The British Championship, Torquay and Fawlty Towers

[Wayne Komer]

The 100th British Championship is presently taking place in Torquay. This is a seaside resort in Devon, on the south coast of England.
One could talk about its healthful climate or the fact that it was the home of Agatha Christie, but for many it was where John Cleese got the inspiration for the television series called Fawlty Towers. While staying at the Gleneagles Hotel in 1971, Cleese became fascinated with the behavior of the owner, Donald Sinclair, whom Cleese later described as “the rudest man I’ve ever come across in my life”. Thus was born Basil Fawlty and Fawlty Towers, set in Torquay.

ChessBase has a feature on the Championship with some scenes from Fawlty Towers:

http://www.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/...ay-010813.aspx

Here is an encounter between Basil and a Guest:

Guest: And another thing, I asked for a room with a view.
Basil (looking out the room window): This is the view as far as I can remember, madam; yes, yes, this is it.
Guest: When I paid for “a view”, I expect something more interesting than that.
Basil: But that is Torquay, madam.
Guest: Well, that is not good enough!
Basil: May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House perhaps; the Hanging Gardens of Babylon; herds of wildebeest, sweeping majestically..?
Guest: I expect to be able to see the sea.
Basil: You can see the sea; it is over there between the land and the sky!

Sorry, no chess, just Torquay and Basil Fawlty.

[Emil Smilovici]

Re: The British Championship, Torquay and Fawlty Towers

Mr. Hamilton: Would you make me a Waldorf Salad?
Basil Fawlty: [having never heard of it] I beg your pardon?
Mr. Hamilton: Get me a Waldorf Salad.
Basil Fawlty: Well, I think we just ran out of Waldorfs!

[Wayne Komer]

Re: The British Championship, Torquay and Fawlty Towers

That is where I learned that a Waldorf Salad has celery, apples, walnuts and grapes, dressed in mayonnaise. Never had one yet though.

[Kenneth Regan]

Re: The British Championship, Torquay and Fawlty Towers

I played a British Chess league match for Oxford at Torquay in February once. It was warm and sunny there, and the sight of a palm tree was amazing. I don't remember how I or the team did that day; the other thing I remember was a horde of soccer fans boarding the train on our way back.

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Re: The British Championship, Torquay and Fawlty Towers

I played a British Chess league match for Oxford at Torquay in February once. It was warm and sunny there, and the sight of a palm tree was amazing....

We have indigenous palm trees in Canada. Or, at least, where they grow. Any idea where?

[Wayne Komer]

Re: The British Championship, Torquay and Fawlty Towers

Well, my first guess was Maple Bay, B.C.!

But, I couldn’t resist googling and found lots of pictures at:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=184734

The copy says:

Yes, there are palm trees in Canada, but of course they are along the west coast of BC, mostly along the east side of Vancouver Island (Victoria and Nanaimo) the Vancouver area and the sunshine coast north of Vancouver. They are primarily the windmill palm, but there are also Cordylines and two species of banana. I believe in the mildest areas there are a few other varieties that are able to survive as well, but they require more attention than the ones listed above.

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Re: The British Championship, Torquay and Fawlty Towers

Yeah, you pretty well got it Wayne. Just add the southern Gulf Islands as well. There are also lots of little micro-climates that are warmer than the average.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: The British Championship, Torquay and Fawlty Towers

August 5, 2013

The British Championship 1946 – Nottingham

Dark Horse Winner - Robert Forbes Combe

This interesting story from ChessBase:

http://www.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/...ne-050813.aspx

After an eight-year hiatus, players assembled at Nottingham University, happy that normality and good order could now be resumed. The event was still being run on its original format of an invitational 12 player American, and when the Scottish Association submitted the name of Robert Forbes Combe, the organisers advised them to think again and come up with someone more suitable to face up to the likes of Alexander, Golombek, Winter, Wood, Wade, Broadbent et al.

It would be tempting to suggest that Combe was an unknown, even in Elgin, had it not been for his legendary loss in four moves at the 1933 Folkestone International, when he played as a 21 yr. old last minute substitute.

Combe - Hasenfuss, Folkestone Chess Olympiad, Round 3, June 14, 1933
1.d4 c5 2.e4 cxd4 3.Nf3 e5 4.Nxe5? Qa5+ and White resigned since he loses his knight.

In addition to this notoriety, he had no track record at this level, hadn’t played chess of any sort for seven years and had a very weak heart which would be likely to affect his play in a tough tournament. Yet the SCA stuck to their guns and insisted he play.

The result was a sensation. In round one he played Alexander, the previous champion and odds-on favourite to retain his title and beat him.

A surprise this may have been to the unwary and unknowing, but it was no fluke, as Combe carved his way through the field, until he reached the penultimate round two points clear and could afford to relax with a draw against Winter to become, as Wood put it, …”the darkest horse who has ever won the British Championship”.

In reality, Combe possessed a very large collection of tournament books and whiled away long winter evenings by his fireside playing through hundreds of master games. This was his only British Championship and Folkstone was his only international – what a contrast! His heart finally gave out, dying in Aberdeen in 1952, aged just 39. His BCM obituarist, W. A. Fairhurst, wrote ”He was a very great chess-player… and it is probable he possessed the greatest chess brain of any British player of the last 20 years”.