Peter Gibbs

[Neil Graham]

I have heard today that Peter Gibbs has passed away. I know that many players and organisations will have memories of Peter to contribute to this thread.

[Kevin Thurlow]

https://www.efcchess.org.uk/

[John Saunders]

Sad news. He was British Under-18 Champion, jointly with Bernard Cafferty and Peter Sanderson, in 1952, and went on to play in several British Championships of the 1950s and early 1960s as well as representing Britain in the regular match versus the Netherlands in 1964, winning both his games.

In 1954 he finished 2nd to Bernard Cafferty in the British Under-21 Championship. He made his debut in the British Championship proper in 1955, scoring 5/11 including wins against Michael Franklin and Edward G Sergeant. The latter game, incidentally, qualified him as a Morphy Number 3.

In 1956 he improved his score to 6½/11, finishing equal 6th. In 1957 he made the same score to finish equal 7th after being in contention for the leadership until losing to the eventual winner, Dr. Fazekas. In 1958 he scored 6½/11 yet again. In 1959 he gave it a miss as he couldn't spare the time for two competitions: he was selected for the Students' Olympiad in Budapest, where he was board 3 after Penrose and Clarke. (Link to his record in Students' Olympiads.)

In 1960 the Students' Olympiad again took precedence over the British Championship and he travelled to Leningrad as the team's top board. The opposition was tough - he met and lost to Spassky - but a score of 4/10, including a win against the Yugoslav top board Vladimir Sokolov, was a creditable result.

In 1961 he once again competed in the British Championship, scoring 6/11, with wins against Owen Hindle and Alan Phillips. In 1962 it was back to his usual score, 6½/11, after a 2/2 start with wins against Gerald Abrahams and Frank Parr. That proved to be his last appearance in the competition.

I've compiled a file of 83 of his games and uploaded it to BritBase: https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pgn/g ... iewer.html - I am aware that some of his overseas games are missing from this collection and will add them presently.

I couldn't find any OTB games for Peter after 1975 so he may have stopped playing OTB chess then. (The 2022 Mega Database includes two 4NCL games from 2010 but they may be confusing him with someone else of the same surname.)

I regret to say that I never once met Peter Gibbs, though I occasionally received useful and positive feedback from him via his lifelong friend and rival Bernard Cafferty. I should like to have done so and perhaps interviewed him. May he rest long in the arms of Morphy.

[Mick Norris]

I met Peter at a couple of MCCU AGMs, he was a thoroughly nice guy, unassuming, polite and kind

[Neil Graham]

In answer to John's post, Peter played substantial numbers of games locally and in the period shown on his ECF rating chart lost just 7 in 18 years:-

https://www.ecfrating.org.uk/v2/new/lis ... de=111190F.

The games mentioned in 2010 played in 4NCL were indeed Peter's.

His last game was played just before COVID struck in 2020

Furthermore he was active as in organiser in the Braille Chess Association

See here https://www.starboardhotels.com/news-pr ... ess-breaks

in addition he was an accomplished correspondence player - a couple of games from 2010 (with notes) here:-

https://www.braillechess.org.uk/gazette ... article=12

He was President of the MCCU for nine years until he stood down in 2017.

Finally here is a piece from the local paper https://www.hinckleytimes.net/news/loca ... me-6705886

[Keith Arkell]

I couldn't find any OTB games for Peter after 1975 so he may have stopped playing OTB chess then. (The 2022 Mega Database includes two 4NCL games from 2010 but they may be confusing him with someone else of the same surname.)

I'd completely forgotten but my games collection shows that we played in a Worcs v Warwicks County Match in November 1978. A sharp Sicilian Dragon, of course, at the end of which it looks like I was lucky he accepted my draw offer:

[Event "Warwickshire I v Worcs I"]
[Date "1978.11.18"]
[White "Arkell, K.."]
[Black "Gibbs, PC.."]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B77"]
[WhiteElo "2000"]
[BlackElo "2144"]


1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 g6 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Bc4 Bg7 8. f3
O-O 9. Qd2 Bd7 10. h4 h5 11. O-O-O Ne5 12. Bb3 a5 13. a4 Rc8 14. g4 hxg4 15. h5
Nxh5 16. Bh6 e6 17. Rdg1 Qf6 18. Bxg7 Qxg7 19. fxg4 Nf6 20. g5 Nh5 21. Nce2 Nc4
22. Qd3 d5 23. exd5 exd5 24. Rxh5 gxh5 25. Nf4 Bg4 26. Kb1 Rcd8 27. c3 Rfe8 28.
Nf5 Bxf5 29. Qxf5 Re5 30. Qd3 Rxg5 31. Rd1 1/2-1/2

Another time our paths crossed was at the 1982 World Blind Championship, Hastings, during which the Falklands war broke out. Peter was heavily involved in the organisation of the event and I was helping with the bulletin.

[Joey Stewart]

I met him a few times while playing in the Coventry League and he always seemed like a nice guy - I think he stopped playing competitive chess after having a stroke and although his standard of play was still pretty damn good considering how badly that must have affected him the general consensus among people who knew him in his years of full ability was that he was extremely strong and might well have achieved a title.

[raycollett]

A great loss for English chess. I first encountered Peter in my role as web editor for MCCU where I found him to be an excellent source of information about older players. He was chess correspondent for local newspapers and possibly the Birmingham Post. After several email exchanges, I met him to give him a lift to an MCCU AGM which we were both attending. He was immensely proud to have been selected to play in the English Olympiad team. He was active until at least 2020 helping the Braille Chess Association.

I've confirmed he wrote for the Birmingham Post. See
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Chess%3A ... a078960132

[John Saunders]

Thanks to Neil Graham for putting me right as regards Peter Gibbs' continuing OTB activity, also to Kevin Thurlow for drawing my attention to the game posted on the EFCC site, Keith Arkell for supplying the game score of his county game from 1978 and Gerard Killoran for finding the game from 1953. I've updated the file on BritBase, which now numbers 126 games.

https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pgn/g ... iewer.html

Peter's Birmingham Daily Post column was excellent and is still of inestimable value to chess researchers. Everything that Leonard Barden wrote here in praise of Ronnie Ives' Yorkshire Evening Post column applies equally well to Peter Gibbs. Only yesterday I discovered a missing Bernard Cafferty game in one of Peter's columns, which I posted on BritBase with a posthumous thank-you to him.

[James Plaskett]

Sad news.
R.I.P.

The game shows what an animal you were in your youth, Keith.

[Paul Robert Jackson]

I remember Peter in the early 1990's when he was a member of Hinkley Chess Club.
He lived in Burbage (Leicestershire) at the time.
I know he captained the first team & also gave a simultaneous display at the club one weekend.

[Mick Norris]

From the MCCU website

2 Jul 2023, Ray Dolan reports. The chess community is much saddened to receive news that Peter passed away after a long illness. Our deepest condolences to his Widow, Celia, and family.

CEO Ray Dolan writes: "[Peter] was a legend...a gentleman of the game of chess." The funeral is on Friday 4th August 12:30pm at Heart of England Crematorium, Eastboro Way, Nuneaton. Family flowers only, donations in Peter's memory to the Braille Chess Association.

Yorkshire website

[Neil Blackburn]

Sad news. He was British Under-18 Champion, jointly with Bernard Cafferty and Peter Sanderson, in 1952, and went on to play in several British Championships of the 1950s and early 1960s as well as representing Britain in the regular match versus the Netherlands in 1964, winning both his games.

In 1954 he finished 2nd to Bernard Cafferty in the British Under-21 Championship. He made his debut in the British Championship proper in 1955, scoring 5/11 including wins against Michael Franklin and Edward G Sergeant. The latter game, incidentally, qualified him as a Morphy Number 3.

In 1956 he improved his score to 6½/11, finishing equal 6th. In 1957 he made the same score to finish equal 7th after being in contention for the leadership until losing to the eventual winner, Dr. Fazekas. In 1958 he scored 6½/11 yet again. In 1959 he gave it a miss as he couldn't spare the time for two competitions: he was selected for the Students' Olympiad in Budapest, where he was board 3 after Penrose and Clarke. (Link to his record in Students' Olympiads.)

In 1960 the Students' Olympiad again took precedence over the British Championship and he travelled to Leningrad as the team's top board. The opposition was tough - he met and lost to Spassky - but a score of 4/10, including a win against the Yugoslav top board Vladimir Sokolov, was a creditable result.

In 1961 he once again competed in the British Championship, scoring 6/11, with wins against Owen Hindle and Alan Phillips. In 1962 it was back to his usual score, 6½/11, after a 2/2 start with wins against Gerald Abrahams and Frank Parr. That proved to be his last appearance in the competition.

I've compiled a file of 83 of his games and uploaded it to BritBase: https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pgn/g ... iewer.html - I am aware that some of his overseas games are missing from this collection and will add them presently.

I couldn't find any OTB games for Peter after 1975 so he may have stopped playing OTB chess then. (The 2022 Mega Database includes two 4NCL games from 2010 but they may be confusing him with someone else of the same surname.)

I regret to say that I never once met Peter Gibbs, though I occasionally received useful and positive feedback from him via his lifelong friend and rival Bernard Cafferty. I should like to have done so and perhaps interviewed him. May he rest long in the arms of Morphy.

Another line in my Morphy number then. Much missed. We knew each other over many years. I was in touch with him shortly before he died. We played together in the England c.c. team and he was a fine correspondence player and organiser. ( Notably within the blind/braille area). A very kind man and wonderful servant to chess.