Miss N Sweetman. Chief controllers TE Hollington and PJ McEvoy. (None of whom I have heard of! Surprising as I was fairly active in those days, but it wasn't my part of the world. Do the names mean anything to anyone else?) The time control was 40 in 105 minutes, with 25 minutes then added for the remaining moves.

A couple of things I am still hazy about. One of the players was I Welch (not to be confused with I Wells, who is not to be confused with P Wells. All three were in the field). I have assumed he was called Ian Welch but I confess I am not familiar with the name. Anyone know him? Also, the back-marker (½/6) was DL Lee, who I think was David L Lee, but might have been Darren L Lee. Does anyone know for certain?

Peter Barton was a Sussex junior organiser who ran various international tournaments (including this one, and, specifically, also including girls tournaments) at Westergate School, Chichester where he taught. Google comes up with a few references. Stewart Reuben also mentions him on this very interesting thread. There's a Peter Barton currently involved in Sussex Junior Chess at Burgess Hill who may be the same person.

No idea about the bulletin staff: must have been local volunteers.

Terry Hollington and Pat McEvoy were Portsmouth based organisers/controllers. There's an obituary of Terry Hollington (who seems to have died in 2001) here.

Ian Welch was a prominent junior at the time who has indeed been confused with the late Ian Wells. An online history of Fareham Chess Club mentions him as a PDL (Portsmouth & District League) player.

I suspect the DL Lee was Darren L Lee who played regularly in junior tournaments at the time.

[John Saunders]

Thanks, Richard, that's very useful. I suspect you're right about David/Darren Lee. I may have been misled by ChessBase's not 100% reliable Player Encyclopaedia (not for the first time). I have changed David to Darren in the PGN file.

[John Saunders]

For the 1981 ARC Young Masters, I have now added a link to a PDF file with three pages from the bulletin giving the final positions, plus other background material (may need to refresh the page if you have already visited)...

http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/198 ... iewer.html

[Ian Thompson]

A couple of things I am still hazy about. One of the players was I Welch (not to be confused with I Wells, who is not to be confused with P Wells. All three were in the field). I have assumed he was called Ian Welch but I confess I am not familiar with the name.

Probably IA Welch from Portsmouth who played in junior tournaments in the late 1970s that I also played in.

[Nick Ivell]

I seem to recall that Mr Hollington was the controller on the infamous day when England were defaulted against (I think) Scotland in the Glorney Cup of 1980. Held in Portsmouth if my memory serves me right, so it would make sense.

[JustinHorton]

I seem to recall that Mr Hollington was the controller on the infamous day when England were defaulted against (I think) Scotland in the Glorney Cup of 1980.

Background

[Nick Ivell]

I have managed to unearth the following game from round 3 of the NCCU U-18, held in Sunderland in 1977:

ID Wells v NW Ivell

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. Be2 Be7 9. Qd2 0-0 10. Rd1 a6 11. 0-0 b5 12. f3 Qd7 13. Qe1 Qc7 14. Qf2 Rab8 15. Rd2 Na5 16. Nxa5 Qxa5 17. Bg5 b4 18. Bxf6 Bxf6 19. Nd5 Bd8 20. Kh1 Qxa2 21. f4 Qxb2 22. Qa7 Ba5 23. Qxa6 Ra8 24. Qxd6 Bxd5 25. Rxd5 b3 26. Rb5 Qxc2 27. Qd3 Rfd8 28. Qxb3 Qxe2 29. Rg1 Qxe4 30. fe Bd2 31. Rb7 Qd5 32. Qb6 Be3 0-1

It was a satisfying feeling grabbing all that material!

[Nick Ivell]

Thanks for the background Justin.

Our manager was Brian Eley, who in retrospect may not have been the best man for the job. I remember the advice he gave the team before the first round was to waltz in ten minutes late - he seemed to have some unspecified grudge against Terry, who seemed the most harmless of characters. I remember Eley was most insistent that we complete our scoresheet details before making our first move . Show no sign of rush, even when late!

[John Saunders]

I have managed to unearth the following game from round 3 of the NCCU U-18, held in Sunderland in 1977:

ID Wells v NW Ivell

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. Be2 Be7 9. Qd2 0-0 10. Rd1 a6 11. 0-0 b5 12. f3 Qd7 13. Qe1 Qc7 14. Qf2 Rab8 15. Rd2 Na5 16. Nxa5 Qxa5 17. Bg5 b4 18. Bxf6 Bxf6 19. Nd5 Bd8 20. Kh1 Qxa2 21. f4 Qxb2 22. Qa7 Ba5 23. Qxa6 Ra8 24. Qxd6 Bxd5 25. Rxd5 b3 26. Rb5 Qxc2 27. Qd3 Rfd8 28. Qxb3 Qxe2 29. Rg1 Qxe4 30. fe Bd2 31. Rb7 Qd5 32. Qb6 Be3 0-1

It was a satisfying feeling grabbing all that material!

Many thanks for the game, Nick. I've added it to the Britbase file - http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/wel ... iewer.html

[Nick Ivell]

Thanks for adding the game, John. Nice to have it recorded for posterity. I played Ian on a couple of other occasions - will try to unearth the games.

[Simon Brown]

I first met Ian Wells at the British Morecambe in 1975, when he was playing in the U11 with my brother (who drew with Nigel) He stayed in a house with us, the Kings (Dan and Andrew plus parents) and the Andrews (Nick plus parents and sister) and we kept losing Ian, aged 10 or so, as he would disappear by himself to the amusement arcades. We at least knew where to find him. He and his parents moved to Morecambe after that British.

As a tenuous link, I played Nick Ivell in the U16 that year in a game we probably both want to forget. No I don´t have the score but I recall a French Tarrasch, the line where W plays Nf4 and Qh5 to take the rook on h8. But Nick forgot to play exf6+ at the right time, so I had an extra pawn for the exchange but still managed to lose. Nick, do you recall?

I remember being so sad on hearing of Ian's accident, my second year at university.

[PeterFarr]

Very nostalgic to see some of those games from 35 years ago. I was at Lancaster Uni at the time, and the local league was pretty strong in those days, especially for a small area. Interesting to see again the games Ian played with Phil Cunningham in particular, who was a Welsh international but didn't play much after Uni as far as I know. Phil used to prepare quite hard for the games against Ian, and a pet line was the 4.g3 Nimzo - some time before Kasparov essayed it I believe. Not that it did him much good against Ian.

Such a terrible shame, Ian was a very nice lad.