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The Agar chess set
The Ager chessmen form the most wonderful medieval set, one of the oldest extant in Europe. They can be traced back in time to the will of Ersenda d'Ager wife of Count Arnau Mir de Tost in 1068. Arnau was a powerful and mighty knight in Northern Spain who re-conquered Ager from the Saracens. The material, rock crystal, points clearly to a foreign origin, because this kind of carving is considered a typical production of the Fatimid Egyptians. Islamic pieces, unlike their European counterparts, are never figurative. The abstract Islamic design reinforces the assumption that these chess sets were not produced in Urgell, but imported from a Muslim zone. Of the original 96 pieces from the 11th century, only 33 have survived the ravages of time, war and plunder. The Emir of Kuwait has 14 of them in his private collection and a further 19 were donated to a Spanish museum.
Howard Staunton (1810-1874)
Staunton was recognised as the strongest player of his era after overcoming French rival Saint-Amant in 1843 in what is now widely regarded as the unofficial first World Championship.
He organised and promoted the great London tournament of 1851 hosted at Simpsons in the Strand . This event established England as the world's leading chess centre and the German Adolf Anderssen as his successor as the strongest player. Staunton was rather ungracious at Anderssen's unexpected success and effectively retired from top level chess. His sour humour was summed up in his writing:
'Chess never was, and while society exists, never can be a profession. It may to a great extent strengthen the mind of the professional man, but it must never become the object of his life. It is because its true character has been lost sight of by the zealous or the mercenary, that victory at any cost has become a more important object than the advancement of the science.'
Staunton understood positional play far better than his contemporaries, gave his name to the Staunton Gambit (1.d4 f5 2.e4) and often deployed 1.c4 leading to it being titled the English Opening.
He promoted standardisation of the shape of chess pieces to his own design which led to the Staunton pattern becoming the predominant set used today.
Dr. Jonathan Penrose GM, OBE (1933- )
Penrose was born into a chess playing family and took up the game as a young child. By the age of 14 he was the British U18 Boys champion and as an adult won the British Chess Championship on a record 10 occasions between 1958 and 1969. He prioritised his academic career in psychology and remained an amateur but was strong enough to represent England in 10 Chess Olympiads between 1952 and 1970. Poor health influenced his decision to give up playing over the board chess in favour of correspondence chess in which he excelled.
He is pictured here playing white on top board for England v USSR at the 1960 Olympiad in Leipzig; the game is famous for his defeat of World Champion Mikhail Tal using a variation of the Modern Benoni that is named after this encounter. This was the first defeat of a reigning World Champion by a British player since Blackburne beat Lasker in 1899.
For his career achievements Penrose was retrospectively awarded the Grand Master title by FIDE in 1993. He was awarded the OBE in 1971.
The table shows the performance of Rainham players in both ECF Grading Performance & absolute terms for matches played for the club in the 2018/19 season.
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