ee Dignified Gentleman Mohan Thakurdas Babur 1924-2018 Obituary Indian chess has just lost its oldest link with its distant past. Mohan Thakurdas Babur born 31 October 1924 in Karachi, passed away on 11th November 2018 in Dubai. He was 04 Babur had played in the [very first National Champion- ship in Eluru in 1955 where he finished 9th among 36 players. Then he played in the 1963 Na- tional Championship and five National “A” Championships during 1972-78. He won the 1973 National "B’, Champion- ship, the qualifier to the “A”, in 1973. A prolific winner of Open Tournaments, Babur won seven of the 11 editions of the Captain Ranade Memorial in Pune. He was also a frequent prize winner at the S.K.Vaidya ‘Memorial Opens in Sangli, [winning it in 1971, Like quite a fow of his con- ‘temporaries he played a lot of Correspondence Chess (CC) Jand went on to win the 1966-67 ‘National CC Championship jointly with Satish C Anddy of Caleutta, During the 1970s he took to chess organisation by assist- ing the then famous Tourna- ‘ment Director, Mark W Nelson (1920-1985), in conducting many of Bombay's chess tornaments. Both men were \ueavy smokers, Babur gave up smoking in 1996 when a grand- child asked him, “Dada, why do you smoke?" He never smoked again. In the 1980s he was with his children who did business in UAB and lived in Sharjah. He was appointed Coach of the Sharjah Cultural and Chess Club to train young Arab boys in chess. When some of those boys went to Switzerland to play chess during the summer holidays, Babur wae sent along. He worked with the club for 3 years training talented children and conducting local and international tourna- ments. After quitting the Club, he joined his children’s busi- He leaves behind a great legacy of three sons (one son predeceased him), two daugh-, 10 CHESS MATE * November 2018 www.chess-mate.com/shop.fers, 11 grandchildren (of whom 10 are married!) and 14 great grandchildren. Babur was born in Karachi which was an Indian port city till 1947. When India was par- titioned following Independ- ence in 1947, Karachi became a Pakistani port city overnight. Babur, then a young man of 23 and his family, realised that they had to get to their roots in India to survive the killings and anarchy of those dreadful days in the newly born Paki« stan, Because of the traumatie experience of migration, Babur lay low for a whole year after landing in Ahmodabad, Im Karachi, Babur had learned native chess, known as“Indian Chess”. In Ahmedabad where he started a laundry business, hhe learned modern chess and soon became a very strong player and the champion of Ahmedabad. Later, he moved to Bombay and continued with his aun- dry business for a few more years. There he became one of /Maharashtra's and India’s strongest players. Babur was a soft spoken, dignified gentleman all his life I remember him as a pleas- ant, elderly and friendly gen- ‘tleman with a benign mileand a cigarette in his hand who never had a problem with other players or officials. M.T.Babur-B.D.Alurkar Queen Pawn DOS (Ahmedabad Invitation , 1955 wwe chess-mate-comiehop This game against B.D.Alurkar (1896-1960) got Babur the first Brillianey prize, This tournament was held to select the Indian team to the 1956 Chess Olympiad in Moscow. 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 b6 3.e8 Bb7 4.Bd3 e6 5.Nbd2 d5 6.0-0 Nbd7 7.Rel cS 8.c3 exdd 9.exd4 Bd6 10.Ne5 Qe7 11.f4 0-0 12.Qf3 Rfe8 13.84 NfB 14.g5 N6d7 15.Qh5 Ng6 16.Ndf3 Ndf8 17.Ba2 a6 18.h4 Rad8 19.Kf2 b5 20.03, Qe7 21.Qg4 White has pre- pared an elaborate attack and is now threatening h4-h5. 21...Bxe5 22.fxe5 Nd 23.h5 Negf® 24.26 £5 25.Q¢3 h6 26.Ng5!! Nbé [26...hxg5 27.Bxg5 Nf6 28.exf6 gxi6 29.Bf4 winning.) 27.Nf7! Res 28.Bxh6! Nxg6 29.hxg6 gxh6 30.Nxhé+ Kg7 31.Nf7 Rg 32.Rh1 Lost on time 1-0, M.T.Babur - Dr J.Stein Colle Dos National Corres CC , 1954 L.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6'3.03 05 4.¢83 Nba7 5.Nbd2 Qc7 6.Ba3 g6 Ted dxed 8.Nxed Nxed 9.Bxe4 Nf 10.Be2 Bd7? An utterly passive move. Better (CHESS MATE * November 2018 11fas 10.. BgT or 10..Bg4 11.NeS exd82! 13.Qxdd! BbS 13.Bad Qas 14.Bb3! 6”? 15.Nxg6! hxg6 16.Qxf6 Rh7 17.Bg5 Qc7 18.0-0-0 Bg7 19.Qf4 Bed 20.Qb4 Beé 21.Ba4s Rb8 22.f41+ Brad 23.Qxa4+ b5 24.Qe4 Bd6 25.Rd3 Be7 26.Bxe7 Qxe7 27.Qc6+ Kf8 28.Rd7! Qe 29.Rhd1! 1-0. Rafiq Khan-Moban Babur Sicilian Bab National A, Calcutta 1976 Led 05 2.Nf3 Ne6 3.d4 exdd 4.Nxdd Nf6 5.Ne3 e6 6.Ndbs Bb4 7.Nd6+ KeT! |S.B& e5 9.NfS+ KE8 10.Bg5 |d5 11.03 Bxc3+ 12.bxc3 Qas |13.Ng3 Qxc3+ 14.Bd2 Qed 15. [Bad Bed 16.Qb1 Rd8 17.exd5 | @xd5 18.0-0 e4 19.Bb4+ Kz8 |20.Be2 Bxe? 21, Nxe2 h6 22. Bo3 Ned 23.h3 Need 24.NE4 | New Arrivals 24...NEBH 25.Kh1 Qg6 26. Nod? [Better was: 26.Qe1 Nfdd 2T-Rb1 b6 28.Rel {54) 26..Nh4 27.23 Qf5 28.Ng1 NfB [28...c8! 29.gxh4 exf2 30.Qb3 Kh7 31.Qc4 Rhes—+) 29.Qxb7 Rd6* 30.Q¢7 Re6 31.Qf4 Qxfd 32.gxf4 Nod4 33. Bud4 Nxd4 34.03 Nb335.Ra2 Kh7 86.Rdi Re8 37. Ne2 Nes 38.Ng3 Nd3 39.Nxe4 Nxft 40.Rd7 {5 41.RE7 Red 42.Ng3 Nxh3 43. RxfS Nxf2+! 44, Raxf2 Rxg3 45.Ra5 Rexc3 46.Rxa7 Rxa3 47.Rxa3 Rxa3 ‘The remaining moves arc given for the records. 48.Kg2 LS 49.RE5 g6 50.Rb5 Kh6 51. Reb hé 52.Kh2 g5 53.Re6+ KAS 54. Re5 RES 55.Ke2 REG 56.Kh3 Rf3+ 57.Kg2 Red 58.Rb5 Kgd 59.Rbd+ KS 60. RbS+ Kfd 61.Rbd+ Red 62. Rb? Rdd 63.Ra2 g4 64. Rb2 Red 65.Ra2 hi+ 66. Kh? K¢s 67.Rai Re2+ 68.Khi g3 69.RbI Rf 70.Kgi Kgs 0-1 Encyclopaedia of Chess Problems Rs.3300 Post free. From Chess Informant. For chess problem solving lov- | ers. All kinds of items in problems. Hard bound. Price | Rs.3300. 1726 positions (diagram) and 520 large pages. Ten year Chess Mate + ECP book offer for Rs.4550. Do not miss out on this. SMS 9840053199 www.chess-mate.com/chop CHESS MATE" November 2018 12