A Prestwich fanatic

[John Townsend]

The Manchester Evening News of 30 June 1979 contained an interesting report on page 13 about a fifteen-year-old boy, Martin Toiram, of Prestwich:

"I am mad on chess and spend most of my evenings playing and most of my dinner-times. I play for my school chess team and also for a local chess club."

Later, he continues:

"Recently I started going to tournaments - there is one every couple of months in Bolton, Manchester or nearby. I have been quite successful, winning £10 and £15 in different competitions. However, it is quite costly, as you have to pay entry fees and travel, but they are all at the weekend and they're great fun."

He concludes his letter with this thought:

"If you printed this letter I would use the prize money to enter another competition and I hope this letter will encourage non-chess players to learn the game and people that can play to study the game seriously."

One wonders whether he kept up his chess. The surname Toiram strikes me as unusual.

[IM Jack Rudd]

There appear to be no players with that surname on the ECF rating database.

[Kevin Thurlow]

If the Manchester Evening News is anything like the Sorry Error, excuse me, Surrey Mirror, it might be worth looking at names that are vaguely like Toiram...

[John Townsend]

Thanks, Kevin. A few examples of names "that are vaguely like Toiram" might be useful. It has occurred to me that the name may contain a spelling error, but the best I have thought of so far is Todman, which isn't quite the ticket ...

[John Townsend]

I could have added earlier that the article in the Manchester Evening News included a photograph of "Martin Toiram of Prestwich" playing chess.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

You could check if he is still alive...

How widespread were such tournaments in 1979? if he was winning £10 and £15 in different competitions, would that have been a good indicator of success? Were there different levels of graded tournament then?

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

I think Martin might have used the old "reverse the surname" trick to anonymize himself. Martin Marriott is a relatively common name, and there's a birth of a Martin L L Marriott in Manchester in Q4 1963 which fits the age and place.

[Ian Thompson]

How widespread were such tournaments in 1979? if he was winning £10 and £15 in different competitions, would that have been a good indicator of success? Were there different levels of graded tournament then?

He may well have been playing in junior tournaments, which likely would have had modest prizes, and may not have needed a particularly high standard of play to win them.

Winning a minor tournament in 1979 would have got him more than £15. He might have won a lower place prize or a junior prize in that type of event.

[Roger de Coverly]

How widespread were such tournaments in 1979? if he was winning £10 and £15 in different competitions, would that have been a good indicator of success? Were there different levels of graded tournament then?

Plenty of tournaments in 1979 with tournaments restricted by grade well established. Wouldn't the Manchester Chess Federation archives have records?

[John Townsend]

Jon, your idea of reversing the letters of the surname is clever, and I wonder if the answer lies in that direction. Reversing TOIRAM gives you MARIOT, which is much less common that MARRIOTT. It would be interesting, though, if it could be established that Martin L.L. Marriott played chess!

[John Townsend]

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:

"You could check if he is still alive..."

Thanks, Christopher. How do we do that?

[Mick Norris]

How widespread were such tournaments in 1979? if he was winning £10 and £15 in different competitions, would that have been a good indicator of success? Were there different levels of graded tournament then?

Plenty of tournaments in 1979 with tournaments restricted by grade well established. Wouldn't the Manchester Chess Federation archives have records?

You're making big assumptions there about the MCF having archived records

I didn't come to Manchester until University in 1982, but I don't recognise the name

The GMCCA had 4 weekend congresses back then Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, but there were other congresses in Greater Manchester as well

No clue how many junior events there were

[Matt Mackenzie]

The only entry for "Martin Toiram" when googling is this very thread.

Which strongly suggests it is either a misspelling or assumed name.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

The presence of an "N Marriott" from Manchester in the under 16 section of the 1979 British Championship (https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/19 ... iewer.html) leads to the inescapable conclusion that the real name of "Martin Toiram" was Nitram Marriott.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

A scion of the hotel family going incognito? Or someone having a laugh. All we need now is a connection with Emeritus Professor Neil Marriott:

https://www.winchester.ac.uk/about-us/l ... iott-1.php

(P.S. I have no idea what N. Marriott's first name is, I just searched for Neil.)

(P.P.S. We need the photo as well!)