Annoying time wasting

[Ian Jamieson]

Walter Browne had a very bad reputation in his day.

That is a highly unpleasant accusation against a great and deceased player. I don't imagine you can back it up.

He was born in Sydney (joke) and said “If Bobby Fischer is the god of chess, then I am the devil.” although not necessarily for the reasons possibly implied in the post.

[Matt Mackenzie]

I think it is generally accepted that Browne could be "excitable" at times, indeed he would very likely not have denied this himself.

[John Clarke]

I had a trivially won position at adjournment against an elderly gentleman. He was preparing to seal a move, after which we would have to resume play later in the evening. The arbiter (I can't remember if it was Harry Baines or George Simmons) approached, looked at the board and said, 'Perhaps Mr X could consider resigning.'

I had a suggestion of this kind made to me by a passing kibitzer when a piece down in a weekender, against an opponent rated some 40 points higher. "Why not 'resigns'?" he asked as I wrote down my move. Well, the position still offered plenty of opportunities for resistance, and I did in fact end by getting a draw on adjudication (yes - at the time, they still had that pernicious practice in some tournaments, in the early rounds anyway). The person so pessimistic about my chances is known to a good many of us forumites, but no further clues to his identity will be given.

Another partially justifiable time-waste came some years later in an NZ correspondence game. I was keen to secure a place in the top class out of the six into which NZCCA members were graded. My results to that point in the year had been good enough to assure this, but a loss reported too early could have jeopardised it. So I strung out a clearly inferior (but not totally lost) game until the cut-off date for reporting that year's results was safely past. (My opponent and I had another game going as well, still very much in progress, so it wasn't as if I was making him waste postage.)

And I have to admit to once doing the old let-the-time-run-down trick. However, the gentleman concerned on that occasion had (a) not returned my greeting as I arrived for play, (b) refused to make eye contact, (c) barely touched my outstretched hand, and (d) altogether given the impression that the whole thing was beneath the dignity of a 40+-points higher-rated player, and a waste of his time, energy and the entry fee. All considered, he got off rather lightly.

[John Townsend]

It reminds me of a county game I had against the late Andrew Whiteley, a player much stronger than I was. He declared that he wanted to go for a drink and that he wouldn't move again, at the same time inviting me to resign. My position was very probably lost, but I took the view that it wasn't my opponent's place to suggest resigning and I declined his offer, whereupon he retired beerwards. At adjudication time, I consulted my captain and he was keen to submit the position. I had the last laugh when it came back as a draw.

[MJMcCready]

Well I could if I were in England and had access to my books and magazine. He had a terrible reputation from slamming the clock down and a few other antics when in time trouble, don't you know that? There is an article about him in New in Chess long ago but can't remember when off the top of my head and I won't be back home until next year, so can't check also.

[NickFaulks]

He had a terrible reputation from slamming the clock down and a few other antics when in time trouble, don't you know that?

Walter Browne certainly suffered from an addiction to time trouble. Like many such players, he did bang the clock unnecessarily hard on such occasions, but to nobody's disadvantage but his own. He once lost a game against me, in a completely drawn position, when attempting to make ten moves in a few seconds using a dodgy clock. Despite the disappointing result, he was perfectly polite after the game.

https://old.chesstempo.com/gamedb/game/1646675/ply/8

I know several of Walter's GM contemporaries well and, while they showed no sympathy for his time trouble issues, I never heard any of them suggest that he ever did anything unsporting. That is the clear implication of your first post, which defiles the memory of a great player. I think you should remove it.

[Ian Rogers]

Nick should probably talk to a few more of Walter's contemporaries.

[NickFaulks]

Nick should probably talk to a few more of Walter's contemporaries.

You can't just leave it there. What did he do to you?

I find the suggestion that he was guilty of time wasting particularly odd, given that he rarely left himself with time to waste.

[James Toon]

It's much less common in OTB chess

Did it not used to be commonplace in leagues where there was a near-compulsory adjudication? That's where a player thinks they have a win or a draw and sits out time to get the adjudicator to work it out for them.

I agree. This was so annoying. I'd forgotten about it because most leagues have moved away from adjudication systems.

[John Townsend]

The evidence produced so far by M.J. McCready about Browne seems particularly vague, and it would be better if the accusation were removed or modified. One could point to other top players, including Reshevsky, who would get behind on the clock and then get into a muck sweat. It may have been unpopular with their opponents, but there was no intention to act unfairly, and I don't think "very bad reputation" is at all applicable.

[Paul McKeown]

ROFL, this is hilarious. Walter Browne's sometimes "extravagant" behaviour on and off the board was well known, and even self-confessed. As Ian Rogers writes, "Ask his contemporaries."

[John Townsend]

Could we have actual evidence of occasions when Browne is supposed to have acted in an unfair or unsporting way? All we are getting so far is vague accusations and hearsay.

[Ian Rogers]

I don't think Nick would really want me to go into detail - he is the one who wants to maintain Browne's reputation, for which 'bad' is a very understated term.

[Roger Lancaster]

Can't speak for others but I find the trend among forumites to disect the reputation of now-dead players slightly distasteful.

[J T Melsom]

I'm interested in knowing about historic figures (chess or otherwise) with an honest account of their achievements and failings. The problem with this thread is that those in the know aren't sharing information, so we have a negative image of Walter Browne being ascribed (and disputed) but an absence of detail. Not sure this is of much interest to general readers as it stands.