Michael John Basman is an English

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 player, chess author and International Master. He was awarded the International Master title in 1980. He is a prolific writer, who has made many contributions to the field of chess opening

Chess opening

A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...

s, and is particularly known for frequently choosing bizarre or rarely played openings in his own games, including the St. George Defence (with which English Grandmaster Tony Miles

Tony Miles

Anthony John Miles was an English chess Grandmaster.- Early achievements in chess :Miles was born in Edgbaston, a suburb of Birmingham...

 once famously defeated the then World Champion Anatoly Karpov

Anatoly Karpov

Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...

), the Grob

Grob's Attack

Grob's Attack is an unconventional chess opening where White immediately moves the king knight's pawn two squares ahead:-Discussion:The opening takes its name from Swiss International Master Henri Grob who analyzed it extensively and played hundreds of correspondence games with it...

 (for Black and White) and also The Creepy Crawly, which is a3, then h3 followed by a quick c4. Possibly his greatest tournament success was when tying for first place in the British Chess Championship

British Chess Championship

The British Chess Championship is organised by the English Chess Federation. There are separate championships for men and women. Since 1923 there have been sections for juniors, and since 1982 there has been an over-sixty championship. The championship venue usually changes every year and has been...

 tournament of 1973, although he was to lose the play-off match with William Hartston

William Hartston

William Roland Hartston is an English chess player who played competitively from 1962 to 1987 with a highest Elo rating of 2515...

.
In 1975 England contested a match over ten boards against France in Luton. Basman played Board One, ahead of future super Grandmasters Nunn and Speelman.
He created the UK Chess Challenge

UK Chess Challenge

The UK Chess Challenge is an annual four-stage chess competition for school-age children from the United Kingdom. Michael Basman is credited with creating the original challenge back in 1996 and is still closely connected with the competition...

, a tournament for juniors of all standards and ages progressing over four stages.

Basman's father was an Armenian

Armenians

Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....

 immigrant who changed the family name from Basmadjian. His family knew the singer Cleo Laine

Cleo Laine

Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth, DBE is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range...

, who worked as a babysitter for the young Michael.

External links