Dave Parlour (1946-2025)

[Simon McGuinness]

I would just like to say a few words about Dave Parlour , who passed away in February 2025 .

Dave was a friend of mine from South Shields Chess Club , and he was a well known figure on the congress circuit for many years . He would frequently end up amongst the prize winners for the minor and intermediate sections . Easily recognisable from his ever present Stetson hat , Dave would play incredibly quickly and had an eye for a combination and liked to complicate matters . I think he played mainly on intuition and had no interest in formal study .
Dave was a long distance driver by profession and was a pioneer of citizen band radios so he would be able to chat with his colleagues and even the police while driving ! His pseudonym was « argument » , because he liked a good robust debate . He carried this pseudonym with him into the chess world for his blitz chess online games .
Away from the board Dave valued his family above everything else . He was also a man who prided himself on being able to talk to anyone , and he held little regard for rank , but valued people for their honesty and kindness . He was very kind and would help very strong players out with travel and accommodation from time to time . He was quite a deep thinker about life in general and I can picture him now sometimes almost unable to speak for laughing when something really amused him . He was a man who really loved chess .