The funeral of top Luton chess player was held today, he will be greatly missed by all. Considered by IM Andy Ledger to be the strongest player in the league because he played moves you could not understand, and also a softly spoken gentleman who was kind, knowledgeable and friendly…we shall miss him much. Since his passing, I have felt sad everytime I thought about him. I lament not being able to see him again greatly, as I am sure we all do.
Andy played top board for the county many times throughout the years and was considered to be Luton’s strongest player for the longest time. He became county champion in 1982. I first met him when Luton and Kents amalgamated in June 1988. I asked club sectretary Ken Liddle about him and was surprised to learn he was a postman. I thought he was a scientist when I was young because he had a certain look I thought. That summer, when I was only 16, I asked him one evening if we could play a 30 minute game as I wanted to pit my wits against our strongest player. Andy wrote down the moves. I was black and it was a closed Sicilian. I caught him out with a move order change which he was impressed by, he said after the game, which of course I lost. I always looked up to him and liked talking to him whenever I could, as most did as he was a well-respected figure in the league.
I posted some details about his death here: Andrew Perkins -ECF Foum. I attached a newspaper article about him, written in the 60s as he was very pleased when I gave him a copy of it and requested that he keep it, to which I gladly obliged.
And I attach social media content here. 5 players (4 from Luton and 1 from Bedford: Damon D’ Cruz, Peter Montgomery, Samir Vora, Thomas O’Brien and Paul Habershon) attended today’s funeral. Unfortunately I could not make it as I am posted abroad as per usual. And yes this does make me feel cut off and powerless when such tragedies occur, as you might expect.
Many of his best games can be found here:
https://www.lutonchessclub.com/games
Once upon a time, I managed to find Andy’s rating in his youth, see here: Andy
A great loss for the club, our county, his family, his church, and society on the whole. Rest in peace Andy.
Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?
That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.
A Shropshire Lad Stanza 40 -A.E.Housman
M J M
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 21st century | Leave a Comment »
It isn’t easy at all to find games where players from Bedfordshire have had their games analysed. But we have one here and it’s from celebrated author, philosopher (he has a Ph.D in wisdom from Oxford University), former British champion Rowson. It comes from his second publication Chess for Zebras. In Chapter 8 Rowson links chess to Taoism amongst other well thought out intentions, and highlights the importance of doing nothing and letting things happen by themselves, a central concept of that religion. It’s high quality analysis and in it you will find that GM Motwani is very complimentary towards his opponent from Bedford, who sadly lost this game. Enjoy -its a great book btw.
M J M
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 21st century | Leave a Comment »
It does appear that in the early days of the SCCU we were somewhat out of our depth.
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1920-1940 | Leave a Comment »
It does need to be pointed out that the county then was not what it is today. There was a very clear north/south divide which would have reflected on team selection. I can confirm that the entirety of the top half of the team (including co-authors of Chess in Bedfordshire) is from the south of the county, the bottom half I cannot comment on. Additionally, take for example the quotation from the same 1926 BCM but earlier in the year.
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1920-1940 | Leave a Comment »
As difficult as it may be, please note that Bedfordshire is referred to as ‘plucky’. The choice of word is based on results, this being our best so far apparently. Bedfordshire was in the process of putting itself on the map still, having only joined the SCCU 4 years previously, and still continuing to attract some of the best players in the world to the county for simuls and talks. You would have thought if strength and depth had beeen there, it would have been reflected in county results, which is not the case as yet.
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1920-1940 | Leave a Comment »
-
Recent Posts
Archives
…on what this site initially became…on what this site is now becoming…on what this site cannot become…
Categories
- Academia
- Bedfordshire Chess
- Chess
- Chess in Thailand
- Dear Ken
- Documentaries
- FIDE
- History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1900-1920
- History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1920-1940
- History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960
- History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1960-1980
- History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1980-2000
- History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 19th century
- History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 21st century
- Humour
- Kasparyan
- Life beyond the chess board
- Luton Chess Club
- Meme
- Moves I could never play
- My daughter
- My own endeavours
- My Own Games
- My own warped humour
- On-line journal
- Personal Interest & Experience
- Postmodern History
- Quaint Chess History
- Reflections
- Reviews
- Selected on-line games
- Sources of inspiration
- Tournament Chess
- Trivia
- Viz inspired material
- Who wants to be a millionaire chess special
- World Championships Analytics
Posts which McCready is mighty pleased with
Luton & The University of Bedfordshire Chess Club
01582 743921/07710036246 (Humuyan)Tuesdays from 7.30 pm, The Library, Ground Floor
Please go to:
https://www.lutonchessclub.com/Blog Stats
- 32,378 hits
-
Join 39 other subscribers
-
A side note on how to read old Tom Sweby's columns
-
Not perhaps, but quintessentially, Old Tom Sweby is best thought of as a passionate devotee to the newspapers he wrote for. He was well read and knowledgeable of the Bedfordshire chess scene and well beyond, given that he was the president of the S.C.C.U. once upon a time. He was generally well-respected and rubbed shoulders with many, if not all, of those eminent within British chess circles. It would, however, be a critical mistake to see his column is primary source material entirely. That it is not. You will also find secondary source material quoted too, and the reliability of that is not quite as Tom hoped. Given that he wrote for decades, this is to some degree inevitable, and after all we are all prone to error whether we realize it or not. Thankfully, with regards to old Tom Sweby, they are infrequent and for the most part old Tom continued to document events and developments in the Bedfordshire league from the get go as best he could but, of course, everything lies open to interpretation. Despite this, and generally speaking. this does indeed make him informative and thus worth reading. Dare I say his columns constitute a narrative describing the latest developments, match reports and changing nature of the Beds league...he knew his audience and wrote according. This manifested itself over decades but brevity was always in play courtesy of the restictions imposed by writing a column. Should you wish to read a in instrumental figure of the Beds' league post WW2, you are quite welcome to peruse what has been posted here... . :-) I should, however, point out that as the decades wore on he gradually moved on away from narratives concerning the Bedfordshire league towards affairs both historical and international. The reasons for this are multifarous, old age was a predominante factor presumably, however, the bottom line is with regards to how the Bedfordshire chess scene developed post WW2: old Tom Sweby is your go to guy. He wrote more about chess in Bedforshire than anyone else did but given he was a Lutonian and writing for a Luton newspaper there is both bias and greater coverage of his hometown than the rest of the county.
Gallery
-
- I’m either 10 or 11 here
-
- 1982, myself versus Brian from Sunderland.
-
- At the Thai Junior chess championships. My daughter of course.
-
- Pattaya 2011
-
- 2011
-
- Thai Junior Championships
-
- 2008
-
- 2011
-
- Around 2011
-
- 2011
-
- Pattaya 2009
-
- 2011
-
- Kuwait 2008
-
- 2012
-
- 2012
-
- 2011 BKK Chess club
-
- 2011
-
- 2011 Thai Open
-
- 2011 Thai Open
-
- 2013 approx
-
- Around 2014
-
- 2010
-
- 2012
-
- Around 2011
-
- 2011
-
- 2011
-
- 2013
-
- Around 2011
-
- Around 2011
-
- 2020
-
- 2011
-
- 2008
-
- 2011
-
- 2013 or thereabouts
-
- 2010
-
- 2017
-
- 2014?
-
- 2010
-
- 2024
-
- 2024
-
- 2024
-
-
To add comments, please see the bell at the top of the page.
McCreadyandChess 