G.M. Jonathan Penrose. O.B.E. A Belated Tribute.

Before I begin, I will point you in the direction of two obituaries well worth reading.

One by his friend, rival and team mate, the great Leonard Barden, who played a part in his most famous day. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/dec/02/jonathan-penrose-obituary  

And one via the outstanding work being done by British Chess News. https://britishchessnews.com/2021/11/30/remembering-dr-jonathan-penrose-obe/   

O.K. Let us begin.

Just in time to be too late, as the saying goes. I have been asked a number of times to write about the 10 times British Champion Jonathan Penrose, but it one of many projects which I started to research but never put on to the page. I am rather ashamed that I did not get round to it during his lifetime, to be honest, but here is what I can put together in an afternoon. Like the man himself I have things to do in life other than chess, and I know he would understand.

Thanks to Pete Doggers' obituary being featured here, many on this site will be aware of the passing of G.M. Jonathan Penrose. Someone joked recently along the lines of '10 British titles and his own academic career left him as the under achiever of the family!'

Indeed, I have commented elsewhere on the extraordinary Penrose family. A quick look at Wikipedia, etc will turn up all you need to know on that score, going back before his siblings and parents.

Amongst all the incredible achievements of the family, they were also a chess playing one. His Mother, Father and brother Oliver were strong players in their own right, but the chess in the family goes back further than that. The papers left by his father contain 2 chess notebooks, which go back to the Divan in the 19th century, including a couple of games against  'The American Champion' James Mason. 

You can find them here.  https://wellcomecollection.org/works/fyy73hz9  

Indeed, before going off to be one of the greats in his field, his brother Oliver was one of the bright lights of young British chess talent. One nice game via Britbase.

As a junior, Jonathan was standout as well, becoming British Boys ( i.e. under 18 ) champion at just 13, I think. 

The young man, via British Chess news.

As Mr. Barden notes Penrose was fond of the Goring Gambit, so an early example, via John Saunders' Britbase.

Let's get to his incredible record in the British Championships - he basically owned the title for over a decade. His ten wins surpassed the nine of the great Henry Atkins.https://www.chess.com/blog/simaginfan/henry-atkins-an-introduction 

To top and tail it. For reasons  that will become clear, I will start with his 10th and final win.

His opponent in this game is made to look very bad, but he was a seriously good player!

And the game that effectively ensured his record breaking 10th title. It's a beautiful game!

O.K. let's backtrack a bit. A game from his first title win, the opening line will come up later.

He won his first title via a play off with Leonard Barden. The decisive game was this one.

That links nicely into Penrose's most famous game, which is no doubt all over the internet at the moment. Tal's only loss as World Champion prior to the 1961 title match, and the only loss suffered by the USSR in the tournament.

Mr. Barden's story of the game via ecforums.org

There is a picture from the game available via many sources, so will throw it in here.

I think Pete Doggers has posted his win against Euwe. Mr. Barden has noted his game against Fischer, where he agreed a draw in a winning position in horrendous time trouble with 5 moves to the time control. What a shame!

From memory, in the next Olympiad he made the equal best score on top board with Najdorf, but I haven't checked that!

As I say, you can go look at his win vs Euwe, but that was not his only win against the great man.

O.K. Now to the bit that most of you will ignore. The various obituaries noted will tell you that he was a fine correspondence player. as a former c.c. player perhaps I can expand on that. He was a truly magnificent c.c. player - one of the very best ever.

If you think I am over stating thing for the sake of this article, you are wrong. In 2002 a book was published - ICCF Gold.

In there you can find a list of the highest rated c.c. players of all time, and Penrose is at number 4 in the list. he would have been a world champion, but for the presence of perhaps the greatest of them all. the astonishing Mikhail Umansky Kind of like being all time number 4, and not being World Champion because you didn't get past Carlsen or Kasparov.

He led the British team to first place in the 9th c.c. Olympiad. That was ahead of the USSR, who had the wonderful Zagorovsky on board one, and one of the great legends Omelchenko down on board 6!! In my view, the greatest ever result by a British team. (other opinions noted!)

For me, his greatest performance was in the previous Olympiad. He was down on board 4. You have to remember that all the teams had to qualify - there were no weak opponents as you will see. Let's bear in mind that in c.c. back in the days before engines the percentage of draws was higher than in o.b chess - players could work on the openings whilst the game was in progress, and short to medium range tactical errors just didn't happen at the top level.

Penrose made an utter mockery of all that, running up a score of eleven and a half out of twelve!! Just WOW!!

To make a point, in this next game his opponent - John Peter Kalish - finished equal first in the second North American c.c. Championships sharing the title with Palciauskas who went on to become World Champion a few years later. There was no 'bum of the month' opposition in this event!

O.K. Let's throw in a couple more correspondence games. Lots to chose from.

And finally one from his shot at the World Championship.

R.I.P. Jonathan Penrose. A true Grandmaster of Chess, and a true legend of Correspondence Chess.

Sorry it took me so long to get round to doing this small tribute.