Richard Guy

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Leonard Barden
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Richard Guy

Post by Leonard Barden » Wed Mar 11, 2020 9:29 pm

A tweet from Olimpiu G Urcan reports the death of the chess studies expert and former BCM endgames editor at age 103:
https://twitter.com/olimpiuurcan/status ... 8597863424

Steve Williams
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Re: Richard Guy

Post by Steve Williams » Fri Apr 17, 2020 3:09 pm

Sad that he's gone, in spite of his great age. In fact I wasn't aware that he was a chess buff; it was through mathematics that I knew him. When I took this hobby up more seriously he was already in his 90's, yet gave great encouragement to a complete amateur. I was working on the prime density of quadratic polynomials at the time, and he sent me, not only advice, but copies of other people's publications. He also steered me towards the interest in factorization which is my current one. I put to him the widespread belief that mathematics (and chess too, perhaps?) is an activity for younger people, after a while you're past your best. He refuted that trenchantly. I know that he was a Brit who migrated to Canada, associated with the University of Calgary for many years. His best known strictly mathematical book was Unsolved Problems in Number Theory which went through at least three editions but he also collaborated on Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays, about games with, like chess, a mathematical dimension.

David Sedgwick
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Re: Richard Guy

Post by David Sedgwick » Sat Aug 01, 2020 12:46 pm

A tribute by John Beasley, also a former endgame study columnist of BCM, can be found at www.jsbeasley.co.uk. (Click on Orthodox Chess and then on Endgames.)

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