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John Saunders

 

BritBase.info - British Chess Game Archive

BritBase Documents and PDFs

Last Edited: Friday February 9, 2024 8:21 AM

Below is a list of chess-related documents in PDF format, plus some external links, in connection with this and other chess games archive and reference projects. If you are able to help, please get in touch with me, John Saunders, via e-mail.
Document Notes
Yorkshire Evening Post Chess Columns, 1958-1964 A collection of chess columns written by Ronnie Ives for the Yorkshire Evening Post from 1958 until his untimely death in 1964.
1912-1970 Anglo-Dutch Match Records This seven-page PDF lists the full scores of the England/Britain vs Netherlands matches played between 1912 and 1970. I am very grateful to Jan Kersten for letting me have this meticulous record of one of the major events of the British (and Dutch) chess calendar in former times. It also records where the games of the match may be found. Added 16 January 2023.
1947 West of England (WECU) Chess Championship Tournament bulletin of the 1947 West of England Chess Championship, with all 28 games, some with annotations. Game Viewer (28 games).
1950 Universities Chess Annual - 1st issue, Nov 1950 23-page booklet published by the British Universities Chess Association (BUCA), covering the inaugural BUCA Congress at Cambridge in July 1950 and other university chess activities. Founded and co-edited by Geoffrey Donald Parbrook (1928-2013) and David John Youston (1931-2008). Game Viewer (92 games, from the four issues of University Chess Annual)
1951 Universities Chess Annual - 2nd issue, Nov 1951 Second issue of the annual booklet published by the British Universities Chess Association (BUCA). Co-edited by Roger John Tayler (1929-1997) and David John Youston (1931-2008). Game Viewer (92 games, from the four issues of University Chess Annual)
1952 Universities Chess Annual - 3rd issue, 1952/3 Third issue of the annual booklet published by the British Universities Chess Association (BUCA). Co-edited by (Edwin) Neville Hawkins (1931-2020) and David John Youston (1932-2008). Game Viewer (92 games, from the four issues of University Chess Annual)
1953 Universities Chess Annual - 4th issue, 1953/4 Fourth (and, I think, last) issue of the annual booklet published by the British Universities Chess Association (BUCA). Co-edited by Jeremy John Arthur Handley (1930-2016) and Lionel Robert Hart (1932-2007). Game Viewer (92 games, from the four issues of University Chess Annual)
1952 British Boys' Easter Chess Congress - Programme Four-page programme for the 1952 British Boys' Under-18 Championship, held at Hastings CC, 21-26 April, with lists of competitors, schedules, etc.
1952 Bolton Easter Congress 32-page tournament bulletin of the 1952 Bolton Easter Chess Congress (which would have fallen on the weekend of 11-14 April 1952), written and edited by Bernard Landon Wilkinson (1904-72). Wilkinson writes pithily about opening theory and it is interesting to compare his knowledge in this area with that of equivalent (2200 rated?) players today. Game Viewer (54 games)
1952/53 BCF Grading List The first BCF Grading List, as published in BCM, March 1954.
1954 British Chess Championship Bulletin The Special Congress Edition of the BCF Newsletter, September 1954, with games, reports and results of the 1954 British Chess Championships held in Nottingham.
Note: many of the grading lists below use the old BCF grading bands. To the right is a table showing how these convert to the later three-digit BCF/ECF grade.
BCF Grade Conversions
1a = 241-248 4a = 193-200
1b = 233-240 4b = 185-192
2a = 225-232 5a = 177-184
2b = 217-224 5b = 169-176
3a = 209-216 6a = 161-168
3b = 201-208 6b = 153-160
1954 BCF Grading List Word file converted to PDF. From CHESS Magazine, 27 November 1954, pages 119-121. Appended to the grading list is an article entitled 'A Grading System for British Players' which was published in the 1953/54 BCF Yearbook (pages 39-42).
1955 British Chess Championship Bulletin The official bulletin, with games, reports and results of the 1955 British Chess Championships held in Aberystwyth. The document I have scanned from was a photocopy - I cannot now remember how it came into my hands - and the copying was a little indistinct. It is possible that cover pages are missing (with details of who produced it, etc) but it looks as if the content is complete.
1955 BCF Grading List From BCM, December 1955, pps 354-356.
1956 BCF Grading List From CHESS, January 1957.
1957 BCF Grading List (BCM) From BCM, January 1958, pps 2-5.
1957 BCF Grading List (CHESS) From CHESS, January 1958 (this is essentially the same as the BCM one above).
1958 BCF Congress Programme The 26-page tournament programme of the 1958 Leamington BCF Congress. The copy from which the scan was taken was formerly owned by Bertram Goulding Brown and it includes some scores and results recorded by him at the time.
1958 BCF Grading List (BCM) From BCM, January 1959, pps 6-10.
1959 BCF Congress, York, Tournament Programme 44-page tournament programme of the BCF Congress (1959 British Championships) held in York, 10-22 August. This copy was owned by Ronald Wilson (Ronnie) Ives (1923-1964) and includes the scores of his 11 games in the Major Open.
1959 BCF Grading List From BCM, January 1960, pps 6-10.
1960 BCF Grading List From BCM, January 1961, pps 13-16.
1961 BCF Grading List Word file converted to PDF. Also includes a table decoding old BCF codes (e.g. 1a, 1b, 2a, etc) and their modern BCF/ECF equivalents.
1962 BCF Grading List From BCM, January 1963, pps 3-11.
1963 BCF Grading List From the 1963/64 British Chess Federation Yearbook, pps 54-61. But it doesn't include NCCU grades below 3A, so readers may find the document below both more comprehensive and readable.
1963 BCF Grading List plus NCCU This is the 1963 BCF Grading List as published in instalments in CHESS Magazine. It is better than the BCF Yearbook version as it includes NCCU grades below 3A and has been scanned and OCR'd making it more readable.
1963/64 West of England Grading List The 1963/64 WECU Grading List using the old 1a, 1b, 2a, etc, identifiers (but with pencilled-in three-figure grades). A bit hard to read in places. Thanks to Ray Collett for submitting.
1964 Universities Chess, Xmas Term Xmas 1964 bulletin of the Universities Chess bulletin, edited by RFT (Frank) Wood (son of BH Wood). 17 pages. Includes reports of the 1964 World Students Team Championship (Cracow) and the 1964 BUCA (British Universities Chess Association) Congress in Manchester (added 22/02/2021)
1964 BCF Grading List From the 1964/65 British Chess Federation Yearbook, pps 53-58
1965 NCCU (partial) Grading List A partial grading list for the NCCU (Northern Counties' Chess Union) in 1965, showing players in the 3b, 4a and 4b categories (which, in modern grading terms, is 208 down to 185). Many thanks to Ray Collett who sent it to me.
1965 Universities Chess, Summer Term Summer 1965 bulletin of the Universities Chess bulletin, edited by RFT (Frank) Wood (son of BH Wood, whose signature appears on the cover). Includes report of BUCA tournaments, annotations by Adrian Hollis, Peter Lee and Mike Basman. (added 22/02/2021)
1966 Universities Chess Undated, unnumbered bulletin of the Universities Chess bulletin, edited by D. R. Morris. Includes report of the 1966 BUCA tournaments in Oxford, followed by a long report on the 1966 World Students Olympiad in Orebro, Sweden, written by Mike Basman. (added 23/02/2021)
1968 BCF Grading List British grades down to 185. From pages 36-40 of The Year Book of Chess 1968/69.
1969 BCF Grading List British grades down to 185. From pages 54-57 of The Year Book of Chess 1969/70.
1970 BCF Grading List British grades down to 185. From pages 45-49 of The Year Book of Chess 1970/71. (In HTML)
1970 SCCU Grading List Southern Counties' Chess Union (SCCU) Grading List, September 1970
1970 BUCA Year Book Bulletin of the 1970 British Universities Chess Association congress, plus some games from other events and BUCA minutes. 100+ pages, size 7mbs. Games can be found here.
1970 Islington Congress Bulletin Bulletin of the 1970 Islington Congress (11-23 December), written by Stewart Reuben and edited by Jimmy Adams. Apologies for cutting off some page bottoms but my A4 scanner cannot cope with foolscap sized material. In some cases I have included duplicate pages to get round the problem. Readers will probably find it more convenient anyway to access the games and textual material in a more user-friendly format here.
1971 Dragon (Cambridge University Chess Club Bulletin), Michaelmas Term Vol. 13, No.37, of Dragon, the Cambridge University Chess Club bulletin. 14 games from this issue may be viewed here.
1971 BCF Grading List This link is to a PDF file on the IRLchess.com website.
1972 BCF Grading List This link is to a PDF file on the IRLchess.com website. Thanks to Sean Coffey for alerting me to the 1971 and 1972 files.
1972-1985 West of England Bulletins This is an external link to a collection of official WECU bulletins called Westward Ho! I am very grateful to Graham Stuart of the Hampshire Chess History site for creating this excellent repository of info. Note that the September issues have full WECU grading lists.
1973 BCF Grading List British grades down to 185. From pages 84-88 of The Year Book of Chess 1973-4.
1974 BCF Grading List British grades down to 185. From pages 18-22 of CHESS, October 1974.
1975 Scottish Grading List The July 1975 Scottish Grading List, from the days when Scotland used the same three-figure system as south of the border. Submitted by Ray Collett. Uploaded 18/04/2016.
1976/77 Hastings International Chess Congress Bulletin 24-page bulletin in algebraic notation by Peter C Griffiths, with all 105 games from the Premier, 16 games from the Challengers, plus crosstables of both and results from subsidiary tournaments.
1978 Lloyds Bank Masters (2nd) Bulletin 184 games plus crosstable, results, norms and an article by Leonard Barden.
1979 BCF Grading List British grades down to 183, plus the top Scottish national ratings. From pages 362-366 of CHESS for September 1979. (posted 20/05/2019)
1980/81 Hastings International Chess Congress Bulletin 30-page bulletin in algebraic notation by W Ritson Morry, with all 120 games from the Premier, 21 games from the Challengers, plus crosstables of both and results from subsidiary tournaments.
1981 ARC Young Masters Bulletin Information related to this event. Games can be found here.
1982 Lewisham International Bulletin Tournament bulletin of the 2nd Lewisham International, 22 November - 1 December. Games can be found here.
1983 Midland Championship, Forrest Cup Bulletin of the 1983 Midland Championship (Forrest Cup), held at Derby, 17-19 March 1983. 29 games, which can be found here.
1983 BCF Congress Programme 1983 British Championship congress programme, sent to competitors in advance of the tournament (posted 24/08/20)
1983 Lloyds Bank Masters (7th) Bulletin Games plus crosstable, results, norms and a few annotated games.
1984 Midland Championship, Forrest Cup Bulletin of the 1984 Midland Championship (Forrest Cup), held at Derby, 17-19 February 1984. 26 games, which can be found here.
1984 Lloyds Bank Masters (8th) Bulletin Games plus crosstable, results, norms and annotated games (Pasman-Martin, rd 1; Nicholson-Pein, rd 4; Nunn-Reefschlaeger, rd 3).
1985 Midland Championship, Forrest Cup Bulletin of the 1985 Midland Championship (Forrest Cup), held at Derby, 15-17 February 1985. 45 games, which can be found here.
1985 Lloyds Bank Masters (9th) Bulletin 182 games plus crosstables, results, norms and a few annotated games.
1986 Midland Championship, Forrest Cup Bulletin of the 1986 Midland Championship (Forrest Cup), held at Derby, 7-9 March 1986. 55 games, which can be found here.
1986 Lloyds Bank Masters (10th) Crosstable & results Full crosstable of the 10th Lloyds Bank Masters, 20-28 August 1986.
1987 Lloyds Bank Masters (11th) Crosstable & results Full crosstable of the 11th Lloyds Bank Masters, 22-31 August 1987.
1988 Lloyds Bank Masters (12th) Crosstable & results Full crosstable of the 12th Lloyds Bank Masters, 20-29 August 1988.
1987 Chessforce International, Nottingham - Bulletin Bulletin of this tournament held 20-29 January 1987 and won by Keith Arkell. All 45 games, a photo and the crosstable.
1988 Oakham International, 28 March - 5 April 1988 A comprehensive bulletin with all 235 games from this strong Young Masters event, won impressively by James Howell with 7½/9 ahead of such notables as Boris Gelfand, Michael Adams and Ivan Sokolov. Games can be found here. Also contains reports, crosstables, stats, etc.
1996 1st Northumbrian Masters Bulletin of the this tournament held 28 August to 1 September in Newcastle. My thanks to Tim Wall for sending it.
 

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