Jonathan Penrose (1933-2021)
Jonathan Penrose was born in Colchester on 7th October 1933 and, after learning the game at the age of four, he showed early chess promise and won the British Under 18 Championship while only 14. At Southsea 1950 he beat both Efim Bogoljubow and Savielly Tartakower, but despite these early successes he remained an amateur throughout his life. The Penrose family was academically gifted; his father Lionel was a geneticist and his sister Shirley had a distinguished medical career, while brothers Oliver and Roger went into physics, the latter winning the Nobel prize in 2020. There was also a strong chess thread in the family; for example, Lionel was a strong player and composed both problems and endgame studies. Jonathan himself gained a doctorate and lectured in psychology.
His career meant that his chess appearances were fewer than they might have been, but he was able to compete frequently at Hastings and especially in the British Championship, while he turned out for England in nine Olympiads from 1952 to 1974. His results in the British Championship were outstanding, and he won the title a record ten times, while his scores in Olympiads were also generally very good. He appeared less motivated in other events, and his Hastings results were rather mediocre. He also took part in a few high-level international tournaments, his best result here being 11½/16 in the Enschede Zonal 1963, where he made a clean sweep of the bottom eight players. He was less successful at Mar del Plata 1959 (5½/15) and Palma de Mallorca 1969 (6½/17), although both these events were very strong. His most famous game is his spectacular win against Mikhail Tal at the Leipzig Olympiad 1960, at a time when Tal held the World Championship. This was the first win by a British player against a reigning world champion since 1899.
In later years the stress of playing chess caused Penrose health issues, and he collapsed during a game at the 1970 Siegen Olympiad. He continued to play intermittently and according to Mega Database the 1979 British Championship, where I had the privilege of playing him, was his last over the board tournament. Like Alexander before him, Penrose turned to correspondence chess in later years, and here he was extremely successful, topping the correspondence rating list in the period 1977-79. He gained the correspondence grandmaster title in 1983 and FIDE gave him the over the board grandmaster title in 1993.
There’s often a debate about how strong Penrose and other British players from the 1950s and 1960s really were. These days it’s hard to imagine how poor the standard of British chess was in the 1950s. Ignoring events such as the British Championship, in which they played against each other, the main test of the top players in individual events was at Hastings. But here, for example, in the three events 1954/5, 1955/6 and 1956/7, out of a total of 69 games between the British and foreign players, the Brits only managed to win two (Clarke against Toran and Persitz against Diez del Corral). The rise of Penrose was a step forward, and he was the first post-war British player to really challenge high-class European opponents.
The following game is less well-known than his win against Tal, but features an attractive king hunt.
Jonathan Penrose - Luben Popov
Enschede Zonal 1963
Sicilian Defence, Kan Variation
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Be3
A rather unusual move which poses Black fewer problems than 5.Nc3 or 5.Bd3, although transpositions are possible.
5...Nf6 6.Bd3 d5?!
A dubious move, given that Black cannot meet e5 by ...Nd7. Black can prepare the advance of the d-pawn by 6...Qc7 7.0-0 d5, but perhaps the simplest solution is 6...e5 7.Nb3 (7.Nf3 d5 is fine for Black) 7...d5 8.exd5 Nxd5 and White will struggle to prove any advantage.
7.e5 Ng8
7...Nfd7 is strongly met by 8.Nxe6 Bb4+ (8...fxe6 9.Qh5+ Ke7 10.Bg5+ Nf6 11.0-0 is very good for White) 9.c3 fxe6 10.Qh5+ g6 11.Bxg6+ hxg6 12.Qxh8+ Bf8 13.h4! followed by some combination of f4 and h5, and White has a clear advantage. The alternative 7...Ne4 8.0-0 followed by Nd2 is also unpleasant for Black.
8.Nd2 Nc6 9.f4
White has achieved a favourable type of French structure in which Black has lost considerable time.
9...Nxd4 10.Bxd4 Qc7
11.0-0
This natural move is not bad, but by opening the position immediately with 11.c4! White could have exploited Black’s poor development. The justification for this move lies in the line 11...Bc5 12.cxd5 Bxd4 13.Qa4+ Qd7 14.Qxd4 Qxd5 15.Qc3 Ne7 16.Be4 Qd8 17.Nc4, and the outpost on d6 gives White a large advantage.
11...Bc5 12.Bxc5 Qxc5+ 13.Kh1
Even in this line White retains an advantage due to his superior bishop and kingside attacking chances.
13...Ne7 14.c4
This comes too late to be effective, since Black is already about to castle. At this point White should have preferred a purely positional approach such as 14.c3 Bd7 15.a4 0-0 16.Nf3, with some advantage.
14...0-0 15.Qh5 h6 16.Rf3
Black must take care, since White has some threats on the kingside, but against accurate defence these shouldn’t amount to much.
16...dxc4
16...Bd7 17.Rg3 Kh8 was perhaps even simpler.
17.Nxc4 Nf5
White must exchange this knight if he wants to play Rg3.
18.Bxf5 Qxc4?
A serious error. Black probably didn’t like the idea of White’s knight settling on d6, but 18...exf5 19.Nd6 Qc2 20.Raf1 Be6 21.R3f2 Qd3 is not dangerous for Black. His queen and bishop are active, and it’s hard for White to do anything constructive without exchanging queens, but then Black can free himself with ...f6.
19.Bd3 Qb4 20.Rg3 Kh8 21.Qe2?
Missing an attractive forced win by 21.Rxg7! Kxg7 22.Qg4+ Kh8 23.Qh4 Kg8 24.Qxh6 f5 25.exf6 Rf7 26.Bh7+! Rxh7 27.Qg6+ Kf8 28.Qxh7 followed by Qg7+.
21...Bd7?
21...Rd8! prevents the sacrifice since the d3-bishop is now hanging, while after quieter replies Black can complete his development by ...Bd7.
22.a3?
Black has the extra tempo ...Bd7, so the sacrifice is less clear-cut than on the previous move. However, it should still win: 22.Rxg7! Kxg7 23.Qg4+ Kh8 24.Qh4 Kg8 25.Qxh6 f5 26.exf6 Rf7 27.Bg6 and now:
1) 27...Rxf6 28.Qh7+ Kf8 29.Qh8+ Ke7 30.Qg7+ wins.
2) 27...Qf8 28.Bxf7+ Kxf7 (or 28...Qxf7 29.Re1) 29.Qh7+ Ke8 30.Rd1 Bc6 31.f5! e5 32.Qg6+ Qf7 33.h4, and Black is powerless against the advance of the h-pawn.
3) 27...Raf8 28.Rd1! Qxb2 29.Qg5 Kh8 30.Qh5+ Kg8 31.Qg4 Kh8 32.Bxf7 Rxf7 33.Rxd7! Rxd7 34.Qh5+ Kg8 35.Qe8+ Kh7 36.Qxd7+ with a winning queen endgame.
22...Qa4?
22...Qe7 stops the sacrifice, but sheds a pawn after 23.Qe4 g6 24.Qxb7, so 22...Qc5! is best, when 23.Rxg7 Kxg7 24.Qg4+ Kh8 25.Qh4 f5 26.exf6 h5 is unclear.
23.Rxg7!
Third time lucky. Penrose spots the winning idea, which is even more effective than the move before, since Black’s queen is less active on a4 than on b4.
23...Kxg7 24.Qg4+ Kh8 25.Qh4 f5
25...Kg8 26.Qxh6 f5 27.exf6 Rf7 transposes.
26.exf6 Rf7 27.Qxh6+ Kg8 28.Qg6+ Kf8 29.Qh6+ Kg8 30.Qg5+ Kf8
30...Kh8 31.Re1 Bc6 32.Bg6 Raf8 33.Qh5+ Kg8 34.Re5 is also decisive.
31.Bg6! e5
Now White wins with an old-style king hunt.
32.Qh6+ Kg8 33.Bxf7+ Kxf7 34.Qg7+ Ke6
35.Qe7+ Kd5
35...Kf5 36.Qxe5+ Kg6 37.Qg5+ Kf7 38.Re1 also leads to mate.
36.Qxe5+ Kc4 37.Rc1+ Kb3 38.Qc3+ Ka2 39.b4 1-0