The event had quite a few members of the Penrose family present, including Jonathan's daughters Harriet and Kate. The weather was warm and sunny and the short walk to the Jonathan Penrose Chess Park encouraged several to venture there. Roger was not at the event but sent some material that William/Bill Hartston incorporated into his speech in the opening ceremony. Shirley Hodgson made the ceremonial first move in the Mickey Adams simul.
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That first move ended an opening ceremony. In that ceremony, Sir Bob Russell, High Steward of Colchester explained that 7 October 2023 would have been the late grandmaster’s 90th birthday; John Burton, President of Colchester Civic Society explained the huge contribution Jonathan’s parents had made to civic life in Colchester, helping to preserve much of its valuable heritage: William Hartston, himself a twice winner of the British Chess Championship, spoke about his memories of playing with Jonathan and the latter’s remarkable transition to become a world-leading correspondence chess player. He also recounted a story from one of Jonathan’s brothers.
Sir Roger Penrose had found that, despite being younger, Jonathan could beat him at practically any game. This had included ‘Stone, Paper, Scissors’; but how could Jonathan beat him consistently in such a game of pure chance? To refute a hypothesis of mind reading, Sir Roger found a source of random numbers and translated that into a sequence of plays. He broke even that time, concluding that patterns he had unwittingly repeated were recognised and remembered. A useful attribute for a future chess champion.
At the conclusion of the opening ceremony Steve Cawley had the task of transcribing the ceremonial opening move onto a correspondence chess postcard for transmission to the Mercury Theatre where the park stands. The Jonathan Penrose Chess Park was declared formally open when the Mayor, Cllr John Jowers made the first move as written (5254, or e4).
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In the simul, GM Michael Adams conceded only two draws, to Mae Catabay and Ruqayyah Rida (herself twice British Chess Champion, U10 Girls). He commented ‘…some strong junior players in Colchester!’ The Colchester Junior Chess Club was well represented taking over a third of the boards.
The Mercury Theatre is hosting a permanent webpage about Jonathan Penrose. QR codes on the tables point to it as an 'information board'. It can be accessed via
https://colchesster.org.uk/docs/jonatha ... erne-gate/
There are no plans for further memorials at present. The Mercury Theatre website is limiting as it cannot cope with PDF reading in situe or interactively display games, so I may expand that aspect of the ColCHESSter website. It has been remarkable how helpful well-known writers and chess players have been in making material available; not to mention many people helping with research and arrangements for the day. I just had to mention Jonathan Penrose and people would respond with affection and respect for his memory.
A big take away from what I have been doing is that I think we need a UK chess hall of fame, perhaps linked to the ECF library, to collect material and preserve it. There are some incredible resources online but they often depend on one person maintaining them. This is why I don't host the Jonathan Penrose webpage personally, but a corporate body does.
Just as a tailpiece to this....
Why have an opening event for some chess tables at Colchester Town Hall in the presence of the Mayor and Mayoress of Colchester and in aid of the Mayor’s Charities with a simul from GM Mickey Adams?
From the press release:
Steve Cawley, who served as the leader of Colchester Council during the 1990s, said ‘When I heard about the proposed Jonathan Penrose Chess Park I was delighted. Public tables for chess would encourage people to play and be a fitting way to celebrate the achievements of someone who was born in Colchester and was Britain’s leading chess player. Clearly an opening event would be needed, and I had an idea what that could be. As a chess player myself, I had taken part in the Culver Centre Chess Challenge in 1991 when the then British Chess Champion, Grandmaster Julian Hodgson, came to Colchester and played chess simultaneously against 68 players over two sessions. I still have a copy of the certificate saying I lasted 31 moves! My suggestion was taken up and the official opening event featured a simultaneous exhibition by Britain’s leading chess player, Grandmaster Michael Adams.
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