Archive for the ‘Bedfordshire Chess’ Category

Houghton Regis

Posted in Bedfordshire Chess on September 28, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire, is starting up a chess club. Details can be found in the link below.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2005719213024749/permalink/4425807084349271

M J M

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One down, one to go

Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, My own endeavours on August 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I had a very pleasant evening in the town centre last night and am happy I made a flying visit to the chess club. Tomorrow the chess continues. I will be taking the bus to Leighton Buzzard to meet FM Gary Kenworthy at The Swan Hotel. He will be bringing along scoreesheets to some of his greatest games, including his win against GM Adams, who I did not do very well against last month. The plan is to catch up as well and talk about mutual friends, of which we have many. Should be a pleasant day but it does seem that on those rare opportunities when I do come home, chess does so often take centre stage but then what else is there to do? Should I rename this post to ‘Confessions of a chess addict’.

M J M

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A gulf in class?

Posted in Bedfordshire Chess on July 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »

If you delve into chess played back in Victorian times -to use an English term- more work is involved than you may think: some would argue the further back in time you go the more cumulative this becomes. Not yet aghast? You may even discover that sometimes a spiffing Englishman come up against a chap from a former colony of ours and gets a tonking over the board -just imagine that!

In those heady days chess was bereft of ratings and titles only categories were used for classification; differing among nations in terms of criterion and meaning since they weren’t universal and subject to revision and misreportage also.

Today, some just go on the name of a player alone just to estimate their strength. But of course you can always compare ability by matching up these greats of the past. Look at the example below to see what I mean. Let’s look at a position and ponder a move first before playing through the game.

Bird has just played 17. 0-0-0. Look okay to you?

Here’s the game, containing a variation in an opening you don’t see in top flight chess these days. https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1027914.

Everything is open to interpretation, so make of it what you will. It looks to me like there is a serious gulf in class here. This appears to be substanitated by their results.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1039530

A blow for us English but not an unexpected one.

MJM, Colombia

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Alekhine, a Canadian fox, sacrifices galore, and he who straddled more than one academic discipline…

Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, Postmodern History, Quaint Chess History on June 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

In May I posted details of Bedfordshire’s baptism of fire in the S.C.C.U back in 1923. I drew attention to Middlesex’s board 3, pointing out that he beat two former world champions and drew with one, using that as an explanatory factor in the size of the defeat dished out, amongst others. The post is called Bedfordshire Outfoxed and can be found in the search bar.

The post contains the aforementioned games but I felt drawn to his game against Alekhine in particular. Yes it was part of a simul with sacrifices galore, as so often happens in such events but upon looking at the game closely, I found one move in particular of Fox’s that I am rather fond of I must say. It was both brave and in the spirit of things or was it his saving grace instead? Let’s have a look:

White has just played 29. dxe5. What would you play as black here? You can see what Fox played in the image below.

As much as I would love to paraphrase Kasparov in ‘How Life Imitates Chess’ I cannot. So I can’t say this exemplifies how ‘the best form of defence is attack’ for it is a counter-attacking move and doesn’t quite qualify. It is, however, unusual to see being mated averted by threatening mate in one yourself, if that’s the case of course. Since it is a simul, we don’t know how much time Fox had to make the move, probably not very long. Great move nonetheless. Here’s the game again.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1012317

Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

(Note to self: consider making more posts on moves you like)

MJM

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A red bus, a white puzzle book, a grey afternoon, a yellow bus

Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, My own endeavours on June 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »

As I sat on a bus, new and red in colour, trundling across Bogota, whilst en route to a private lesson given to a student, I dipped into a favoured publication on puzzles -the appropriately named Chess Travellers Quiz Book by GM Hodgson. Certainly preferable to staring aimlessly out the windows, watching derelict buildings covered in graffiti roll by through the city’s sprawling, run down suburbs… .

But this time I thought I’d read it backwards. A move more worthy of the annotation !? I remembered its alluring imagery of tourist attractions upon its dazzling white cover well, that there were 12 chapters in total too, but not so that some 200 puzzles in total were to be found within its covers. 200 puzzles in 12 chapters? ‘Most fitting’, I thought somewhat in jest, given that my playing strength in classical chess is usually estimated at around ELO 212 by my opponents after they have won easily yet again (although in truth it is a tad higher than that, say, ELO 214?) :-). Yes thats ELO rating not ECF rating. Jocularity aside, in finding puzzle 200 it was pleasing to see Bedfordshire’s strongest player of all time making a cameo. Attempt it I did as the bi-articulated bus I sat on approached the Zona Industrial stop, barely a kilometre or two from where I would soon embark unhurried… .

In truth, problem-solving is an aspect of chess I have never been too fussed over. That said, trying to find the solution to that above became illuminating upon reflection. Needless to say, I didn’t get very far, and had to question why. ‘White to play and win’ it says, this tells you that something is afoot but what? In OTB chess I tend to shy away from evaluating the positions I stumble across in my games because in GM Rowson’s inspirational book The Seven Deadly Sins of Chess, ‘wanting’ is the first addressed. There, he argues convincingly it is not only injudicious but more so a critical mistake to assess positions as winning or won. Better to think of them as strong/good/better/advantageous or something like that instead. An approach antithetical to problem solving indeed. Thus true to form, I couldn’t find a direct win and opted for moves that just looked good instead… .

After a few minutes, barely seconds before I got off at La estación sencilla Distrito Graffiti, as they say in this neck of the woods, I decided that white’s first move must be Bxg6, and that after fxg6, white probably follows up with Qd3 then Nd4, at which point black’s position looks precarious to say the least. Black’s g-pawn will be captured and the e-pawn probably too. Was I right or was I wrong? Alas, I am just not good enough to assess whether such moves lead to a winning attack or not, I also didn’t have enough time left of my journey to study the solution either, frankly. And like I said problems/puzzles aren’t my forte, so it mattered greatly not… .

Nonetheless, my brief, blank journey across Bogota was made more pleasant, despite the glaring disparity between Bedfordshire’s most successful player and the one most average at best who types these words, ending haplessly with me not daring to check the solution, aware even I had ample to do so upon arrival at the mall, after the fifteen minute walk there, should I want to. Instead, I just sat somewhere on that first floor people watching, clearing my thoughts, waiting for my student to arrive, which she did some thirty minutes or so later. Then the usual meet and greet ensued and two hours or so of instruction took precedence over time-killing, which made it easier to stave off boredom I guess. An impulse or two to write after all classes were completed later that day passed, then I wandered off home as rush hour hit, not really thinking about anything. Simple pleasures gave way to the formalities of business and the two rarely mix well, despite all our efforts. It led to a grey afternoon of sorts. Yes the interior design of the mall leant itself to grey marble I noted. Outside the sky was grey too I saw. The traffic now heavy as back it trudged towards downtown, made the air grey and pong of pollution; falling on the procession of reckless cyclists alongside it was light rain, and then after all that, on a yellow C-19 bus sat I no longer wanting to read, and sat like any vacuous amateur chess player would when reflecting on the lengths they must go to just to earn a crust, and lamentably, why their forays into chess are abstemious. The C-19 returned me to the stop named La estación Flores, a few minutes walk from where this post is being penned. When I got home I made dinner -it was rather English and rather bland. Then I slumped on this bed and watched youtube videos on how chess should be played. But I just watched while I ate and didn’t think too much about the moves being played. Then I fell asleep and a new day was born.

Mark. J. McCready

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Bedfordshire Chess Trivia Quiz -the big, big 50

Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, Trivia on March 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »

‘Knowledge is power.‘ Francis Bacon, Meditationes Sacrae 1597

  1. Who is the only player to have developed and emerged from the Bedfordshire league to become British Chess Champion? 1
  2. Which player from Bedfordshire is the only one to have represented England in his heyday (excluding anyone at junior or senior level). 2
  3. Who, then rated 146th in the world; 23 ELO points and 31 places above future world champion Capablanca, according to the EDO Historical Chess Ratings, is the only person documented playing for Luton in the 19th century more than once. 3
  4. In which year did Northampton WMC (as it was then called) enter the Bedfordshire league? 4
  5. Which company entered a team in the Bedfordshire chess league, ran by FM Peter Gayson’s father and also employed retired Luton town footballing regend Joe Payne, noted for scoring more goals in a game (10) than any other player in the history of English football? 5
  6. How many former county champions have beaten former world champion Emmanuel Lasker? 6
  7. On record, how many had already become national champions before competing in the Bedfordshire league? 7
  8. What was unusual about Division 1 of the Beds. league in the 74/75 season? 8
  9. In which year did Bedford become national club champions? 9
  10. How many players who have played for teams & clubs in Bedfordshire have gone on to become president of the S.C.C.U? 10
  11. GM Michael Adams has the highest rating of any English player ELO 2761 and is generally considered to be the greatest English chess player ever, he was also British champion more 8 times. Two Bedfordshire based players have beaten him. Who are they? 11
  12. Who won Division 1 in 2012?12
  13. Who is the only British boys chess champion to have played in the Beds. league?13
  14. Who did IM Andy Ledger think was the best player/the most difficult to beat in the Beds. league during the 80s?14
  15. Who was the first titled player to participate in the Beds league? 15
  16. Who is the only player to compete in the Beds. league for a number of seasons, who also went onto become champion of South Africa? 16
  17. The fastest game recorded in chesss history occured at Luton High Town Recreactional Centre between GM Tony Miles and Stewart Reuben, 1. Draw. How much did that prearranged draw earn GM Tony Miles for achieving 1st place, classifying him as that outright winner? 17
  18. Which team captain had by far the longest hair in the Beds league, having not cut it for over six years in the 90s? 18
  19. When reigning world champion Anatoly Karpov played the top 20 juniors England had, one of them came from Bedfordshire, Dunstable more specifically. Who was he?19
  20. Who is the only former county champion who played for Northampton? 20
  21. Who, whilst playing for Vauxhall in Luton, entered the club, was abruptly taken outside, then seconds later got beaten up in the snowy car park? 21
  22. How many teams that lay outside Bedfordhire have participated in the Bedfordshire League? 22
  23. Who is the only Bedfordshire born and chess player who went onto receive a C.B.E in 1988? 23
  24. In which year did Bedford Modern School reach the final of the National Schools Championships, and who did they lose to? 24
  25. Which European world class player (no ELO back then) associated with hypermodernism, once performed a simul in Luton blindfold, winning all fourteen games on January 25th 1923, the date cited in the reportage. An account one day out can be found on pg. 15 of Chess in Bedfordshire (1933) Dickens&White. 25
  26. Which was the last chess club in Bedfordshire to be left with no playing premises of their own, and were left to share the venue of another club in the league 26
  27. Yours truly, attempting to be facetious, once claimed Milton Keynes often won Division 1 because navigating around that city was more difficult than chess itself, leaving opponents mentally exhausted upon arrival before play began. True or false? 27
  28. Canadian GM Suttles performed a simul at which club in Luton in the early 70s? 28
  29. Who is the only Bedfordshire born and based player who participated at the chess olympiad in both 1986 and 1988? And who did he represent? 29
  30. In which year did the Bedfordshire League become named so by incorporating teams from around the league so that all teams competed in the same league and were no longer subject to the north/south divide preceeding? 30
  31. In which three consecutive years did Bedfordshire achieve national success courtesy of both county chess teams, and unsurprisingly, the success of our most successful protégé? 31
  32. Paul Habershon was a teacher at Bedford Modern School and also played for the chess team. Who was the other teacher also an established team member for many years? 32
  33. Leighton Buzzard’s doorsteps were once sadly darkened by which former British champion, who won a quickplay held in Bossard Hall before he infamously fled the country? And in which year? 33
  34. When was the Bedfordshire Chess Association formed? 34
  35. Who, known primarily for Newsflash, was the first to frequently write about chess in Luton & Bedfordshire in circulations published nationally, and which bank was he the manager of in Luton? 35
  36. Courtesy of the tail end of the industrial revolution, as it’s commonly referred to, the ensuing development of a rail network made it easier for clubs within Bedfordshire to play those in neighbouring counties, in particular Hertfordshire. What was the name of the neutral venue where a club from both Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire met to play, but used different rail lines to arrive at the venue betwixt them both? 36
  37. Who is the only GM to have performed a simul in Luton twice and at the time had a 100% record against the current world champion Gary Kasparov. 37
  38. Which former junior county champion also participated in the Beds. league with his mother, who was active for many years? 38
  39. In the 1901 Anglo-American cable match, William Ward, who is documented playing for Luton before becoming champion of London countless time over, beat which prominent American player, who took on world champions along with the very best in the world throughout much of his career? 39
  40. Which was the last team to participate in the Bedfordshire Chess League with an ordinal number in its name? 40
  41. What was the name of Bedfordshire’s only noted problemist? 41
  42. Which two appeared on the same popular teatime Channel 4 tv gameshow? 42
  43. Which most unfortunate Bedfordshire based player is remembered for an all too harrowing end to a visit to his club, making him the only one who’s night involved, more than some friendlies, plenty of pints (hence his nickname), as well as being thrown through a windshield of a taxi into a bush on his way home. What was his nickname also? 43
  44. Which two appeared in quiz shows on tv; one shown on BBC2, the other on ITV? 44
  45. Who was head of the Stopsley school league team (Luton) and went onto to become a prominent member of the Bedfordshire Chess Association? 45
  46. Which trophy did Bedfordshire once retain for 10 years last milennium? 46
  47. Who won the second division in 2022? 47
  48. Who has become county champion more times then anyone else? 48
  49. Who wrote the longest running column for chess in Bedfordshire? 49
  50. Who won Div 1 in 2024? 50

All 50 questions, which should you seek the footnoted answers below will, I hope, broaden your understanding of Bedfordshire Chess Present & History greatly. All scores are welcome in the comments also. The primary purpose here is not so those attempting the quiz can answer all Qs. correctly but rather the questions will inspire those reading to seek the answer (footnoted) below.

An addendum: anything I have missed which should have been included do suggest (I will modify), the questions being too hard or not seemingly of no importance (please say so), any other suggestions and criciticisms are graciously accepted. This is a fun way to improve your understanding of the History of Bedfordshire Chess. The questions have been carefully chosen.

Mark. J. McCready

08.41, Monday, March 31st, Bogota, Colombia.

  1. GM James Plaskett ↩︎
  2. Dennis Victor Mardle https://mccreadyandchess.co.uk/2024/03/08/toms-old-friend-plays-for-england/ ↩︎
  3. William Ward http://www.edochess.ca/years/y1896.html ↩︎
  4. 1987 ↩︎
  5. Electrolux. FM Peter Gayson’s father set that club up and worked with record breaking footballer Joe Payne. https://mccreadyandchess.co.uk/2023/10/28/from-fridges-to-footballers-to-fun-over-the-board-and-the-odd-fight/ ↩︎
  6. 2 https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter85.html https://mccreadyandchess.co.uk/2015/01/23/when-lasker-came-to-luton/ ↩︎
  7. 2 IM (at the time) Sergio Mariotti (Italy) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergio_Mariotti Donald Curtis (Wales), https://mccreadyandchess.co.uk/2024/10/08/our-welsh-champion-from-yesteryear/ ↩︎
  8. It was the only time it was won by a school. B.M.S. ↩︎
  9. 2001 https://sccu-chess.com/archive/0001/nc.htm ↩︎
  10. 4 William Ward (1910-1911), R.H. Rushton (1928-1929), Tom Sweby (1954-1955), and Sandy Cordon (1974-1975) ↩︎
  11. GM James Plaskett (friendly Leeds and FM Gary Kenworthy (quickplay Spalding) ↩︎
  12. Bedford http://www.adrianelwin.co.uk/Bedfordshire/LeaguePreviousWinners.html ↩︎
  13. J. M. Craddock https://mccreadyandchess.co.uk/2023/12/17/a-stand-out-figure-from-the-50s/ ↩︎
  14. Andrew Perkins ↩︎
  15. IM Sergio Mariotti (played in the Beds. league in 70-71, however, he became a GM in 74 ↩︎
  16. Major. Harry Duhan https://mccreadyandchess.co.uk/2016/02/12/our-clash-of-future-champions/ ↩︎
  17. £200 ↩︎
  18. Luton’s most handsome chess player aka Marcus McCreadus (also known to be a bit rubbish 😦 ↩︎
  19. Colin Garwood https://mccreadyandchess.co.uk/2023/11/21/garwood-v-karpov/ ↩︎
  20. Paul Pribanich http://www.adrianelwin.co.uk/Bedfordshire/PreviousCountyChamps.html ↩︎
  21. Vauxhall was based in Luton of course. The league player in question was Marcus Dunne. ↩︎
  22. 6 Scion, Bletchley, Milton Keynes, Open University, Northampton, Rushden ↩︎
  23. Dennis Victor Mardle for his work on Polio, which he suffered from ↩︎
  24. 1973/1974 Southern GS, Portsmouth
    ↩︎
  25. Reti ↩︎
  26. Luton ↩︎
  27. True ↩︎
  28. Electrolux ↩︎
  29. Ian Corden, Bermuda https://mccreadyandchess.co.uk/2024/10/06/olympiad-success/ ↩︎
  30. 1952 ↩︎
  31. 1990, 1991, 1992 ↩︎
  32. 2 ↩︎
  33. Brian Eley 1984 ↩︎
  34. 1922 ↩︎
  35. G. H. Diggle ↩︎
  36. St. Albans – Luton v Watford https://mccreadyandchess.co.uk/2024/05/02/w-ward-plays-for-luton/ ↩︎
  37. GM Murray Chandler ↩︎
  38. Simon Roe (his mother was Margret Roe) ↩︎
  39. F. D. Marshall ↩︎
  40. Luton VIth Form College ↩︎
  41. Bramwell Hirst ↩︎
  42. FM Dave Ledger and Paul Habershon in Countdown. ↩︎
  43. Pat Foley aka ‘Pisshead Pat’ ↩︎
  44. Colin Garwood and GM James Plaskett ↩︎
  45. Brian Cox ↩︎
  46. The Fleming Trophy ↩︎
  47. Leighton Buzzard B ↩︎
  48. Steven Ledger ↩︎
  49. ‘old’ Tom Sweby ↩︎
  50. Leighton Buzzard A https://lms.englishchess.org.uk/lms/event/4157/table ↩︎

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The forging of integrity

Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, My own warped humour, On-line journal, Personal Interest & Experience on December 25, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Most in our modern world are unflective and uncritical of their own lives, satisified enough to stay within their own comfort zone and keep it that way. Much more interested in playing with their phone than making an effort to define who they are. Similarly most chess players can only be described as being exempt from the same criticisms if you are taking the piss. It’s the norm that chess players cannot offer rationally informed opinions as to why they play chess. Most will say they just like it, some will say they love chess, many will admit its just a hobby they’ve kept going. If you were to ask how do you develop meaning from chess and how does that bring value in what you do. This is not a question likely to be answered comprehensively by club and county players. This can only be answered purposely by referring efforts aimed towards improvement, the principle selling factor of chess literature. You may be told how they read a book to improve their game. That’s usually about the limits of the efforts for most club/county players who are generally uncommital.

This is partly because they are unaware that improvement itself is multifarious, and sadly that they tend to be poorly educated and adopt an uncritical approach to life itself and all it throws at you. Even Grandmasters, the best chess players on offer, are predomonantly poorly educated most have little or no ability to publish their achievements and are almost completely oblivious to standard literary and academic conventions, hence the reason why as a genre chess literature is decadent and something we should all be ashamed of.

I omce wrote an ambitious dissertation whilst finishing an MA where I had to reinterpret a seminal text and trace unformulated fragements of a concept which was much later developed further in a text towards the end of the authors unappreicated career. I happily went into overdrive with that, accompanied by persistence which pushed me on always. After 18 months research skills that still surprise me to this day, I was commended by several Ph.d students for how beautiful my writing was, told by my professor the amount of work put in made it very useful and insisted it be placed in the library so that undergraduates could benefit from the deeply informative contextualization that shaped it, I got a commendation too but was very glad to see the back of it. I began by readering the seminal text 11 times on the bounce and although this enabled me to understand how it was written and how certain chapters were really only consoldated lecture notes, I fell very much out of love with that text, always certain it’s been given far too much important and am unable to go near it ever again. It’s main criticism is that it’s overwritten, I would say its a complete fucking joke he should be thoroughly ashamed of, as should every person on this planet was stupid enough to read the fucking thing.

This and the numerous meetings I had with my professor, not to mention the defence of it I had to give of it to the entire department that afternoon fashioned and forged a critical mindset, which emerged as an undergraduate, since I came second in the entire year, scoreing 67.4 and only missing out on a first by 2.6 per cent but came on leaps and bounds as a post-grad. I’ve since had to train myself up with post modernism in order to avoid the mistakes usually made with regards to chess history. The good news is I have a deeply obssessive mind and know that if you can channel your thoughts in play you are provided with a massive engine for them. I am an educator and have been in education all my adult life. With so much to learn from the history of chess in our county.and how chess has flourished previously. It’s almost certianly the case that I am more equipped to educate those in charge of things much more so than anyone else, as its far easier for me to define how things stand presently as well as explain how things can be improved by describing that most crucial to be learnt from and implemented. Unforunately this may mean nothing more than me just saying my piece rather than inspiring people and prompting them into action, most probably they’ll just interpret it as extra effort they’ve been lumbered with and make no effort whatsoever. This will make me want to give up on them initally but the virute of my deeply obssessive mind will most likely obliterate that to kingdom come and push me on to persist and not stop persisting until they are suitably impressed with my intentions enough. I have very good relations and am not only well-repected for my blog, also described as a historian my county members, something I am uneasy with as I’ll never be able to define myself as one. I’m nothing more than someone who is pretty good at writing, it’s an art form I began practicising when I was 15 and I never stoped. Originality and creativity are what I cherish most of all, nonetheless, I’m nothing too special, except for when I write brilliantly but that’s not the norm, usually I don’t have much to say because I let my desire to write overrule the pronise not to write if I have nothing to say. But then if you don’t write to be read, all you are doing is letting yourself down. Only the history of chess in Befordshire has an intended audience, everything else is for me only. Despite this, I reiterate I am an educator and what began as I hope it could be learned from is moving towards a necessity that must be enforiced. Raise awareness, narrate our history so that it can be applied, deliniate the decline we are undergoing and demand action. I am more than capapable of achieving that -it’s a piece of piss you could say. Let’s move on from intentionality.

A likely consequence to all this, if I can make it happen, is to return home and become president of my club and county, then it will become my job to put a rocket up the arse of those shanghied into doing what I tell them to do when I tell them to do it. Far too proud of my working class beginnings to do it any other way. I know I can give it my best shot and remain satisfied that I did even if I fail to achieve what I set out to accomplish. Why’s that. Because Greek philosophy has stayed with me all my life, I know how important Socrates being told know thyself by the oracle of Delphi but should you buy into that and want to give it a shot, I’m sorry to tell you it’s a life-long task that is much, much harder than you might think. You have, in fact absolutely no fucking chance whatsoever unless you’ve also got a deeply obssessive mind like me. I know what I idealise and like Tennyson said in. In Memoriam, ‘it’s better to have loved and lost than never have loved before.’ And the most we are ever capable of is to try our best but as we all know nothing often come of that. Nothing to go mental over if I fail, something superceded by the the concession that learing is a life long process. and we can always move on lamenting that doing my best just wasn’t good enough, remembering to alter your opinions of those who did fuck all to help, redefining them as useless bastards I wouldn’t piss on if they were on fire.

I don’t need you to wish me luck, if I can make it happen, most likely I will succeed.

Mark. J. McCready

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Why Bedfordshire chess has been read both within and beyond our borders…

Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 21st century on November 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Viewing history as a literary artefact is not a debillitating nor less a terminal complaint. Rather, recognizing the importance of narrative explanation in our lives as well as the study of the past could liberate historians as we acknowledge and try to narrate the disruptive discontinuity and chaos of the past and in the present. The desire is, in itself, a product of our own age’s preoccupation with understanding the nature of our seemingly chaotic lives. History is itself historical -its methods and concepts as well as the debates about its nature are the products of historical time periods. Alan Muslow – Deconstructing History (1997)

Those who put Bedfordshire on the map over the years:

  • First, Dickens and White Chess in Bedfordshire (1933)
  • Second, G.H. Diggle (1950’s onwards but sporadic)
  • Third Walter Bramwell Hirst (1950’s onwards, problems appreared in The British Chess magazine and have been kept by The British problem society)
  • Forth, Edward Winter (Chess notes, 90’s onwards)
  • Fifth, Adrian Elwin (Archivist 2000 onwards)
  • In terms of what has put Bedfordshire on the map. Inexorably, county results in the national county championships can be found in the (what was) BCF yearooks (and is now) the ECF yearbooks, all of which can be found in the British Library, should you consider them of interest…should it remain the case I have not done so and posted them on this site (more than less likely).

With regards to the digital revolution we are, happily, undergoing, a number of blogs have subsequently emerged: (most obviously this ‘un). Also:

https://www.bedfordchess.co.uk/

http://www.leightonbuzzardchess.co.uk /

https://www.lutonchessclub.com/

https://www.miltonkeyneschessclub.co.uk/

But who be him that has written about our chess history the most? Moi of course.

Mark. J. McCready, Mandalay, Myanmar

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Hats off to Luton

Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 21st century on April 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Luton A team has won Division 2 of the Bedfordshire League with only one loss all season.

So who makes up the Luton A team this season?

Congrats on a fine season, now its time for division 1!

Mark. J. McCready

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Celebrating success…

Posted in Bedfordshire Chess on April 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

GM James Plaskett has a DVD out where he celebrates many of his greatest victories. As you may know, James is the only one who emerged from the Bedfordshire league and went on to become British champion, a feat unlikely to ever be equalled. So for those interested in Bedfordshire chess, its a worthwhile acquisition. You shouldn’t expect to find games from the Beds. league contained within, still it is something we should all be proud of. It can be found below, I have placed an order myself.

https://gingergm.com/library/plasketts-greatest-hits

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