Karpov - Miles; European Team Championships, Skara, 1980.

Obituaries for Tony Miles
16.11.2001 We find it hard to believe that he is really gone. But a number of obituaries drive home the truth. Britain's first and most colourful GM died in his home last Sunday or Monday. The funeral is on Friday Nov. 23. Here are links to the articles that have appeared in the British broadsheets: Telegraph; Times; The Guardian; The Independent; The Scotsman; ChessBase; (Use the on-site search engine to find the stories on Miles.); Mark Crowther; Malcolm Pein; Midlands Chess. (From the ChessBase website.)

An obviously talented player, he was beating masters early. He won the World Junior Championship in 1974. (Manila, PHI) (The only British/English player to have won this event!!!)

In London, 1975; he came clear first. (+6, =3, -1) After winning the "Jim Slater Prize," (Slater offered £5000 to the first player to qualify for the GM title over the board.); he went on to win many more International tournaments. London, 1980 ... and Las Palmas, 1980 ... are two excellent examples. Another excellent result was Tilburg, 1984; (clear 1st, +5, =6); ahead of many GM's, including Belyavsky, Ribli, and Huebner. (I found at least 15 tournaments where he finished in the top 5!)

For many years he was the Number One player in his country ... (ENGLAND)
until the rise of Nigel Short.

He became disillusioned for a time with the English Chess hierarchy, and moved to the United States for a period of time. He won the U.S. Open, (equal first with Gulko); in 1987. He also played in at least one U.S. Championship. (I was a spectator at one of these events.)

He maintained a home in Germany during this time and also played extensively in Germany in the many team tournaments there. (Bundesliga)

He eventually returned to England. He won more firsts - ROME, 1990; is just one example. {Ahead of Bareev, Chernin, Smyslov, etc.} (He also tied for first in Bad Wörishofen, 1990.) He took third at Biel, 1990. (Behind Karpov & Andersson.)

During his last few years, he was in increasing bad health. He died in 2001.
(His last year or so, he suffered increasingly from the adverse affects of diabetes.)

Most English/British players today feel he was largely responsible for the huge explosion of chess that has taken place in that country.

How I knew GM Tony Miles

I was in the military ... for a number of years. I traveled extensively, and got to go to many countries, I was often in England. ('Across the pond,' as we used to call it.)

For being a good boy, I once got almost a week off in London. During this time, I did some sight-seeing, played chess, etc. I also attended a simul that Miles gave.

A few years later, I was in Europe and was a spectator at a tournament that Miles was playing in. It was at that time I got his autograph in one of my chess books.

Many years later, Miles lived - temporarily? - in the United States. I had a job during the late 1980's in (computer software) sales, I basically drove and flew all over the country. I often was playing in a chess tournament nearly every weekend. It was during this period that I 'bumped into' GM Tony Miles again. In fact we became fairly good friends, we even shared a few hotel/motel rooms together during this time. (Poor Tony never bothered with things like reservations or travel plans!)

I admired Tony, he was obviously a great player. We were once paired in the last round of a weekend Swiss ... but the pairings got changed; and I was denied my chance to sit across the board from a real legend of chess. (I am sure he would have beaten me, but it would have been a delight to have played him.)

To me, Tony was a kind person. He seemed nervous at times, and yes ... even a tad paranoid. (But he seemed no worse than other GM's I have met.) He also seemed very sad, when I was with him ... he (often) spoke longingly of friends and family in England.

When he died, the world lost a strong chess player in a very untimely fashion. And I lost a friend. While to him, I may not have been terribly important ... I probably was not - I felt I lost a friend when I learned of his passing. I hope people will remember him kindly. Dwell not upon his flaws, but his accomplishments and stature in chess!

I have been working on this game for many months now; since I learned of his death -
as a tribute to this player - and when it is finished, I will post it here.

Miles defeats the World Champion ... see below.

GM A. Karpov (2725) - GM A. Miles (2545)

[B00]
The European (men's) Team Championships, (1)
Skara, Sweden, 1980.

1.e4 a6!?; 2.d4 b5; 3.Nf3 Bb7; 4.Bd3 Nf6; 5.Qe2 e6; 6.a4 c5; 7.dxc5 Bxc5;
8.Nbd2 b4; 9.e5 Nd5; 10.Ne4 Be7; 11.0-0 Nc6; 12.Bd2 Qc7; 13.c4 bxc3;
14.Nxc3 Nxc3; 15.Bxc3 Nb4; 16.Bxb4 Bxb4; 17.Rac1 Qb6; 18.Be4 0-0;
19.Ng5 h6; 20.Bh7+ Kh8; 21.Bb1 Be7; 22.Ne4 Rac8; 23.Qd3 Rxc1;
24.Rxc1 Qxb2; 25.Re1 Qxe5; 26.Qxd7 Bb4; 27.Re3 Qd5; 28.Qxd5 Bxd5;
29.Nc3 Rc8; 30.Ne2 g5; 31.h4 Kg7; 32.hxg5 hxg5; 33.Bd3 a5; 34.Rg3 Kf6;
35.Rg4 Bd6; 36.Kf1 Be5; 37.Ke1 Rh8; 38.f4 gxf4; 39.Nxf4 Bc6; 40.Ne2 Rh1+;
41.Kd2 Rh2; 42.g3 Bf3; 43.Rg8 Rg2; 44.Ke1 Bxe2; 45.Bxe2 Rxg3;
46.Ra8 Bc7; White Resigns.

0 - 1

(I have already received close to 15 positive e-mails about this page and the game that it is linked to -
see just above.)

Click HERE to see Tony Miles's ULTRA-brilliant game against GM S. Atalik.
(This game is ready now!!)

Click HERE to go to, or return to, my Page on:
"The Best (All-Time) Games Of Chess" ever played.

This page was first posted just after Tony passed away, but it went un-linked and un-used for
well over a year. I had not forgotten about it, just other projects got moved ahead of this one.

Page first posted: November, 2001. Last updated: Sunday; August 14th, 2004.

Karpov - Miles

How I knew GM Tony Miles

Miles defeats the World Champion ... see below.

GM A. Karpov (2725) - GM A. Miles (2545)

[B00] The European (men's) Team Championships, (1) Skara, Sweden, 1980.

0 - 1

[B00]
The European (men's) Team Championships, (1)
Skara, Sweden, 1980.