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 1940-2000 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 features some games played “Blindfold”. The general public had something of a fascination with this concept in past times along the lines of how it was even possible for players to play a game without sight of the board. This does indeed raise some serious questions of how a player analyses and visualises the position some moves ahead even during a game with sight of the board and pieces.

Two games are presented from a match played in Stuttgart in 1909 between two legends of the game. The first is Jacque Mieses, one of the first FIDE Grandmasters. A very strong player for decades scoring high places in several very strong Internationals. He continued to play well even at an advanced age. The other is Carl Schlechter who drew a World Championship match with Emmanual Lasker just a year after this Blindfold Match.

The two games are analysed in detail and are of a remarkably high standard. For reasons that cannot readily be explained Mieses was by far the better player at this form of chess and won the match convincingly even though he had at that time never beaten Schlechter when both players had sight of the board.

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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 (April 19).

1. Yet more dramatic events have taken place over the last few weeks in the Leamington League Division 1. Kenilworth A demolish several teams to catch up with Banbury A as joint leaders and have a much better game score. All now rest on the last match for both teams. Kenilworth B sadly were crushed by Banbury A but recovered to beat Olton A , despite being one player short due to a car incident, so confirm third place in this strong team event.

In Division 2 the Kenilworth C team are 2 points ahead of Shirley B with one match left to play. Hence Kenilworth may well end up with 3 teams in the top Division.

The final of the Coventry Chess League KO Cup between Kenilworth and Rugby was to put it mildly a disaster for the former club. Although winning by 2.5 to 1.5 points the final was lost by a fraction of a point due to the handicap in favour of Rugby. Three of the Kenilworth players massively outgraded their opponents but somehow completely forgot how to play at all on the evening.

Full details of these and other Kenilworth matches, plus some well-chosen music clips, can be found at the Kenilworth Chess Club Web Site: kenilworthchess.blogspot.com

2. Ben Graff’s latest article in the magazine CHESS for March 2025 is a well-researched and interesting piece on the London Coffee House Chess Scene of times gone-by. Surprisingly it was not just still famous chess players who attended these venues but also important politicians and writers

Copies, in paper or pdf format, of these and Ben’s numerous earlier articles in this magazine may be obtained from chess.co.uk.

3. Ben Graff had one of his best ever results in finishing first equal in the recent combined Open and U-1900 Swindon tournament.

Local Players (April 19).

Keith Escott Memorial Correspondence Event.

After a long delay the ICCF have completed organisation of a Correspondence Chess Event in Keith’s Memory and play is proceeding at pace.

This comprises no less than 17 titled players (LGM, IM or CCM) and results are coming in rapidly.

Leaders have suddenly changed in a competition where a win, rather than a draw, makes a disproportionately larger difference in a player’s score table position. CCM Rozanski and CCM Gunn are currently leading with 7/15. However, there are many players with numerous games left to complete and are just 0.5 or a point behind. Surprisingly IM Groot has lost a game with an amazing clerical error.

Peter Gibbs Memorial Correspondence Events

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).

The English Federation for Correspondence Chess (EFCC) has under the auspices of the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) organised two 15 player events in memory of Peter. These started on May 1^st, 2024, and features players from a wide range of countries and includes 9 Correspondence Chess Experts.

Section A- CCM Campani wins with the excellent score of 10/14 including many wins and no losses. CCE Spanton finishes second on 9.5. There is one game left to complete in this event but it does not affect the leading scores

Section B- Lopez is leading with a score of 9.5/14.and Hall is in second with 9 points. There are several games left to complete by other players but only by winning all remaining games can Quirk influence these places.

International Correspondence Chess Federation (April 19)

Correspondence Chess unfortunately seems to be catching up with over-the board chess is the appearance of major disputes. One was reported on this web site some months ago. Currently there is another about “A speculative Editorial” published by a well-known magazine. More details can be found at https://www.iccf.com/message?message=1745

The British Chess Problem Society and WFCC (March 28).

Following several posts on this site regarding the effectively evolving BCPS web site, a fine example of what can be achieved for Chess on the Internet (https://www.theproblemist.org), I have sadly to report the recent passing of Barry Barnes one of the Titans of the British Chess Problem scene.

Barry created numerous outstanding examples of the art of chess composition and authored some of the classic books on the subject, either individually or jointly with other world-famous problemists. Examples, which I still possess, are several books on Comins Mansfield, A.R.Gooderson-An English Progressive, and one of the best of all time-The Two move Chess Problem (jointly with John Rice and Michael Lipton).

Apart from kind tributes on the BCPS site a more detailed personal tribute, by its President, can be found on the WFCC web site at https://wfcc.ch/barry-peter-barnes-rip/

Next main update due on or about May 25 2025.

(minor updates may occur during each month)