Bognor 1968

[GrahamStuart]

I played in this event in the "Open Swiss". There are two or three comments to add.

Firstly regarding Louis de Veauce. I have clear recollection of Louis in a brilliant yellow flowery shirt (think Milton Jones currently) spending most post matches playing Walter Browne at five minute chess for money.

Secondly from the cross tables you might note that Seth Saverymuttu who was a pupil at St.John's College, Southsea, played in the Churchill Memorial Tournament but also seeming to appear in the Open Swiss as well. This, of course, is incorrect. It was Seth's sister Manel Saverymuttu who played in this event (we drew in Round Four). She went on to be British Under 18 Girls Champion the same year in Bristol.

Finally the winner of the Open Swiss was David Browning who went on to represent Guernsey in the 1976 Haifa Olympiad. John Saunders notes he passed away in 1998 at a young age https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/244 ... k-browning.

A good spot on Manel Saverymuttu playing in the Open Swiss. Manel played for Gosport Chess Club (as did Seth) and can be seen in a club photo from 1969 which also includes David Browning. Walter James E Yeeles also played at Bognor in the Churchill Memorial.

[Kevin Thurlow]

David Browning was heavily involved in the Guernsey tournament. He was a really nice person and attended the tournament in October 1997, despite his cancer treatment, and was surprisingly upbeat.

John Saunders knows more about Jim O'Dell than most - they were team-mates for some years.

[John Saunders]

I played in this event in the "Open Swiss". There are two or three comments to add.

Secondly from the cross tables you might note that Seth Saverymuttu who was a pupil at St.John's College, Southsea, played in the Churchill Memorial Tournament but also seeming to appear in the Open Swiss as well. This, of course, is incorrect. It was Seth's sister Manel Saverymuttu who played in this event (we drew in Round Four). She went on to be British Under 18 Girls Champion the same year in Bristol.

Thanks, Neil. I have now amended the file to show Manel rather than Seth. The fault was that of CHESS Magazine who placed S. Saverymuttu in both sections. I remember thinking this odd at the time of scanning and collating the results info but didn't remember to go back and investigate further. Having now fixed that problem I find that CHESS Magazine made a similar error with the Speigel brothers, placing M D (Maurice David) Speigel in both the Open Swiss and the Major sections (which I assume took place simultaneously - do please tell me if I'm wrong). I've decided to assume that it was Jack (whom I think was the stronger of the two) in the Open Swiss and Maurice in the Major, with a note to that effect.

Jim O'Dell and I were team-mates for the now-defunct Mitcham CC and also HM Treasury CC for many years. Indeed it was Jim who recruited me for Mitcham in about 1979 after we had become Civil Service League club colleagues. I'm glad to hear he's still playing. I think we can utilise a familiar football chant here and conclude that "there is only one Jim O'Dell." Best wishes, Jim, whoever you are now playing for.

I'm glad that the 1968 Bognor tournament as featured on BritBase has elicited such a lot of interest and I value all such feedback. Many thanks to all who have commented here. Just to add, there are a great many other historical tournaments featured on BritBase which are worthy of similar treatment.

[Matt Mackenzie]

According to the ratings site, Kidderminster is where Jim O'Dell has played in recent years.

He did seemingly retire from serious chess for around a decade until 5 years or so ago.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Ooh, a challenge. Let's think about which other tournaments could be dissected/discussed/admired (maybe even proofread!)? One of the Hastings Challengers? An obscure British Championship, a strong Open??

[Neil Graham]

I played in this event in the "Open Swiss". There are two or three comments to add.

Secondly from the cross tables you might note that Seth Saverymuttu who was a pupil at St.John's College, Southsea, played in the Churchill Memorial Tournament but also seeming to appear in the Open Swiss as well. This, of course, is incorrect. It was Seth's sister Manel Saverymuttu who played in this event (we drew in Round Four). She went on to be British Under 18 Girls Champion the same year in Bristol.

Thanks, Neil. I have now amended the file to show Manel rather than Seth. The fault was that of CHESS Magazine who placed S. Saverymuttu in both sections. I remember thinking this odd at the time of scanning and collating the results info but didn't remember to go back and investigate further. Having now fixed that problem I find that CHESS Magazine made a similar error with the Speigel brothers, placing M D (Maurice David) Speigel in both the Open Swiss and the Major sections (which I assume took place simultaneously - do please tell me if I'm wrong). I've decided to assume that it was Jack (whom I think was the stronger of the two) in the Open Swiss and Maurice in the Major, with a note to that effect.

Jim O'Dell and I were team-mates for the now-defunct Mitcham CC and also HM Treasury CC for many years. Indeed it was Jim who recruited me for Mitcham in about 1979 after we had become Civil Service League club colleagues. I'm glad to hear he's still playing. I think we can utilise a familiar football chant here and conclude that "there is only one Jim O'Dell." Best wishes, Jim, whoever you are now playing for.

I'm glad that the 1968 Bognor tournament as featured on BritBase has elicited such a lot of interest and I value all such feedback. Many thanks to all who have commented here. Just to add, there are a great many other historical tournaments featured on BritBase which are worthy of similar treatment.

I think it was Maurice in the Open. I scored 4/8 (in Round Order 0 v Browning, 1 v Mylechreest, 0.5 v Leach, 0.5 v Miss Saverymuttu, 0.5 v McCreath, 0.5 v Wodzianak; 0 v Shenfield; 1 v Burrows). My father played in the Veterans which nowadays have been given the much more respectable title of Seniors. Veterans always conjures up a picture of decrepit cars chugging between London & Brighton.

Regarding the photo of Gosport CC, I played against a number of the players whilst at Portsmouth Poly from 1969-1972.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Let's think about which other tournaments could be dissected/discussed/admired (maybe even proofread!)? "

Just pick one! I think the easier ones are those where you actually know some of the players, so might spot mis-identifications. Some players change their names as well. In Civil Service chess, RCA Lee-Pentecost changed his name to RCA Lee-Anderson. If he were alive today, he might change it again... On a serious note, if anyone knows why he changed it, please tell me.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

In Civil Service chess, RCA Lee-Pentecost changed his name to RCA Lee-Anderson. If he were alive today, he might change it again... On a serious note, if anyone knows why he changed it, please tell me.

Anderson was his mother's maiden name. I suspect the "A" in RCA stood for Anderson.
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/perso ... s/GTYZ-MRC

[Kevin Thurlow]

Thanks Jon - impressive knowledge again!
Edit - He did style himself RC Pentecost at first, then RC Lee-Pentecost, the A seemed to arrive later.

[John Clarke]

Thanks Jon - impressive knowledge again!
Edit - He did style himself RC Pentecost at first, then RC Lee-Pentecost, the A seemed to arrive later.

For a bit more elaboration on this, see the post I made several years ago. Thanks, Jon D'Souza-Eva, for confirming the source for the "Anderson".

(And my thanks also to Messrs Graham and Saunders for clearing up the Saverymuttu and Spiegel anomalies. I'd spotted those too, but didn't have the time or resources to follow them up.)

[John Saunders]

I think it was Maurice in the Open. I scored 4/8 (in Round Order 0 v Browning, 1 v Mylechreest, 0.5 v Leach, 0.5 v Miss Saverymuttu, 0.5 v McCreath, 0.5 v Wodzianak; 0 v Shenfield; 1 v Burrows). My father played in the Veterans which nowadays have been given the much more respectable title of Seniors. Veterans always conjures up a picture of decrepit cars chugging between London & Brighton.

Thanks, Neil. I've switched the two Speigels around to accord with your memory.

Incidentally I hadn't realised until today (or, just as likely, had long forgotten) that Maurice D Speigel (1926-1979) was the father of Cliff Stanford (1954-2022) of Redbus and Demon Internet fame (although I had retained an awareness that the Redbus man was related to Jack Speigel). Stanford's company sponsored four (or maybe more?) strong knock-out tournaments held as part of the annual Southend Easter Congress from 1999. His photo appeared on the front cover of BCM for May 1999 (the month before I became editor). He's on Wikipedia, though his birth surname Speigel has been misspelt.

[Gerard Killoran]

Complete game from Harry Golombek's column

[Event "Churchill Memorial op 16th"] [Site "Bognor Regis"] [Date "1968.04.26"] [Round "7"] [White "Littlewood, Norman"] [Black "Griffiths, Peter Charles"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "E74"] [Opening "King's Indian: Averbakh (6...c5)"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Bg5 O-O 6. Be2 c5 7. d5 h6 8. Be3 e6 9. Bd3 exd5 10. exd5 Re8 11. Qd2 Nbd7 12. h3 Ne5 13. Be2 Qe7 14. g4 Kh7 15. O-O-O a6 16. Re1 b5 17. cxb5 axb5 18. Bxb5 Ba6 19. Bxa6 Rxa6 20. f4 Ne4 21. Qe2 Nxc3 22. Qxa6 Nxa2+ 23. Kd2 Nb4 24. Qe2 Ned3 25. Bd4 Qxe2+ 26. Rxe2 Rxe2+ 27. Nxe2 cxd4 28. f5 Nc5 29. fxg6+ fxg6 30. Nf4 Be5 31. Ne6 Nxd5 32. Nxc5 dxc5 33. Kd3 Nb6 34. Ra1 c4+ 35. Ke4 Bg7 36. Ra6 Nd7 37. Ra7 Ne5 38. Rc7 d3 39. Ke3 g5 40. b4 cxb3 41. Rb7 b2 42. Ke4 d2 {Liverpool Daily Post - Saturday 18 May 1968 p.14} 0-1

[John Saunders]

Complete game from Harry Golombek's column

Many thanks for the extra moves at the end of that game, Gerard - I have added them to the 1968 Bognor tournament file on BritBase and also to the Peter C Griffiths file.

[GrahamStuart]

"Finally the winner of the Open Swiss was David Browning who went on to represent Guernsey in the 1976 Haifa Olympiad."

As did my father, who was listed as 1st, of 2, reserves, further confirming the point made elsewhere recently that in the past Olympiad teams had 6 members, including 2 reserves.

Also from the list of Bognor 1968 players, I wonder whether the J O'dell is James E O'dell who now plays for Eastbourne and / or the Jim O'dell who played for Manchester University c.1970

Although David Browning was only one of the people mentioned in in this post, I was supplied with an Obituary from James Pratt which I have re-produced and added with games to my website.

https://hampshirechesshistory.co.uk/dav ... -obituary/

If anyone else would like to add their memories of David to the post I would be happy to expand.

I have chosen this post to reply to just in case Julie did not have the two games which her father played in the Olympiad, which the winning one is below.
[Event "Olympiad-22"] [Site "Haifa"] [Date "1976.10.27"] [Round "3.4"] [White "Thomassen, Joachim"] [Black "Denning, William Frederick"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B06"] [PlyCount "59"] [EventDate "1976.10.25"] [EventType "team-swiss"] [EventRounds "13"] [EventCountry "ISR"] [SourceTitle "EXT 2000"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "1999.11.16"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "1999.11.16"] [SourceQuality "1"] [WhiteTeam "Faroe Islands"] [BlackTeam "Guernsey Jersey"] [WhiteTeamCountry "FAI"] [BlackTeamCountry "GCI"] 1. e4 d6 2. d4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. Be3 Nc6 5. h3 e5 6. Nf3 a6 7. Qd2 b5 8. Be2 Bb7 9. d5 Nce7 10. O-O f5 11. Bg5 f4 12. g3 fxg3 13. fxg3 h6 14. Be3 Nf6 15. Rad1 b4 16. Nb1 Nxe4 17. Qxb4 Nxg3 18. Bb5+ axb5 19. Qxb5+ Nc6 20. Qxb7 O-O 21. dxc6 e4 22. Qb3+ Kh7 23. Ng5+ hxg5 24. Rxf8 Qxf8 25. Bf2 Ne2+ 26. Kg2 Bc3 27. Nxc3 Qf3+ 28. Kf1 e3 29. Ne4 Ng3+ 30. Ke1 0-1

[Julie Denning]

I have chosen this post to reply to just in case Julie did not have the two games which her father played in the Olympiad, which the winning one is below.

[White "Thomassen, Joachim"]
[Black "Denning, William Frederick"]
[Result "0-1"]

[/pgn]

Thanks Graham for this. I have seen my father's games previously, although I'm not sure I've kept a record of them. One error, though, is his christian names given in the record you've quoted. He was actually Wilfred John. The "William" is understandable as he was known as "Bill", but I've no idea where the "Frederick" came from. Just like to correct that as I know we have a number of dedicated chess historians on the Forum. I once contacted another website and they agreed to correct their record in this regard.