SQUARING UP

Chess is the thinking person’s game, but beneath the veneer of calm, there’s a war of minds raging. At thriving Lichfield chess club, whether you are a fierce competitor or a social player, you will be welcomed equally.

It has been estimated that there are vastly more possible chess games than atoms in the known universe. This mind-blowing assertion is made by Dominic Lawson in his fascinating book The Inner Game, which examines the mental pressures, external and self-imposed, which beset the greatest minds in chess. Lawson wrote it after the famous challenge in London in 1993 by Britain’s Nigel Short against the Russian Garri Kasparov for the World Chess Championship title. Short, the first Briton ever to play a match for the World Chess Championship, ultimately lost, but the achievement went down in the annals of chess history.
In The Inner Game, Lawson chronicled not only the immense mental powers of Short and the likes, but the total mental focus and fierce competitiveness that go with the territory of top chess.
One man who knows all about that is the secretary of Lichfield Chess club. The club meets every Thursday evening in the historic setting of Lichfield’s Guildhall and he is always there to support not only the strong contingent of expert players who are playing competitive league matches, but also the social members who simply want to have a game, improve and meet others interested in their hobby. He was also there to help me when I went along 12 months ago as a complete novice, having never touched a chess piece, but having always harboured the desire to learn to play. He taught me the moves, and you may understand why I feel somewhat privileged to have been taught by him and why he knows all about competitive chess when I explain that he is David Short, father of Nigel Short, the former child chess prodigy who in the Nineties became the world chess number two, played Kasparov in the World Championship in 1993 and became the youngest Grandmaster in the world at just 19. David can be found each Thursday making sure everyone is matched with a partner, competitive games get underway smoothly, the boards and pieces are available to all – and coffee is on hand. It’s a very friendly club, with around forty members of all ages. The youngest member is still at primary school, there are three other juniors, still in their teens, while one of the oldest members played his first competitive game two days before the outbreak of World War II!
“The age span at the club is huge – around seventy years. We had a guy playing with us from Bushbury last week who is 94 and drew his game. And we would be very happy to have more junior members too” says David.

Dr Paul Wallace is currently the highest-ranked player at Lichfield Chess Club . A GP by profession, Paul has been a member of the club since he moved to Lichfield in 1990.  What makes an outstanding player is the obvious question to put to the club’s strongest member: “It is a combination of things. You must have passion, you must have a certain amount of talent and you need to have a competitive streak, because a chess match is very much a competition,” he replies. “You feel internalised emotions during a game; there are highs and lows; and you may have your hopes dashed. “I find, after a whole day sitting in the surgery being very nice to people, to come home in the evening and do exactly the opposite on the chess board, in a civilised way, is very satisfying!” Paul has played in most countries and, asked what is the highest level he has played at, he quips “in the Himalayas at four housand metres!” He describes himself, as “a strong amateur,” modest when you consider he has previously won the Irish Open Championship and has played in the Chess Olympiad. “I have won about a dozen tournaments here,” he says, “and I was in the Staffordshire team that won the Counties Final in the Nineties. “The most exciting time was when I played a Grandmaster. I played in the European Championship last year in Liverpool.” Lichfield chess club was Paul’s club of choice when he moved to the West Midlands and his loyalty to it is strong. “I contacted various clubs and Lichfield stood out because the officers were particularly welcoming and also Lichfield had a good record in team competitions and some strong chess players. “I would like to see Lichfield win another Division One title – we have won it twice in the last decade,” he reveals He pauses for a moment, and then adds with a chuckle: “And I would like to continue taking on a few more Grandmasters!”

Sixteen year old Nick Griffin, from Lichfield has been a junior member of Lichfield Chess Club for two years. A pupil of Maple Hayes School, he is passionate about the game.
“I was taught by my dad when I was about ten. When I had been playing for a while I began to beat dad and I did not really have any other opponents, so I joined to find other people to play and also to sharpen my mental state.
“I do judo, which is good for keeping you physically fit and playing chess keeps you sharp generally, especially in school – I would advise anyone who has problems concentrating to try chess.
“I especially enjoy playing people who are better than me – it makes me a better player. I tend to take a long time thinking of my moves. Joe, my friend, is a bit quicker.
“I have been taught many chess openings; my favourite is the French Defence. I was taught it by the Club Chairman, Pete Collins, and I now use it all the time.
“If anyone my age is thinking of joining the chess club, I would say, don’t be scared of going along.”                                                                                            

David’s son, Nigel, was always a competitor, David explains. After his zenith in the nineties, Nigel, now 43 lives in Athens, having married a Greek national, and still earns his living travelling around the world playing competitive chess.
“From a young age Nigel had always been someone who did not get phased by playing a much better player.” David says. “He loved chess from the start; he was absolutely hooked from the first game.
“I had three sons, all of whom I taught to play. Nigel would sit on the armchair watching me teach my eldest son and he would not let me put the board away because he wanted to play too. He was fascinated by the shapes of the pieces and the way they moved. He was five at the time and I did not have to tell him how to set up the board or how each piece moved – he grasped all that from watching. It was crystal clear he was special; I knew that very quickly; and very quickly he was beating me.
“As he got better I would not let him go to bed until I had beaten him!” admits David.
As a chess prodigy, qualifying for the British Men’s Championship while he was still at primary school, Nigel attracted huge media attention. In 1980 he featured on the front cover of the Sunday Times’ Who will be Who? He made the nine o’clock News and there was article after article in the colour supplements. There was even a TV documentary on the family. He became an International Master at the age of just 14 and a Grandmaster five years later, and the Kasparov-Short match made the front page of the Times.