London Central YMCA (aka CentYMCA) Chess Club

[John Upham]

Good to hear from you Daryl. Any history would be useful.

See http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group ... 7416447714

[Daryl Taylor]

Good to hear from you Daryl. Any history would be useful.

See http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group ... 7416447714

I have signed up to your facebook group, John.

I originally joined Centymca in 1974 during the Endell Street years, and for me that grubby old building on the corner of Endell Street and High Holborn WAS the YMCA. While searching for a club to join, I had turned up on a club night at Athenaeum and found it utterly lifeless. Fortunately Martin Goldschmidt happened to be completing an adjourned game that evening, and we got to chatting about London clubs. After Martin finished his game we headed off to the YMCA. The regular blitz session in the buffet was in full swing with all of the old characters that we remember so well, and by the end of the evening I knew I had found the right club.

I continued as a member and organiser at Centymca until I emigrated to Finland in 1986, more or less falling out of the chess world at the same time.

There is a bubble photograph of the High Holborn side of the building on Google Maps. Just search for 83 Endell Street and click on the street view. It looks much the same as it did in the 70s, except nowadays maybe a bit less grubby(!)

[Matt Harrison]

The Endell Street building has recently been refurbished (at a cost of £3.2 million) as part of the Government's Places of Change programme to renovate and improve hostels for homeless people. It is quite an amazing transformation inside.

[Daryl Taylor]

The Endell Street building has recently been refurbished (at a cost of £3.2 million) as part of the Government's Places of Change programme to renovate and improve hostels for homeless people. It is quite an amazing transformation inside.

I suppose that explains the façade cleanup.

It was during the Endell Street period that Andrew Martin penned a scurrilous, libellous, and quite frankly hilarious parody of Jimmy Adams' famous poem about Bobby Fischer ("Born in Chicago, 1943, was Bobby Fischer, champion to be ..."). Andrew's version of the poem was about the life of one of the regular Endell Street blitz players, with a segment describing conditions in the building in the mid 70s:

Well the years went by,
And one fine day,
He was playing with the chess set,
From the YMCA,
Where smoke fills the air,
And there's dirty latrines,
And the food makes you vomit,
From the vending machines.

I also have strong recollections of Dermot Allen, the Irish porter at Endell Street, who was responsible for controlling access to the building (Excuse me soir! Could oi see yer membership card?). Dermot would make occasional announcements over the building tannoy system (Telephone call fer Soma Pieris, Soma Pieris tah reception, please!), and his concept of building security was relaxed to the point of comatose. Basically if you looked like you belonged, then you got into the building with no questions asked.

For most of us, "getting into the building" meant heading straight ahead about ten yards inside the main entrance, followed by a sharp turn left into the buffet room. The blitz tables were then immediately to the left.

Home matches were played in various rooms of the building and basically we had free run of the place. I was unaware at the time of joining the club that Endell Street was merely a temporary home for the YMCA pending construction of the Tottenham Court Road building.

[Simon Brown]

Hi Daryl, great to hear from you.

It may be over 30 years ago, but I remember the Endell Street years with an affection unrivalled in my chess career. I also, quite inexplicably, remember an unnaturally large part of that poem. Was he really "born in Teheran, 1943" or was that for the benefit of scansion? Andrew has a lot to answer for...

Take care

Simon

[Daryl Taylor]

Hi Daryl, great to hear from you.

It may be over 30 years ago, but I remember the Endell Street years with an affection unrivalled in my chess career. I also, quite inexplicably, remember an unnaturally large part of that poem. Was he really "born in Teheran, 1943" or was that for the benefit of scansion? Andrew has a lot to answer for...

Take care

Simon

Hmmm... Another unnaturally large chunk of that scurrilous, but oh so memorable ditty, perhaps now changing the name (to protect the guilty):

Born in Teheran, 1943,
Was H*#%&@¢! N*+¥‰¶”§, champion to be,
His father left home,
When he was only two,
And another "uncle" came,
To join the zoo.

Somewhere in my dusty trunk of memorabilia I also have the BCM report by Jimmy Adams called Rafael Vaganian comes to London town. If I remember the details of that simul correctly, you beat Vaganian and your younger brother drew his game after holding a winning position at one stage: In case you don't know it, Jimmy boy, you are doing All Right. Now all you've got to do is Be Careful, and you've beaten your first grandmaster. Vaganian was one of several Soviet GMs who got badly smashed up in simuls by our younger players in those days. Andrew played a sharp King's Indian line, and the annotation included a comment like: Now the chess is over, and what follows is a fascinating exhibition of Kung Fu fighting. Andrew is no respecter of persons or material... Andrew also won after punch-drunk Raffy unexpectedly stepped into a mate in one in a level position.

I must go through that trunk sometime soon and see if any stuff is worth scanning and posting.

[John Upham]

All,

It is my intention to put "The CentYMCA Story" online and PGN all the games contained therein with annotations.

I may even do this for the three Streatham & Brixton Knightmares in my possession.

[Simon Brown]

Hi John

I remember that day well (1974?) and I too have the report. I played a Benoni. Funny thing was I played him again in a simul, about a week later, and beat him again. He found it very amusing, such a nice guy, unlike some of the simuls I played at the YMCA.

His result in that simul was terrible - had to be if he couldn't beat my brother - but he just didn't stop smiling.

All my YMCA stuff is in storage. If you post yours, I'll dig out mine and see what is there.

Simon

[Leonard Barden]

These comments remind me how surprised I was in January 1975 when Vaganian did so badly in his YMCA simuls.

In the London junior prizegiving simuls a few days earlier we had Belyavsky and Vaganian (who had both competed at Hastings) each playing around 25-30 juniors, two teams of similar strength. At the start the two Soviets made a side bet on who would make the better score. Vaganian simply wizzed round and polished off the opposition in around 2 and a half hours with an excellent percentage. From memory, his top board opponent was Shaun Taulbut who was already then close to IM strength (a year later he won the European U20 championship in Groningen). I also liked to put a couple of very young but talented players on the bottom boards in the hope that the simul player would tske them casually. For Vaganian, the chosen ones were Daniel King and Nigel Short (who had just won the London U10 with 9/9 and was playing his first grandmaster). Both were crushed.

By the time Vaganian finished most of Belyavsky's opponents were still going strong. He asked for a toilet break and as I showed him to the loo he looked careworn and uttered "Many strong players!" I recall he beat Jim Plaskett who came up to me, flourished the score sheet, and said "Belyavsky 1, Plaskett 0" but otherwise Belyavsky conceded loads of draws and losses and took around five hours=which Vaganian thought a great joke.

Hence I am still puzzled as to why the YMCA teams did so much better against Vaganian.

[Daryl Taylor]

Could it be that you underestimated our rag, tag and bobtail outfit, Leonard?

                                                 

We had an extraordinarily strong sense of ésprit de corps at Centymca, which I believe helped us to get the best out of players of all standards, ages and backgrounds.

[Leonard Barden]

No, of course not, since as Simon has stated above I often recommended talented juniors to join the YMCA. And simul teams billed as England juniors also had a high esprit de corps, as they showed on many occasions. in this case several of the opponents were identical to the earlier simul.

[Simon Brown]

And it was Leonard who recommended to my father I join Centymca. One of many fine ideas.

Leonard, you are right - my first win against Vaganian was of course at the London prizegiving, before Centymca.

Simon

[John Upham]

Can anyone recall the various names of the teams and which leagues that played in?

I seem to remember the Pumas, Tigers, Cheetahs(?)

[Simon Brown]

John, I don't recall any Cheetahs - as if - but we had Lions, Wolves and Dragons. I was in the Dragons in my first season, with Nick Benjamin, Nicky Andrews, Clive Hill and others. God knows what league - when you are 14 you just turn up and play. Seem to recall my Dad driving to some far flung parts of Middlesex!

Simon

[Simon Spivack]

It was the Middlesex League. I captained a team for Islington in 1975.

Hayes was a bit of a pain to travel to. The Muswell Hill of the day.

Mike Hooper was the league secretary then. He may be worth trying to contact.