Gerald Bennett

[John Townsend]

One thing puzzles me. If Gerald H. Bennett was born in 1949, why is there no entry during that year in the indexes to birth registrations? Was he born outside England and Wales?

Addendum: The official website doesn't cover that year, but I have searched on the FreeBMD site, which appears to be 99% complete for 1949 and adjacent years.

[John Upham]

A game from the 1974 LARA Open that I did not find in Megabase 2026 or in Britbase:

(LARA = Lambeth Arts and Recreation Association)

BCM game #16835


[Event "LARA Open"] [Site "?"] [Date "1974.11.03"] [Round "5"] [White "Bennett, Gerald H."] [Black "Nunn, John D. M."] [Result "1-0"] [Annotator "John Upham"] [ECO "E20"] [WhiteFideId "-1"] [BlackFideId "-1"] [PlyCount "48"] [GameId "2255309992927606"] [EventDate "1974.11.03"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "6"] [SourceTitle "BCM, Volume XCIV, Page 436, game #16835"] {[%evp 0,16,16,28,21,-4,-1,-21,-8,-30,5,4,13,1,30,-6,-5,7,46]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. Nf3 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e6 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. g3 Ne4 7. Qb3 $5 (7. Qd3 $142) 7... Qa5 8. Ndb5 Bc5 $6 {[#]} (8... O-O $142) 9. Nc7+ (9. Bg2 $142) 9... Qxc7 10. Nxe4 Be7 11. Bf4 Qa5+ 12. Bd2 Qf5 13. Bg2 Nc6 14. O-O O-O 15. Rad1 d5 16. cxd5 exd5 17. Nc3 d4 18. Nd5 Bd6 19. Bf4 Bxf4 20. Nxf4 Rd8 $16 21. e3 g5 $2 (21... Qf6 $142) 22. Nd5 $18 Be6 23. e4 Qe5 24. Qxb7 Qd6 $4 {[#]} 25. Qxc6! 1-0

[GFBennett]

One thing puzzles me. If Gerald H. Bennett was born in 1949, why is there no entry during that year in the indexes to birth registrations? Was he born outside England and Wales?

Addendum: The official website doesn't cover that year, but I have searched on the FreeBMD site, which appears to be 99% complete for 1949 and adjacent years.

He was Howard Gerald Bennett but was known as Gerald

[Nick Ivell]

Wow that was sharp stuff. I did not like ...g5. Just shows that Gerald was a match for any of our young stars in the mid 70s.

[John Townsend]

Thanks. I see the birth registration of Howard G. Bennett in the final quarter of 1949 in the Bournemouth district.

I assume from this that the various references to Gerald H. Bennett are not really accurate, or, perhaps, rather I should say, a departure from his birth names.

[Roger de Coverly]

Chess monthly magazine. I remember reading all about it at the time, though long gone now.

I've found the reference. It was earlier than I had thought in 1969.

The report is on page 42 of the October 1969 589-590 edition of Chess.

After listing the prize winners in the two one week "Premier" tournaments, the report says of the award for the best score in either tournament.

All seven had scored 4. Who was to receive Littlechild trophy for the best score in a Premier? After lengthy consideration, we have awarded it to G. H. Bennett. He attempted the crazy feat of playing in the week-end tournament at Marlow as well as both Southport Premiers. His last first week game played Friday morning, a 180-mile dash south by car; five games at Marlow over the weekend finishing with one on the Monday morning; a 180-mile dash back. That was the programme. It failed, he arrived too late for and forfeited his first game in Southport's second week. He overcame his disappointment, played and won his four remaining games, some feat, even though his first-round loss must have eased pairings a little. We hardly feel his rivals will question or decision.

in later years, the Chess Festival was moved to July, so no longer clashed with the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Then as now, most of the journey from Southport to Marlow could be by motorway although before the M42, M40 and M25 you would either dogleg via Watford or take the A roads south of Birmingham via Oxford.

[Tony Stebbings]

I first met Gerald whilst I was at Southampton University in the early 1970s and we played in Hampshire chess events. He was living in the Bournemouth area.

I knew him quite well in those days and we met over the board four times, he was higher rated although I managed to achieve a plus score.

Gerry didn't only play in British tournaments. He, Sunil Weeramantry and myself played in the Bagneux Open in Paris in July 1971, we travelled there by ferry and train I think, and stayed in local accommodation for visiting athletes.

In July 1974 Gerry, Jonathan Century and me travelled in his VW camper van to the Limburg Open in Hasselt, Belgium. We shared the costs and slept in the van for nine or ten nights. Gerry did all the driving; on the return journey racing to get to the ferry at Calais the fuel gauge was showing empty for some miles but Gerry did not seem concerned and we made it to the ferry on time.

My condolences to his family.

[Roger de Coverly]

I first met Gerald whilst I was at Southampton University in the early 1970s and we played in Hampshire chess events. He was living in the Bournemouth area.

He seemed to have plenty of time to play in chess tournaments, but I don't recall him being part of any of the University teams of that era. Was he studying elsewhere or working?

[GFBennett]

I first met Gerald whilst I was at Southampton University in the early 1970s and we played in Hampshire chess events. He was living in the Bournemouth area.

He seemed to have plenty of time to play in chess tournaments, but I don't recall him being part of any of the University teams of that era. Was he studying elsewhere or working?

I think he considered chess his work for a while doing some work in between. Mum I think didn’t quite agree and rather insisted that he get a “proper job” and the chess dropped off a bit!

[GFBennett]

Thanks. I see the birth registration of Howard G. Bennett in the final quarter of 1949 in the Bournemouth district.

I assume from this that the various references to Gerald H. Bennett are not really accurate, or, perhaps, rather I should say, a departure from his birth names.

He was always known as Gerald H Bennett (Gerry for short) but yes his birth name was Howard Gerald Bennett

[John Upham]

[Event "British CF-60 Championship"] [Site "Eastbourne/ East Sussex"] [Date "1973.08.08"] [Round "3"] [White "Hall, Richard VM"] [Black "Bennett, Gerald H"] [Result "0-1"] [Annotator "user"] [ECO "B22"] [WhiteFideId "-1"] [BlackFideId "-1"] [PlyCount "48"] [GameId "2235863517346947"] [EventDate "1973.08.06"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "11"] [EventCountry "GBR"] [SourceTitle "MCL"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "1999.07.01"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "1999.07.01"] [SourceQuality "1"] {[%evp 0,48,25,24,54,-22,11,7,25,23,25,33,35,24,34,-7,0,0,13,4,0,-11,14,15,18,-15,3,7,0,0,9,-35,-32,-387,-383,-409,-374,-504,-530,-830,-747,-969,-783,-787,-775,-780,-802,-794,-800,-949,-818]} 1. e4 c5 2. c3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. cxd4 d5 5. exd5 exd5 6. Bb5+ Nc6 7. Nf3 Bd6 8. O-O Nge7 9. Re1 (9. h3 $142) 9... O-O 10. h3 h6 11. Nc3 Bf5 12. Nh4 Bh7 13. Bd3 Bxd3 14. Qxd3 $11 Qb6 15. Nf5 Nxf5 16. Nxd5 $4 {[#]} (16. Qxf5 Qxd4 17. Qxd5 Qxd5 18. Nxd5 $15) 16... Qa5 $1 $19 17. Qe4 Rad8 18. g4 Nfxd4 19. Kg2 f5 20. gxf5 Rxf5 21. Nc3 Re5 22. Qg4 Rxe1 23. Bxh6 Re7 24. Re1 Qf5 $1 0-1

[Paul Habershon]

It would be lovely to hear any stories from those who knew him when he played. Please do get in contact.

I posted this on the forum on June 25th 2020 in a thread about Jonathan Penrose:

It may be an apocryphal story, but I heard that G.H. (Gerald) Bennett arrived to play Penrose at his house and the great man could not find his chess set, I assume temporarily.

I think I heard this from Gerald in the late 1960s when we travelled with R W L Moberly by train to London for a Hampshire county match in the days of 50-board matches on the top floor of John Lewis.

I think the visit to Penrose's house would have been for a British Championship Qualifying Tournament game. As Penrose's last championship win was in 1964 it's quite possible he was having to qualify. Can anyone confirm if Bennett and Penrose ever played in the same section of the BCQT? This would reassure me that my anecdote may not be fiction.

[John Saunders]

Sad news about Gerald. I didn't know him personally but was of course aware of his Grand Prix feats.

I've gathered together 113 of his game scores which may be found here at BritBase: https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/players.html

I do hope we are able to add many more to the collection. What would be ideal would be to scan his scoresheets and scorebooks, as was done for Mike Basman, after which volunteers (including me) can digitise them for posterity. Gerald was a fine player who deserves to be remembered.

[John Upham]

I've gathered together 113 of his game scores which may be found here at BritBase: https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/players.html

John, may I assume you have harvested all of GHBs games from CHESS, British Chess Magazine and Chess Moves (to save me looking!)

[John Saunders]

I've gathered together 113 of his game scores which may be found here at BritBase: https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/players.html

John, may I assume you have harvested all of GHBs games from CHESS, British Chess Magazine and Chess Moves (to save me looking!)

Update: now 116 games. I've found two more of GHB's games (both losses) in BCM and one part-game from a letter he wrote to BCM in 1995. I think I can now claim that I've found all his games published in BCM except for any that were published after my editorial stint (i.e. after 2010). But that still leaves CHESS and Chess Moves for others to explore if they are so minded.