London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

Historical knowledge and information regarding our great game.
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John Upham
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Re: London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

Post by John Upham » Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:26 pm

George,

Yes, you are correct, it is not JBA. Jimmy features in another photograph from the same event. Was the photographer John Yeo? I guess not since he features in yet another picture.
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Re: London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

Post by andrew martin » Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:01 pm

The person Korchnoi is moving against is Sean Feakes.

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Re: London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

Post by Simon Brown » Mon Jan 02, 2012 11:59 pm

George, actually I don't think that's me, although I was there that day. Nick Benjamin?

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Re: London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

Post by Malcolm Clarke » Tue Jan 03, 2012 12:49 am

I do remember a Shaughan (I think that is the correct spelling) Feakes playing for BBC and Kings Head, so I think there is a good chance that this is the same player Andrew Martin has identified.

Back to the subject of the two Roy Brent's although they are different ages it is interesting to note that they both appeared in Dr Who, possibly at similar times.

With respect to Bob Harnett I expect that people like Andrew Martin will remember him much better than me, but I do recall him playing for us in the London League and also belonging to Finchley chess club.

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Re: London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

Post by George Szaszvari » Wed Jan 04, 2012 5:33 pm

Simon Brown wrote:George, actually I don't think that's me, although I was there that day. Nick Benjamin?
Golly, that face sure has an uncanny resemblance to the Simon I remember... but then it was all a long time ago.

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Re: London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

Post by Simon Brown » Wed Jan 04, 2012 5:43 pm

George, I suppose it could be me. But I showed it to my Mum and she didn't think it was! As you say, a long time ago.

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Re: London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

Post by George Szaszvari » Fri Jan 06, 2012 5:42 am

Posting edited and expanded 2012, Jan 10.

Just stumbled on the thread about John Healy's Coffeehouse Chess Tactics which unleashed some more YMCA memories.
As Andy Martin mentioned John was a regular at the YMCA club. Meeting the lady who listened to his story and set
the wheels in motion for his TV movie was a huge break for John. One typical escapade in his rough and tumble life
during the time I knew him came from being a one time keen boxer, when John got into a lubricated discussion about
boxing with some young locals in a Brixton pub. Queensbury rules went out of the window as the locals kicked John
unconscious putting him in hospital with a bad case of concussion. He subsequently chuckled about getting KOed as
a salutary lesson. People I met incidentally who knew next to nothing about chess usually got the idea from the TV
film that John's playing strength was something akin to GM level (he was, after all, portrayed as a 'champion') and
I learned that it was often better not to pop their bubble of belief regarding someone they admired. John enjoyed
his working class hero status, and whatever anyone thinks of him I recall him as quite a character who I was glad
to have known. John liked to write poetry and made a contribution to the amateur chess magazine "Patzer" I was
involved in at the time. Two examples:

All Honour to a Master
----------------------
Many years have been numbered,
Since, in death, Nimzo slumbered,

But his system through the ages,
Living in historic pages,

Still shows the way to young chess sages,
Unconsumed by tactics' musts.

Veteran's ballad
----------------
The draw relaxed his iron jaw,
And a smile appeared once more,

For chess is a difficult trade,
Queen and bishop our blade,

Sacrificing a broker of doom;

Checkmate the chessboard physician,
Who cures not a few of ambition,

Bad moves are deplored,
Not shown at the board,

And fatigue is not taken as excuse forsaken,
And leaving your king to his fate.


Perhaps not a Blake or Shelley but, nevertheless, an interesting attempt that I enjoyed reading once again. It would be
interesting to see a thread started on chess poetry and more input generally on other cultural connections to the game.
I've just read that The Guardian has dropped it's weekly chess column, particularly disappointing when I so fondly recall
Leonard Barden's DAILY chess columns of yesteryear. Perhaps news and culture on the medium of printed paper
is dying in the age of the Internet, but any trend to marginalize chess needs to be reversed. Even desperate wartime
conditions in the USSR and occupied WW2 Europe allowed for organized chess events, and didn't a Soviet commissar
find a chess job for young David Bronstein to entertain the troops going to the front? Similar days might well be on the
not too distant horizon, so all you chessplayers out there, I know some of you do a great job in helping to make chess
interesting and welcoming for occasional players and newcomers, but the rest of you could take a cue from John
Healy's example of making chess relevant to Joe Bloggs, rather than something exclusive or snobbish (an unfortunate
outcome of the insecure egos that plague the chess world.) This is something that Bob Wade often tried to impress on
people and I see John Healy as succeeding in his own humble way to popularize chess as something ENTERTAINING for
all and sundry. Jon Healy proves that you don't need to be a great player to do something positive in the game, you
just have to be ENTHUSIASTIC.

All this reminds me of a question Karpov was asked at the London YMCA simul in 1972, something like: "Does giving simul
exhibitions improve your chess?" Karpov answered iirc with something to the effect of: "No, simuls don't help my chess,
per se, but are necessary to popularize the game!" Soviet GMs had a mandate to promote the game among the masses,
which ultimately only helped all chessplayers and chess culture generally. But we don't need a totalitarian bureaucracy to
tell us what to do, it's up to you! Anyway, it is nice to see that John Healy is still alive and kicking and good luck to him.

Addendum: 2012, May 24.
Since this subject has been resurrected in the new thread Barbaric Genius (in General Chat) I've updated the musical dedication to John Healy (the Spancil Hill one having been deleted from Youtube) viz: Christie Moore's rendition of "Move On" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tvRU9Rx3UY
Last edited by George Szaszvari on Fri May 25, 2012 4:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

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John Upham
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Re: London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

Post by John Upham » Sun Jan 22, 2012 2:06 pm

A reunion of London Central YMCA Chess Club has been pencilled in for June 16th 2012 in the Folkestone area. :D

If you would like to be kept informed about this then please pm me or email me at [email protected]

We might even organise a Blitz tournament! :lol:

Please let anyone you know about this who might be interested...
Last edited by John Upham on Sat Feb 18, 2012 10:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

Post by AustinElliott » Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:54 pm

"didn't a Soviet commissar find a chess job for young David Bronstein to entertain the troops going to the front?"
I'm pretty sure this is in Bronstein's The Sorcerer's Apprentice somewhere. I just read the book after getting it as an Xmas present, but I can't remember the exact ref. However, I think I remember it said that Bronstein was employed to visit wounded (convalescing) soldiers in the army hospitals and play chess with them. He had been deemed unfit for military service due to his bad eyesight.

British players have certainly always done simuls and similar chess promotional things - it wasn't just the Russian GMs. Simuls were always an integral 'finale' part of the junior tournaments I remember from the 70s, even small-ish local ones. Of course, they are most famous in the form of Leonard Barden's London simuls with the junior squad playing the Russian GMs, but even local tournaments usually tended to have a British master player doing a simul at the end. As a junior player in the 70s I remember playing against John Nunn (several times), Michael Stean, Brian Eley and Adrian Hollis in simuls of this type.

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Re: London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

Post by George Szaszvari » Sun Jan 22, 2012 8:44 pm

AustinElliott wrote:
"didn't a Soviet commissar find a chess job for young David Bronstein to entertain the troops going to the front?"
I'm pretty sure this is in Bronstein's The Sorcerer's Apprentice somewhere. I just read the book after getting it as an Xmas present, but I can't remember the exact ref. However, I think I remember it said that Bronstein was employed to visit wounded (convalescing) soldiers in the army hospitals and play chess with them. He had been deemed unfit for military service due to his bad eyesight.
Yes, I believe that's it. Thanks. A terrific book, too.
AustinElliott wrote: British players have certainly always done simuls and similar chess promotional things - it wasn't just the Russian GMs. Simuls were always an integral 'finale' part of the junior tournaments I remember from the 70s, even small-ish local ones. Of course, they are most famous in the form of Leonard Barden's London simuls with the junior squad playing the Russian GMs, but even local tournaments usually tended to have a British master player doing a simul at the end. As a junior player in the 70s I remember playing against John Nunn (several times), Michael Stean, Brian Eley and Adrian Hollis in simuls of this type.
Quite, as acknowledged in the addendum to a posting in the "Chess is sexy!" thread, viz:
addendum: The hurried ending to the posting suggests that nobody in chess is doing anything similar, but that's nonsense. There have been other awareness raising ventures and fund raising events, one I particularly recall being Nigel Short's simul and exposition in London some years ago to help highlight the worldwide issue of political prisoners being tortured in our day and age.
[edited 2012/01/16]

Since I started club chess (from about 1967 on) I've witnessed British chess make steady progress from backwater status to world leader. A lot of dedicated people like Wade, Barden, Keene, etc, etc, made huge personal contributions to help set things on the way forward, and these comments in this forum about sport or game, etc, are meant to stimulate continued efforts to work for a higher profile for the game (er, sport) with more cross cultural liaisons, and further sponsorship, plus possible support from "officialdom". I guess that I'm still in my "coaching/organizer" mode from the old days. Keep up the great work!

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Re: London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

Post by George Szaszvari » Sun Jan 22, 2012 8:59 pm

John Upham wrote:A reunion of London Central YMCA Chess Club has been pencilled in for June 23rd 2012 in the Folkestone area. :D

If you would like to be kept informed about this then please pm me or email me at [email protected]

We might even organise a Blitz tournament! :lol:

Please let anyone you know about this who might be interested...
Oh, yes, that would be something special, and I'd love to make it, even if it doesn't look likely in current circumstances,
but there are a few more months to go; anything can happen.

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Re: London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

Post by John Upham » Sun Jan 22, 2012 9:15 pm

George Szaszvari wrote:
John Upham wrote:A reunion of London Central YMCA Chess Club has been pencilled in for June 23rd 2012 in the Folkestone area. :D

If you would like to be kept informed about this then please pm me or email me at [email protected]

We might even organise a Blitz tournament! :lol:

Please let anyone you know about this who might be interested...
Oh, yes, that would be something special, and I'd love to make it, even if it doesn't look likely in current circumstances,
but there are a few more months to go; anything can happen.
You could join the party via my iPad / Skype! You just need to drink at your end George!
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Re: London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

Post by Malcolm Clarke » Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:59 pm

I am afraid I cannot make it as I do cricket scoring on Saturday's during the summer months, but hope the event is a success. I do though have a few pictures featuring the likes of Sasha Kennaway, some of which I believe relate to the inter YMCA matches.

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Re: London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

Post by Malcolm Clarke » Sun Feb 12, 2012 5:46 pm

I never knew him, but as Martin Goldschmidt has previously been mentioned on this thread, I thought I would mention that the back page of today's business section of the Sunday Telegraph contains an article relating to a Martin Goldschmidt who co-founded the independent record label Cooking Vinyl in 1986.

Since previous mentions of Martin Goldschmidt on this thread indicated that he had gone into the music business, there must be a good chance that this is the same person.

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Re: London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

Post by Daryl Taylor » Sun Feb 12, 2012 7:14 pm

Yep - that's him.

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