BRITBASE - British Chess Game Archive
Event: 65th Varsity Match • Venue: London, St Brides (but see below) • Date: 17 March 1947
List of Varsity Matches • Back to 1946 • Forward to 1948 • last edited:
Friday July 8, 2022 1:47 PM
The 65th Varsity Chess Match between Oxford University and Cambridge University was held at St Brides' Institute on 17 March 1947. No game scores from this match are available.
| Bd | Oxford University | 1947 | Cambridge University | Openings |
| 1b | Leonard Judah Richenberg (Corpus Christi) | 0-1 | John Edward Richardson (Jesus) | English |
| 2w | Dennis Morton Horne (Oriel) | 1-0 | Kenneth Preston Charlesworth (Emmanuel) | Ruy Lopez |
| 3b | Clifford Leak (Corpus Christi) | 1-0 | Alan Phillips (Magdalene) | KP Hungarian Def |
| 4w | John Edwin Jones (Hertford) | 0-1 | John Harwood (Queens') | Dutch Def |
| 5b | Robin Charles Oliver Matthews (Corpus Christi) | 0-1 | Henry Peter Francis Swinnerton-Dyer (Trinity) | French |
| 6w | David le Brun Jones (Trinity) | ½-½ | John Robert Gilbert (St Catharine's) | QP Catalan |
| 7b | Richard Shermer Lankester (Jesus) | 1-0 | Francis Henry Charles Marriott (Emmanuel) | QGA |
| 3½-3½ |
Sources: Oxford-Cambridge Chess Matches (1873-1987), compiled by Jeremy Gaige, Philadelphia 1987; The Times, 18 March 1947; BCM, Jan 1949, p11 (nearly two years after the event!).
Notes:
Venue: Lud-Eagle Chess Club is cited as hosts by the Times, which would mean St Bride's Institute. A participant, David Jones, also commented in 2007 that St Bride's was the venue. However, BCM gives West London CC.
[The Times, 18 March 1947, p7] "UNIVERSITY CHESS - The Oxford and Cambridge chess match was played yesterday at the Lud-Eagle Chess Club, London, and resulted in a draw of 3½ points each. The result was:— [as above] Cambridge had white on the odd numbered boards." [no more text - no game scores]
There was no report of this match in the Manchester Guardian.
Oxford Past v Cambridge Past, 21 December 1946, St Bride's, London
| Bd | Oxford University Past | 21.12.1946 | Cambridge University Past |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dr James Macrae Aitken (Balliol) | 1-0 | William Winter (Clare) |
| 2 | Theodore Henry Tylor (Balliol) | 1-0 | C Hugh O'D Alexander (King's) |
| 3 | Richard Hilary Newman (Worcester) | 0-1 | P Stuart Milner-Barry (Trinity) |
| 4 | Dr Hans Georg Schenk (Exeter) | 0-1 | John Matthias Bee (St Catharine's) |
| 5 | Reginald Walter Bonham (St Catherine's) | 0-1 | Leonard Illingworth (Trinity) |
| 6 | John Warcup Cornforth (St Catherine's) | 1-0 | John David Solomon (Downing) |
| 7 | George Shorrock Ashcombe Wheatcroft (New) | 1-0 | Lionel Sharples Penrose (St John's) |
| 8 | William Ernest Baker Pryer (Pembroke) | 1-0 | Ronald Grubb Stansfield (Clare) |
| 9 | Nicholas Anthony Perkins (St John's) | 1-0 | Eric Augustus Coad-Pryor (Trinity) |
| 10 | Robert Douglas Wormald (Balliol) | 1-0 | Jacob Bronowski (Jesus) |
| 11 | Philip Walsingham Sergeant (Trinity) | ½-½ | Richard William Barnes Clarke (Clare) |
| 12 | Dermot Michael Macgregor Morrah (New) | 1-0 | default |
| 8½-3½ |
[n.b. there were various typos in this table of results in BCM which I have resolved]
[BCM, Feb 1947, p57] "A match, Oxford Past v. Cambridge Past, was played in London on 21 December 1946 at St Bride's.
File Updated
| Date | Notes |
| 2018 | Original Upload |
| 20 November 2020 | Added commentary sent me by Leonard Barden, for which many thanks. (This has now been transferred to the Varsity chess match biographical file.) |
| 8 July 2022 | Added the part-game R.Clarke ½-½ P.Sergeant. Many thanks to Gerard Killoran. |