Chess Explorations (24)

By Edward Winter

• ‘Of vital importance in all these Openings is not to let memory swamp the mind.’

• ‘We are pleased to learn that the boys you meet in matches are such “good sports”. The trouble about being a “good sport” is that you have to lose in order to prove it.’

• The quip about Gossip pottering and Potter gossiping at a club is a pretty old one (W.N. Potter, 1840-1895). In chess it seems that longevity is the soul of wit.’

• ‘Philidor certainly played a vitally important part in the history of the game. But why “indispensable”? There has been only one indispensable man in the whole of history – and that was Adam.’

• ‘Many such defeats have been due to underestimating one’s opponent. The unexpected sometimes happens when you don’t expect a player to come up to expectations.’

• ‘The average age of the great players is much lower nowadays. The one you mention is old enough to be a grandmaster – and young enough to develop into one.’

• ‘The opponent who, especially when he has a bad game, continuously taps the table with his pencil, will readily desist on request. He is probably not aware of it – just tapping out his morose code.’

• ‘“Chess may be good for us socially but not physically ...” The onion, of course, is in direct reverse to this.’

• ‘To be an expert in chess is no excuse for forcing it on your young son. It is as illogical as your being very fond of animals and then making him a butcher.’

• ‘As for “putting it in a nutshell”, we can but sound glibly pedagogic. The art of teaching the game to youngsters is the art of making the complex simple, of going back from the steam-engine to the kettle. And, of course, interest must be roused and maintained. A youngster’s spirit may be willing – his will must also be spirited.’

All the above observations were made 50 years ago and are to be found in the 1959 volume of the BCM. They came from the pen of one of the game’s most quotable writers and a figure who receives far too little attention today: David James Morgan (1894-1978).

‘D.J.M.’

As mentioned in C.N. 4184, ‘my favorite chess writer’ is how Andrew Soltis described ‘D.J.M.’ in a good article on pages 8-9 of Chess Life, June 1983 which was reproduced, under the title ‘Master of His Craft’, on pages 166-170 of Soltis’ book Karl Marx Plays Chess (New York, 1991). An eminent writer who paid tribute to Morgan was G.H. Diggle, in an article originally printed in the July 1978 Newsflash and also given on page 36 of a compilation of Diggle’s articles published by us, Chess Characters (Geneva, 1984):

Source: BCM, March 1963, page 81. Also in C.N. 4194, David Woolrich (Bolton, England) pointed out that the Quotes and Queries item repeated a joke (about Bach) widely attributed to W.S. Gilbert (1836-1911).

On just one or two occasions Morgan gave over the entire column to a single subject, e.g. for his personal reminiscences of Jacques Mieses in the August and September 1976 issues of the BCM. As mentioned in C.N. 4836, another set-piece article by Morgan was on pages 217-235 of the BCF Year-Book, 1953-54: ‘The British Chess Federation – Fifty Years in Retrospect’.

Although, unfortunately, he never wrote a chess book himself, he was a skilled reviewer, fair but demanding and with no time for cronyism. As noted in The Chess-loving Puzzle-master (Hubert Phillips), in 1959 there appeared a 434-page work, Chess by H. Golombek and H. Phillips. On page 182 of the June 1959 BCM Morgan described it as ‘a big, highly-priced and comprehensive guide to the game’ which was ‘just another mechanical compilation’. Believing in plain talk and ignoring the fact that he and Golombek were half of the BCM’s editorial team, Morgan expressed his ‘disappointment with a book which has the appearance of having been all too easy in the making’. C.N. 3766 paid tribute to the longstanding Editor of the BCM, Brian Reilly, who built up an exceptionally strong team of book reviewers which also included J.M. Aitken, W.H. Cozens, G.H. Diggle and W. Heidenfeld. Even up to the time of Morgan’s death the team was essentially intact, and C.N. 5371 commented that it is easily forgotten today how great the BCM was in the 1970s.

In his Quotes and Queries column D.J. Morgan was, on occasion, acerbic with ‘ordinary readers’ who had sent in information, questions or claims which did not come up to scratch. The approach worked well for him, in the sense that it sparked off his badinage, but, as a general principle, it may be thought preferable for any such meneur de jeu simply to leave aside inferior or obviously faulty contributions. Sharpness is best reserved for cases with a clear public interest, such as exposure of the game’s reprobates.

A particular occasion when Morgan expressed outright anger was after Heinrich Fraenkel (who wrote under the pseudonym ‘Assiac’) suggested that F.D. Yates had killed himself. From page 24 of the January 1963 BCM:

Although a specialist in chess problems, Morgan had an interest in, and impressive knowledge of, virtually all aspects of chess history and lore. His combination of rigour and common sense precluded him from speculating and jumping to rash conclusions. His quest to fill in gaps in available chess information was illustrated by the exemplary support which he and his correspondents gave to the researches of Jeremy Gaige, and this at a time when technical resources bore no comparison to those available today.

Such was the quantity of discoveries published in Quotes and Queries that many were overlooked by subsequent writers. C.N. 3864 gave an example from page 60 of the March 1957 BCM (a missed forced mate in Zukertort v Blackburne, London, 1883):

Our personal debt to D.J.M. is enormous. Countless letters were exchanged, and below is an extract from one which he sent us on 8 January 1975:

On 26 July 1977 he wrote to us about his meeting with Alekhine:

C.N. 4203 recalled that D.J. Morgan’s son is the eminent historian Kenneth O. Morgan, now Lord Morgan, and we expressed gratitude to him for sending us the following memoir:

As recorded in C.N.s 4907 and 5191, Lord Morgan’s many books include biographies of the British politicians Michael Foot and James Callaghan. Both volumes mention the subjects’ interest in chess.

In C.N. 4724 Lord Morgan presented a photograph of his father (on the left), at the prize-giving ceremony of a bowls tournament in Aberystwyth, circa 1966:

The present article concludes with some further ‘Morganisms’ (our term in C.N. 1284) which we have quoted over the years. In each case the exact source in the BCM is indicated:

• ‘We cannot enter into a discussion on the relative merits of our present-day players. The best-known are not always the best. The best-known bowls player is Drake – we can’t vouch for his skill.’ (March 1954, page 83)

• ‘There is, of course, no such thing as “the best opening”. Beginners, we have always felt, are best started on the Giuoco Piano. With established players it largely becomes a question of temperament. Some day we may have a book where openings will be divided into the phlegmatic, the choleric, the stoic, the mercuric, the ecstatic, the pacific, the philosophic, etc., etc.’ (July 1954, page 223);

• ‘A game consists essentially of a quest, a con-quest, and an in-quest.’ (January 1955, page 32);

• ‘Some combinations have a lot of depth on the surface, but deep down they are shallow.’ (February 1955, page 78);

• ‘A chessplayer died recently leaving a dozen chess clocks. The executor had quite a busy time winding up his estate.’ (January 1972, page 36);

• ‘Where you can start a chess column we have no idea. Have you tried The Pigeon Fanciers’ Gazette?’ (August 1973, page 349);

• ‘Chess, like love, is a conflict between reflexes and reflections.’ (October 1973, page 446);

• ‘“The squares on a chessboard are all equal”, says a new guide to the game. We shall just go on playing as if the discovery had not been made.’ (June 1974, page 204);

• ‘We read that So-and-so is a young player to be watched. We could name one or two older ones who should be kept under observation.’ (December 1976, page 568).

See also Chess Morganisms.

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Edward Winter is the editor of Chess Notes, which was founded in January 1982 as "a forum for aficionados to discuss all matters relating to the Royal Pastime". Since then, over 6,200 items have been published, and the series has resulted in four books by Winter: Chess Explorations (1996), Kings, Commoners and Knaves (1999), A Chess Omnibus (2003) and Chess Facts and Fables (2006). He is also the author of a monograph on Capablanca (1989).

Chess Notes is well known for its historical research, and anyone browsing in its archives will find a wealth of unknown games, accounts of historical mysteries, quotes and quips, and other material of every kind imaginable. Correspondents from around the world contribute items, and they include not only "ordinary readers" but also some eminent historians – and, indeed, some eminent masters. Chess Notes is located at the Chess History Center. Signed copies of Edward Winter's publications are currently available.