Archive for the ‘History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 21st century’ Category

Andrew Perkins -the loss of someone I always looked up to

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 21st century on April 27, 2026| 1 Comment »

The funeral of top Luton chess player was held today, he will be greatly missed by all. Considered by IM Andy Ledger to be the strongest player in the league because he played moves you could not understand, and also a softly spoken gentleman who was kind, knowledgeable and friendly…we shall miss him much. Since his passing, I have felt sad everytime I thought about him. I lament not being able to see him again greatly, as I am sure we all do.

Andy played top board for the county many times throughout the years and was considered to be Luton’s strongest player for the longest time. He became county champion in 1982. I first met him when Luton and Kents amalgamated in June 1988. I asked club sectretary Ken Liddle about him and was surprised to learn he was a postman. I thought he was a scientist when I was young because he had a certain look I thought. That summer, when I was only 16, I asked him one evening if we could play a 30 minute game as I wanted to pit my wits against our strongest player. Andy wrote down the moves. I was black and it was a closed Sicilian. I caught him out with a move order change which he was impressed by, he said after the game, which of course I lost. I always looked up to him and liked talking to him whenever I could, as most did as he was a well-respected figure in the league.

I posted some details about his death here: Andrew Perkins -ECF Foum. I attached a newspaper article about him, written in the 60s as he was very pleased when I gave him a copy of it and requested that he keep it, to which I gladly obliged.

And I attach social media content here. 5 players (4 from Luton and 1 from Bedford: Damon D’ Cruz, Peter Montgomery, Samir Vora, Thomas O’Brien and Paul Habershon) attended today’s funeral. Unfortunately I could not make it as I am posted abroad as per usual. And yes this does make me feel cut off and powerless when such tragedies occur, as you might expect.

Many of his best games can be found here:

https://www.lutonchessclub.com/games

A great loss for the club, our county, his family, his church, and society on the whole. Rest in peace Andy.

          Into my heart an air that kills
           From yon far country blows:
          What are those blue remembered hills,
           What spires, what farms are those?

          That is the land of lost content,
           I see it shining plain,
          The happy highways where I went
           And cannot come again.
A Shropshire Lad Stanza 40 -A.E.Housman

M J M

Read Full Post »

GM Rowson annotates a game from one of Bedfordshire’s best

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 21st century on April 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

It isn’t easy at all to find games where players from Bedfordshire have had their games analysed. But we have one here and it’s from celebrated author, philosopher (he has a Ph.D in wisdom from Oxford University), former British champion Rowson. It comes from his second publication Chess for Zebras. In Chapter 8 Rowson links chess to Taoism amongst other well thought out intentions, and highlights the importance of doing nothing and letting things happen by themselves, a central concept of that religion. It’s high quality analysis and in it you will find that GM Motwani is very complimentary towards his opponent from Bedford, who sadly lost this game. Enjoy -its a great book btw.

M J M

Read Full Post »

The Ledger brothers play for England

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 21st century on April 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

‘The new things are based and supported on sturdy old things, and derive a massive strength from their deep and immemorial foundations, though with such limitations and impediments as only an Englishman could endure. But he likes to feel the weight of all the past upon his back; and, moreover, the antiquity that overburdens him has taken root in his being, and has grown to be rather a hump than a pack, so that there is no getting rid of it without tearing his whole structure to pieces . . . as he appears to be sufficiently comfortable under the mouldy accretion, he had better stumble on withit as long as he can.‘ Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1862

At the time of writing, Bedford’s Ledger brothers (Andy, Dave & Steve) are playing for England at the FIDE World Senior (50+) Team Championships in down there in Durres, Albania. England has 5 men’s teams and 1 women’s team. The Ledger brothers are playing for England 3 alongside Laurence E. Webb, FIDE rating 2203. Details of the tournament teams and results can be found here: FIDE World Seniors. Local chess fans may like to know that I did ask GM Plaskett why he wasn’t playing and he told me that he wasn’t invited this time.

Andy Ledger can never seen here.

Perhaps history, of which most lies unrecorded, is more so about interpretation than facts,1 but I am not going to state the Ledger brothers are writing history by becoming the first brothers to play for England, as some evidence to the contrary may be found here and stops me doing so.2 Whatever is of utmost importance in history, we wish them good luck with their endeavours anyway.

The England that we love is the England of old towns, tilled fields, little rivers, farms, churches and cottages. If by violently marring the fair country and vulgarizing the shy old buildings we obtain so much less to love, what shall it profit? Without an England to love we cannot remain stout of heart and enduring.’ James Lees-Milne

  1. According to postmodernist Jenkins, facts are trite, it’s what they mean that matters. ↩︎
  2. Too lazy to conduct thorough research and as is almost always the case, my personal library is in another continent. However, I posted Q’s here and have info. Brothers playing for England ↩︎

M J M

Read Full Post »

Local, national & international

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1980-2000, History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 21st century on May 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »

When those who emerged from the Bedfordshire League compete against one another in national or international tournaments it denotes attention. According to my research so far, the first instance of this occured in 1965 and can be found here: https://mccreadyandchess.wordpress.com/2024/12/16/the-red-corner-and-the-blue-corner/. Courtesty of some social media chat, I more recently learnt that all of the Ledger brothers have played GM Plaskett at national or international level, with all of the Ledger brothers achieving results at some stage or another.

IM A. Ledger v GM Plaskett British Championship 1997

https://www.365chess.com/game.php?gid=1226047

FM D. Ledger v GM Plaskett Gibraltar 2003

https://chesstempo.com/game-database/game/h-james-plaskett-vs-dave-j-ledger/101052

S. Ledger v GM Plaskett Hastings 90/91 (no gamescore available. Refer to the crosstable: GM Plaskett No. 58 S. Ledger No. 96) https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/199012hast-viewer.html

Well done the ledger brothers for achieving results against former BMS pupil and British champion GM Plaskett.

Mark. J. McCready

Read Full Post »

The big 3. The 80s & the decades thereafter.

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1980-2000, History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 21st century on March 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »

  1. IM Andy Ledger highest FIDE rating 2452
  2. FM Peter Gayson highest FIDE rating 2311
  3. FM Peter Constantinou highest FIDE rating 2213
Bedford’s IM Andy Ledger
Dunstable’s FM Peter Gayson
Bedford’s FM Peter Constantinou

Mark. J. McCready

Read Full Post »

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

Read Full Post »

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

Read Full Post »

Bedford 1 loses to Bedford 2

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 21st century on March 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The strongest Bedford based player ever is without doubt GM James Plaskett -let’s call him number 1.

The second strongest Bedford based player ever is without doubt IM Andrew Ledger -let’s call him number 2.

Despite being a generation apart, they’ve met over the board more than a few times over the years with our number 1 obtaining noticeably better results. However, on this occasion 1 our number 2 defeated our number 1.

Black has just played 27. … Nf5, which will win him the game shortly.
  1. https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2280253 ↩︎

MJM

Read Full Post »

Could a Bedfordshire protégé outplay the current world champion?

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 21st century on March 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Most likely not, unless of course, the current world champion has had a litre of Vodka for breakfast and our Bedfordshire protégé is stone cold sober. Okay, so has a protégé from Bedfordshire ever outplayed our current world champion? The answer to that depends upon how you define what ‘a protégé from Bedfordshire‘ is. If you mean someone born in Bedfordshire, then no. If you mean someone who grew up playing chess in Bedfordshire, then yes. But -and yes it is okay to start a sentence with a conjunction, don’t go buying into Prescriptivism now -was the current world champion entitled so at the time? Sadly not. Was it a blitz game? Yes it was.

I shall now show you six diagrams and add some comments.

The Bedfordshire protégé plays with the white pieces, here. 3. …h6 has just been played.
Magnus Carlsen, a future world champion in 2006, has just played 10. …Nc6 and seems in sound shape as the middle game begins.
The Bedfordshire protégé has only just played 18. f3. As you know, every chess player’s favourite move is always moving your f-pawn one square only. Is the position equal, well I’m not an expert but notice that central pawn majority white has?
Ooh la la, sacre bleu, what is going on ‘ere? Zee future world champion has just played 26. ….Qxd6. Did he not see 27. c5 and the double-attack it unleashes?
This protégé from Bedfordshire is the exchange up and attacks the queen with 33. d6, surely the game is already won?
What trouble the future world champion is in here.? Or is he in any real trouble I should say? What is the result likely to be after black plays 37. … Qg5?

Some of us are proud of our county. I always have been. I am still. I will be always. Who was it that played our current world champion? The answer lies below.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1820780

Read Full Post »