McCreadyandChess

Before the motorization of vehicles, there is evidence that matches were played at mutually agreed venues, halving journey times. We find William Ward, future champion of London, playing for Luton in such an arranged match. Please see the reportage below.

This is quite an important find as it helps us pinpoint when William Ward left Luton for London. Not before Feb. 18th 1897 then but before November 1898. Why was St. Albans chosen? It is important to note that at the tail end of the industrial revolution when rail was made available, most matches were between cities and towns who were connected by it. At the time of the match it was possible to travel to St. Albans by train from both Luton and Watford. As the links below show you trains were up and running from 1868 and 1858 respectively.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_Line

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_railway_station

William Ward has been written about numerous times in this blog. The best post is, I think this. https://mccreadyandchess.co.uk/2016/02/12/our-clash-of-future-champions/

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Wednesday December 31st 1986, The Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle

Thursday, November 27th 1986, The Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle

Thursday, November 6th, 1986, The Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle

Thursday, October 16th 1986, The Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle

Thursday, September 25th 1986, The Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle

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Back in the 2000/2001 season, Bedford proved they are the best in the land. They beat the more fancied Wood Green in the final of the National Club Championships, with the Ledger brothers in fine form. This is of course before the 4NCL took shape. Details can be found here: https://sccu-chess.com/archive/0001/nc.htm

In addition, I am once again indebted to Mr. Paul Habershon, long standing member of Bedford Chess Club for his first hand account of the match. The text below is his response to my query.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the only instance of a club from the Bedfordshire league becoming national champions.

Mark. J. McCready

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Once again, archivist, English chess supremo, and dedicated admirer of our online proletariat John Saunders has done a fine job by placing the 1979 Lloyds Bank Masters on line for all and sundry to wonder over.

https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/197908lloyds-viewer.html

My fellow Bedfordshire county team mates, for our purposes this tournament signifies our top end strength well. Participating for Bedfordshire we have:

50th James Plaskett of Bedford (2410) [still untitled, classified as a junior]

63rd Michael MacDonald-Ross of Milton Keynes (2265)

79th Colin. P. Garwood of Dunstabubble (No FIDE rating, est. 2200 classified as a junior)

Something of a discrepancy? (See below)

Did Colin. P. Garwood play in the main event and a junior tournament?

Quick trivia question: The venue was the hotel Ivanhoe. Ivanhoe is the name of a novel by which author?

Another quick trivia Q: James Plaskett achieved his first ever norm, what norm was it?

MJM

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…history as a constantly moving process, with the historian moving within it…

E. G. Carr – What is history? p. 153

Within the chess world, to compare players of different generations and eras is treated with suspicion, thus deemed inadvisable and ill-judged. This is not the time nor the place to delve into the very great many reasons why. It is not my intention to do so here, however, I do wish to draw attention to the point that the tendency to evaluate players purely in terms of their rating and title can be broadened oh-so-slightly.

I have recently posted regarding the strongest players to have played chess within Bedfordshire, on a number of occasions, and thought that it may be of interest to readers who are more interested in their world rankings, with questions such as ‘Who across time achieved the highest world ranking ever?’. Generally, I am reluctant go down this path for a number of reasons, primarily because I believe narrative should remain synchronic, however, I have done it anyway. I have added sufficient information so that mistakes regarding interpretation cannot be made so easily.

Number 1 – William Ward

Recorded playing in Bedfordshire 1896.

Highest ever world ranking 56 *Classified as unofficial as FIDE did not exist then (historically estimated).

Year 1904¹

Rating 2418

Number 2 – GM Sergio Mariotti

Recorded playing in Bedfordshire 1970/71 (IM at the time not GM)

Highest ever world ranking 90

Year 1975²

Rating 2495

Number 3 – GM James Plaskett

Recorded playing in Bedfordshire 73-80 (approx.) (untitled until 1981)

Highest ever world ranking 100

Year 1985

Rating 2495

So there you have it, if you want to know who played in Bedfordshire and gained the highest ever world ranking, now you know.

The craving for an interpretation of history is so deep-rooted that, unless we have a constructive outlook over the past, we are drawn either to mysticism or to cynicism.

F. Powicke, Modern Historians and the Study of History (1955) p. 174

Mark. J. McCready

1. http://www.edochess.ca/years/y1904.html ↩︎
2. https://fidelists.blogspot.com/2008/10/january-1975-fide-rating-list.html ↩︎

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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.

1. https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2280253 ↩︎

MJM

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“The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.”

F. Nietzsche

One day in the distant future, the times we live in will most likely be described historically as part of the 4th revolution, or the digital revolution, which shapes how we gain and store information, amongst many other things.

Even me the academic that once was, concedes we do things differently now to when I was young. Through social media and ‘chat’ I have acquired knowledge which in itself can be placed into a narrative for further discourse on the history of Bedfordshire chess -something very close to my heart.

My very own research has revealed that Dennis Victor Mardle was the first from Bedfordshire to represent England but was he the only one to do so? I contacted GM James Plaskett on facebook, this is what I sent via Messenger.

The reply James gave me was as follows:

CIR Benedict, 1979

Telex match Vs Iceland, 1981

Lucerne World Team Championship, 1985

GM Plaskett was, then, the second from Bedfordshire to represent his country, however, there is a difference. Dennis, the first, played for England in England in a national match once only whereas James, the second, represented England abroad in an international tournament, helping England to achieve the Bronze medal ¹ upon his third appearance. With certainty we can say that GM Plaskett’s representation of his country is, therefore, of greater significance for our purposes. His games are documented, notably his victories for England can be found here ² and here ³, and the tournament as a whole here ⁴.

Interestingly, James won both games with the Benko Gambit, the games are quite interesting.

Should this not be enough to persuade you of my claims, I shall add also that as a senior, GM Plaskett went on to represent England 6 more times!

Dresden 3 times

Rhodes 1 time

Vilnius 1 time

Crete 1 time

Unfortunately, locating game information is proving tricky. I shall add when I find it… .

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Team_Chess_Championship ↩︎
2. https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1429344 ↩︎
3. https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1615441 ↩︎
4. https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=90335 ↩︎

Mark. J. McCready, 00.05 Saturday March 16th, Al-Fursan, Dammam, KSA

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