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Dec-13-12
 | | GrahamClayton: Here is a great study from 1933 by the Soviet composer AS Seletsky. It is amazing to believe that White will deliver a smothered mate in 9 moves:
click for larger view1. ♕g5 ♔e6+ 2. ♔g1 ♔xd7 3. ♘c5+ ♔c8 4. ♗a6+ ♔b8 5. ♕g3+ ♔a8 6. ♗b7+ ♗xb7 7. ♘d7! ♕d8 8. ♕b8+ ♕xb8 9. ♘b6# 
click for larger viewThe final position is very picturesque - all remaining Black pieces smother the King, allowing the sole White piece to deliver mate. |
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Dec-24-12
 | | wordfunph: <GrahamClayton> merry Christmas! |
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Jan-03-13
| | GrahamClayton: Here is a rather unusual cross table, for the 1956 Northern Saskatoon championship in Canada: Dravnieks,O X 1 1 1 1 1 5
MacDonald 0 X 1 1 1 1 4
Hoehn, E 0 0 X 1 1 1 3
Hamphries,G 0 0 0 X 1 1 2
Ivans 0 0 0 0 X 1 1
Chemes, L 0 0 0 0 0 X 0
Not a single draw, plus every player won against the players who finished below them, but lost to all of the players who finished above them. |
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Jan-03-13
 | | Phony Benoni: Crosstable makers love it when that happens. I wonder what was the largest tournament with that characteristic? |
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Jan-18-13
| | GrahamClayton: <Phony Benoni>I wonder what was the largest tournament with that characteristic? <Phony Benoni>,
Not sure. Here is another small tournament with a symmetrical cross-table:
Nijmegen (Netherlands) 1918:
RAJ Meijer X 1 1 1 3-0
BJ van Trotsenburg 0 X 1 1 2-1
WAT Schelfhout 0 0 X 1 1-2
Fockens 0 0 0 X 0-3 |
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Jan-24-13
| | GrahamClayton: Have any forum members used the "Edit Notes" facility within Openings Explorer? What sort of notes have you written? |
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Jan-29-13
| | wordfunph: Graham Clayton the player :)
Graham Clayton |
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Feb-17-13
| | GrahamClayton: An interesting webpage of the link between chess and freemasonry: http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.c... |
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Feb-22-13
 | | wwall: I must admit, you are pretty good at chess history and the backgrounds of chess players that I think I only know and have played against (i.e., Joe Zachary, Norman Hornstein, Richey, Waldowski,Lankey, Shellenberger, etc). |
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Mar-27-13
| | GrahamClayton: Here is a nice puzzle showing the power of pins:
Brundtrup v Edmund Budrich, Germany 1954. White to play and win:
click for larger view1. ♗c5 seems to immediately pin the Queen, but Black immobilises the pin with 1...♗b6. White then exploits the pin with 2. ♕f4+! winning the Queen. |
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May-28-13
| | GrahamClayton: An amazing example of a player being tied up in knots, as Andrew Greet ends up in a straightjacket at the hands of Nigel Short in the 2012/2013 4NCL:
click for larger viewShort has just played 45. ♗d8, and Greet resigned, having no defence to the threat of 46. ♗c7, trapping the rook. |
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Sep-19-13
| | GrahamClayton: I stumbled across some photos from the 1935 Warsaw Olympiad which may be of interest: Opening ceremony:
http://img.audiovis.nac.gov.pl/SM0/... Winning US team being presented with the Hamilton-Russell Cup: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped... Third-place Polish team being presented with their medals: http://img.audiovis.nac.gov.pl/SM0/... |
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Dec-25-13
| | GrahamClayton: Here is another interesting crosstable - the 1955 Washington State Junior Championship, held in Yakima: V. Pupols X 0 1 1 2
T. Nelson 1 X 0 1 2
S. Falk 0 1 X 1 2
O. LaFreniere 0 0 0 X 0
A three-way tie from a 4 player single round robin is a very unusual result.
A three way playoff was organised, with the following result: V. Pupols X = = 1
T. Nelson = X 0 0.5
S. Falk = 1 X 1.5
Pupols had to travel back to Seattle, so he played his two games against Nelson and Falk simultaneously! |
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| Dec-25-13 | | Shams: <Graham Clayton> Ollie LaFreniere passed about a decade ago; late in life he ran the Washington Chess Federation. He didn't like me very much which I know you'll find hard to believe. Nelson and Falk are not names I recognize, but of course Pupols is a local legend and still active. Did you find this crosstable by diving through old newspapers? |
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Dec-26-13
 | | TheFocus: <A three-way tie from a 4 player single round robin is a very unusual result.> It happened to me a correspondence quad, double round. Three of us tied with +2=4-0. We all drew every game with each other and beat up on the tail-ender. I won on tie-breaks, my only correspondence tournament win. |
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Dec-28-13
| | GrahamClayton: <Shams>Did you find this crosstable by diving through old newspapers? <Shams>,
Old issues of the Washington Chess Newsletter can be found online at: http://www.nwchess.com/articles/his... I am currently creating PGN versions of the game scores and uploading them to the database. I am halfway through 1952 - a long way to go! |
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May-21-14
| | GrahamClayton: An interesting article from the Wodonga and Towong Sentinel, dated 7 May 1943, about how chess was played in the Red Army during WW2: "CHESS ON THE BATTLEFIELD By V. Alatorzev, Soviet Chess Champion The war has not reduced the popularity of chess in the U.S.S.R. Chess masters are regular and favourite guests of the men of the Red Army. Various units organise tournaments among themselves. Moscow chess players have formed a special brigade, of which I am a member, to popularise the game in the army. In many units chess tournaments are organised in the men's free time. Well-known masters meet officers and men across the chess-board. They play simultaneous, games, lecture on the history of chess, and recreate outstanding games played in various international tournaments. In one unit Master Zubarov played the Red Army men on thirty-one boards simultaneously. The soldiers were well prepared for the meeting. They parried his manoeuvres with the calmness and resolution of seasoned players. A crowd of chess fans followed the games closely. Red Army men Solonmko and Zakamaky defeated the master. Yet another victory ever an experienced master was recorded by Red Army man Kainov, a musician. He defeated chess master Panov, who on that occasion played simultaneously on seventeen boards. A chess circle headed by artillery officer Smirnov has been organised in an air force unit. This circle publishes a regular bulletin, and recently held a tournament in which more than forty players, including pilots, navigators, engineers, ground staff, and privates took part. The winner was Private Velikin. The Moscow Chess Club gave national ranking to twenty-seven of the players who participated.in this tournament and handed them their qualification cards." |
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Aug-12-16
| | GrahamClayton: Taken from the New York Times of January 19, 1903.
WINS AT WIRELESS CHESS
Philadeplhia's Team defeats the Lucania's players
The American Liner Philadelphia is the first midocean wireless chess champion. A game was started once last summer between the Philadelphia and the Cunarder Campania, both of which were racing to this port [New York], but the big liners gout out of range before the game was decided. The Philadelphia got in wireless communication with the Lucania about fifty miles off, on Friday, and three of her passengers accepted the challenge of five Britons and and American on the Cunarder to play a game of chess. The Lucania's players resigned on the thirteenth move, and the Philadelphia is now prepared to defend her title. Both liners docked shortly after 9 o'clock yesterday morning. The Lucania got in communication with the Atlantic Transport liner Minnetonka on Wednesday when that vessel was several miles to leeward. After a few long distance pleasantries a chess game was started, but a new aerial wire which was being tried on the Lucania as an experiment snapped and the game was off. The four moves made by the Lucania's experts were e4, d4, Nc3 and Be3. Quartermaster Walters, who took the plays from the smoking room to Marconi Operator Brooker says that it was the last move that broke the wire. Two days later when the Lucania was in latitude 43.50 north and longitude 57.20 West, her wireless instruments got into touch with those on the Philadelphia, which was then forty-nine miles to starboard off the Lucania. Capt Pritchard and Capt Mills exchanged bearings, asked each other whether the heavy weather had done any damage, and a few messages were sent by the passengers. Just before luncheon the sextet of chess friends, whose appetities had been whetted by the short contest with the Minnetonka, sent this message to the Philadelphia: "We would like to play you a game of chess. Will you pick a team?" Operator Kelly answered that the team would be ready as soon as luncheon was over, and it was not long before the moves began to travel through the slashing northwest gale that was making it merry for both ships. The Lucania's players were Captain Frederick W Young and RW Milbank of Liverpool, E Horace Mundy and F Marshall Fox of London, William Evans of Edgbaston, and Capt HR Campbell of this city [New York]. Capt Campbell formerly was first officer on the American liner St Louis. The Philadelphia's team was made up of Frank Caldwell of Chicago, WB Phelen of Philadelphia, and Waldemar Weiss of this city [New York]. The Philadelphia had the first move and the game was as follows: 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Bc5 3. Nh3 d6 4. Qf3 h6 5. Bc4 Nf6 6. d3 Bg4 7. Qg3 O-O 8. Nd5
Bxh3 9. Qxh3 Nxd5 10. Bxd5 c6 11. Bc4 Nd7 12. O-O Qf6 13. Qxd7 Black resigns. Mr Fox made the fatal 12...Qf6 move for the Lucania, but it had hardly been ticked off when he rushed up to the wireless room, which is just under the bridge. "Recall that move", he gasped to Operator Brooker. "The answer is coming back already", said Mr Brooker. "Good Lord, we've lost!" said Mr Fox. The Philadelphia players had been quick to recognize their opportunity, and while Mr Fox was bewailing his unlucky move he read the winning move on the tape. He had nothing to do but send congratulations. The game occupied two hours. The liners remained in communication Friday afternoon and all day Saturday. When first in communication the Philadelphia was about nineteen miles astern of the Lucania, but when they sighted each other at 8 o'clock on Saturday morning they were abreast. A new set of wireless instruments will be installed on the Lucania before she makes her next westward trip, presumably for the newspaper wireless experiment, which, according to Cuthbert Hall, the London manager of the Marconi Company, will be tried on one of the fast Cunarders. |
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Oct-01-16
| | GrahamClayton: An interesting story about an online chess player who pulled off an amazing case of identity theft: http://www.sabrinaerdely.com/docs/I... |
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Oct-01-16
 | | Boomie: <GrahamClayton> You may find Biographer Bistro an interesting place to discuss chess history. |
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Nov-27-16
 | | MissScarlett: I direct your attention to Jan Willem te Kolste |
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Jan-28-17
| | GrahamClayton: I was having a look at the preview version of Alex Dunne's book "The United States Junior Championship: 1946-2016" on Google Books, and noticed that there was no tournament held in 1980. Would anyone know the reason why the tournament was not held in this year? |
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Jan-29-17
 | | zanzibar: <GrahamC> 1980 also noted as missing here: http://www.chessmaniac.com/early-us... but no reason given.
Perhaps someone with access to USCF CL&R of the time might find mention as to reason. Was the tournament normally held the same time of year? |
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Jan-29-17
| | zanzibar: Another obvious place to look is contemporaneous coverage of 1981 tournament, which might have a word or two about what happened the previous year. |
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| May-02-17 | | dcd10100: Hi Graham - do you have Trevor Hay's contact details? Any help would be much appreciated.
Kind Regards,
Dan |
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