A Treasure of British inventive Chess - IM Michael Basman

Hi all

RIP Michael Basman (16 March 1946 – 26 October 2022)

A great British inventor on the chess board and off it with the UK Chess Challenge. Basman was known for choosing very rarely played openings including the St George Defence, the Grob (which he played against me once), the Creepy Crawly (a3 followed by h3). The featured game is a reverse "Creepy Crawly". He tied first in the British Chess Championship of 1973, although lost the play off to William Hartston - who you may know from Gogglebox on the TV. (Wiki has more info - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Basman )

Here is his game vs Simon Bibby in the British Championship of 1990

The Opening starts with:

A very surprising first move. More to come!

The threat to fianchetto both bishops has been waved to White

White still dares to construct a center - pawns don't go backwards

First strike to the center - can be amplified with Bg7 later

Black is developing pieces very well and creatively

The Queen is on the look out for tactics

POW!

POW!

No Bxf7+ trick allowed!

White resigns

Video annotation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_o1D_T3f9g

British Championship Triumph - 1st equal - 1973

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?page=3&tid=46514

Key takeaway points

• You know all those openings you shouldn't play as a beginner, are actually dangerous if you become a good chess player
• A good chess player can destroy the opponent after the opening phase
• If the opening phase gives you piece activity, then there is hope. if there is hope, then there can be tactics if the opponent blunders
• Michael Basman was an exceptionally creative entrepreneurial player
• Yes, I did buy his audio cassette tapes years back on the Macho Grob etc - very instructive positionally and tactically :)

I hope you enjoyed this blog :). Any likes and follows are really appreciated. Also, I also have some interesting chess courses at https://kingscrusher.tv to check out.
Cheers, K