BRITBASE - British Chess Game Archive
Games of David J Mabbs (born 26 December 1940)
302 games • Download PGN •
Friday 13 December, 2024 0:21 AM
David J Mabbs: Career Milestones
| Date(s) | Event |
|---|---|
| 26 December 1940 | born Hammersmith, London |
| Mid-1950s | Co-founder (with David Rumens, David Levens and others) of the Cedars Chess Club, named after the Cedars estate in Harrow, London, where most of its teenaged players lived. The club had originally come about as a sub-group of Harrow Chess Club's younger members and eventually merged with it again in the late 1960s. David Mabbs' own brief account of how the club came into being. Cedars entered teams in the London League and Middlesex League. |
| August 1957 | 9th= with 7/12, 1957 British Boys' (Under 18) Championship. |
| January 1958 | 4th= with 7½/11, 1957/58 London Boys (Under 18) Championship. The result of his 11th round game with David Rumens was ultimately decided by FIDE and established the rule whereby checkmate on the board was deemed to end the game regardless of a subsequent flag fall. |
| 1958 | 1st, 1957/58 Middlesex Junior Championship |
| August 1958 | 1st, 1958 British Boys' (Under 18) Championship, 9½/12. |
| 1958/59 | Cedars Chess Club won the Middlesex League. |
| 1959/62 | Sheffield University. From October 1958 he represented Yorkshire in county chess. |
| 1959 | 1st, Northern Universities Championship. |
| April 1960 | 5th= at the Stevenson Memorial, Bognor Regis |
| July 1960 | Represented England at the World Students Olympiad, Leningrad, USSR. 2nd reserve [= board 6], scored +2=3-2. |
| September 1960 | Scored 3½/7 at the Paignton Premier. |
| July 1961 | Represented England at the World Students Olympiad, Helsinki, Finland. 1st reserve [= board 5], scored +4=2-1 - best score prize on performance on board 5. |
| August 1962 | 6th= with 6½/11, 1962 British Junior (Under 21) Championship. |
| Aug/Sept 1962 | 4th with 8½/11, behind GM A O'Kelly, F J Perez, O M Hindle, 10th CHESS Festival, Eastbourne. |
| 9 January 1964 | Defeated Mikhail Tal in a 24-board simul, John Lewis, London |
| 24 November 1964 | "I announce my retirement from chess, as from 24th November 1964. David Mabbs, Harrow, 21 November 1964. P.S.—please—no more tempting circulars!" (Letter published in CHESS, Mid-December 1964, Vol.30/472, p107) |
| 1969 | Return to chess: played in the Middlesex County Championship, Thames Valley Easter Congress, etc. |
| 1973/74 | 9th= with 6/10, 1973/74 Hastings Challengers |
| August 1974 | 17th= with 5½/11 1974 British Championship |
| 2000s | Playing online as 'Cedars' |
| 2015 | After a long period of club chess activity in Surrey (Hampton, Staines, Thames TV and Kingston clubs), David moved to Suffolk. Since then he has remained active in club chess in Suffolk and Norfolk. |
| 2024 | David and Jenny Mabbs celebrated their diamond wedding. The observant reader will note that 2024 minus 60 = 1964 and, yes, marriage was one factor in David's legendary announcement of his retirement from chess! |
Story of a Chess Club (by David Mabbs)
(Published in CHESS, February 1959, Vol.24/333-4, ppn 135-136)
Cedars Chess Club really started in Jan. 1950, when ten-year-old David Levens taught his nine-year-old friend David Mabbs to play chess; the two taught other friends and the game spread like a chain letter. In their circle, chess took its place alongside cricket and football. Odd games in the evenings and during school breaks soon developed into regular get-togethers at Levens's house in Carmelite Road, Harrow and the group was christened the Carmelite Chess Club. Chess sets and books came first on the list of presents at birthdays and Christmas. A small fee was charged at meetings so that funds could be accumulated to buy sets and boards for the club.
As the club grew, meetings rotated to different members’ houses; money was raised by selling corduroy bags for chessmen, and refreshments at a small profit. Internal tournaments were organized and matches were arranged with local schools, and usually won.
"Our membership in 1952-3," writes D. J. Mabbs "included many future champions though this was not suspected at the time. One member was the secretary of the local Cedars Community Association, A. J. Bailey, a fairly experienced player who had encountered Sir George Thomas in his time. At the end of the season he suggested that we should become an independent section of the Cedars Community Association, whereby we could obtain the use of a classroom at the Cedars Primary School, Harrow Weald, at a nominal charge".
"In the spring of the following season, we voted to take this step, and moved into the school as the Cedars Chess Club, with an active membership of about thirty. To attract local attention, our joint secretaries David Levens and David Mabbs, then aged fourteen and fifteen respectively, gave a simultaneous display at Chantry Primary School. Levens won nine games, lost one; Mabbs won all the ten he played! This display attracted several new members, including Alan Abel, aged ten, a future Middlesex Boys' under-fifteen Champion. We organized an under-thirteen knock-out club championship which Abel won from an entry of eleven. A club championship in its present annual form was held, also a handicap tournament planned to give every player an equal chance."
"1954-5 was our first complete season in the school; our matches with local schools continued and it was our boast, and still is, that every member plays at least one match a year for the club. We held two lightning tournaments during the year, with the aid of the secretary’s sister, a watch and a bicycle-bell. The team was unbeaten in matches. Some of our leading players decided to join Harrow Chess Club to get further match experience. Over 600 games were played in our handicap tournament alone, this season."
"Season 1955-6 saw our first collective and individual ventures abroad. We entered the Postal Chess League but fared moderately. Home matches were marred by the lack of first-class equipment—members were still bringing along their own sets to meetings, to supplement the meagre equipment possessed by the club. But £10 granted by Cedars Community Association enabled us to buy match sets and boards."
"Rumens and Mabbs played against Ragozin in a simultaneous display at Harrow and are pictured together there in CHESS, Jan. number 1956. Here we made the acquaintance of Arthur Hall, who won his game and was soon to join the club. That month, six of our members competed in the London Boys’ Championships, in which Rumens won third best-game prize in the under-sixteen section. . ."
Viacheslav Ragozin gives a simul at Harrow Chess Club on 22 December 1955. Ragozin scored +20=4-4, losing to John A Fuller, George H Govas, Lional James Dent & Arthur Hall,
and drawing with David E Rumens, R Broom, TE Barnett and Charles Jahn. This photo appeared in CHESS, January 1956, Vol.21/260, p142.
"In the 1956-7 season we took on proper chess clubs, losing only 2-4 to Harrow. In the London Boys’ Championships Rumens finished equal second, and Mabbs won the Intermediate title for the under-sixteen section. Other Cedars players did well. In July Rumens was chosen to play for England in the Glorney Cup competition, a choice which was criticised by some, but which he justified with a draw against Scotland. Arthur Hall won the British Universities’ Championship in Glasgow, and the next month Rumens won the British Boys’ Championship at Plymouth. A week later Mabbs won the Middlesex Boys’ Championship with Cedars players B. A. Tysoe and S. J. Wallace equal third."
"David Levens and some electrically-minded friends made a weird contraption that functioned well as a lightning clock, the Cedars Community Association making us a grant to cover the cost of the parts."
"Season 1957-8 saw our entry into the Middlesex League. We won the Eastern Zone unbeaten, ahead of Harrow, and finished second in the finals, above Atheneum. Individual successes this season were many: Rumens won the London Boys’ Championship, also the British Railways (Eastern Section) Championship but didn’t do well in his shot at the British Championship. Mabbs kept the British Boys’ title in Harrow and also won the Middlesex Boys’ Championship. Other successes by him were the Harrow Club Minor Championship and a section of the Premier Reserves Tournament at Twickenham. Levens won the Middlesex Minor Championship and finished second in another Reserves at Twickenham. Martin Neave won the British Boys’ under-fifteen Championship. John Collins won the Championship of Nottingham University and Arthur Hall added the City of Oxford Championship to his University title. We were also joined by Brian Foan, a former Welsh Junior Champion, and Brian Hare, who won the West of England Boys’ Championship in 1957 and has this year won the Gloucestershire Junior Championship. Alan Abel won the Middlesex under-fifteen Championship. . ."
"This season [1958-59] we found ourselves with half the reigning British Champions in our team so, as well as the Middlesex League, entered the National Club Championship. In round one, though without Arthur Hall, we beat Wimbledon, mainly through Rumens’s 31-move win over Leonard Barden at top board. D. J. Mabbs has since won the Northern Universities’ Championship; five Cedars players have jumped onto the National Grading list—Rumens 4a [roughly equivalent to Elo 2144-2200]; A. Hall and D. J. Mabbs 4b [Elo 2080-2136]; D. G. Levens 5a [Elo 2016-2072] and B. Hare 5b [Elo 1952-2008]."
(the following final paragraph not in quotations so probably penned by CHESS editor B H Wood)
Though Cedars were knocked out of the National Club Championship by the narrowest of margins by the powerful Atheneum team (consisting of R. G. Wade, A. Y. Green, D. Sherman, J. Birnberg, H. Lommer and D. Castello), it was through no fault of their founder-member and contributor of the above history, who won the following fine game [Mabbs-Green game: see download. Round 2 National Club Championship match (Cedars names first), 31 January 1959 or thereabouts: (1) DE Rumens 0-1 RG Wade; (2) DJ Mabbs 1-0 AY Green; (3) DG Levens 0-1 D Sherman; (4) BH Hare ½-½ J Birnberg; (5) SJ Wallace ½-½ H Lommer; (6) MJ Neave ½-½ D Castello. Athenaeum won by 3½-2½. JS]
Biographical details about David Mabbs from the book Junior Chess Games by Raymond Bott and Stanley Morrison (Faber & Faber, 1965):
David Mabbs
Cedars Primary and Harrow County Boys Grammar Schools Born: London 1940
At the age of nine, David was taught chess by D. G. Levens whilst at Cedars Primary School, Harrow. He plays for Cedars Chess Club, Middlesex County and was a member of England teams in junior internationals. David captained England in the 1959 Glorney Cup competition, and represented Britain in the World Students’ Team Tournaments in Leningrad and Helsinki. In 1960 he achieved a draw with Grandmaster Karaklaic.
1957 London Junior Boys Under-16 Champion
1958 British Boys Under-18 Champion
1960 5th Stevenson Memorial Tournament
Advice to beginners:
“Experiment!”
Memorable experience:
"When David Rumens (1957 British Boys Under-18 Champion) jumped off Eastbourne Pier for a 12s. 6d. bet—Eastbourne Chess Congress 1962."
"Chess is like a passport that allows one quickly to settle in to a new town or country, and find ready-made friends."
File updated
| Date | Notes |
| 21 October 2023 | 45 games, for David Mabbs. |
| 5 February 2024 | Added the game D.Mabbs ½-½ W.C.Evans, Richardson Cup, Yorkshire 1961, from a Ronnie Ives column in the Yorkshire Evening Post. |
| 6 July 2024 | Updated following a major input exercise of David's games from the 1973/74 period, plus one or two others. |
| 10 July 2024 | Further update of a complete scorebook for late 1974. 206 games. |
| 3 October 2024 | 301 game entries, of which 5 are stubs. Most of them have been input by me from David's post-1964 scorebooks. Note: it is far from complete. David tells me that, after his 1964 retirement from chess, he sent his scorebooks and scoresheets to BH Wood. It's not known what became of these scores subsequently. One has to suspect that they have long disappeared, but if anyone knows what happened to them please get in touch with me. |
| 13 December 2024 | 302 game entries, of which 5 are stubs. Added the game D Mabbs 1-0 M Broido, Middlesex Under-18 Championship 1957, from the book Junior Chess Games by Raymond Bott and Stanley Morrison (Faber & Faber, 1965). Also added the biographical details from the Junior Chess Games by Raymond Bott and Stanley Morrison (Faber & Faber, 1965). |