Remembering IM Simon Webb (10-vi-1949 14-iii-2005)

[John Upham]

Remembering IM Simon Webb (10-vi-1949 14-iii-2005)



https://britishchessnews.com/2020/03/14 ... -iii-2005/

Chess for Tigers

9780192175762-us.jpg (39.16 KiB) Viewed 945 times

[Martyn Goodger]

Nice to see your photo, John, of the Speelman vs Webb game from Ayr 1978. Attached is another photo from the same game, taken by my father. (FYI I am the bespectacled teenager standing just behind Simon's head.)

I met Simon for the first and only time at this event. He had been providing me with remote coaching in what, at the time, seemed to me a very innovative way. A typical lesson would involve me switching on a cassette recorder and then setting up a position he had sent me. I would record my thoughts about the position on a blank cassette tape, perhaps for about 30 mins, and then post the tape to him. He would record his own analysis of my way of thinking, and then post the cassette tape back to me. And so on. I expect I still have some of the recordings somewhere, but I am not sure I have anything to play them on!

I remember being introduced to Simon at an official drinks event at the end of the congress. I was too shy to say much, but my parents told me afterwards that they had liked him and had enjoyed quite a long conversation with him.