Bedfordshire’s very first county matches have been documented in the book Chess in Bedfordshire, F.Dickens and G.L.White (Leeds 1933) see below:
For detail, I have added newspaper reports detailing some of the matches described.
1908 return match Beds Advertiser and Luton Times Fri Mar, 20
The Bedfordshire Advertiser Friday March 11th, 1904
The Beds Advertiser and Luton Times Feb 22nd. 1907
Old Bedford Road, Luton
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1900-1920 | Leave a Comment »
Grace contemplates a double-knight sac in one move.
An unusual position created by Ms. McCready
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Some of us untitled players may wonder whether being titled matters. It certainly does. The higher the title the greater the perks it provides. Take for instance when Hou Yifan, the then Women’s World Champion came to Bangkok to play in 2012. There was a $10,000 appearance fee generously paid by a local retiree (sorry, not allowed to name him), and a penthouse suite at the Dusit Thani for 2 weeks was provided also -free of charge of course!
In turn, there were a few duties to fulfill, such as a simul against a select few, a photo shoot here and there, and perhaps an interview. Thankfully, Hou Yifan made a genuine effort to win the tournament, which cannot be said for all Bangkok’s guest GMs, some of whom, in the belief they have already made their money, begin each round the worse for wear after a night on the town.
GM Hou Yifan, a pleasant person to meet.
A trap that has caught many GMs out whilst visiting Thailand.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Tagged Hou Yifan Bangkok | Leave a Comment »
Some games defy belief. Having played 1. f4 for many years, I couldn’t help but laugh with incredulity when I saw this game on pg. 6 of The Quickest Victories of All Time by Graham Burgess (Cadogan). It is one of the funniest games I’ve ever seen, what on earth black was thinking about I don’t know. If it were a football match then we could assume he wanted an early bath!
H.Rost – J.Roscher corr. 1989
1. Nc3!? f5?! That’s not a good start as we Dutch Defense players can testify.
2. e4 dxe4
3. d3 exd3?!
4. Bxd3
If that’s not the daftest postion ever to be reached on a chess board then I don’t know what is. One more dubious move and black is lost. I understand the occasional need for experimentation but really… .
4. …Nf6
5. g4 (Nf3 is better) g6
6. g5 Nh5
If this were a true From Gambit, black would have little to worry about here if, I repeat, if he knows what to do as the g-pawn push isn’t anything to worry about.
7. Ne4 d5
8. Ng3 Nxg3
9. hxg3 Bg7?
Black had to play Qd6 after which he is holding with a material advantage.
10. Rxh7 O-O??
11. Bxg6 Qd6
12. Qh5
12. …Qe6
13. Be3 Resigns
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Tagged From gambit | Leave a Comment »
If people are going to play anti-chess openings, they deserve everything they get.
M. Wickert – M.Adams Islington 1992
1. d4 Nf6
2. Bg5 Ne4
3. Bf4 c5
4. d5 Qb6
5. Nd2 Qxb2
6. Ngf3?? (If Nxe4 then Qxb4+) Nc3
7. Nc4?? Nxd1
0-1
This is how you play the Trompowsky, Michael Adams beats Kasparov!
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Tolush, Spassky’s old trainer, was a colourful figure over the board and won many brilliancy prizes in his day. Unfortunately, there were times where he was gung-ho to the point where you wonder whether he deserved the title he had. Here is one game where he fails in spectacular fashion it is, apparently, one of Khalifman’s favourite games: 14th Soviet Championships, Moscow
Tolush – Bondarevsky Boleslavsky (Cafferty’s mistake not mine)
1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5
The Trompowsky played in the 40s!
2. …c5
3. dxc5 Ne4
4. Bf4 Nc6
5. Qd5
I don’t play the Trompowsky but this looks far too cavalier to me. Some kingside development is surely in order here rather than the move actually played.
5. … f5 6. Qxf5
Again this doesn’t seem right. White must now attend to his queen before developing.
6. … d5
7. Qh5+ g6
8. Qh4 Nd4
Note that half of white’s moves have been with his queen, which is danger of having no good squares left if black is allowed to play Nf5 on his next move.
9. Be5 Nxc2
I think we can say that the opening hasn’t been a great success for white.
10. Kd1 Nxa1
11. Bxh8 Qa5 
12. Nc3 Nxc3+
13. Bxc3 Qxa2
14. e3 Qxb1+
An extraordinary position. How does white get into such a mess within 15 moves? By ignoring just about every opening principle that exists, that’s how.
15. Ke2 d4 Black opens up the position. 
16. Qxd4 Bd7 Black prepares to castle.
17. Qb4? Hard to understand. Boleslavsky thought Nh3 was better
17. … O-O-O
18. f4 Nc2
19. Qa5 Qc1 
20. Bd4 Nxd4
21. exd4 Qxb2
Still no kingside development!
22. Kf3 Qxd4
23. Ne2 Bc6+
24. Kg4 h5+
25. Kh4 Qf6+
26. Kg3 e5
1 – 0
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Tigran Petrosian, who as we all know went on to become world champion, made a rather nervous start at the Soviet Championships in his debut game. At the 18th Championships in Moscow, 10th November to 12th December 1950, the meekest of all tigers came up against Kotov in the first round.
Here is the game: Kotov – Petrosian
1. d4 d5
2. c4 e6
3. Nc3 Nf6
4. cxd5 exd5
5. Bg5 Be7
6. e3 c6
7. Qc2 Ne4?
9. Bxe7 Qxe7? The king had to capture.
10. Nxd5
Courtesy of his previous move, black is already lost but he plays on.
10. …cxd5
11. Qxc8+
The whole point. The unguarded bishop is now lost.
11. …Qd8
12. Bb5+ Nc6
13. Bxc6
13. …bxc6
14. Qxc6 Resigns.
Two pawns down and with an uncastled king, black resigns. Not quite what you would expect from a future world champion.
A picture of a distraught Petrosian taken just after the game.
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Play chess of course! What else? A local player tells of how he passed the time whilst unfree.
Bedfordshire Times and Standard, 6th October 1944
Any thoughts on who it may be? Ukranian V.Maluga perhaps?
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 | Tagged Concentration camp chess | 1 Comment »
The following diagrams are from Tolush against Ilivitsky in the 1948 Championship held in Moscow. We pick up play from move 21.
21. Rad1 Rad8?? (worse is yet to come)
Black copies white but for what reason? To pin his own bishop? His position is not good even though he has some standing in the center. There are too many holes in his position and the king is not secure. Better was 21…h5 after which Rg4 threatens to remove the queen from its dangerous diagonal.
White naturally plays 22. Nd5.
According to Cafferty (The Soviet Championships Cafferty & Taimanov, Cadogan, pg. 62)
‘Black sees that 22…exd5 23. exd5 threatens both 24. Rfe1 and 24. Rxd4; he decides to guard against 23 Rxd4 and then Nf6+’
22. Rg6?? As Wittgenstein once noted, we fail to see what is right in front of our eyes.
23. Qe7 ++
Here is the game for those in disbelief.
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Chess can be described as the movement of pieces eating one another
Marcel Duchamp
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A side note on how to read old Tom Sweby's columns
Not perhaps, but quintessentially, Old Tom Sweby is best thought of as a passionate devotee to the newspapers he wrote for. He was well read and knowledgeable of the Bedfordshire chess scene and well beyond, given that he was the president of the S.C.C.U. once upon a time. He was generally well-respected and rubbed shoulders with many, if not all, of those eminent within British chess circles. It would, however, be a critical mistake to see his column is primary source material entirely. That it is not. You will also find secondary source material quoted too, and the reliability of that is not quite as Tom hoped. Given that he wrote for decades, this is to some degree inevitable, and after all we are all prone to error whether we realize it or not. Thankfully, with regards to old Tom Sweby, they are infrequent and for the most part old Tom continued to document events and developments in the Bedfordshire league from the get go as best he could but, of course, everything lies open to interpretation. Despite this, and generally speaking. this does indeed make him informative and thus worth reading. Dare I say his columns constitute a narrative describing the latest developments, match reports and changing nature of the Beds league...he knew his audience and wrote according. This manifested itself over decades but brevity was always in play courtesy of the restictions imposed by writing a column. Should you wish to read a in instrumental figure of the Beds' league post WW2, you are quite welcome to peruse what has been posted here... . :-) I should, however, point out that as the decades wore on he gradually moved on away from narratives concerning the Bedfordshire league towards affairs both historical and international. The reasons for this are multifarous, old age was a predominante factor presumably, however, the bottom line is with regards to how the Bedfordshire chess scene developed post WW2: old Tom Sweby is your go to guy. He wrote more about chess in Bedforshire than anyone else did but given he was a Lutonian and writing for a Luton newspaper there is both bias and greater coverage of his hometown than the rest of the county.
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