Stevie Hilton

[Simon Rogers]

I am sorry to report that Stevie Hilton passed away on 16th April after a long illness.
Stevie played in the Ayrshire League for Irvine and then joined Prestwick, helping them to win the Ayrshire League. He also played in the Glasgow League for Paisley.
He was also a regular at weekend tournaments and had an international career as part of his involvement with the blind community and also served as a director for Chess Scotland.
RIP

[David Sedgwick]

I am sorry to report that Stevie Hilton passed away on 16th April after a long illness.
Stevie played in the Ayrshire League for Irvine and then joined Prestwick, helping them to win the Ayrshire League. He also played in the Glasgow League for Paisley.
He was also a regular at weekend tournaments and had an international career as part of his involvement with the blind community and also served as a director for Chess Scotland.
RIP

Sad news. RIP Stevie.

[Owen Phillips]

I got to know Stevie Hilton (a gentle giant of a man) who had made himself a very good chess player despite being registered Blind and struggling for many years with severe Diabetes. I accompanied and coached him at a number of International Chess events while he represented the British Team (the BCA). He loved his Chess and put in a lot in the administration of it too for Chess Scotland and the International body for Blind and Visually Impaired players (IBCA). Some of his proudest moments came while playing alongside his team mates for the BCA whether in World European or Olympiad events, but from the entries on www.chessscotland.com re the 6th IBCA European Chess Championships for the Blind and Visually Impaired-you can see his enthusiasm shine through and how proud he was to be playing so well at that level. He loved his chess greatly and worked hard at it and indeed played a lot of correspondence chess too and built up quite a collection of formidable and varied chess sets-one particularly large one I recall him using at the IBCA Olympiad in Macedonia in 2017-where his opponents where always mystified how he could reach the far side of his bd to trawl around the board to find the best moves! Luckily Stevie was a big guy!
Sadly Stevie suffered a lot from his diabetes hurting his legs in particular, but he bravely hobbled about and when necessary got a guide /chess coach like myself to wheelchair him on the way to and from tournaments abroad.i wished I had known Stevie for longer, but I did accompany him and share his training with GM Neil McDonald and sometimes also IM Chris Beaumont-in a number of European and World and Olympiad IBCA team events-where he typically played on Bd 2 for the British team.
We were all particularly proud of his efforts at Lake Ohrid in Macedonia at the Olympiad in 2017 when after a poor start of 0.5/3 despite feeling under the weather he transformed the BCA team score with a run of 5/6 scoring 5/5/9 with a tournament rating of 2015, and only losing in those six rds in Rd9 to FM Sergeij Wassin of Ukraine. that exceptional runensured that the BCA team finished 13/27 teams and qualified for the following World Cup as part of the top 16 teams.
Stevie was particularly proud of his rd8 win against the Italian Blind maestro on Bd2-Giancarlo Badano-who recently scored well in the World 50+ event in Assissi.
I shall fondly remember my moments with Stevie and his keen hunt for tourism pieces in Warsaw and my times paring with him in the Cathedral there next to the infamous Jewish Ghetto quarter where so many people were brutally treated...I recall well the change in tone in Stevie's vice and the tears streaming down his face-he was a very GOOD Man-and a chess devotee of considerable ability.
Further entries about that 2017 event can be found in the ECF Front page archive and or on chess results/com.

RIP Stevie Hilton.