English Chess Forum

The average intelligence of the human race was noticeably reduced earlier today with the death of one of the greatest essayists, debaters and thinkers of our time. I wil miss his clarity.

Agreed. I regret only discovering his work relatively recently but at least I have a lot of reading still to come....

A true giant - in many ways the Orwell of our day. RIP

Even when wrong (as many of us thought he was over Iraq, for instance) he was wrong for the "right" reasons.

His niece (Peter Hitchen's daughter) was a very good chess player (about 150 at the age of 16). I don't think she plays anymore.

"Christopher's most memorable rejoinders, I have found, linger, and reverberate, and eventually combine, as chess moves combine," Martin Amis wrote.

Jon,

I think maybe you mean Daniel Hitchens, Peter Hitchen's son?

Phil Neatherway wrote:I think maybe you mean Daniel Hitchens, Peter Hitchen's son?

You're quite right. I was actually getting mixed up with Naomi Miller - several years ago I used to chat to Peter Hitchen's wife if we were both early for the school pick-up, and she used to chat about Naomi, a friend of their family, as well as her own son, Daniel, hence why I was confusing the two.

This is arguably the best essay I've seen so far on Hitch following his death:

http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/12/19/run ... -hitchens/

I found it didn't tell me the truth. It painted a credible narative as the truth when the truth is probably that we will never get to the heart of CH's motivations and influences and it is pointless to try, or at least try this hard. This would have been better written when CH was alive and able to respond.

How about a female view to complete the picture?
www.politicalblonde.com

Anyone who is writing their Hitchens obituaries sober is clearly missing the point.

A man with whom I disagreed on a vast number of fundamental points.
But whose balls and brains I much respected.