Three days later, on December 12th, an escorting destroyer HMS Duchess, sunk after a collision with battleship HMS Barham in heavy fog with the loss of 124 men.
On December 13th the Battle of the River Plate took place between HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax, HMNZS Achilles and the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, forcing the latter to be scuttled a few days later.
On December 18th, the Battle of the Heligoland Bight took place when the Royal Air Force made a daylight mission to attack German ships in the Heligoland Bight, but they were repulsed by Luftwaffe fighters.
Despite the effects of war with its blackouts and rationing there was still considerable chess activity in England.
The National Chess Centre was opened in London in December of 1939, albeit on a smaller scale than had originally been hoped for, but it had 360 members. The National Chess Centre's advertisement stated the club had a “Large and well-appointed Air Raid Shelter on the premises."
The Centre got off to a good start by staging an invitational tournament in Hampstead that had a good entry.
Hampstead is an affluent residential community to the north of London that has meadows and woodlands and has long favored by academics, artists and media figures.
Not many games from this long forgotten tournament are available, but below is one of them. William Ritson-Morry (September 5, 1910 – January 8, 1994, 83 years old) was British Correspondence Champion in 1942 and was responsible for conceiving the idea of a World Junior Championship. The first such event was held in Birmingham, England in 1951. It was won by Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia.
Sir Philip Stuart Milner-Barry (September 20, 1906 – March 25, 1995, 88 years old) worked in the British Civil Service and was never able to devote all his time to chess. He was part of the team that worked at Bletchley Park, alongside famed cryptanalyst and mathematician Alan Turing and British players C.H.O’D. Alexander and Harry Golombek cracking the German Enigma codes. After the war he worked for the Treasury and in 1954 he was promoted to Assistant Secretary and then to an under-secretary.
The other player who tied for first, Imre Konig (1901-1992, 91 years old) was born in Gyula, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. After the First World War he became a Yugoslav citizen. In 1938 he emigrated to England and became a naturalized citizen in 1949. However, in 1953 he moved to the San Francisco area in California.
What I like about the following game is the way Milner-Barry ruthlessly mopped up after Ritson-Morry mistakenly opened up the K-side and allowed black’s pieces to invade down the h-file and use the e5 square to penetrate into the guts of white’s position.
W. Ritson-Morry–P.S. Milner-Barry0–1A00Hampstead Invitational1939Stockfish 15.1
Nimzo-Indian 1.d4 f6 2.c4 e6 3.c3 b4 4.a3 xc3+ 5.bxc3 0-0 6.c2 d6 7.e4 e5 7...c6 8.d3 e5 9.e2 b6 10.0-0 d7 11.f4 f6 favors white.
Hirneise,J (2277)-Escalona Landi,S (2218) chess.com INT 2023 8.d3 c5 9.d5 9.e2 c6 10.d5 e7 11.f3 d7 12.h4 b6 13.g4 with good arracking
chances. Capablanca,J-Ragozin,V Moscow 1935 9...e8 This serves no real
purpose and limits black's prospects. 9...h5 is more active. 10.e2 f6 11.f3 f4 12.xf4 exf4 13.d2 h4+ White is only slightly better. 10.e2 bd7 11.f3 h5 12.e3 f6 13.d2 This prevents ...Nf4 h6 14.g3 After
previously preventing it, white now wrongly allows black to play ...Nf4 14.0-0 g5 15.g3 with equal chances. 14...f4 15.xf4 This is wrong because
the N gets a good outpost on e5 and black's K-side attacking chances gain
momentum. Keep an eye on this e5 square! It's occupation will prove of great
importance. White keeps the balance with 15.h4 exf4 16.e2 e5 17.0-0-0
The K heads for the safety of the Q-side...but is it really safe there? 17.xf4 is met by xf4 18.xf4 xd3+ 17...g5 18.h4 g7 19.h2 d7 20.f1 20.dh1 h8 21.b1 Oddly, white cannot afford multiple exchanges by opening
the h-file. 21.hxg5 hxg5 22.xh8 xh8 23.xh8 xh8 24.c2 h6 25.e1 a4+ 26.b2 xd3+ wins 21...ag8 After some cat and mouse maneuvering
black will find making progress difficult. FOr example... 22.a2 f8 23.b1 b6 24.bh1 g6 25.h5 e5 20...h8 21.g3 This opens up the position and
leaves white lost. Shuffling his K with 21.Kb1 and awaiting developments was a
reasonable alternative as it would force black to try and figure out a way to
break through. fxg3 22.hxg5 22.xg3 wasn't any better. xd3+ 23.xd3 f4+ 24.d2 xg3 25.hxg5 h3 26.gxh6+ xh6 27.ff2 g6 28.b2 h8 29.b3 g1 Black is making inroads into white's position and the result will prove
fatal. 30.a4 b1+ 31.b2 31.a3 f1 31...g1 32.xb1 xb1+ 33.c2 e1 34.d2 34.a5 a1 34...a1 etc. 22...hxg5 23.xh8 xh8 White is now
totally lost. All that's left is for Milner-Barry to mop up which he does with
great efficiency 24.f4 g2 25.d1 f3 26.fxg5 e5 27.e3 g1 28.xg1 xc3+ The arrival of the Q will cause havoc to white's position. 29.b1 b3+ 30.c1 xa3+ 31.b1 b3+ 32.c1 h2 33.e2 a4 34.f1 e5 Black mates.
Notice the role e5 has played for the N and the Q. 35.d2 b2+ 36.e1 b4+
White resigned. 36...b4+ 37.c3 xc3+ 38.d2 xd2# 0–1
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