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Event: 76th Varsity Match • Venue: RAC, Pall Mall, London • Date: 22 March 1958
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Monday March 18, 2024 9:52 AM
The 76th Varsity Chess Match between Oxford University and Cambridge University was held at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall, London, on 22 March 1958. Start time 10.00am. All game scores from this match are available.
| 1957« 1958 Varsity Chess Match »1959 | ||||
| Bd | Oxford University | 1958 | Cambridge University | Opening |
| 1b | John Maxwell Bailey (Queen's) | 0-1 | John Dudley Taylor (Caius) | Two Knights Def |
| 2w | David John Richards (Magdalen) | 1-0 | Malcolm Frank Collins (Selwyn) | Nimzo-Indian |
| 3b | William Stanley Deeth (St Peter's Hall) | 0-1 | Michael Davis (Trinity) | French |
| 4w | Arthur Hall (Queen's) | 0-1 | Kenneth William Lloyd (Selwyn) | King's Indian Attack |
| 5b | Ralph Hollinghurst (Keble, capt) | ½-½ | Brian Medhurst (Trinity) | Sicilian |
| 6w | Robert James Ball (Queen's) | 0-1 | Derek Thomas Anthony Lamport (Pembroke) | Sicilian |
| 7b | Fernando Garcia-Oldini Camino (Magdalen) | 0-1 | (Robert) Colin Kennedy (Queens') | French |
| 1½-5½ | ||||
Sources: Oxford-Cambridge Chess Matches (1873-1987), compiled by Jeremy Gaige, Philadelphia 1987; The Times, 24 March 1958; The Guardian, 24 March 1958; BCM, May 1958, p128; CHESS, 20 April 1958.
Notes
[BCM, May 1958, p128] "Cambridge scored a decisive 5½-1½ win over Oxford in their annual encounter, which took place at the Royal Automobile Club, London, W.1, on March 22nd. The detailed results are as follow (Cambridge having White on the odd-numbered boards)" [results] "According to the records this is the seventy-fourth match but doubt has arisen regarding some of the 1939-45 war matches. An investigation by club officers is being carried out to determine exactly which of the war matches were official and should in consequence be included in the series, and which were simply informal events." [board 1 game]
[The Times, 24 March 1958, p5] "UNIVERSITY CHESS MATCH - DECISIVE VICTORY FOR CAMBRIDGE - FROM A CHESS CORRESPONDENT The annual Oxford-Cambridge Universities chess match played at the Royal Automobile Club, W., on Saturday resulted in an unexpectedly decisive victory for Cambridge with five wins to one with one game drawn. It seems uncertain whether this was the seventy-fourth or seventy-sixth match. Between 1873 and 1939 inclusive Cambridge won 29 matches to Oxford's 26 while eight were drawn. The total in 1957 was 75 matches played, Oxford 32 wins, Cambridge 31 wins and 12 matches drawn. Last year’s match was regarded by all as the seventy-third match, and plans were being made to celebrate the 1959 match as a seventy-fifth anniversary. An investigation by club officers is being carried out to determine exactly how many matches have been played." [Followed by all eight match games]
[The Guardian, 24 March 1958, p6] "UNIVERSITY CHESS - Decisive win by Cambridge - By our Chess Correspondent - Cambridge scored a decisive 5½-1½ win against Oxford in the annual university chess match, played in London on Saturday. [Results] Cambridge owed their victory, the biggest by either side for many years, to their superior knowledge of the opening and to the greater soundness of their play. On the top and bottom boards, Taylor and Kennedy obtained opening advantages which they exploited in first-class attacking style. Davis took full advantage of a time pressure blunder by Deeth, and Lloyd was equally convincing in dealing with a premature attack. Cambridge’s only lucky win was on board 6, where Ball outplayed Lamport and won a pawn, but relaxed and allowed his opponent a decisive attack. The complicated draw on board 5 was the most exciting game of all: both players became very short of time, and each in turn failed to make the most of his advantage."
[CHESS, 20 April 1958, p226]: "The Cambridge captain has established with fair certainty that recent statements to the effect that Oxford have not been ahead for sixty years are erroneous. The first two contests after the war, which went 1½-½ in Oxford's favour, had been overlooked. So scores over the series are now level."
Worthing Herald - Friday 28 March 1958: "Chemistry student Michael Davis, of St. Wilfred’s-road, was a member of the Cambridite University chess team that defeated Oxford 5½-1½ on Saturday. Davis, brother of Worthing table tennis champion Rosalind Davis, won his match."
Oxford Past v Cambridge Past, 29 March 1958, London
| Bd | Oxford Past | 1958 | Cambridge Past |
| 1b | Leonard William Barden (Balliol) | 0-1 | (Philip) Stuart Milner-Barry (Trinity) |
| 2w | James Macrae Aitken (Balliol) | 0-1 | Alan Phillips (Magdalene) |
| 3b | John Warcup Cornforth (St Catherine's) | 1-0 | Dr Oliver Penrose (King's) |
| 4w | Nicholas Anthony Perkins (St John's) | 0-1 | Jonas Birnberg (Queens') |
| 5b | William Edward Cole Richards (Hertford) | 1-0 | David Edward Lloyd (Caius) |
| 6w | Edward Leslie Stuart (Merton) | 1-0 | Henry Alec Samuels (Magdalene) |
| 7b | John Anthony Wall (Balliol) | 1-0 | Anthony George Conrad Paish (Caius) |
| 8w | William Ernest Baker Pryer (Pembroke) | ½-½ | Richard William Barnes Clarke (Clare) |
| 9b | Dermot Michael Macgregor Morrah (New) | ½-½ | John Matthias Bee (St Catharine's) |
| 10w | Michael James Albery (Exeter) | 0-1 | Victor Tarnofsky (Downing) |
| 11b | David le Brun Jones (Trinity) | 1-0 | Eric Augustus Coad-Pryor (Trinity) |
| 12w | Thomas Ivor Casswell (Pembroke) | 0-1 | John Robert Gilbert (St Catharine's) |
| 6-6 |
Sources: BCM, May 1958, p128; The Guardian, 10 April 1958: BCM gives Cambridge bottom board as "D. J. Gilbert" but this is probably a typo/mistake.
The Times, 31 March 1958, p6: "OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE PLAYERS DRAW • Oxford University "Past" and Cambridge University "Past" drew their annual chess match over 12 boards in London on Saturday.
"Oxford lost the two top board games, L. W. Barden on board one losing to P. S. Milner-Barry in 25 moves and Dr. J. M. Aitken losing to A. Phillips. J. A. Wall, the blind Oxford player, manoeuvred the pieces finely to emerge from a difficult opening position and arrived by exchanges at a winning queen and pawn ending.
"The doyen of these matches is the Rev. W. R. Greenhalgh, who attended as the Cambridge reserve. He started his university chess career in 1902, won his chess Blue in 1904, and played in the combined Anglo-American Universities’ cabled matches before the First World War."
Manchester Guardian, 10 April 1958 (Leonard Barden): "Aitken-Phillips. The Ruy Lopez is considered one of the strongest openings, largely because of the prolonged scope for manoeuvre which it gives to a player with a strategical flair. Inaccuracies by White, however, are liable to be violently punished, mainly because the locked state of the centre pawns in most variations of the opening can be broken up by a well-timed counter attack by Black.
"The following game from the match between past members of Oxford and Cambridge Universities is a good example: Phillips, who tied for the British championship in 1954, is one of our best exponents of the open game, and it is a pity that has tournament appearances are so rare."