English Chess Forum

Clare College Obituary wrote:Nicholas John Constantine Argyris was born on 22 March 1943 in London, only child of Eileen Pollard and Constantine Hadjiargyris. He spent the early part of his childhood in London before the family moved to Athens, Constantine’s hometown. Nicholas went to a Greek school.

In 1953, he moved back to England and went to a boarding school where he spent a year before going on to St Paul's at 11 years old. From then on, he lived with his parents who were back from Greece. Success in chess beckoned Nicholas and he became British boys champion for the London league in chess at the age of 16 in September 1959.

Going on to study at Cambridge, he obtained a BA in Economics (1965). He was an adventurous young man, hitchhiking across France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and other European countries. When he was attending Cambridge University, he met his first wife Carol. They married in 1966 and became teachers in London. They had three children, Chloë, Sophie and Costa.

Nicholas was a schoolmaster from 1966 to 1968. Then he became a civil servant at the Ministry of Economics. In 1973, Nicholas got a job at the European Commission in Brussels. His career took off and he steadily worked his way up to become Director in Telecommunications (from 1993 to 2001).

In 1984, Nicholas attended a circle dance teaching workshop. He soon started a group of dancers near Brussels where he met his second wife Danielle, a Belgian national he married in 1992. He enjoyed dancing for a period of over thirty years.

Nicholas retired in 2001 and, with his wife, moved to Scotland. Nicholas had many interests – he loved chess and played across board games then took up solving chess puzzles. He was invited annually to London to compete in the finals of the British Chess Puzzle Solving Championship. Nicholas also enjoyed singing and joined The Big Choir in Forres, his town, where he sang regularly.

A man of impeccable taste, he was cultured and hungry to embrace life as fully as possible. He was collecting art works, books, CDs and DVDs. He donated his library to the Aberdeen University Library. He didn't need a lot of friendships in his life perhaps as a result of his strong sense of himself and highly independent nature. However, he did have some lasting friendships through his life which he valued greatly. He was extremely well respected in his chosen career and highly thought of in his circles, evident by some of the lovely comments that have been received by the family after his death on 31 July 2024.

He was diplomatic and approachable, with a steady determination. He accepted that sometimes, you can't get everything at the first move, you need to be prepared to negotiate. A quiet man, Nicholas was spiritually minded. A sense of belonging was extremely important to him, which he imbued in great measure equally to Danielle and his children.