Chess Pages of Mike Donnelly

12. NEW AND SECOND- HAND CHESS BOOKS Tony Peterson. Specialist in rare and second-hand chess books and magazines. Very large stock. Contact details.

IM Sergey Bystrov. Specialist in a wide range of Russian books plus some non-Russian books. Now offering a greater range. Contact details.

Hello!

I little bit about myself: I live in the historic town of Kenilworth (close to the medieval castle) in Warwickshire, England. I have just retired (this time certainly!), after several years as a Scientific/Technical and Regulatory Advisor, from full time work as a Technical Manager at a biotechnology company that manufactures hydrogels for wound-care, monitoring electrodes, and cosmetic applications. Previously I was a research scientist working in a diverse number of scientific areas (science publications, committees, science journal refereeing etc). In my spare time I enjoy chess, the history and culture of the Ancient Greeks and their Modern counterparts, various types of music, and until recently Wing Tsun Martial Art (achieving grade 11).

Over a decade ago I shifted from playing over-the-board (o.t.b) chess as well as correspondence chess to playing only correspondence chess (peak average rating 2492, final average rating of 2454 (ICCF rating history 1993-2018). In 2016 I returned to some relatively regular o.t.b chess in local leagues currently playing at about 1900-2000 elo (a somewhat reduced level from that of a decade or more ago (approximately 2100 elo) and also from my highest many years ago of about 2275 (grading history). After some 25 years of playing National and International level Correspondence Chess I completed my last few games at the end of 2018, annotated these games in detail for presentation in correspondence magazines in early to mid-2019, and now just play o.t.b chess.

I will attempt to offer a wide range of chess material on this site including game and opening based articles, games for downloading from famous players I have known or competed against, chess problems and some current and past results. This will include both o.t.b and correspondence play. A major part of the web site is the presentation of annotated games in the "Monthly Articles" section of the site. Often these include annotations by players other than myself.

In addition to more advanced articles, I will also occasionally provide articles for beginners to mid-club strength of player also on a very wide range of chess topics.

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MONTHLY ARTICLES SUMMARIES (section 1 of web site) *

This month a supplement is presented to the second article in the series entitled “Focus on Post WW2 Events” which was published on this web site back in August-September 2016. This article featured two interesting games from the book “The Czechs in Britain” which covered two team matches which took place in 1947. Having now played over all the games in this book an additional two annotated games are presented this month.

(footnote: This book was obtained by me second-hand from somewhere in the distant past, but the original (unknown) owner obtained it from Brian Eley &Co in Rotherham. Brian was a brilliant player who won the British Championship at a young age but had to leave the country under something of a cloud. If you are out there somewhere Brian, I still recall watching, and our conversion before and after, your dramatic early 1970s win against Jonathan Penrose (the later won the British Championship multiple times and was the strongest British player for several decades-his win against Mikhail Tal is one of the most famous games.).

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All material for downloading from this site is zipped. Use WinZip, or similar, to extract. Monthly articles are in .pgn format (from May 2000, previously in .txt format) whilst games for downloading are in .pgn format (or .cbv occasionally).

Contributions (preferably one or two annotated games), suggestions for articles and comments to improve this site are welcome: mail me!

	SCCA Magazine
	The SCCA magazine is published quarterly and consists of 24xA4 pages packed with correspondence chess news, articles, reviews and games.
	SCCA members receive the magazine as part of their annual subscription (£8). This entitles them to download pdf files (the e-mags) from a secure area of the SCCA website.
	If you prefer to receive a printed copy of the magazine, an extra £5 per annum covers print costs and UK postage and you get the four issues mailed directly to you.
	The SCCA magazine is unbeatable value! You can try a complimentary copy by contacting the membership secretary.

NEWS AND NOTICES *

Kenilworth Chess Club (KCC) Individuals and Teams (September 25).

1. In the first few games of the new season Kenilworth A team had uncharacteristic shaky performances. Nevertheless an (eventually) comfortable win was achieved again Kenilworth B which reversed a shock defeat by this team last season. Both the A and B teams then just then obtained a draw again rivals Banbury A and Shirley A. The latter match featuring a very curious illegal move incident.

More details on the above evens as well as updates on KCC matters, can be found at http://kenilworthchess.blogspot.com

2. Ben Graff returns to writing for the well-known magazine CHESS this time describing a meeting with the legendary American (originally Syrian) GM Yasser Seirawan entitled “A Life in Chess”. This GM, previously a World Junior Champion and 4-times winner of the USA Championship, is now an important and well-known commentator at Saint Louis (and other) chess events.

(My article “Don’t Like Licking Stamps” which featured two annotated games showing two strong recent over-the-board British Champions being bested when facing Correspondence Chess specialists appeared last month in CHESS).

This article, and Ben Graff’s numerous and very readable articles on a wide range of topics, may be obtained in paper or electronic format via http://chess.co.uk

After months of speculations the venue of the new Chess and Bridge shop, the publisher of CHESS, has been disclosed as at Great Portland Street London and was opened a few days ago.

Local Players (September 25/August 24).

(a) Bruce Baer (KCC) finished 3-4^th in the Leamington Open; David Cebella Ruiz (Warwick University) finished 2-3^rd in the Milton Keynes Rapid; Mark Page (KCC) finished in a share of 2-8^th place in the English Seniors, and David Ireland (KCC and Coventry) won the U-2000 PM event at the English Championships.

(b) Keith Escott Memorial Correspondence Event.

The event has just been completed. CCM K. E. Jones wins with 9.5 points and second is CCM S. Hooker on 9 points both players securing an SIM (Senior International Master) norm-in the latter case another norm and hence SIM title has been obtained and confirmed by the ICCF. Untitled M. Bowley, CCM M. Schirmer, CCM J. Smith, CCE R.C. Rosales, and CCM R. Rozanski, in equal third all scored 8.5 points and an IM norm.

The one remaining game mentioned last month has now been completed to conclude this event. With an impressive win in a long game LGM Williamson defeats CCM Graham to share 7^th place.

Keith Escott was the Captain of the Warwickshire Correspondence chess team which won the prestigious Ward-Higgs event several times, editor of the famous magazine CHESS and did much for both otb and correspondence chess locally and nationally. It is pleasing that this Memorial, contrary to many other recent events, had a number of decisive games and that several players have achieved title norms.

Some details of Peter’s enormous impact on both over-the-board and Correspondence Chess are detailed in the Recent Archive section of this web site (Section 2-article for August-September 2023 inclusive of two annotated games). All games have now been completed in both sections with the following results

Section A- CCM P. Campani wins with the excellent score of 10/14 including many wins and no losses. CCE T. Spanton finishes second on 9.5. The section was suddenly ended and slightly marred by Fajardo and Swindells exceeding the time limit in many games.

Section B- H. Lopez is confirmed as winner with a score of 9.5/14 and J. Hall as runner-up on 9 points. M. Quirk (who won the last game to finish) and J. M. Verneulen finish in third equal on 8.5 points.

International Correspondence Chess Federation (September 25).

The ICCF has just announced that no less than three Memorial Events will all commence shortly. These are for

IM Andrew Dearnley who made a huge contribution to the organising of Correspondence Chess and was a frequent “teammate” in some event I also played in. Players participating include one Senior International Master and remarkably ten International Masters.

LGM Toni Halliwell. We played just once many years when we both commenced an interest in this form of chess, but Toni later went on to several fine achievements: International Master, Ladies International, Ladies Grandmaster, International Arbiter, and also a level 2 Tournament Director.

IM Chris Shepherd. As well as being a strong Correspondence player with ratings above 2500 for about 20 years from 1990, Chris was also a good otb player taking part in local Brimingham and Warwickshire individual and team events with some notable successes.

Entrant to this remarkably strong event include one Grandmaster, six Senior International Masters, seven International Master. and a single highly rated CCM. This web site will focus mainly on results from this event.

Current positions in the Chris Shepherd Memorial are IM Preusser on 4 points followed by CCM Bonsack and IM Adams both on 3 points. One noteworthy early result was SIM Horodyskyi drawing with IM Lockwood-Gavin was 3 pawns down for much of the game!

This web site (September 25/August 24)

(a) Sadly, the handful of visitors from Ukraine that have taken the trouble to recently visit this web site have again disappeared over last few weeks. In contrast substantial numbers of visitors from France, Brazil, and China take the total number if visitors in a month to a five year high.

(b) Some minor details have been updated in the last week or so such as Kenilworth Team results in local leagues, the list of articles published elsewhere than this web site, and the list of my published games in the “My Stuff” section.

British Chess Problem Society (BCPS) (Septemebr 25)

The Society has organised a Memorial tournament for IM Barry Barnes who edited the Problemist magazine for an impressive 38 years. Entrants need to compose a Direct mate in 2 moves a field of composition which was a forte of Barry for many years and for which he won many prizes. The deadline for entries is now set at 31 December 2026.

The web site of the Problemist continues to be updated and now back issues of the magazine, even up until quite recently, can be viewed online as well as increasing numbers of past awards problems.

Next main update due on or about October 25 2026.

(minor updates may occur during each month)