Dave Springgay

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Brian Denman
Posts: 111
Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2014 9:02 am

Dave Springgay

Post by Brian Denman » Wed Feb 21, 2018 1:15 pm

David George Springgay died on 12th February at the age of 80. Born in Brighton in 1937, he was a strong player as a junior and was only 16 when he won his first Brighton CC Championship and aged 21 when he first became Sussex champion. He went on to win the club championship four times and the county championship three times. Also in 1961 he came 10th equal in the British Championship at Aberystwtyth and in this event defeated the IM, Cenek Kottnauer. After these successes he played less often from 1964 to 1972 and then gave up the game for a while. He was tempted back by a baseline chess tournament held in the Royal Pavilion in 1976. Because of his creative talent he was able to master this game more quickly than his competitors and he won first prize. In the same year he also won the first British Hexagonal Chess Championship with a 100% score. After winning these events he gave up chess again before returning to play in the Major Open event at the BCF Congress at Brighton in 1984. He scored about 50% in this tournament which was good seeing that he was out of practice and the game had moved on. This was to be his last competitive venture and he continued to live in Brighton for the rest of his life. He was no academic and probably only studied openings to a limited extent, but he had a fine natural ability at chess, which made him a very dangerous opponent.

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