English Chess Forum

I was reading a story about Terence Reese, the famous bridge player, earlier today which said in passing that he was a skilled chess player. I was wondering if he ever took part in any chess tournaments or if any of his games have survived?

He wrote the wonderful 'Chess Treasury of the Air' for Penguin, largely an editorial role. Whether he played I don't know. Never seen any of his games in print. Without checking, I think he's dead.

James Pratt wrote:He wrote the wonderful 'Chess Treasury of the Air' for Penguin, largely an editorial role. Whether he played I don't know. Never seen any of his games in print. Without checking, I think he's dead.

No, that was Terence Tiller - a totally different person. Both Terences died some years ago. JTR's dates were 1913-1996, TT's were 1916-1987.

Wikipedia describes JTR as a chess enthusiast but I don't recall seeing his name in any tournaments or any games played by him.

Alan Truscott - now that's a different matter.

I was coming back to apologise but the erudite Mr James beat me to it! Truscott is dead, has a game in 'Lacking the Master Touch' against Heidenfeld. Mark Horton must be a master of both games, Simon Webb was ...

The most famous example of a dual chess/bridge player is Peter Lee who won the British Championship in the 60's and also the Gold Cup in Bridge..and indeed he is still one of the strongest Bridge players in Britain today...representing kent at County level and also still winning National Tournaments. Jonathan Mestel is also another example...he has won several National Bridge competitions recently as his chess prowess has waned !

His chess prowess has waned? His grade went up 26 points last season!
http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getre ... ef=115460G
(the only person graded over 190 in the "100 most improved" list: http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getmostimproved.php)

Jon D'Souza-Eva wrote:His chess prowess has waned? His grade went up 26 points last season!
http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getre ... ef=115460G
(the only person graded over 190 in the "100 most improved" list: http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getmostimproved.php)

I'm sure I could improve my grade by 26 points if I averaged 3 games per season since 2007.

I once played a Bridge match against Reese's team in the Gold Cup. What I remember most was the fairness of him and his partner, Jeremy Flint. Flint was declarer on one hand and mistakenly called for the top card from dummy when he had already played King from hand. He corrected himself quickly and asked for a small card from dummy. But Reese wouldn't let him and he insisted on playing the Ace - much to the delight of my partner and me!

I don't know that he played much chess. The above match was played at the Eccentrics Club, where he seemed fond of Backgammon.

Alex Holowczak wrote:

Jon D'Souza-Eva wrote:His chess prowess has waned? His grade went up 26 points last season!
http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getre ... ef=115460G
(the only person graded over 190 in the "100 most improved" list: http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getmostimproved.php)

I'm sure I could improve my grade by 26 points if I averaged 3 games per season since 2007.

Actually I'm not convinced that at that grade you could, interestingly although not based on many games his FIDE rating is 5 points higher than it was in 2000 so not going downhill fast by any measure .

It's easier to increase your grade by 26 points over 9 games than it is over 50. You don't have to keep the standard up for so long. Case in point: In the very few games I played in 2008/09, I had a grade of 158. The first year I ever played > 30 games, I dropped to 137. The ECF grading system is very poor at giving grades to players who play only a few games.

The same applies the other way, of course - quite a few who only play occasionally have ridiculously *low* gradings

Jon D'Souza-Eva wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 18, 2011 4:38 pm

I was reading a story about Terence Reese, the famous bridge player, earlier today which said in passing that he was a skilled chess player. I was wondering if he ever took part in any chess tournaments or if any of his games have survived?

Jon, you might want to have a read of this on BritBase...

https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pgn/1 ... iewer.html

... which is the account of a couple of informal wartime tournaments in which one JT Reese took part. I'm about 90% sure this was Terence Reese, given Julius du Mont's comment, as follows:

Julius du Mont, in BCM, February 1943, ppn 25-26, wrote:J. T. Reese, who started to play only two years ago, has an astonishing grasp of the game for a novice and only needs practical experience to become a first-class player.

Unfortunately I've not seen any game scores of his.

I'm sure it is Terence Reese who was being referred to. He had such a fine brain that I have little doubt that he could have excelled at chess, if he had ever turned to it in a serious way. However, I don't believe he played chess competitively, unless it was for a very brief period before we were all born.

See my earlier post (above) regarding his fondness for backgammon! He was also keen on football and I believe he had played as a full-back. I remember, while we were watching a match on the television at his club, he suddenly became excited and called out, "The spot! The spot!" Other of his interests included greyhound racing, and he was a bookmaker at one or more of the dog tracks.

I see the tournament table on Britbase refers to Reese's residence as Guildford. I recall he was associated with Epsom for a long time. I don't know if there was an Epsom Chess Club. In one of his bridge books, he related that, for some reason, he never received call-up papers for the war. Later, he lived in London's Park Lane for a number of years.

" I don't know if there was an Epsom Chess Club."

https://www.epsomchessclub.com/about

1929 - 1967, then 2018 onwards.