English Chess Forum

I have just written a BCM Blog entry on the late Raaphy Persitz (1934-2009)...

http://bcmchess.blogspot.com/2009/02/ra ... -2009.html

There is also an excellent tribute paid to him on the ChessBase site by Yochanan Afek...

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5198

Raaphy's name won't be known to many of the younger generation of British chess players as he last played here in the late 1960s but he spent a good number of years living in England before that time and contributed a huge amount to chess in this country - not least the 'Student's Corner' column in BCM. When I took over as editor in 1999, Raaphy sought me out and offered lots of moral support. I never met him in the flesh as he lived thousands of miles away in Tel Aviv but he was a real friend. A matter of weeks before he died, he sent me a fax saying how much he had been moved by my tribute to Bob Wade in the January issue of BCM. And now I have to write Raaphy's obituary. I would be grateful for any comments from people who knew Raaphy.

Zichro livracha xx

The Galvenius in the British Lightning team picture is the same Galvenius whose epic with Joe Stone in the 1952 counties final is discussed on another thread. David Armstrong was an Australian international, and I remember agonising over leaving him out of our team against Middlesex. John Sykes became a distinguished editor with the Oxford University Press.

Avni's Chessbase article mentions Raaphy's contributions to the Hebrew language. When he arrived at Balliol his qualification from an Israeli university was not recognised as equivalent to the English matriculation exam, so at the end of his first term he had to take what were called Responsions, five subjects at a modest level, roughly equivalent to GSCE O level. The examiners passed him in four subjects but failed him in Hebrew, which he had to take again at the end of the next term.

Remarkably, more or or less the same thing happened when Raaphy took finals in PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics). The later successful Swiss banker was considered excellent in philosophy, ok in politics, but they thought so badly of his economics papers that he gave him fourth class honours, a pass degree, or a straight fail. I forget which-any of them harder statistically to achieve than a first. Raaphy was calmly philosophical about both these improbable disasters.

In the year when we coincided at Balliol we played hundreds of blitz games in the junior common room. Later, in 1957, we shared a flat in London for some months and spent breakfast discussing the latest lines from Schachmatny Bulletin, 64, or the Russian championship. Certainly analysing constantly with him benefited my play greatly- I was a weakie in 1954 when I tied for the British but much better in 1957-60. And when Raaphy played at Tel Aviv 1958 he had his best result. Afek on Chessbase just says that he competed there and that Reshevsky was first, but actually Raaphy was third behind Reshevsky and Szabo.

He was my best chess friend, probably my best friend, in the years that I knew him. Everybody liked him, and he was as modest, witty, bright and sympathetic as other tributes suggest.

Thanks, Leonard. Here is the crosstable of the tournament you are referring to...
I can't find any games for Raaphy after the 1968/69 Hastings Premier, so this would seem to be his final curtain as a serious player...