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Jan-25-21
 | | jessicafischerqueen:
<Nosnibor> Thank you I have deleted both duplicate games now. ==================
<MissScarlett> Thank you, and as usual you are correct. I will follow your advice on <needs to STFD>. |
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Jan-31-21 | | Nosnibor: In 1940 Atkins became President of the Leicestershire Chess Club for the first time and Don Gould in his 100 year history of the club wrote " The A.G.M. of 7th September 1940 (23 present) very fittingly elected to the Presidency H. E. Atkins, who ( it was reported ) had been successful in the Club handicap tournament, giving odds to all comers and not losing a game. ( He gave me Pawn and move, I remember, took it quite seriously, recorded the game, and when I took longer than a minute over a move, made a note of the time also: this, it seemed, had been his normal practice for years. I soon lost the initiative, and every bright idea I produced seemed to bring forth some horrid reply. Playing Atkins could be a chastening experience!) Has I am writing these lines today it is 66 years to the day when Atkins passed away. |
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Jan-31-21
 | | MissScarlett: Next year will be the 150th anniversary of Atkins's birth. Time for the ECF to get off its backside and organise a special event to mark the occasion. |
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Feb-01-21 | | Nosnibor: <MissScarlett> I fully agree with your sentiment. However, until last year Leicester has run an annual event since 1972 commemorating the great Master. Although in recent years it was held under quick play regulations which is something I do not participate in. In the inaugural event of 1972 I managed to be the highest ranked Midlands and Leicester player with 4.5/6 comprising 3 wins and 3 draws. A share of fourth place with three others secured me the princely sum of £2.50 ! This result came about after a last round draw with then the reigning British Champion Brian Eley where perhaps he was lucky to escape with a draw but has also escaped justice in this country. |
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Feb-25-21 | | Nosnibor: Games 205 and 206 are duplicated between Yates and Atkins. |
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Feb-25-21
 | | MissScarlett: Not that I can see. I think there’s a foible on <cg.com> which sometimes shows a game twice. Load both games and see if the gid in the address bar matches. Not sure if you can do this on a tablet, but you can on a PC. |
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Feb-25-21 | | Nosnibor: <MissScarlett. I can now see that the duplicated game is no longer there. So the total amount of games in the db is now 301 and not 302. |
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Feb-25-21
 | | MissScarlett: You probably dreamt it. It might be back tonight. |
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Feb-25-21 | | Z 000000010: I wonder if this quirk is due to editing updates to the games? Not sure how robust the db updating is, code-wise or other-wise. |
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Feb-25-21
 | | jessicafischerqueen:
<Nosnibor> I saw your notice yesterday, and deleted one of the two games. One of them had no annotations, and the one that's there now has extensive annotations. So I deleted the one with no annotations.
I think maybe the software does not recognize a duplicate if it contains a set of annotations that are absent from the original? I submitted the game with annotations a few weeks ago. <MissScarlett> I have experienced that foible before as well. A related foible is a game that appears in the database but does not appear in the list of players. |
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Mar-22-21 | | Nosnibor: "Leicester Mercury" report 6/10/1897. "CHESS- The winter season of the Leicestershire Chess Club was inaugurated on Tuesday evening at the Clarendon Park Restaurant by an exhibition of simultaneous chess play by our talented townsman, Mr. H. E .Atkins, the amateur champion of England. The following gentlemen took boards:- Rev. J. Elgood, Dr. Mason,Messrs. E.H.Collier, A.A.Allnutt, A.V.Hopcroft Ald. Bumpus, A.W.Stavely, F.Moore, A.Garratt, F.S.Ashby, T.W.Jeays,C.Greig, A.F.Atkins, J.E.Saunders, W. Bailey, and F. Snow. Mr. H.E.Atkins won all 16 games in the most masterly style, though it will be noticed several of his opponents are well known strong exponents of the game." |
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Oct-13-21
 | | MissScarlett: Leicester Evening Mail, October 26th 1946, p.3: <MR. H. E. ATKINS, Leicester's internationally - famous exponent of the art of chess, who has been playing in top-class chess for 50 years, is planning to spread the benefit of his long experience by writing a book under the title of "My Best Games of Chess."Associated with the Leicestershire Chess Club since he first played for the county at the age of 15, Mr. Atkins recently accepted an invitation from the committee to edit a selection of his games for the club library. Now, however, a firm of publishers have suggested that a book of his games is worthy of a wider public. In order to keep faith with the Leicestershire club, Mr. Atkins has decided that he has enough material for both purposes, so is now busy on two manuscripts - one for the benefit of his fellow-members and the other for the public at large.> Needless to say, no book ever appeared. Atkins, otherwise, wrote next to nothing on chess. The <Oxford Companion> mentions a 1952 book, <H. E. Atkins, Doyen of British Chess Champions> by Richard Nevil Coles, which must be pretty rare. It's possible that Atkins had some input into it. What are the Leicester CC hiding? |
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Oct-31-21 | | Nosnibor: The Leicester Chess Club has been defunct for nearly 20 years now. However it would appear that Atkins was somewhat lazy in snippets that I have been able to pick up from Donald Gould the chess historian of Leicester. A conversation between Atkins and Gould (22/04/1939) on a train journey following a County match in Nottingham began when Don asked Atkins whether the standard of Leicestershire chess had improved since he played for his county at the age of 15,over 50 years ago."Mr. Atkins stroked his moustache and was non-committal. He agreed ,however ,that the vast increase in the number of really good text books gave the modern youngster, with an aptitude for the game, a big advantage. Fifty years ago, natural ability and reference to the sprinkling of masters` games published in the press were all the average player had to rely on. Niemzowitsch and the "hyper-moderns" have had little effect on the master`s style,which remains, if I may coin an expression, "Scientifically aggressive". "I have made three attempts to read Niemzowisch`s book ("My System"), but have been too lazy to finish it." |
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Aug-20-22 | | Dionysius1: Before the rush starts, let me point out that Atkins was born 150 years ago today. Worth celebrating for those of us who are alive, but I won't wish him Happy Birthday because he's dead. I know Google wishes dead people happy birthday sometimes, but if I do before I know it I'll be wishing him many happy returns. And even for someone with vague Buddhist leanings (are there other kinds?), that would be extracting the Michael. |
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Aug-20-22 | | Nosnibor: <Dionysius> I agree with your sentiment. I was just learning the rudiments of the game when Atkins passed away. He was probably in the top six in the World between 1898 and 1912. |
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Aug-20-22 | | Dionysius1: Thanks <Nosnibor> I'll play through some of his games tonight. It's a shame he didn't get round to publishing annotations or memories :-(. I don't want to cavil on his birthday (I'm trying to give up cavilling any time). So the gentlest of enquiries: what's with his British Championship record being unparalleled (9 wins), and Jonathan Penrose's being a record (10 wins). Are there nuances that make these claims both true? D |
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Aug-20-22
 | | MissScarlett: It's the ratio of success rather than the vulgar number of wins. |
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Aug-20-22 | | Dionysius1: So different people could hold the record for the championship, and it could be for number of titles, number of titles compared to efforts, amount of money earned, weight of silverware, number of titles won when there was an r in the month, years between first title and last, smallest aggregated number of moves taken to win the title, shortest aggregate length of time taken to win, least calories used in winning, least weight lost in winning the title? Maybe so. But that's just debasing the words (record, unparalled, never exceeded etc) Pah! They don't all have to be top of the tree: that's like everyone has to have a prize for participating. Yuk. Dang, and I wasn't going to cavil. I don't expect Jonathan Penrose or Henry Atkins mind that much anyway. |
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Aug-20-22 | | Nosnibor: <Dionysius 1> The comparisons are that Atkins played in 11 events and won 9,only losing in his first attempt after tying for first in a playoff. Then finishing 3rd equal at the age of 65 in 1937! Penrose played in 21 events and won 10 times. He gave up O.T.B. chess at 54 years of age due to health problems. |
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Aug-20-22 | | Dionysius1: Thanks again. I just prefer one pespective when I'm tired, though of course there will be many anyway. And all perspectives of excellence. I totally take your and <MissScarlett>'s points. No disrespect to Penrose or Atkins. Best for me to stick to the games today :-) |
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Aug-21-22 | | Dionysius1: I like Atkins' style. He seems to "just" play sensible moves, acquire a positional advantage and find winning tactics on the basis of what he's done. I'm envious. It's like watching a golfer play great strokes all the time and wondering why when I think I'm doing the same thing it mostly doesn't work. |
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Aug-21-22 | | Dionysius1: Here's an example of what I mean. H E Atkins vs J W te Kolste, 1899 Atkins has played 14 blameless moves. Just putting his pieces on good squares. Not moving a piece twice unnecessarily (well, 13.Rfe1 and 14.Bb3 hardly count).  click for larger viewNow 15.Ne5 Nd5, and boom! The game's all over, with two of the nastiest N moves I've seen. |
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Aug-21-22 | | Dionysius1: Just to clarify: 15.Ne5 Nd5 aren't the 2 nasty N moves I meant. They come at 16 and 19. Have a look anyway :-) H E Atkins vs J W te Kolste, 1899 |
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Jan-09-23 | | stone free or die: I like the photograph <CG> currently has of him well enough, but there's an even better one here: https://britishchessnews.com/wp-con... https://britishchessnews.com/catego... . |
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Jul-02-23
 | | FSR: https://mannchess.org.uk/People/Atk... |
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