1987/88
The 1987/88 season sees the NCA bulletin move into the digital age courtesy of editor Paul Hare’s dot matrix printer (presumably combined with an Amstrad or Commodore computer). We have a complete set of all five bulletins and they are quite brilliant, reporting everything from local disputes about allegedly biased Swiss pairings to the dramatic denouement of the fourth Kasparov-Karpov world championship match.
But before we start, a quiz question: How many of the clubs affiliated to the NCA in 1987/88 are still playing at the same address in 2025/26? And a tie-breaker: Which present day league club uses the premises of a now defunct club? (Answers below)
The September 1987 bulletin is an administrative affair. It starts with a recap of the previous season, noting that, regrettably, there had been a total of 18 defaulted matches (yes – matches, not games). Apparently this included one instance where both teams defaulted and awarded themselves a 2.5-2.5 draw; precedent would have dictated a 0-0 double default. Several pages follow of (now redacted) contact details for officers of the Association and of the 28(!) clubs followed by two pages of fixture list errata – thank goodness for the League Management System!
October’s bumper issue starts with the Curious Case of the Missing Chess Clocks but the mood lightens with a report on excellent performances by Steve Burke and Marcel Taylor, amongst others, at the British Chess Federation Congress. The tenth anniversary of Hucknall CC is marked with a match against a ‘Notts President’s Six’ and Sutton-in-Ashfield’s success on the national stage is celebrated. There is a report on the second Nottingham Quickplay – I’ll note (vicariously) that the Open was won by Colin Crouch (Durham University) and the Minor by Jonathan Parker (Radcliffe and Bingham) – plus some annotated correspondence games and Allan Richmond’s insightful reflections on playing in the Nottingham ChessForce International tournament.
The December 1987 issue starts with mention of the infamous Tony Miles/Ray Keene/BCF affair and, just to show that the computer age is still in its infancy, a note that issuance of the National Grading List is delayed because ‘the BCF are having difficulties in processing… grading data on their computer.’ Reports are many and varied: Frank Noonan clearly enjoys the Team Lightning competition; the aforementioned Swiss pairing dispute at the County Championship merits half a page; Len Morrell takes a team of juniors to the British Lightning Championship; Andrew Walker opines on the merits (or otherwise) of the BCF; and Allan Richmond gives us a rook-and-pawn endgame masterclass. Some eight games (six from Kasparov vs Karpov) are provided, including a county game won and wonderfully annotated by Andrew Walker.
In the April 1988 issue Andrew refers to he emergence of computer-based analysis. Indeed, he provides the 115(!)-move solution to ‘How to win with two knights against a pawn’ whilst noting that ‘6-piece endings are still just beyond the power of reasonable computation.’ Owing to the five-month gap since the previous issue, there are no fewer than 17 pages of county and league results.
The season – and Paul Hare’s editorship – draws to a close with the July 1988 issue. This features a 23-move brilliancy from Paul himself, the results of the Nottinghamshire Chess Congress (won by Messrs Arkell and Crouch) and the final league results. For the second season running West Bridgford won the Division 1 title with a 100% record but it goes without saying that the stand-out performance was Radcliffe and Bingham 2 (featuring club founding member Stephen Morley) winning Division 4. But to end where we started, some 19 matches were defaulted, one more than the previous season.
Finally, the answer to the quiz question: University (naturally) and Radcliffe and Bingham. And the tie-breaker: Nottingham Central’s & Nomads venue of the Embankment pub is, of course, the former Boots Social Club, home to the chemists’ chess club up until 1993.
Stuart Humphreys