Tim Upton

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Nigel Short
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Joined: Sun Dec 21, 2008 9:14 am

Tim Upton

Post by Nigel Short » Sat Jan 13, 2018 10:15 am

According to Helen Milligan, on Facebook, the former Scottish international, Tim Upton (1958-2018), has died in Luxembourg.

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David Shepherd
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Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2007 3:46 pm

Re: Tim Upton

Post by David Shepherd » Sat Jan 13, 2018 1:18 pm

From the Scottish chess forum
The sad news has reached us that FM Tim Upton passed away yesterday, January 10th 2018, in Luxembourg...

Rob McAndrew writes:

'There are many others better able than I to remember his contribution to chess in Scotland. I do not know in how many Scottish Championships he played, or how many Olympiads he played for Scotland. I do know that he played in the Malta Olympiad in 1980, and the Thessaloniki Olympiad in 1984, where he beat Heikki Westerinen.

He has lived, worked and played chess since 1994 in Luxembourg , where he played for the first team of Gambit Bonnevoie in the Luxembourg league. Gambit Bonnevoie, with Tim in the team, won the Luxembourg Championship for the 2016/2017 season. He captained the team which played in the European Club Cup in Turkey in October 2017, having represented and captained the club in a number of previous European Club Cup competitions.

He was the Treasurer of the EU Institutions chess club here in Luxembourg, and regularly attended the Thursday evening meetings, where we played blitz, analysed league games from the previous weekend, and discussed chess and politics and the respective fortunes of Hibs (his club) and Raith Rovers (mine).

He will be much missed here in Luxembourg.'


Chess Scotland passes on its sincerest condolences to Tim's family and friends, and a full obituary will be published in the Chess Scotland magaz

Leonard Barden
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Re: Tim Upton

Post by Leonard Barden » Sat Jan 13, 2018 2:09 pm

Tim Upton played in the Oxford v Cambridge varsity match and in the Lloyds Bank Masters. He was probably the leading world expert on the rarely played Ponziani Opening, and used it to effect in his most notable game, his 14-move win against GM Amador Rodriguez in the Scotland v Cuba match in the 1980 Malta Olympiad.

White "Timothy J Upton"
Black "Amador Rodriguez Cespedes"
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 Qe7 4. Bb5 Nf6 5. O-O a6 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. d4 Bg4 8. Qb3 Bc8 9. Nxe5 Nxe4 10. Re1 Nd6 11. c4 Kd8 12. c5 Be6 13. cxd6 cxd6 14. Qb6+ 1-0

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Tim Upton

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Sat Jan 13, 2018 3:46 pm

That's a shame, way too young. My games against him were entertaining, even though he won every time.

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Michael Farthing
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Location: Morecambe, Europe

Re: Tim Upton

Post by Michael Farthing » Sat Jan 13, 2018 6:02 pm


James Plaskett
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Re: Tim Upton

Post by James Plaskett » Fri Feb 23, 2018 8:37 am

Played him only once, in a London Leage game.

Cause of death known?

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