| Dec-01-03 | | raylopez99: Botterill wrote a series of books that I enjoyed on chess, and is well known in UK chess circles--RL "One of the things that appeals to me about competitive chess (I mean over-the-board chess, though presumably the same goes for correspondence chess if there is not too much collusion) is that it is, as games go, very fair. There is quite a lot of luck in chess over the short term. But on the whole it tends to cancel out. Certainly chess compares very favourably with all the things that go under the designation 'real life' ,with all the stacked decks, silver spoons, nepotism, favouritism and disastrous misfortunes that attend. In comparison with the crazy unpredictability and uncontrollability of most of human existence, playing chess (even in a time-scramble!) is like a paradise of rationality. I really do mean that..." -George Botterill International Master |
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| Dec-23-04 | | Benzol: George Steven Botterill
Born 8th January 1949 in Bradford
IM in 1978
Joint Welsh Champion in 1973 he became British Champion in 1974 (after playoff) and 1977. |
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| Jan-07-06 | | BIDMONFA: George Steven Botterill BOTTERILL, George Steven
http://www.bidmonfa.com/botterill_g...
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| Dec-01-10 | | Dionysius: He taught me philosophy when I was an undergraduate at Aberystwth in the mid 1970's. We were a small group of philosophy undergraduates, and we used to take it in turns to see how many matches we could make him waste on his pipe by asking questions which required him to pause while lighting his pipe. He was all of 26 or 27. I played him a game with 5 minutes on my clock, 2 minutes on his, and he beat me without me ever knowing what was going on. A Caro Kahn it was,at a university chess team meeting upstairs in the Cardigan Arms hotel, probably Spring 2007. Happy days. |
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| Jan-15-11 | | Dionysius: Oops. I mean Spring 1977 of course! |
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Jan-02-12
 | | Dionysius1: Against Nigel Short,according to the database here, George has a total of 2 wins, 2 draws and NO losses! |
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| Jan-02-12 | | King Death: <Dionysius1> Yes but Short was 12-14 when the first three games were played and Botterill was an experienced, tough out for a lot of people then. |
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Jan-03-12
| | Dionysius1: Fair do's |
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| Mar-12-14 | | Caissanist: The author of today's QOTD is unknown, but it's similar to the Botterill quote given by Ray Lopez above: <Playing chess gives us a chance to start out life over again, and this time, no one has more money than us, no one is more beautiful, no one lives in a better neighborhood, and we all go to the same school. Other than having the first move (and this benefit is shared equally) no one starts with any unfair advantage. > |
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| Jan-29-17 | | zanzibar: Botterill's booklist on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/G.S.-Botteri... Here's a more complete list of his book from WorldCat.org: http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=kw... I really wonder if his books co-authored with Keene were "better known" than those with Harding. What determinant was used for the statement, I wonder? |
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Mar-13-18
| | Dionysius1: It's always puzzled me that George Botterill co/wrote books on the Pirc and Modern but then became an expert in open games like the Scotch. Anyone any ideas about this?
Did he become disillusioned by the Modern? The two are such different types of games altogether! |
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| Mar-13-18 | | Retireborn: <Dionysius1> In my Big database I find only 10 instances of him playing the Scotch as White (but no Spanishes); it seems he didn't play 1.e4 all that often, but when he did the Scotch was his constant choice. As Black he has 58 games with the Pirc/Modern, so he never lost interest in it. He may have regarded the French as more reliable (24 games, but he tends to play it against bigger names like Nunn, Mestel, Vasiukov, Chandler, and Adams.) A nice example:-
J J Carleton vs G Botterill, 1978 |
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Mar-13-18
| | Dionysius1: Thanks <Retireborn>. That example makes me smile. I remember George giving the Aberystwyth Uni chess club a lecture about how pawns are the soul of chess and any pawn moves must be done responsibly and with caution. That was about 1975 when I was a philosophy student and he was a new lecturer. In this game he and his opponent seem to throw their pawns around with abandon. I know it's the requirements of the opening and I'm not entirely serious, but it's a fun contrast. |
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Mar-16-19
 | | woldsmandriffield: George Botterill was much stronger than 2410. |
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Mar-17-19
| | Dionysius1: Why do you say so? |
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| Mar-17-19 | | Retireborn: <Dion> I don't take ratings all that seriously myself, but Botterill was a nice guy; and nice guys, though they may not finish last, are not usually the highest rated of players. |
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Nov-05-21
| | Dionysius1: <kellmano: Mr Botterrill taught me philosophy in Sheffield and wrote me a nice reference when I applied to take a Common Proffessional Examination. Never knew he was a chess player until after i left. Annoying, as i was in the uni chess club, he could have beaten us all in a simul or something.> (1)
Kind of sad that George seems to have given up competitive chess when he moved from Aberystwyth to Sheffield in the late 1980s. As I say above <kellmano> he seemed a very nice guy when he taught the philosophy class I was in at Aber. He retired from Sheffield a while back and I got a nice email back from him when I wished him well. (1) G Botterill vs Tal, 1973 I came across your 2006 post today <kellmano>. I don't think there's much harm in copying it here, but if it breaks any rules, or you wish I hadn't, apologies. |
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Nov-05-21
 | | perfidious: My experience of Botterill's works ran as follows: The volume on the Modern was not bad, but I enjoyed his seminal tome on the Pirc (co-authored with Keene) and <Open Gambits> immensely. A droll bit: the only place I ever came across the adjective 'irresoluble' being used was in the book on the Pirc, lo those many moons ago. |
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Nov-05-21
| | Dionysius1: Good word. At work decades ago we had a boss who would never see the downside to ANYthing. We invented "indirigible" to describe him and tried to get the OED to include it. |
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| Nov-05-21 | | Brenin: I overlapped with George for a few years at university. We even played a few times for the same college team. He was effortlessly strong, but (if my memory is correct after half a century) seemed more interested in Bridge at that time. I knew he was good, but I didn't suspect that a few years later he would outplay Tal (only to blow it on move 40). Wedi chwarae'n dda, George. |
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| Nov-06-21 | | Z truth 000000001: <Wedi chwarae'n dda = Well played> (welsh->english in google) |
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Nov-06-21
| | perfidious: Another acerbic bit from the volume on the Pirc below. (paraphrasing alert)
At the conclusion of a smash by White, the co-authors observed that <As with most brilliancies, the loser deserves a share of the prize for making it all possible> |
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Kibitzing
