BDCL History

PERSONALITIES OF THE LEAGUE

A.J. Mackenzie 1871-1949

Arthur John Mackenzie's connection with local chess began as match secretary to the Birmingham St. George's chess club in the early 1890s. By the end of the decade, he had helped to form the Warwickshire Chess Association, the Birmingham and District Chess League, the Midland Counties Chess Association (1897) and the British Chess Federation in 1904. There is a slight mystery in this last item as, The Birmingham Daily Post of 1858 refers to a meeting of the British Chess Association in the Queen's Building in Paradise Street. One wonders what the difference is between a Federation and an Association. He was the first columnist of Birmingham's Daily Post from 6th October 1896 and it is interesting to note that during the first 100 years of the League there had been only 3 columnists. B.H.Wood took over some time after 1936 and Peter Gibbs has run the column since February 1967. Three times the Scottish Champion, A.J.Mackenzie was the first Warwickshire Champion in 1931 finishing ahead of W.R.Morry. Mackenzie played on board one for Warwickshire and continued to do so after 1931 when he left Birmingham to live in St Leonards on Sea, near Hastings. He played chess in Birmingham for the Birmingham Chess Club, St George's, Municipal Officers and Handsworth.

C.S. Kipping 1891-64

Cyril Stanley Kipping was the Head Master at Wednesbury High School and was a leading problem composer. Over 6000 of these were published, Most of them being three movers. He was the problemist for "Chess Sutton Coldfield Ltd", "Chess Amateur" and L, Echiquier". His name has been honoured by being attached to two clubs Wolverhampton Kipping and Walsall Kipping.

C.H.O'D Alexander 1909-74

Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander was a pupil at King Edwards Grammar School in the days when it was in New Street. Whilst there, he won the British Boys Championship in 1926 and later in 1938 and 1956 The British Championship. He became an International Master in 1950 and played a number of times in the International Team Tournaments between 1933 and 1954 and subsequently took on the role of non-playing Captain. It is interesting to note that he was followed by David Anderton who also became The Chief Executive of the BCF. Alexander played some chess for the Erdington Club during his time in Birmingham. Following a successful career over the board he took to correspondence chess and gained an IM title for this as well. During the war, he was one of three men who cracked the German Enigma code.

W.A. Fairhurst 1903-82

William Albert Fairhurst played for Wolverhampton chess club for a number of seasons prior to 1930 following which he went to live in Scotland where he won the Scottish Championship eleven times. His ability can best be gauged by his drawn 6 game match with Eliskases, his triumph in winning a strong British Championship in 1937 and taking the Commonwealth Championship in 1951. He became an International Master in 1952 and played in 6 Olympiads for Scotland and one for New Zealand

B.H. Wood 1912-90 and W. Ritson-Morry 1912-93

Baruch H. Wood and William Ritson-Morry were at school together in North Wales and played a lot of chess against each other. B.H. went on to Bangor University to read Chemistry and Ritson joined a legal practice. They then met up again when B.H. came to University Birmingham and was a contemporary of the late Dr. L.K. Ingram the father of K.R. Ingram. Ritson became a Solicitor and had a local government post with Sutton Council. B.H. joined a manufacturing company involved with Chemicals. B.H. found time to organise the seaside congresses and in1935 founded his magazine “Chess”. In addition to the magazine the business sold Chess sets, score sheets, chess clocks and chess books, all this whilst still doing the day job. In 1937 YMCA Sutton Coldfield Chess Club joined the BDCL with B.H. the Club Secretary. Ritson produced chess articles and annotations for games and in 1939 when the company Jaques sued 'Chess' magazine for describing their chess sets as ' Genuine Staunton' it was Ritson who fought the case. Initially lost but won on appeal. When World War 2 came along B.H. was deemed to be in a preserved Chemicals occupation. Ritson had been identified with a weak heart during his childhood. Chess was still going on around the world in such places as USA, Argentina and Germany! Although there was no League some friendly matches still took place in 1942 'Chess' magazine volume 8 for December (page 34) in a section News from Everywhere the following from B.H. Wood. "Excellent work by Mr and Mrs Ritson Morry has brought a Sutton Coldfield Chess Club into being with 30 members after ten days. The club room is in the Masonic Buildings, next door to the "Chess" offices, the whole atmosphere just round there simply reeks of chess” (Ritson was on the BDCL Management committee) the magazine therefore carried on and a good relationship continued. Apart from their considerable contribution to the League from the 1930s onwards, they were an influence in Warwickshire, the Midlands, Nationally and Internationally. Ritson founded the Birmingham Junior League and organised the first World Junior Championship in 1951. He organised the Birmingham Easter Congress for decades, but his real love was the Hastings International Congress of which he was for years Congress Director. Both were F.I.D.E.Arbiters, Ritson being the longest serving Arbiter at the time of his death. As players both represented England (B.H. in the 1939 Olympiad), both were runners-up in the British Championship and were British Postal Champions. Their styles were different. B.H. played trappy openings and relied on sharp tactics, whilst Ritson played quieter openings, relied on the principles of Nimzovich in the middle game and was especially good at end games. B.H. was the force behind the Sutton Coldfield Division 1 side and Ritson the Erdington Division 1 side before moving on to Mutual Circle after Erdington folded. They would not have liked being remembered together following a rift between the players in 1954 over a slanderous remark, but to the BDCL they were both a credit to our League.

A.J. Miles 1955-2001

One of Birmingham's strongest players Anthony J Miles, like C.H.O'D Alexander, attended King Edward's School. Tony played for Birmingham Chess Club he won the Division 1 Individual Title in 1970 and was in Birmingham's 1973 Division 1 Championship team and represented England on top board at the Olympiads. In 1974, the 18-year-old Miles became the first and only Briton to win the world junior chess championship, a notoriously demanding tournament. Two years later, after further international successes, he won the £5,000 prize offered by Jim Slater, the financier, for the first Briton to become a chess grandmaster. By 1980, he was one of the world's top 10 players. Miles's play became even more formidable, if occasionally eccentric, among the players he defeated were former world champions Mikhail Tal, Boris Spassky, and Anatoly Karpov, becoming only the second Briton in the century to defeat a reigning world champion. It was a memorable confrontation. Miles opted for a bizarre self-invented opening that Karpov later described as an insult and that Miles later called the "Birmingham defence" after his home city. "It was typical Tony. He had no respect for Karpov. He didn't want to get involved with Karpov's immense technical knowledge of the game. Instead he got him involved in a street brawl and eventually outfought and outplayed him," said Ray Edwards, the chairman of the British Chess Magazine. He believed that the bigger they were, the harder they fell. Miles's ultimate ambition was, of course, the world championship, but he was never able to scale these heights. In 1982 Miles won the British Chess championship - a title that had hitherto eluded him - but the emergence of Garry Kasparov in the 1980s saw the eclipse of Miles's hopes: he never managed to defeat the genius from Baku. At the same time, another brilliant - and younger - British player, Nigel Short, displaced Miles as the number one player in this country. he continued to compete in tournaments. While he never recaptured the brilliance of his early years, Miles had some successes. Tony was found dead at his Harborne home aged 46. A post-mortem examination has revealed that he died from natural causes: a heart attack brought on by his diabetes, from which he had suffered.

J.A. Crump 1931-2005

If Tony was not part of your committee then you really didn't have one. Tony seemed to be on every committee, and once on it he stayed on it. Tony served his National Service "out east" and afterwards he went to Lucas's as a draughtsman and joined their Chess Club somewhere around 1953, his leadership qualities were soon realised and in 1955 he became the Club Secretary which he held continuously 50 years. In 1969/70 Tony was President of the BDCL and was already involved on several different committees. He became Chairman of the Lightning Tournament Committee in 1981/82 and ran it each subsequent year until spring 2005. Mike Biddle writes "I first met Tony in 1961 when he came to my school and recruited me, along with a few other pupils, to the Lucas Chess Club. Tony was my first captain in the BDCL where we played together in Division 6. Although I only stayed at Lucas for 3 seasons the experience that I gained was invaluable. I was able to benefit from his knowledge and experience as well as his good sense of fair play. I often gave him a lift to Rules committee meetings which we were both on, and when reminiscing about the past I found his memory to be wonderfully sharp, indeed far better than mine. Tony was a great servant to the League, I hope space can be found in the Roll of Honour for him; there is no more deserving candidate." Here are some of the roles and committees that Tony served on; Tournament Committee 1961-05; Match Committee 1963-05; Finance & General Purpose Committee 1969-05; Centenary Committee 1991-95; Morry-Wood Committee 1999-05; Publicity Committee 2000-05; Rapid Play Committee 2002-05; Individual Committee 2004-05; W.C.A. Representative 1970-93; Birmingham Easter Congress Representative 1982-93; Junior League Representative 1985-05; Staffordshire Whitsun Congress Representative 1985-05. Thank you, Tony.

Arthur Utton 1908-2007

Arthur E. Utton has died, at the age of 99. Although a competent player - he once drew a game with a visiting Master, possibly Eliskases - Arthur is best known, not for his chess, but for the great service he rendered the League over four decades. Arthur had not played competitively for many years, but was BDCL Treasurer from 1968 to 1983, and a League auditor from 1984 until the year of his death. Brian Whitehouse, Arthur's co-auditor, describes Arthur as "one of the old school" and reports that he took his BDCL responsibilities very seriously, determined never to "let anything get past him" that might cause harm or risk to the League's finances. Assiduous and risk-averse, Arthur was also good company, with many a story to tell. He continued to work professionally until the age of 94, only finally giving up work because, after a bout of pneumonia, he feared to "let down" his clients! Referring to this, Brian Whitehouse writes: "Typical Arthur and typical Arthur to have given so well and selflessly of his time and expertise to the League for so many years. On behalf of the League and myself; thank you Arthur; it was a privilege to have known you.

D. Rowe, 1948-2012

Dave Rowe. first appeared in the League Handbook in 1967 as winner of the League Individual for Division Five while playing for Warley Chess Club; he first became an official of any sort in 1974 when, unsurprisingly in view of his profession of accountancy, he became one of the League's auditors. A couple of years later he took over the critical role of Record Secretary, He held the post on that occasion for four seasons, which given the size of the league at the height of the Fischer-inspired boom in chess was an impressive achievement: In 1982 he became General Secretary a post he held for six years, In 1985 Dave still found time to win another Individual title this time in Division 3 then in 1988 it was back to the Record Secretary's job for seven more years. Twice more he was General Secretary when other candidates could not be found; if a job needed doing he would always give it a go. Dave had successfully qualified as a BCF arbiter and was heavily involved in the organisation and running of most of the local congresses, notably the Midland Open which he persuaded his club to take over as a franchise in the 1990s, and the Warwickshire Championships. At Club level Dave moved from Warley Quinborne to become the Secretary of the long running Birmingham Chess Club, a post he held until ill health took is life aged 64.

M.B.A. Walker 1938-2015

Mike Walker was another who would not let anyone down; many a mile was driven in order to chauffeur players to and from games in order to get a full team out. Many a club night he would brave the snow and frost to open the club room in case someone would turn up and many a wise word was given when the phone rang to ask for advice. My first encounter with Mike was playing at a congress where he had gone to see how a young club player was getting on, I casually mentioned in-between games I may be looking for a new club and before you could blink an eye he had my Name Address and Phone Number and then wished me luck in the next game. On arrival home a letter was through the door with all the facts and figures and club History should I wish to join? He had driven 15 miles out of his way at the drop of an hat to help the club. It was this overriding willingness to turn out even when unwell that perhaps contributed to his death of pneumonia aged 76. Mike had settled in Birmingham in 1968 taking the post of Mathematics lecturer at University Birmingham, after befriending W. Ritson Morry he Joined Mutual Circle and went on to become Chairman of the Rules Committee 1988-98; President 1995-96; Honorary General Secretary 2008-13; Mutual Circle Stalwart 33 years. I'm only Records Secretary because of Mike's enthusiasm rubbing off on me. Set them up Mike we'll all be along shortly... A.T. Woollaston.

David Anderton, CM; O.B.E. 1941-2022

David joined the Walsall Kipping (K.) chess club in 1982, having played previously for the Wolverhampton Kipping chess club, and then the Rock Kipping chess club*. He brought a national reputation with him. He had been honoured in 1977, ‘for services to chess. These had included the (non-playing) Captaincy of the English men’s team at International Chess Olympiads; and also, the provision of much legal advice to the British Chess Federation (BCF). Together these had brought him into contact with the cream of British chess players and this served him well later on. He was also a strong player himself and his presence no doubt assisted in attracting other strong players to the club. He only gradually took to participating in the club’s internal competitions though, but when he did so he regularly became Club Champion. However, after he had won it 7 times in succession, he very generously, and voluntarily, withdrew from entering, so as to give others the opportunity to shine. Nevertheless, he was a very competitive player and prepared for his league fixtures with meticulous care. Since David’s arrival, Walsall K. consistently maintained strong positions in both Divisions 1 of the BDCL and the WDCL; winning the Birmingham League Championship 5 times and the Wolverhampton Championship 3 times. However it was a measure of the man’s willingness to take a back seat, that it was only in 2002 that he finally became Captain of the Div. 1 team in the Birmingham League, and even later, in 2008, that he became Captain of the Div 1 team in the WDCL team. He was always particularly keen though on the club fighting for the title of Staffordshire Champion, via its Hickman Cup tournament; and in this he was very successful, the club winning it no less than 18 times between 1982 and 2019. As a Captain he was determined to make the most of the club’s talents. Consequently, he never failed to ensure, before agreeing fixture dates, that he knew exactly who would be available; and he expected a full commitment from his teams. In return, he consistently provided lifts to team members to matches; although this became an increasingly demanding task for him. David was also a great organizer, and his skills in this area were highlighted when the club decided to celebrate its 1992 Jubilee with a tournament. He willingly took on the task of organizer and managed to attract sufficient sponsorship locally so as to enable a major Chess Tournament to be played, at the Walsall Campus. The WALSALL KIPPING JUBILEE CHESS TOURNAMENT 1992 was played over the three days of the Easter weekend, and attracted entries from more than nine countries. The players included Alexei Suetin of Moscow, a leading Russian grandmaster (GM), six other GMs, and eleven international masters (IM). The winner was GM Murray Chandler from New Zealand. It was regarded as a great success. The national magazine CHESS described it at the time as 'the strongest ever weekend tournament on British soil', and recognized that the 'enticing conditions…' provided by David Anderton, chief organiser from the club, played a major part in this achievement. Bernard Cafferty (Birmingham Post) claimed that it ‘brought a collection of national chess talent to the West Midlands…’. It also attracted the attention of the BCF and it was at their request that David produced a leaflet ‘Note on the Organisation of the Walsall Kipping Jubilee Tournament’ for use by the BCF. David followed this up later by jointly organizing, along with Lawrence Cooper of Stafford, the STAFFORDSHIRE CENTENARY INTERNATIONAL CHESS TOURNAMENT 1997. It was hosted by the Walsall Kipping Chess Club at its premises, and was arranged as A Nine-Round Scheveningen Tournament in which the players are divided into two teams; and all the players in Team A play all those in Team B. It was the first International Chess tournament to be held in Staffordshire and recognized for international title purposes. It attracted an entry that included 3 GMs; 1 WGM (Jana Bellin); 6 IMs and 1WM. The two leading scorers were GM Bogdan Lalic and IM Jonathan Rowson. David was further involved in instigating and setting up a training scheme for juniors at The Joseph Leckie Community School in 1993. Professional help, in the shape of Robert Bellin, was provided through sponsorship and it attracted a substantial number of local children. Much progress and enthusiasm was generated, and it ran for three years. In turn this encouraged Ray Dolan, another club member, to eventually set up the currently very successful Bloxwich Junior Chess Academy, to carry on the good work. In the meantime, the Walsall K. club was involved in organizing an annual one-day Rapid play Congress. Again, David became instrumental in attracting sponsorship for it, and this enabled it to offer larger prizes and become a very attractive event. He became the organizer for it in 1999, and ran it till it finished in 2008. It regularly attracted players from all over the Midlands and sometimes further afield. In the meantime, David pursued his personal chess with much commitment. This might be exemplified by the following: -in 1959 he became the WDCL individual Champion by winning its premier individual tournament, the Rock Cup; and in 2009 he successfully repeated this achievement, 50 years later! Also, apart from his club and Staffs County matches he took part annually in National events too. He organized teams in the 4NCL league and participated in British events, achieving regular success- latterly in the Senior Championships. His achievements were too complex to cover in detail here; but they may be elsewhere. Here though is a brief list of some of them: -

WDCL Rock Cup winner 1959, 1960, 1962, 2009.

WDCL President 1967-9 (while at Wolverhampton Kipping)

Non-playing captain of the English men’s team Skopje Olympiad 1972 until Novi Sad Olympiad 1990 during which time the team won 3 silver and 2 bronze Olympiad medals.

Midland Champion 1979;

BCF President 1979-82;

BCF International Director 1982-1990; 2000-2002

BDCL President 1983-84

Administrator of World Championship in London in 1986

FIDE Executive Board member 1989-93.

Captain and Organizer of up to 3AD’s teams in 4NCL, from 1999 onwards

Correspondence IM (2000)

British Senior Champion 2005 and 2011; Joint British Senior Champion 2003, 2007, 2009

Former Staffordshire Chess Association President

He became Chairman of Walsall K. in 2010, and President in 2012, until he retired from OTB chess in 2020.

PERSONALITIES OF THE LEAGUE