Michael Basman

Michael James Basman was born on the 16th of Marc 1946 in London, England. Studied history at Leeds university and continued his academic career in Yerevan around 1970. Mike spent some part of his professional life in the 1970ies as a public servant at the Chessington computer center. But soon his restless mind led him to other directions, such as the creation of 'Audio Chess' ,  a method he devised to tutor chess by means of audio-tapes.

There have been many chess career peaks like the shared first place in the British chess championship 1973 but it makes little sense to list them all due to space considerations ;-)  . Most telling for Mike's potential were perhaps that he drew games – from a position of  strength – with former World champions Michael Botvinnik and Michael Tal. The only reason that he does not hold a 50% score against former world champions is that he declined a draw by perpetual check against Smyslov, and was duly punished for it.

In the 1990-ties, Michael Basman started the UK Chess challenge, and from that day on has more or less focused on junior chess and chess tuition.