J. J. Walsh’s column in the Irish Times recently reached No. 15,000, and the milestone has been noted by an article, “15,000 and counting – our record-breaking chess correspondent passes another major milestone” by Frank McNally in the paper on June 14, and by a radio interview with Miriam O’Callaghan on RTÉ Radio yesterday (link; 17 minutes). Congratulations!
To commemorate the milestone, three games of his from the Hastings Premier Reserve ‘A’ in 1959-60 have been added to the archives here; at present, none of these appears in the ICU games archive.
J. J. was a regular at the Hastings events. In this one, he started with a loss and a draw, but scored 4½ points in his next five games, including three in a row against the section runner-up H. J. Döhner of Frankfurt, the section winner Clifford G. Tayar of Birmingham, and Arthur Hall, Oxford University’s board 3. A draw and a loss in the last two games left J. J. with joint 3rd-4th place on 5½/9, still his best result since 1953.
The game against Tayar was a miniature. From the diagram, Tayar erred with 18… Nd5? (after 18… Rfd8, White is a little better), and was punished via 19. Nxh6+! gxh6 20. Qxh6. After 20… f6? (White is winning even after the much more resilient 20… f5 21. Rd3 f4) 21. Rd3 Rf7 22. Rg3+ Rg7 23. Qh7+, Black resigned.
18… ?
Tayar was joint British Boys’ champion in 1955, and played for England in the Glorney Cup in 1953.