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.The following year, Abhijit Kunte won,after which the Indians were sent back to their reservation and we began an era of ScottishChampions.In the 2002 event, held in Torquay, there were 98 players in the Championship; the 2012 version washeld in North Shields, up near Newcastle-on-Tyne and here there were only 65 players.Possibly thiswas due to choice of venue.There were only 8 players who took part in both events.2002 score 2012Gawain Jones 5.5 9David Howell 5.5 8.5Danny Gormally 7 7.5Matthew Turner 7 7Craig Hanley 5 6.5Dave Ledger 5.5 6.5Don Mason 5 6Jack Rudd 5 6Interestingly, nearly all the players improved their performance.The most remarkable change in the Year Book is in the amount of junior chess.In 2002 there wereless than 40 listed coaches in the country; in 2012 there are over 100! Ten years ago we had 50 jun-ior chess clubs.In 2012 this number had risen to 70, and the number of pages devoted to junior chesshad almost doubled.There has also been a dramatic increase in the number of juniors playing abroad.In 2002, 17 chil-dren went to the European Youth Championship, and this was at the time regarded as a great achieve-ment.Nine pupils also went with BCF Junior Director, Peter Turner, to Cappelle- le-Grande.By con-trast, in 2012 there were a plethora of events with World in the title which our childrenattended -World Schools Individual Championship (24 attended)World Junior Championships (12 attended)World U16 Olympiad (5 attended)World Youth Championships (34 attended)26 In all the Year Book records a total of 107 children going abroad in one year.On the home front, the largest junior tournament in the world, the UK Chess Challenge, was also run-ning in 2002.That year it attracted 56,000 children from 1,670 schools slightly more than in 2012,although there is no report in the 2013 Year Book to compare it with, as the organiser forgot to sendit in.But whilst the numbers of competitors is similar, the prize money and quality of play at the top hasvastly improved.In 2013 the sponsors were Delancey, who had taken over from the British LandCompany, and the prize money at the Terafinal stage had risen from £6,000 overall to £15,000.Inaddition, the grades of the players competing had improved.In 2002 the only player graded over 200was Lorin D Costa, whereas in 2012 there were several 200+ players, and the average strength hadimproved by 30 points.This increase in quality has fed through to the British Championship.In 2002 I could only count 7players who had played or who were playing in the UK Chess Challenge.In 2012 there were 23 play-ers out of 65 well over one third.There were three STRATS (Chess Challenge winners) playing in last year s British Championship Stephen Gordon, James Hanley and Peter Poobalasingam.One of these players, Stephen Gordon, tiedfirst equal and another recent junior, (David Howell) came third.Finally the Major Open was won in fine style by a junior, Pierre Weller, who scored 9.5 points out of11 and much of that tournament was made up of junior players.It is these amazing statistics which bear true witness to the real nature of the shifting state of Britishchess.- Mike Basman, April, 201327 Chess Moves BookshelfKipper Ties and Men in Black- by Andrew FarthingTo celebrate the exciting news that recordings of the BBC TV series The Master Game have becomepublicly available at last, this month s Bookshelf takes a nostalgic look back at those heady days whenchess was regularly broadcast on the BBC.To tie in with the series, two books were published by the BBC:" The Master Game by Jeremy James and Leonard Barden (1979); and" The Master Game Book Two by Jeremy James and William Hartston (1981).The first book documented the initial three series of The Master Game, broadcast in 1975-77.Thesecond covers the next three series (1979-81).Second hand copies pop up from time to time.For the depressingly large number of readers who may be too young to remember the programmesfrom their original broadcast, Jeremy James was the principal presenter.How strong a chess playerhe may have been was never entirely clear, but he held the programmes together in a clear, enthu-siastic manner, and for years he was the face of BBC chess broadcasting, not only in The Master Gamebut also in the BBC s rather good coverage of various world championship matches over the years.MrJames appears on the front cover of Book Two, sporting a grey suit and a tie about half the width ofhis stomach.Sharing the spotlight on the cover is Bill Hartston, the winner of the first two series who, by 1979,had graduated to resident expert commentator.His pose is suggestive of long and ultimately unsuc-cessful discussions with the photographer to find an appropriate way to stand two men in suits behinda chess table too narrow for both to place their hands upon it.The tie, however, is of sufficient nar-rowness to suggest at least a vestigial awareness of the passing of the 1970s.The front cover has a vaguely amateurish charm which encapsulates the programme itself.This wasnot slick television, but it was unfailingly amicable and, for its day, remarkably effective in its pres-entation of chess on screen.In the days before easy-to-follow computer graphics became accessible to all, presenting chess ontelevision was not a straightforward task.As the introductions to the two books explain, the solutioncame from a children s programme: The men who solved the apparently intractable problem of how to present chess on television werethe series producer, Robert Toner, and the set designer, John Bone.What Toner wanted to avoidwas magnetic pieces (that slip, fall, turn upside down and generally, apart from looking awful, makethe presenter s job a misery).What John Bone came up with was a glass-topped table on which allthe moves are made by a cloaked and gloved figure.What you see are the symbols on the bottomof those pieces reflected, to get them back round the right way.The technicians in Bristol thensolved another problem how to point to squares and show what someone is talking about withoutmoving the pieces by producing an electronic pointer; a very simple box with a cat s-cradle ofwiring that allows the commentators infinite scope to demonstrate the players thoughts; all donewith lights! (The Master Game Book Two, pp.9-10)From a 21st century perspective, it s easy to mock, but in fact this was quite ingenious.I love theidea of the man in gloves and cloak moving the pieces it s nice to think that the Phantom FlanFlinger found useful work between episodes of Tiswas
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