Louis de Veauce

[John Collins]

Whatever happened to him? I can remember him from the 1970s as an eccentric but very strong player - wasn't his father a Baron? He had a very good result in the British Champ. in 1975, coming =2nd., beating Speelman and drawing with Miles, then he seems to have disappeared. Is he still alive?

[Roger Mylward]

The website 192.com has Louis E de C de Veauce on the 2013 Electoral Roll living in the Worsley area of Manchester M28. His birth date is given elsewhere as 1947, but there is no birth date or marriage record for Louis in the England and Wales official documents. There is a reference in the 'Old Boys' page of Aiglon College, Switizerland to Louis de Veauce being very good at chess.

Baron Eugene de Veauce was born in 1908 in Marylebone, London and married Ethel Mary Crick, who became Baroness de Veauce. She was born on 05 August 1910 and died in Surrey during May 1993.

A daughter, Anne M V de Veauce was born in 1950.

The family has historical roots in France and it may be that missing details are available there.

Hope this is useful.

Roger Mylward

[Richard James]

To add to Roger's contribution:

His birth was registered in the first quarter of 1949 in Surrey South Eastern under the name Louis E Cadier.

Cadier is the family name, de Veauce is the baronial name.

So far I've been unable to find a marriage or anything else under either Cadier or de Veauce.

[Roger Mylward]

Just a couple more bits of information.

Baron A A E de Cadier was born 09 November 1908 died October 1996 in North Surrey. He and Ethel Crick married in April-June 1947 in Kensington, London.

Louis's sister (Anne on the birth records I have seen, and Marianne on the marriage records) married Michael J Parkinson in Oct-Dec 1981 in Kensington, London.

Roger

[Roger Mylward]

Sorry, Anne and Marianne are different people. Marianne was born in 1954, mother's maiden name Martin.

Roger

[Roger de Coverly]

Whatever happened to him? I can remember him from the 1970s as an eccentric but very strong player -

British under 21 champion in 1968. As well as a reputation for time scrambles, he was also considered to be vulnerable to opening traps in his younger days anyway. Against his future 1969 successor as U-21 champion, he fell into this one, which almost everyone should know, certainly everyone who plays the Dragon or against the Dragon. At the time the game was played in 1968, 6. .. Bg7 was considered an error. It requires accuracy, with 6. .. Nc6 or 6. .. Nbd7 being the alternatives, but Mestel's later discovery of 7. .. Nh5 makes the seventh move of dxe5 an error. Instead of 9. .. Kf8, Black can try to hang on with 9. ..Nc6, the point being that after 10. Nxc6 you can exchange Queens and play .. a6 before attempting to recapture on c6.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. f4 Bg7 7. e5 dxe5 8. fxe5 Ng4 9. Bb5+ Kf8 10. Ne6+

[Richard James]

He won some short games as well, the first of which was against another player who subsequently disappeared:

[Event "BCF-ch"] [Site "Blackpool"] [Date "1971.??.??"] [Round "8"] [White "Eley, Brian"] [Black "De Veauce, Louis"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C34"] [PlyCount "26"] [EventDate "1971.08.??"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "11"] [EventCountry "ENG"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "1998.11.10"] 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 Ne7 4. d4 d5 5. Nc3 dxe4 6. Nxe4 Nd5 7. c4 Bb4+ 8. Kf2 Ne3 9. Qa4+ Nc6 10. d5 Qe7 11. dxc6 Ng4+ 12. Ke2 Qxe4+ 13. Be3 Qxe3+ 0-1

[Event "Birmingham"] [Site "Birmingham"] [Date "1974.04.19"] [Round "10"] [White "De Veauce, Louis"] [Black "Cafferty, Bernard"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A17"] [WhiteElo "2200"] [BlackElo "2355"] [PlyCount "25"] [EventDate "1974.04.09"] [EventType "tourn"] [EventRounds "11"] [EventCountry "ENG"] [EventCategory "5"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "1998.11.10"] 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. e4 Bb7 5. e5 Ne4 6. Bd3 Nxc3 7. dxc3 d6 8. Ng5 dxe5 9. Nxf7 Qf6 10. Nxh8 g6 11. Qg4 Qxh8 12. Qxe6+ Be7 13. Bg5 1-0

[Roger de Coverly]

He won some short games as well, the first of which was against another player who subsequently disappeared

By 1974 (Cafferty game), he was quite a bit stronger. He won the Major Open at Clacton with 10/11 outpacing a strong field, future IM Nigel Povah amongst them. Presumably that's how he qualified for the 1975 British as mentioned earlier.

[Neil Graham]

Looking at the family tree in the link, I assume that Louis is now Baron de Veauce on the death of his father in 1996.

http://gw5.geneanet.org/wailly?lang=en; ... +de+veauce

[James Plaskett]

In late 1986, IM Horner tod me he had bumped into de Veauce a year or two earlier. I think he said it was near Bolton bus station. Louis went on and on about how a certain person was persecuting him, "... but he wouldn´t say who this person was. He´d gone a bit mad, I think."
Horner concluded by saying he made his excuses and tried to leave, but Louis pursued him as he slowly drove away, still harking on about his mysterious persecutor.

[JustinHorton]

he was also considered to be vulnerable to opening traps in his younger days anyway

For instance

[Roger Lancaster]

I played Louis in the 1969 British championships, Louis having presumably qualified as the previous year's junior champion. I clearly recall his displaying many of the mannerisms one might have expected of a 12-year-oId and assumed that he was an example of someone with a limited mental capacity in other respects but with a considerable talent for chess.

[Tim Harding]

I played Louis three times, all three games being won by White (two by me, but the most important game by him). My impression is definitely that he played more strongly with White but clearly he occasionally played a whole tournament very well. He was certainly a rather odd and somewhat naive character.
Our first game was in the 1965 British Under-18s. He briefly appeared in Oxford in the late 1960s but he wasn't at the university and soon went away somewhere. Then we played twice in the British Championship qualifying competition, 1973/74, both games being at a house I was sharing in Lewisham. I won in the first round but we both qualified for the next round (January 1974 I think) and he had just done quite well in the Hastings Challengers (I think). I made a bad mistake in the opening and got crushed. I think Simon Webb won the group.
I recall two things about my conversations with Louis. The first was that he said (before we started) that we would have to adjourn for lunch before the time control because he was a diabetic, so after 2-3 hours we went to an Indian restaurant and I finished him off after the meal. The second game didn't last long enough to require a meal break.
The other thing was that he mentioned he was playing an ICCF postal tournament and it became clear he was unaware that players were allowed to move the pieces around at home while deciding on their moves.

[JustinHorton]

he mentioned he was playing an ICCF postal tournament and it became clear he was unaware that players were allowed to move the pieces around at home while deciding on their moves.

That's extraordinary.

[James Pratt]

Louis came up to the stage at Morecambe 1975 to collect his prize but appeared unable to get back down again. He was known to resign games because he had played the full session, didn't want to continue, even when favourably placed. He'd drink coffee with the spoon still in as he said it gave him different strengths of sweetness. He had a nanny until his adult life. Once patted on the head by John Littlewood - a kindly soul - he got very upset. He watched endless TV at his guesthouse, seemingly wore the same clothes every day, often had to cadge money despite obvious social elevation. His father organised several events for him, possibly in Pirbright. Latterly, his only friend on the chess scene appears to have been the late Peter Morrish.