Britbase Updates

[John Saunders]

I've recently uploaded a collection of 301 games played by David Mabbs...

https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pgn/m ... iewer.html

The earliest one is from 1958 and the latest is from 2019. David is still an active player in East Anglia. I'm very grateful to David for lending me his scorebooks. The web page devoted to his games also features a short history of Cedars Chess Club which he wrote for CHESS many years ago. Some forum members may recall that he sent a letter to CHESS in 1964 announcing his retirement, and he managed to keep to his pledge fairly rigorously until 1969, when the Fischer boom was getting underway and the lure of the 64 squares proved impossible to resist. Unfortunately we don't have many games from the pre-1964 period as David sent all his chess material to BH Wood along with his retirement letter. There's an outside chance that somebody somewhere still has this tranche of material: if they do, could they please get in touch with me or David. David's games are very entertaining and well worth a browse as he always goes for Tal-style complications rather than stodge.

The next new player game collection to appear on BritBase is likely to be the games of Victor John Anthony Russ (1905-1985), who was a player of approximately 2200-2300 strength and played in British Championships in 1949, 1951, 1952 and 1953 as well as winning the Lancashire Championship in 1960. Latterly he lived in Harrogate. His son Steve has just sent me 17 of his scorebooks for the period 1947-1984 so there should be a good chance that it will include all his games from those events: currently 27 of his British Championship games are either stubs or part-games. The first thing I shall do is to get those gaps filled in and in the due course I'll prepare a collection of all of his games which, judging from the heft of the three envelopes which just landed on my doormat, probably comes to 500 or more games.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

The next new player game collection to appear on BritBase is likely to be the games of Victor John Anthony Russ (1905-1985) ...

I believe his younger brother was the novelist Patrick O'Brian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_O%27Brian)

[John Saunders]

The next new player game collection to appear on BritBase is likely to be the games of Victor John Anthony Russ (1905-1985) ...

I believe his younger brother was the novelist Patrick O'Brian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_O%27Brian)

Thanks, Jon. Yes, that appears to be right. Patrick O'Brian's birth name was Richard Patrick A (also Anthony?) Russ. I struggled to find his birth record but by searching for births of people named Russ whose mother's name was Goddard, I came across a record for 'Male Russ' registered in Amersham in January 1915, which tallies with O'Brian's d.o.b. of 12 December 1914 (Chalfont St Peter). Perhaps a little unusual for someone not to have a forename by the time of their birth registration (all nine of his siblings had given names by then), but by no means unprecedented.

Incidentally, I've now had the chance to look through Russ's scorebooks and have already uploaded to BritBase his previously missing British Championship games (bar one, which only had a few opening moves in his scorebook). I've also added his two county match losses to Leonard Barden in the Barden file. The collection is not comprehensive: as far as I can see there are no games prior to 1947, yet we know he was a competition player before the war (the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 24 May 1928, mentions him winning the Mocatta Cup, which was the City of London CC's Division 2 championship. And in 1929 he scored a perfect 10/10 in BCF Second Class A tournament at Ramsgate, with Harry Golombek being one of his victims.). Also I think there may be some gaps in his later years. The scorebooks are a little haphazard, not always in chronological order, with quite a lot of games undated, and a bit hard to read in places, but I've not found anything yet that looks pre-WW2.

I've started a file for Russ's games on BritBase - https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pgn/russv-viewer.html - which has 62 of his games so far. It is very much work in progress (I've not put in links to it at the site) and will be added to in due course.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Fascinating to read about Russ (V. J. A.) who I had not heard of previously.

I presume (given that you are credited there) that you are aware of Winter's notes on him?

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter115.html

Sadly, I see Riley-Russ is still a stub, with only the first 6 moves in the scorebook!

Given the news in another thread about Nobel Laureates, can I ask how many games you have by Demis Hassabis in Britbase? I tried to work it out, but failed.

(I mention the above, because Demis might be a logical addition to: https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/players.html ?)

[John Saunders]

Fascinating to read about Russ (V. J. A.) who I had not heard of previously.

I presume (given that you are credited there) that you are aware of Winter's notes on him?

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter115.html

Sadly, I see Riley-Russ is still a stub, with only the first 6 moves in the scorebook!

Given the news in another thread about Nobel Laureates, can I ask how many games you have by Demis Hassabis in Britbase? I tried to work it out, but failed.

(I mention the above, because Demis might be a logical addition to: https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/players.html ?)

Thanks for reminding me about my response to Edward Winter back in 2014. I had completely forgotten about this! Yes, it's infuriating that the Riley-Russ game is one that Russ didn't write up in full in his scorebook. (And the Golombek game that Winter refers to is also still missing as there are no pre-war games in the Russ books.) Speaking of scorebooks, I have added a 1951 newspaper photo of Russ playing Dr Aitken to the Russ page and it shows him entering his score directly into his scorebook (the same one which I have on my desk at the moment). That reminds me of the discussion on the recent scoresheets thread, where some of us deprecated this habit of players who used scorebooks at the board. And causes me to wonder why he hadn't entered the Riley game into a scorebook in the same way. Answering my own question, this was probably because BCF Congress players would have been required to use the duplicate scoresheets provided. I'm not sure when this practice started, but it would have been the case from some time in the 1950s. I remember using them in 1969 for the Under-16 Championship and I've seen earlier ones.

I have about 80 Demis Hassabis games on file, which is fewer than chessgames dot com and ChessBase, mainly because they have some of his overseas junior international games. The games of his on BritBase are all mainstream and readily available elsewhere so I don't think it's worthwhile starting a player file for him.

[Gerard Killoran]

Two odd ones:

[Event "1924/25 Hastings Second Class, Section I"] [Site "?"] [Date "1924.12.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Leffler, Walter Ernest"] [Black "Stevens, W."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C62"] [Opening "Ruy Lopez: old Steinitz defence"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 4. c3 Bd7 5. O-O a6 6. Ba4 Nf6 7. Bc2 Ne7 8. d4 Ng6 9. dxe5 Nxe5 10. Nxe5 dxe5 11. c4 Bc6 12. f3 Bc5+ 13. Kh1 Qe7 14. Nc3 Rd8 15. Qe2 O-O 16. Bg5 h6 17. Bh4 g5 18. Bf2 Bd4 19. Nd5 Bxd5 20. Bxd4 Bc6 21. Bf2 Nh5 22. Rfe1 Nf4 23. Qf1 b5 24. g3 Ne6 25. Bd3 Qf6 26. Kg2 Kh7 27. cxb5 Rxd3 28. Qxd3 Bxb5 29. Qc3 Rg8 30. h3 Qg6 31. Qxe5 Nf4+ 32. gxf4 gxf4+ {The Daily Telegraph, Monday 29 Dec 1924 · Page 15} 0-1

[Event "GBR-ch63 Major Open"] [Site "Portsmouth"] [Date "1976.08.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Andrew, Donald M."] [Black "Szaszvari, George"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A45"] [Opening "Trompovsky attack"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 c5 3. d5 Qb6 4. Nc3 Qxb2 5. Bd2 Qb6 6. e4 d6 7. f4 g6 8. Rb1 Qd8 9. Nf3 Bg7 10. e5 Nfd7 11. e6 fxe6 12. Ng5 Nf6 13. Bb5+ Kf8 14. dxe6 Nc6 15. Bxc6 bxc6 16. O-O Qc7 17. Qf3 h6 18. Qd3 hxg5 19. Rbe1 Ng4 20. fxg5+ Kg8 21. Qxg6 {Field - Thursday 13 January 1977 p.31} 1-0

[John Saunders]

Thanks, Gerard. I've added these two games to the BritBase collection.

The Victor Russ collection is steadily growing and is now up to 81 games.

Here's one of Victor Russ's later games in which he crushes someone discussed recently elsewhere on the forum. For some reason Russ only entered the games from the first week of this two-week-long 11-rounder in Whitby.

[Event "Northern Open"] [Site "Whitby"] [Date "1965.07.26"] [Round "1"] [White "De Veauce, Louis"] [Black "Russ, Victor John Anthony"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D00"] [PlyCount "60"] [EventDate "1965.07.26"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "11"] [EventCountry "ENG"] [SourceTitle "BritBase"] [Source "John Saunders"] [SourceDate "2024.08.29"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "2024.08.29"] [SourceQuality "1"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. e3 d5 3. Bd3 e6 4. Nd2 c5 5. c3 Nc6 6. f4 Bd6 7. Ndf3 O-O 8. Ne5 Ne4 9. Bxe4 dxe4 10. Nxc6 bxc6 11. Qa4 cxd4 12. Qxc6 dxc3 $1 $19 13. bxc3 (13. Qxa8 Qb6 $1 14. Qxe4 (14. bxc3 Bb7) 14... cxb2) 13... Rb8 14. Qxe4 Qa5 ({Stockfish 17:} 14... Qh4+ $5 15. g3 Qe7 $19) 15. Qc2 e5 16. Nf3 exf4 17. exf4 $2 (17. O-O $5 $17) 17... Bf5 18. Qd2 Rfe8+ 19. Kf2 Qc5+ 20. Kg3 Re4 21. Qf2 Qxc3 22. Bd2 g5 $1 23. Qe1 gxf4+ 24. Kf2 Bc5+ 25. Be3 fxe3+ 26. Kf1 e2+ 27. Qxe2 Qxa1+ 28. Ne1 Rxe2 (28... Rf4+) 29. Kxe2 Re8+ 30. Kf3 Qd1+ {Source: Russ scorebook} 0-1

Also, I've just come across another Basman game from a 1965 CHESS Magazine which people might find amusing...

[Event "CHESS Festival 13th"] [Site "Eastbourne"] [Date "1965.08.23"] [Round "1"] [White "Van den Berg, Adrianus MJ"] [Black "Basman, Michael John"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B28"] [Annotator "Basman, MJ"] [PlyCount "82"] [EventDate "1965.08.23"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "11"] [EventCountry "ENG"] [SourceTitle "BritBase"] [Source "John Saunders"] [SourceDate "2024.08.29"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "2024.08.29"] [SourceQuality "1"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 a6 3. c3 Nf6 4. e5 Nd5 5. d4 cxd4 6. Qxd4 Nc7 7. Bc4 e6 8. Bf4 Nc6 9. Qb6 Be7 10. Nbd2 O-O 11. Ne4 Ne8 12. Qe3 f6 13. Rd1 fxe5 14. Nxe5 d5 15. Bb3 Qa5 16. Nd2 Bc5 17. Nxc6 bxc6 18. Qg3 Ra7 19. O-O Raf7 20. Be3 Bd6 21. Qh4 Nf6 22. Nf3 Ne4 23. Bc2 Be7 24. Bg5 Bxg5 25. Nxg5 Nxg5 26. Qxg5 Qxa2 27. Rd2 Qa5 28. Rd3 Qb6 29. Rh3 g6 30. Rh6 Rg7 31. h4 Qxb2 32. Bxg6 hxg6 33. h5 Qxc3 34. hxg6 Rf6 35. Qh5 Kf8 36. Rh8+ Ke7 37. Rxc8 Rfxg6 38. Rb1 $4 {(sealed)} (38. Qh4+ $11) 38... Rxg2+ 39. Kh1 Kd6 40. Qh8 Rh2+ $4 ({Here I had intended} 40... Rg1+ 41. Rxg1 Qf3+ 42. Kh2 Qxf2+ 43. Kh3 Qf3+ 44. Kh4 Qe4+ 45. Kh5 Rh7+ {picking up the queen. Then I noticed a quicker win by 40...Rh2+. If White captures with the queen 41...Qf3+ mates. If 41 Kxh2 Qe5+ also mates soon. After checking the variation over I played 40...Rh2+.}) 41. Kxh2 $4 Qe5+ {Why the question marks? Both players had overlooked that 41 Qxh2 is CHECK! (Source: CHESS, October 1965, Vol.31/491, p14)} 0-1

[Nick Ivell]

I wonder if the young aristocrat might have read a slightly dodgy book - think it was by Chernev - which recommended the Stonewall. I had similar disasters myself based on that book.

[Gerard Killoran]

Short and sweet


[Event "BCF-ch 17th First-Class B"] [Site "Southport"] [Date "1924.08.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Howell-Smith, Sydney Gerard"] [Black "Short, Frederick Charles"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D64/01"] [Opening "QGD: Orthodox defence, Rubinstein attack (8...h6)"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 c6 3. c4 d5 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 Nbd7 7. Rc1 h6 8. Bh4 O-O 9. Qc2 Re8 10. a3 a5 11. cxd5 Nxd5 12. Bxe7 Qxe7 13. Be2 Nxc3 14. Qxc3 e5 15. O-O e4 16. Nd2 Nf6 17. Nc4 Nd5 18. Qd2 a4 19. Ne5 Qh4 20. f3 f6 21. fxe4 Qxe4 22. Nc4 Nxe3 23. Rf2 Nxc4 24. Bxc4+ Kh8 25. Re2 Qg6 26. Rxe8+ Qxe8 27. Re1 Qg6 28. Re3 Bd7 29. Bd3 Qg5 30. Qe1 Qg4 31. Re4 Qg5 32. Bc4 Qg6 33. d5 b5 34. Ba2 cxd5 35. Bxd5 Re8 36. Rxe8+ Qxe8 37. Qd2 Qd8 38. Bf3 Qb6+ 39. Kf1 Be6 40. Be2 Bc4 41. Bxc4 bxc4 42. Qc2 Qb5 43. Kf2 Kg8 44. h3 Kf7 45. Kg1 g6 46. Kf2 f5 47. Ke3 Ke6 48. Kf2 Qc6 49. Kf1 Qe4 50. Qc1 g5 51. Kg1 Qe2 52. h4 f4 53. hxg5 hxg5 54. Qb1 Qd3 55. Qe1+ Qe3+ 56. Qxe3+ fxe3 {Staffordshire Advertiser - Saturday 27 September 1924 p.5} 0-1

[Event "BCF-ch 17th First-Class B"] [Site "Southport"] [Date "1924.08.??"] [Round "?"] [White "West,John Elliott"] [Black "Short, Frederick Charles"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A22"] [Opening "English: Carls' Bremen system"] 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e5 3. g3 Nc6 4. e3 Bc5 5. Nge2 O-O 6. Bg2 d6 7. d4 exd4 8. exd4 Bb4 9. O-O Bg4 10. Qb3 Bxc3 11. Nxc3 Nxd4 12. Qxb7 Rb8 13. Qxa7 Ne2+ 14. Nxe2 Bxe2 15. Re1 Bxc4 16. b3 Be6 17. Bf4 Nd5 18. Bxd5 Bxd5 19. Qd4 Ba8 20. Rad1 Qd7 21. f3 Bxf3 22. Rd3 Ba8 23. Qc3 Rb5 24. Re2 Rh5 25. h4 Qg4 26. Kf2 Qh3 27. Ke1 Rc5 28. Qb2 Qh1+ 29. Kf2 Be4 30. Rdd2 Qg2+ 31. Ke3 Qf3+ 32. Kd4 Rd5+ 33. Kc4 Bd3+ {Staffordshire Advertiser - Saturday 11 October 1924 p.5} 0-1

[John Saunders]

Many thanks for those games, Gerard. I have added them to the 1924 British Championship collection on BritBase.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi John,

Move 26 in M. Chandler - F. Nijboer, Lloyds Bank Masters, 1992 is 26.Qa3 not 26.Qe3. I was reminded about this game and how I corrected the score on chessgames dot com today. The game can also be viewed on the follwing link.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/kibitzi ... 50&reply=2

[John Saunders]

Thanks for drawing my attention to this, Geoff. I traced the score error back to the bulletin which has 26 Qe3 which is clearly wrong. ChessBase published the score as given in the bulletin and omitted the significant detail that White lost on time.

The score on BritBase now reads as follows:

[Event "Lloyds Bank Masters 16th"] [Site "London"] [Date "1992.08.24"] [Round "3"] [White "Chandler, Murray G"] [Black "Nijboer, Friso"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B09"] [WhiteElo "2575"] [BlackElo "2485"] [PlyCount "58"] [EventDate "1992.08.22"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "10"] [EventCountry "ENG"] [SourceTitle "ChessBase 2017"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "1990.06.01"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "1990.06.01"] [SourceQuality "1"] 1. e4 d6 2. d4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. f4 Nc6 5. Be3 Nf6 6. Nf3 O-O 7. Be2 e6 8. Qd2 Ne7 9. O-O-O b6 10. h4 Bb7 11. h5 Nxe4 12. Nxe4 Bxe4 13. Ng5 Bxg2 14. Rh2 Bb7 15. hxg6 hxg6 16. Ba6 $5 Bd5 (16... Bxa6 17. Rh7 $5 $16 {Stockfish 17}) 17. c4 f6 18. cxd5 fxg5 19. dxe6 d5 20. Rdh1 Qd6 21. fxg5 Qxe6 22. Bf4 Qc6+ $2 (22... Nc6 $11) 23. Kb1 b5 24. Qe2 $2 (24. Be5 $1 $18) 24... Rxf4 25. Qxe7 Rf7 26. Qa3 ({The bulletin gives} 26. Qe3 {but it is clearly an error. BCM gives the correct move.}) 26... Rb8 27. Qh3 Kf8 $2 (27... Rf5 $11) 28. Bc8 $1 $18 Qc4 (28... Rf4 29. Rf1 $18) 29. Be6 $4 (29. Qh8+ $3 Bxh8 30. Rxh8+ Ke7 31. Re1+ Qe2 32. Rxe2+ Kd6 33. Re6#) 29... Rf4 {time (Sources: bulletin; BCM, November 1992, p571. Score correction applied 7 November 2024.)} 0-1

[Gerard Killoran]

When researching another topic I came across this snippet. It features a nice drawing resource. (5. Kg2 Rd2 repeats)
[Event "BCF-ch 41st First Class"] [Site "Nottingham"] [Date "1954.08.27"] [Round "11.11"] [White "Sweby, Thomas William"] [Black "Pritchard, Oliver"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "3r4/pp4k1/2p2r2/5P1B/6p1/P2p2Pn/1P2q1QP/R4R1K w - - 0 1"] 1. Rae1 Rxf5 2. Rxe2 dxe2 3. Qxe2 Rxf1+ 4. Qxf1 Rd1 5. Qxd1 Nf2+ {'...lead to a drawn ending.'} 1/2-1/2

[John Saunders]

Many thanks for this, Gerard. I''ve added it it to the 1954 British Championship page at BritBase. You don't happen to have a source for the snippet, do you?

[Gerard Killoran]

Many thanks for this, Gerard. I''ve added it it to the 1954 British Championship page at BritBase. You don't happen to have a source for the snippet, do you?

Oops, it was from Beds and Herts Pictorial - Tuesday 31 August 1954 p.2