Simpson’s-in-the-Strand reopens — at last
David Suchet and Jason Kouchak
Simpson’s-in-the-Strand has at last reopened after six years of silence since the Covid pandemic closed its doors, and its return reminds one that some institutions possess the curious stubbornness of English history. For nearly two centuries—first established as Simpson’s Grand Cigar Divan in 1828—it has stood upon the Strand as a landmark for chess players. London is full of places where men eat and places where men argue; but Simpson’s has long been a place where men did both at once, and did so with the calm intensity of philosophers moving wooden armies across a board.
The excitement surrounding its revival is not least felt by the new proprietor, the celebrated restaurateur Jeremy King. Indeed, he describes the strange mixture of doubt and determination that accompanied the reopening in his own words:
“I was kept enthusiastic by the sheer pleasure of the number of inquiries I receive daily in the restaurants: ‘When is Simpson’s opening?’ – ‘Will you keep the Trolleys?’ etc – which taught us just how immense the anticipation is and kept us determined. Although after a period of thinking that we would never get the project over the line, there was a very telling moment when I returned to the site one day… I was showing around my friend, hotelier & restaurateur David and as we toured the building, he kept rather quiet, just gently nodding and hardly saying a word. To the extent that when we had finished the tour, he continued to be taciturn and I had assumed he didn’t like it or think a good idea, until he turned to me and said very firmly: ‘Jeremy, this is ***** FANTASTIC!’ And as is so often the case, seeing it through the eyes of others makes the case all the more compelling – rather like seeing our home City through new eyes does too.”
The dining room that has seen more grandmasters than any other is surely Simpson’s itself. In the nineteenth century it was the world’s leading chess club, which is perhaps the most civilised arrangement ever devised: a place where roast beef and lamb carved from silver trolleys could share equal celebrity with the quiet manoeuvres of a chess match upstairs. At the top of the main staircase there remains a chessboard commemorating the great names of the game—Staunton, Anderssen, Morphy, Steinitz and Lasker. I played there myself on my fiftieth birthday and had my name added to the plaque, which is a distinction that leaves a man feeling both honoured and faintly amused.
Simpson’s was also the scene of the Immortal Game in 1851, won by Anderssen. The encounter was so astonishing that messengers hurried down the Strand with the moves so they could be telegraphed to chess enthusiasts in Paris. There is something delightfully paradoxical about a battle fought with complete stillness requiring such urgent communication.
The place attracted not only masters of calculation but men of imagination. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle regularly visited Simpson’s, and it has often been suggested that the formidable appearance of his Professor Challenger owed something to the equally formidable presence of the world champion Wilhelm Steinitz, who played there often.
During the long refurbishment the famous board and pieces were, for a time, mislocated—an event that might easily have furnished the plot of a minor detective story. Fortunately the mystery was solved by the sleuthing duo of Jason Kouchak and David Suchet—known to many as Hercule Poirot—who succeeded in unearthing the historic set.
Lasker’s name stands prominently upon the board, and I was reminded of his stature during a recent in-depth conversation with Sir Alan Fersht, Past Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Sir Alan, spoke with profound admiration for Emanuel Lasker, whom the world’s leading collector of Staunton chess sets clearly regards as primus inter pares. In that quiet Latin phrase there lies something of the spirit of Simpson’s itself: a place where great minds once met over simple boards and pieces—and where, now that the doors are open again, they may yet do so once more.
But Sir Alan, whose roll call of honours would put many a genius to shame, can trace family antecedents to the great American chess prodigy, Samuel Reshevsky; and buried amongst his academic honours, one discovers that he was the Essex County Junior champion in 1961. As well as a collector of sets, he was also a collector of scalps, as this Du Mont Best Game prize-winning masterpiece details in the most tactical of demonstrations. And this brilliance is wonderfully captured in instructive annotations by the doyen Leonard Barden.
- P. Broido vs. A. R. Fersht
London Boys’ Championship, London, 1960
notes from The Field by Leonard Barden
- e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. c3 d5 9. exd5
9… e4
Marshall’s original gambit was 9… Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Rxe5 Nf6 (11… c6 is another popular move here) 12. d4 Ng4 13. Re1 Bd6 14. h3 Qh4 15. Qf3 (if the knight is accepted, black has a winning attack beginning with 15. hxg4 Qh2+!!) 15… Nxf2. Here Capablanca saw the danger and played 16. Re2. If he had accepted the sacrifice by 16. Qxf2, then Black does not reply 16… Bg3 because of the sudden brilliancy 17. Qxf7+! Rxf7 18. Re8#, but lays first 16… Bh2+ 17. Kf1, and only now 17… Bg3 18. Qe3 Bxh3 19. gxh3 Qxh3+ 20. Kg1 Qh2+ 21. Kf1 Rae8 and wins.
- dxc6 exf3 11. Qxf3
A dangerous capture, since it enables black to increase his lead in development by attacking the queen. Preferable is 11. d4, when a game in the Madrid zonal tournament between Pachman and Neikirch continued 11… Bg4 12. h3 Bh5 13. g4 Nxg4! 14. Qxf3! (if 14. hxg4 Bxg4 followed by…Bd6 and …Qh4 [and] white’s king is exposed to an overwhelming attack) 14… Nf6 15. Qg2 Bg6 when the weakness of white’s king’s position is just about balanced by his extra pawn.
11… Bg4 12. Qe3?
A bad mistake; it is courting trouble for white to place his queen on a file which black’s rook can control in a couple of moves. Correct is 12. Qg3.
12… Re8 13. f3?
A second blunder, which leaves white’s king and queen on the same diagonal as the black bishop, a sure invitation to a combinative attack. He could resist for longer by 13. d4 Bd6 14. Qd2 Bf4 15. Re3 Bxe3 16. fxe3 Ne4 although white would still suffer from his undeveloped queen’s wing.)
13… Bc5! 14. Qxc5 Rxe1+ 15. Kf2 Ne4+
A most effective finish, although black could also win by the simple 15… Rxc1. If now 16. fxe4 Qh4+ 17. g3 Qxh2+ 18. Kxe1 Qe2#.
- Kxe1 Nxc5 17. fxg4 Qe7+ 18. Kd1 Nd3 19. Kc2 Qe4 White resigns 0-1.
Ray’s 206th book, “ Chess in the Year of the King ”, written in collaboration with Adam Black, and his 207th, “ Napoleon and Goethe: The Touchstone of Genius ” (which discusses their relationship with chess) can be ordered from both Amazon and Blackwell’s. His 208th, the world record for chess books, written jointly with the late chess playing artist, Barry Martin, Chess through the Looking Glass , is now also available from Amazon.
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