Mike Twyble

[Simon Rogers]

I am sorry to inform you that Mike Twyble died at the age of just 58 on Monday 12th December 2022, after a long illness.
Mike was Southend's strongest player and occasionally played board one for Essex.
He later moved to the west country.
He could have claimed the FM title but chose not to; and he did make an IM norm in 2007.
The funeral is at 9am on 21st December at Barnstaple Crematorium, north Devon and afterwards at The Lymington Arms, Wemborthy, mid-Devon.
The is a tribute by Dr Jonathan Rogers on the Essex Chess Association website:
https://www.essexchess.org.uk/rip-mike-twyble/
RIP

[Jonathan Rogers]

A few additions to the post on the Essex Chess Association website.

First, that anyone who would like to make a donation in Mike's name is encouraged to do so to Marie Curie or to North Devon Hospice.

Mike was probably best known in Essex, though I should think that many in the West of England knew him in later years. He certainly played for Somerset for a while after he moved, because we had a perfunctory draw in the Essex v Somerset QF in 2003, in good time to watch Arsenal win the FA Cup against Southampton in the nearest pub.

We had spent a bit of time in pubs in the 1990s, often before Essex matches as well as afterwards, and it has to be said that it did our results no harm. We even carried this over in the first season when Barbican re-entered the 4NCL, in 1996. (Times have changed on that one). He enjoyed the Southend Congress, though "what to do" in the four hour break between rounds was always an issue. (Southend infamously allowed time for adjournments, so the first round would start at 9am and the second at 5pm, just in case). From this problem emerged a vow in a pub back in early to mid 1980s to start the afternoon/early evening game with 1 Nc3 and 2 Rb1, and he won against John Sugden as follows:

1 Nc3 c5 2 Rb1 d5 3 g3 e5 4 Bg2 Nf6 5 e4 Be6(?) 6 exd5 Nxd5 7 Qf3 Nxc3 8 bxc3 Nc6 9 Rxb7 Rc8 10 Qxc6+ Rxc6 11 Bxc6+ Bd7 12 Rxd7 Qg5 13 Nf3 1-0

(I might stand to be corrected on Black's move order in the first four moves).

From this, you can detect a sense of humour (and of honour, I don't suppose that those in the pub thought he would go through with it). He had both, in spades; and it was a kind sense of humour too. He would laugh at the powerful and those who deserved it, but had sympathy for anyone else and could forgive or shrug off bad behaviour in others quote easily. "Live and let live" could have been his motto. So much of our humour was of the bizarre type, such as noticing a possible correlation between playing the Grunfeld and having a beard (late night 4NCL talk there). He left a goodbye note on a bridge forum shortly before he died, saying that his cancer was about to make its contract ...

But the Sugden game does misrepresent his approach to chess. He studied openings seriously and played very many of them, including some very sharp lines. He would give me several tips over the phone during the 1990s; the best line against the Morra Gambit (involving an early ...a6 and ...d6), that the "light squared bishop is your friend" if even contemplating an attack on the kingside as Black in the Kings Indian, and he would show an equal interest in my own ideas. For a while we examined whether 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c5 3 cxd5 Nf6 4 e4 could really be as bad for Black as theory held out, and thought that 4...Nxe4 5 dxc5 Qa5+ might not be so bad, but neither of us got the chance to play it (only years later was this examined in an issue of Kaissiber).

I will think about other games of his to post, besides the one on the Essex Chess Association website. I remember annotating a win of his against the late John Naylor in the Final of the National Club Plate competition 1996 (Ilford v Hayes), probably appearing in September CHESS (or thereabouts) of that year, but I do not have the issue to hand.

RIP, Mike.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Don't recall hearing his name before, which is strange for such a strong player.

Presumably he played in the British Championship at least a few times?

[Jonathan Rogers]

I am not sure that he did. It is true that he kept a relatively low profile and tended to prefer local and team events (although since Ilford did represent the BCF in the European Club Cup in the late 1990s, "playing for his team" did, I think, include a trip to a qualifier event in Lithuania).

[IM Jack Rudd]

He was the player who broke my run of winning Yeovil Chess Club's annual pre-season rapidplay tournament.

[David Sedgwick]

... playing for his team" did, I think, include a trip to a qualifier event in Lithuania.

I haven't checked, but I thought it was Estonia.

[IM Jack Rudd]

He did once play in the Major Open, at a time when he was living in Yeovil and the event was held in Glastonbury.

[JonManley]

... playing for his team" did, I think, include a trip to a qualifier event in Lithuania.

I haven't checked, but I thought it was Estonia.

Mike played for Ilford in the 14th European Club Cup Qualifier in 1998 which was held in Narva, Estonia. In the match against Reykjavik he drew with GM Thorhallsson http://www.olimpbase.org/1998c/1998ilfr.html

[John Moore]

The news of Mike's death from Jonathan Rogers a couple of days before his post here came as a real shock to me. I had known Michael for twenty years or so before he he moved to the west country. He didn't drive in those days and I drove him to innumerable County matches and 4NCL weekends. He was excellent company both as a passenger and in the pub after the games and quite often before as well. He had a wide range of interests but he, like myself, was particularly interested in chess history so that was often where we finished. As a player, he worked very hard at his openings as Jonathan mentions and was always interested in slightly obscure lines. He was sadly missed by Essex Chess and Southend club, in particular, when he moved.

My condolences to Helen and the family. R.I.P Mike.

[Graham Borrowdale]

It is always sad to hear of the passing of someone you have known in the chess world, or even someone you vaguely remember playing, especially when they were so young. I can't say I knew Mike, but my scorebooks say that we played as far back as 1982, in a local Berkshire cup match, when he was playing for Reading University, and I was playing for Crowthorne, and his grade was 178. I guess that would have made him around 18 at the time, so a strong player for a very long time. RIP.

[RichardTozer]

I remember Mike as a really nice guy. I got to know him a little from the time when we both played for Ilford chess club in the late nineties. My condolences to his family.

[Bob Samuels]

I knew Mike when we were both teenagers in Southend in the late 1970s. He played for the same club as me, was a year younger, and thrashed me every time I played him -- with unfailing good humour, no gloating, and a great willingness to explain why weak moves (by me) were weak. There was rivalry between his school and mine (the two grammar schools in the town), and generally the match between us was the only one my school chess team lost most seasons. I was always grateful to be playing on Board Two for that one. I do remember that he occasionally opened 1.Nc3 (the Van Geet) even back in those days. Very glad to see the Sugden game earlier in this thread.

I well remember the night when a young player -- probably aged about ten or eleven -- came to our club for the first time. He won his first game, and Mike happened to be free to play as it finished. "Play Twyble", said the club secretary. And, to Mike, "Take your queen off first". You can guess the outcome.

I knew Mike's sister well -- she eventually married another of my best friends, and we have been in occasional touch ever since, although I left Southend for good in 1986. This loss must be very hard for the whole family. I have nothing but good memories of Mike, despite never (as far as I can think) beating him over the board.

Bob Samuels (Club Chairman, Cowley Chess Club, Oxford).