Tony Gillam

[Neil Graham]

I have just received an e-mail reporting the sad news that Tony Gillam has passed away. He was 83 in January. When I hear more I'll post details here.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Now this is a significant loss. Many of us will have purchased at least one of his publications at some point.

He was also politically active for a number of years, as a councillor in Nottinghamshire.

[John Clarke]

The late Len Pickett's main publisher. Talk about a double whammy ...

[John Moore]

Sad news. His series on Rare and Unpublished Chess Tournaments ran for many years and must have involved a great deal of work. It's well worth looking out for these slim volumes with orange paper covers.

[Ken Morrison]

A sad loss for Nottinghamshire and the wider chess community. I remember many of his early publications and played him a number of times going back as far as the 1970's. I am sure someone who knew him better than I will be able to submit an obituary which highlights his life inside Chess and outside it.

[John Upham]

BCN is sorry to learn of the passing of AJ (Tony) Gillam. Tony founded publishing company The Chess Player, Nottingham who produced many delightful A5 booklets mainly on openings.

Tony Gillam courtesy of the Ken Whyld Association

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https://www.kwabc.org/en/newsitem/tony- ... s-old.html




Here is one of our favourites from 1976 and Kevin Wicker who did not live on Whicker Island!


This wonderful treatise is timeless.

How to Play the Queen's Gambit Exchange Variation by Kevin Wicker

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Kevin Wicker

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[Matt Mackenzie]

BCN is sorry to learn of the passing of AJ (Tony) Gillam. Tony founded publishing company The Chess Player, Nottingham who produced many delightful A5 booklets mainly on openings.

Also the series of contemporary game collections The Chess Player (and later The New Chess Player) which were basically a British version of Chess Informant. Several club libraries and suchlike may well have some issues.

[Geoff Chandler]

It was Tony, during a 3 day visit in Edinburgh searching for anything about John Cochrane, who put me onto graveyards saying that occasionally a tombstone gave a lot more details than the few lines entered in a church registry.
That was 10-15 years ago and we kept in touch for years afterwards via emails.
A very interesting man whose company I enjoyed very much. One of those people you easily click with. Sad News.

[Ken Morrison]

I asked AI for a run down of "Tony" Gillam which I copy and paste below. Obviously very factual and concentrates on the chess side only. I suspect this emits many other aspects of his life which are possibly only known by a few.

A. J. “Tony” Gillam is a renowned chess author, publisher, and educator who significantly contributed to chess literature and historical research.
Early Life and Teaching Career
Anthony John Gillam, commonly known as Tony Gillam, began his involvement in chess education in the 1960s and 1970s, teaching primary school children aged 7–9 and serving as trainer for the Nottingham Primary Schools team

His teaching methods emphasized interactive learning through puzzles rather than lengthy essays, forming the basis of his successful “Discovering Chess” series, which remains suitable for beginners of all ages

Chess Publishing and Writing
Gillam’s career as a chess author began in the 1970s with beginner-friendly books. In 1977, he collaborated with leading English player Bernard Cafferty to produce Chess with the Masters, which inspired him to delve deeper into chess history

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. He founded The Chess Player in Nottingham, a publishing company that has produced over 138 publications, including rare and previously unpublished tournaments and matches from 1870 to 1945
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. His work often involved painstaking research, reviewing historical chess magazines, and consulting public libraries to uncover unknown games and tournament details
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Historical Contributions
Gillam is particularly noted for his historical research, documenting the lives and games of prominent chess masters during periods such as World War I and II. His publications, including Munich 1942 and Ostende 1906, provide extensive collections of previously unrecorded games, photographs, and biographical details

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. He also contributed biographies of lesser-known masters, setting new standards in historical chess scholarship
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Editorial Work
Beyond authoring books, Gillam edited more than 300 chess books and periodicals, including the flagship magazine The Chess Player, which covered international chess from 1971 to 1980
Penguin Random House

. His editorial work helped preserve and disseminate chess knowledge to a wider audience, making historical games and analyses accessible to enthusiasts and researchers alike.

Legacy and Recognition
Tony Gillam turned 80 in January 2023, marking decades of dedication to chess education, publishing, and historical research
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. His meticulous work has been invaluable to historians and chess players, providing a treasure trove of information on tournaments, matches, and players that might otherwise have been lost
kwabc.org


. His contributions continue to influence chess literature and education, ensuring that both historical and contemporary chess knowledge remains widely available.
In summary, A. J. Gillam’s life reflects a deep commitment to chess as a teacher, historian, author, and publisher, leaving a lasting legacy in both chess education and historical scholarship

[John Upham]

Here is a correspondence (one of many) I had with Tony in 2020:

Hi John,
Attached is a list of my publications since sometime in the early 1990s. It may not be complete. There may be one or two publications which were not listed in the numerical order. You can see some publications of that type towards the end of the attached list. There may have been one or two more such items which have sold out and been dropped from the attached list.

“The Chess Player” began publishing about May 1961. At that time the business was a partnership between young players, some still in school 6th forms, some of whom lived in Derby and some in Nottingham. The first publication was a book on “Zurich 1960”. At that time all the books were in descriptive notation and were typed and stencil duplicated. I believe the numbering of the books began later and Zurich was left out by mistake and so became number 0. That series of books continued until after 1990. It consisted mainly of tournament books but there were some biographies and perhaps a few other items. Maybe I have a list of those publication, but if so, I cannot find it easily. There were probably over 200 publications in that first series. The second (current) series consists of historical tournaments. The first series was (mainly, perhaps entirely) modern events (plus biographies), including some bulletins of Hastings Christmas tournaments and some British Championships.
I was in teacher’s training college in Nottingham 1963-66 and when that course finished, I bought out the other partners and moved from living in Derby to living in Nottingham, where I was a primary school teacher until the end of 1969. The current address has been valid since February 1967.
So, it’s 60 years next year!
Tony Gillam

[Matt Mackenzie]

He isn't in the ECF rating database, but I presume he also played a bit back in the day?

[John Upham]

Tony was kind enough to send me his catalogue in 2020.

Here is page 1:

Tony Gillam's catalogue from 2020: page 1

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[Neil Graham]

He isn't in the ECF rating database, but I presume he also played a bit back in the day?

He played in Nottinghamshire; there are some e-mails circulating locally (as in Ken Morrison's above) and I will add to them in due course.

[John Upham]

Here is page 2 of the catalogue:

Tony Gillam's catalogue, page 2

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[Christopher Kreuzer]

Many thanks for these, John. Slight issue with the first four entries on that screenshot, can you re-do?

(Pressing "Esc" does not work on my computer... )

Are any of these still in print now? I presume all now long out of print. How rare are they?