1985/86
This set of the four bulletins edited by Ian Brown starts with Robert Richmond (‘King-Pawn’) exploring the origins of 7. d5 in the Queen’s Indian defence, considered by some to be a ‘new move’ when it featured in the Karpov-Kasparov match. In the same November 1985 issue Doug Sandford recalls the time when the great (actually, greatest) chess benefactor JN Derbyshire, at the time President of the British Chess Federation, arranged for the long-overdue Alekhine-Botvinnik World Championship match to take place in Nottingham in August 1946. That would, of course, have coincided with the tenth anniversary of the famous Masters Tournament, but it was not to be: Alekhine died in March that year.
The January 1986 issue contains articles on: Neil Graham’s ‘Chessforce’ initiative to supercharge chess participation in the county; a report on the County Championship won by Nottingham University student (and, subsequently, GM) John Emms; and, King-Pawn’s reminiscence of the Nottingham 1946 Congress.
Undoubtedly the highlight of this run of bulletins, however, is to be found in February’s issue: a fully-annotated (and by now we have switched to algebraic notation) reprise of Marcel Taylor’s win against IM Geoff Lawton in a simultaneous display. Our hero’s modest assessment: ‘The game is hardly a masterpiece but it was good enough on the day.’
The March/April bulletin includes reports by Ron Clunie on the Nottingham Quickplay and by Steve Burke and Alan Morrey on county first and second team matches. Finally, King-Pawn recalls Nottingham 1936 and annotates the Tartakower-Alekhine game from round 14, won by the former world champion.
As for the league, Division 1 finished in a tie between University Students and Derby. East Notts (featuring a certain N London – not sure what happened to him!?) won Division 2. Grantham’s C and D teams won Divisions 3 and 4 respectively.
Stuart Humphreys