I was sorry to hear the news that Michael Basman, ‘by a very long way, the most creative chess player of his generation’ (William Hartston), has died.
He tied for first in the 1973 British championship, though lost the playoff match, played for England in the 1968 Olympiad, and became an IM in 1980, when opportunities for titles were much harder to come by. A comprehensive tribute (forwarded by John Griffin, for which many thanks) appeared at Chess.com, which had also recently featured a collection of his most notable games. These include his draws against Botvinnik, earning his praise, and Tal, in a game he could have won, and his ‘Immortal Waiting Game’ win against Ulf Andersson at Hastings 1974-75.
But he stood out for the extraordinarily provocative and eccentric openings he played. The St. George (1… a6) is perhaps the most famous, but more generally he pioneered what he called the ‘Creepy Crawly Opening’, avoiding the centre in favour of rook-pawn moves, e.g., 1. h3 and 2. a3. Examples of this with an Irish connection include his wins against Colm Daly and Niall Carton (British Championship 1990) and Mark Quinn (British Championship 1992).
These openings are far from double-edged, and usually did not lead to spectacular games. One exception was his win against Mel Ó Cinnéide in the Lloyds Bank Masters in 1993. This has come to light only relatively recently: it appeared in one of Basman’s opening books, and was added to the BritBase report on the event in July of last year, appearing in the games collection here shortly afterwards.
Position after 22… Qxc3
After a sharper then usual opening in these lines, Mel lost time with 12… Qa5?, and was lost a few moves later. In the diagrammed position, he has just played Q(d2)xc3, capturing a knight. The finish was 23. Rd7 Ng8 24. Rxb7 Qc1+ 25. Kh2 Qd2 26. Rb8+ Qd8 27. Rxd8+ Kxd8 28. Qf7 1-0.
Thank you, Sean, for your post about my brother, Michael Basman. I am Rosemary one of his two older sisters with Jeannette. I am very pleased to read the many tributes to Michael from the chess world. I hope to write on Michael’s Facebook soon and think people will be interested to know more about his life .