1970 Manchester Open, 3-5 July

(From CHESS, August 1970, Vol.35/609-10, ppn 356-357)

Rank	1970 Manchester Open, 3-5 July	Total
1	Victor W Knox (Cheadle)	5½/6
2-7	Leonard W Barden (London), Robert Bellin (Gt. Yarmouth), Leslie S Blackstock (Kidderminster), Hans Bohm (Netherlands), Brian R Eley (Rotherham), Max L Fuller (London)	5
8-15	Richard A Beach (Stoke), Tom Bimpson (Liverpool), Bernard Cafferty (Birmingham), Brian H Hare (Brighton), Alan T Ludgate (Leeds), Ian J Sinclair (Kilmacolm), Jan Timman (Netherlands), Andrew J Whiteley (London)	4½
16-29	Alan P Ashby (Eccles), Gerald Bonner (Glasgow), Graham P Burton (Oxford), Brian H Coop (Harrogate), Miss Dinah M Dobson (Northwood), Gavin Nigel Henderson (Manchester), Brian A Jones, Michael P Littlewood, Norman Littlewood (Sheffield), David P Lynch (Worsley), J Ryan (Manchester), Julian Simpole (Brighton), Eric D Warren (London), Jeffrey R L Webb (Brighton)	4
30-57	R Addison (Manchester), R Alan Barton (Derby), Gerald H Bennett (Bournemouth), Graham J Bromley (Birkenhead), John Burstow (London), John Joseph Carleton (Birkenhead), Robert E Evans (Chester), Julian T Farrand (Stockport), Raymond Gardner (Brighouse), E D Gibson (Edinburgh), H J Herrick, John B Illingworth, S N Jones ( Manchester), Adrian P R Lewis (Brighton), A Jonathan Mestel (Manchester), Colin F Moore (Cambridge), Andrew J Mort (Middleton), James R Nicolson (Manchester), L J Noble (Holcombe Brook), Richard W O'Brien (Ilford), James E O'Dell (Manchester), Brian F O'Sullivan (Southampton), Raymond M Sayer (Sutton-in-Ashfield), Brian A Shaft (Salford), Peter J Stubbs (Hanworth), Terence J Stuttard (Manchester), Ronald Arthur Tilley (Altrincham), A J Trafford (Bury)	3½

Knox received £70; Barden, Bellin, Blackstock, Boehm, Eley and Fuller £15 each.

The £10 rating prizes were shared out as follows: 184-169 Miss Dobson, Coop, Jones, M. Littlewood; 168-153 D. Lynch, Warren: both groups 4/6. 152-137 Addison, Illingworth, Mestel, Sayer, Shaft 3½/6. Under 137 Ryan 4/6. Timman did manage to win a £5 prize, sharing the junior prize with Sinclair on 4½/6.

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V. W. Knox, already Manchester, Cheshire and Northern Counties Champion, ran away with the Manchester Open Championship, July 3rd to 5th. He defeated P. Hutchinson, N. A. Hutchinson, L. S. Blackstock, A. J. Whiteley and R. A. Beach in the first five rounds so that a grandmaster draw with B. Eley in the last round assured him of undisputed first place.

The event was revived by the Manchester League after the lapse of a year. It was Barry N Green who pushed it through with great success in 1968.

Richard A Furness, chief organiser, started early in life as secretary of St. John's College Chess Club, York. He soon became Secretary, and captain as well, of Swinton. In 1964, he founded the National Association of School Masters Postal Chess Team, which has now climbed into the British Postal Chess Team Championship. He tells us that running two teams has contributed enormously to the N.A.S. success, by providing a pool of reserves. Ranking Secretary of the Manchester League for 5 years, in 1969 he became Hon. Treasurer for Lancashire and this year controlled the Manchester Junior Congress with a 300 entry. He was greatly helped by Harry Lamb.

It was possible to view the leading games from a gallery so not to crowd around the players.

The event was the now standard one-section 6-round Swiss, with 48 moves in 2 hours followed by adjudication. Pretty hectic. In round one, Timman went down to Carleton who lost in Rd. 2 to Wallis who lost in Rd. 3 to Fuller. Boehm missed a mate on the move against Deighton who also missed it: Boehm did see it next time.

Outstanding favourite to win before the tournament started was Jan Timman, the young Dutch player who did so well at Hastings. Other favourites were Vic Knox, Andrew Whiteley, Leonard Barden, Max Fuller and Norman Littlewood, but the presence of 20 other past British Championship contenders promised upsets.

The first round surprise.

English Opening

J. Timman White J. Carleton Black

I P-QB4 P-K3 2 N-KB3 P-Q4 3 P-KN3 N-KB3 4 B-N2 B-K2 5 0-0 0-0 6 P-N3 P-B4 7 B-N2 N-B3 8 P-K3 P-QN3 9 Q-K2 B-R3 10 P-Q3 Q-Q2 11 P—K4 QR-QI 12 N-B3 P-Q5 13 N-NI P—K4 14 N—R4 P—N3 15 P—B4 PxP 16 PxP N—KN5 17 B—KR3 BxN 18 BxN P—B4 19 B—KR3 Q—QB2 20 PxP PxP 21 Q—R5 Q—K2 22 BxBP RxB 23 QxR Q—KN2ch 24 K-RI B-N2 25 Q-K4 N-K4 (Perhaps 25... N—N5, winning the exchange was quicker) 26 PxN BxQch 27 PxB QxP 28 N-Q2 R-KBI 29 RxRch KxR 30 R-KBIch K-NI 31 R-B5 Q-K3 32 B-BI Q-R3 33 R-BI B-N4 34 R-QI B-K6 35 P-N4 Q-B5 36 R—Bl Q—N5 37 R—Kl P-KR4 White resigns.

[n.b. I have left the descriptive game scores uncorrected from the scanner output as they can be found anyway in the viewer/download]

Stewart Reuben got his come uppance when in time-trouble in the following position [see viewer/download]:

S. Reuben White P. A. Hutchinson Black
I RxP? On the grounds that one should play for a win in almost any position in these tournaments. I Q—KB5ch was correct.

1.. . RxKNP! 2 RxR

If 2 Q—KB5ch R—N3 3 QxQ RxRP mate.

2.. .R—Q8ch 3 K-R2 Q-K4ch 4 R-N3 R—Q7ch 5 K-R I Q-K8ch 6 R—Nl Q—K5ch White resigns.

Vic Knox took the sole lead in round 3 with this bloodthirsty win.

Sicilian Defence

V. W. Knox White L. S. Blackstock Black

1 P-K4 P—QB4 2 N—KB3 N-QB3 3 P—Q4 PxP 4 NxP N-B3 5 N-QB3 P—Q3 6 B-QB4 Q—N3 7 N—N3 P—K3 8 0-0 P—QR3 9 K—Rl Q-B2 10 P—B4 B—K2 II Q—K2 P—QN4 12 B-Q3 B—N2 13 B-Q2 0-0 14 QR-KI P-N5 15 N-QI KR-KI 16 P—K5 N—Q2 17 PxP BxP 18 N—B2 P-K4 19 Q—R5 N—B3 20 Q-R4 P—N3 21 P—B5 B-K2 22 PxP RPxP 23 N-N4 NxN 24 QxN B—QBI 25 Q-N3 Q-Q3 26 B-K4 R-R2 27 B-K3 R-B2 28 R-QI N-Q5 29 NxN PxN 30 B—B4 Black resigns.

Meanwhile Leonard Barden kept his challenge going with the following mysterious encounter. Spoilt by an incredible blunder at the end it is true, but very interesting up to that point.

King's Indian Defence E. D. Warren White L. W. Barden Black

| P—Q4 N-KB3 2 P-QB4 P-KN3 3 N-QB3 B-N2 4 P-K4 P-Q3 5 B-K2 0-0 6 P-KN4 P-B4 7 P-Q5 P-K3 8 P—N5 N—Kl 9 P-KR4 PxP 10 BPxP P—B4 11 NPxPe.p. NxP 12 P-R5 P-QN4 13 P-K5 QPxP 14 PxP P-N5 15 P-Q6 B-K3 16 B—B3 PxN 17 BxR BPxP 18 BxP Q-N3 19 PxPch K—Rl 20 Q-Q2 QN—Q2 21 B—N2 P-B5 22 N-R3 N-B4 23 0-0 BxN 24 BxB N-Q6 25 B-R3? Q-R3 26 B-K6?? QxB and Black won.

Knox sought only a quick, uneventful draw in the last round with Brian Eley, for it is one of the defects of this type of tournament and prize money that the leader often feels this way in the last round. Eley did his best to avoid this and had perhaps slightly the better of it. At the end however, it would have been extremely foolhardy for him to have continued and thus a draw resulted.

Finally a rather odd game. Can you spot its peculiarity?

English

B. Cafferty White R. M. Sayer Black

I P-QB4 N-KB3 2 N-QB3 P-Q4 3 PxP NxP 4 P—KN3 NxN 5 NPxN P—KN3 6 B—N2 B-N2 7 R-NI 0-0 8 N-B3 P-K4 9 Q-B2 P-QB3 10 0-0 P-K5 11 N-Q4 BxN 12 PxB QxP 13 B-N2 Q-Q4 14 BxP QxRP 15 Q-B3 P-B3 16 B-R3 R-B2 17 B-B2 B-K3 18 R-N3 K-N2 19 R-RI BxR 20 BxB QxRch 21 QxQ R-Q2 22 B-N2 R-Q3 23 Q-R3 R-Q2 24 B-K6 R-QB2 25 Q-Q6 N-R3 26 B-B4 R-KBI 27 BxN Black resigns.

The oddity? Well Reti should live to see this day. White has moved neither his king's nor queen's pawn.

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File Updated

Date	Notes
20 February 2026	First upload. 20 games plus report from CHESS, August 1970, Vol. 35/609-10, ppn 356-357.