First Rank Volume 2

First Rank Volume 2

Issue

Comments and Games (pgn) – Link: Game boards User Guide

Vol 2 – No 1 [of 8]

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Issue Date: October 1978

Herewith, front page, the anguish of losing the play-off to Upminster.

Also in this issue, evidence of our burgeoning Junior section, with mattches against Ilford Juniors and Newbury Park Primary School “Past and Present”. The origins of this lie in Roy Wagstaff having done coaching at Newbury Park PS and it was pupils from the school who became the Junior section of Wanstead & Woodford Chess Club. As referred to in Volume 1, we already had a Junior team in the Essex League. And a treat to look out for, some games of David Wood, which include a rare sequence of three consecutive moves giving double check.

Vol 2 – No 2 [of 8]

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Issue Date: November 1978

Reproducing the magazine on the website is now a little easier as players’ grades were given from this issue onwards, meaning it is now not necessary to look them up and over-write the copy.

Bit of a Noah’s Ark issue this: a pair of matches against Essex Clubs who are no longer with us, a pair of London League matches and a pair of games. And a faux pas in the Editorial, about the treatment of Junior grades – corrected in the next issue.

Vol 2 – No 3 [of 8]

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Issue Date: January 1979

A point of interest in this issue: an Essex Knockout match in November? And only one game? This was the previous incarnation of the KO, when it was played as a standard play tournament, running throught the winter season.

At the bottom of page 4 there is a puzzle. I can’t locate having given the answer to this puzzle in any later issues and there is no mention of it in my First Rank binder. If anyone manages to come up with a solution, please let me know!

The diagram at the bottom of page five intrigues me. I have a rubber stamp implement that produces chess pieces, but rubber stamping the page wouldn’t work here, as the spirit duplicator process needs an original created by a carbon paper imprint, such as the impact pressure from the typewriter keyes. I must have stamped the diagram, then drawn over the pieces to create the impression for duplication!

Vol 2 – No 4 [of 8]

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Issue Date: February 1979

The solution to the puzzle in FR Vol 2 Issue 3

Answer: y-x.

In a knockout the number of games played is always one less than the number of entrants, as everbody apart from the overall winner loses just one game. In this puzzle there are x winners (one per school), who don’t lose ever, the remaining y-x entrants each lose just once, hence this is the total number of games played.

Thank you to Nigel White, whose answer is quoted verbatim above.

This issue gives my win over Gerry Hayes in the days when Gerry played for Ilford – before he joined Wanstead. I have stopped short of reproducing all the notes in the pgn version (see game board below) because I found quite a lot of it does not stand up to inspection by the analysis engine. I have instead inserted modern analysis in the game board and pgn version. Of course, in the days of First Rank, we had no computer analysis, we had to do all the work in our heads! However, as the online version is not limited for space, I have given the start of the game as well (with one note). It’s not a great game, but was a tough struggle over two sessions, with a cruel finish.

One correction in the table for the Ilford match (page 1): the date of the match was 20 December 1978 (not 1979 as given – not sure I’ve spotted that typo before, or it would have been inked over).

It’s worth noting the London League playing conditions in those days: the time control was 30 moves in 90 minutes, repeating. No Quickplay Finish, so games unfinished at session 1 adjourned and resumed on a later date. However, either player was entitled to request adjudication after 60 moves (i.e. two full sessions). Some years later, adjudication was abolished and games had to be played to a finish, however many sessions that took, until QPFs were employed.

There is also further reference to the Drunken Knights’ habit of turning up late – this was before they played at their own venue. This behaviour was designed so that they always lost the toss (by default) and therefore knew that they would be Black on odds and therefore each player knew which colour they would be (the side winning the toss was always White on odds). Eventually, the League caught up with this ploy and introduced what might be termed the “Drunken Knights amendment”, which provided that the side winning the toss had choice of colours.

Vol 2 – No 5 [of 8]

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Issue Date: March 1979

In the Brentwood match on P1, cast your eyes down the Brentwood list to K Bowden 138J. This is Karl Bowden, who was to become a very strong player, perhaps adding 100 points to his ECF grade – in 1995 Karl was graded 233, with a FIDE rating of 2348 – but no longer plays.

And in the Old Parkonians match on P2, you will find in the Old Parks list, J Rosenberg; the very same. Old Parkonians was the Old Boys Club of Ilford County High School and Joe was an Old Parkonian before he joined Roding & Loughton when Old Parks ceased to enter a team. Joe then moved to Wanstead when the Essex League rules meant a guillotine finish; our Club Championship was and still is, the only chess Joe can get where he has the option of standard play to a finish with no guillotine time control or other type of hurry up. In that same list, you will find Ivor Smith (now of Writtle) with a grade of 194.

Vol 2 – No 6 [of 8]

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Issue Date: April 1979

Vol 2 – No 7 [of 8]

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Issue Date: mid-May 1979

This issue features our second trip to Hastings from which we again returned empty-handed.

An issue with only one game.

Vol 2 – No 8 [of 8]

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Issue Date: August 1979

Photocopying! A breakthrough with this issue, giving the elbow to the spirit duplicator. I believe I reached an accommodation with the print room at work. The magazine was still produced on a typewriter, but with the typescript photocopied.

This was the last issue of Volume 2, dealing with the end of the 1979-80 Season, with a report on the Club Championship, won by Alan Potter, and the last few match reports. Look out also for the first of an occasional series: “Historic Match Scores” which was a handle on which to hang our first match win over Ilford (1972). The 1979-80 player statistics were added as a supplement.