Bob Wade
: Created:30 Nov 2008 , byI'm personally sad to annouce the death of Bob Wade, one of the great men of British and New Zealand chess.
When I look at my collection of chess books, I see with great affection, two written by Bob Wade. Soviet Chess is a great account, full of insightful information on the history of Soviet and Russian players with some tremendous games from the champions. A recommendation for every chess library.
Sousse 1967, published by Chess Player looks at one of the most colourful chess tournaments ever played, an Interzonal to be remembered. I quote from pages eighty-eight and eighty-nine of Bob's book, this vivid account of round eleven:
"One of the craziest rounds ever played in a world championship tournament. ...
Then, sometime between 16.30 and 16.40 the whisper spread like wild-fire, "Fischer's going to play". "He's already in his room". Concentration on the positions was not the same. The players not on move gathered in excited clusters. Reshevsky's pacing became more nervous, more agitated. What was he going to play? ...
Reshevsky did not play particularly well and who can blame him? As his anger slowly grew his position worsened and as his position worsened, his anger grew."
In conclusion I append my own tribute to Bob written a few years back in response to a request for information from Athenaeum chess club.
"Dear Paul
In 1962 Bob invited me, a keen, hard-working but unstructured eighteen-year-old to come over to his house to study some chess. It was the first time, and the only time that anyone took an interest in me as a chess player and I grabbed at the chance with both hands. He greeted me with enthusiasm at the door and ushered me into a drawing room full of chess books. Aladdin's cave!
He enquired of me what openings I was interested in and as a typical child of the 1959 Candidates Tournament I told him that I had been playing the Najdorf Defence to the Sicilian for some years. With a smile he got out the bulletins from the recent 1962 Candidates Tournament and showed me over the board, two games of Bobby Fischer. The first was against Mikhael Tal and Bob went through the moves that led to a draw. Then he demonstrated Efim Geller's improvement on move fifteen. More than 40 years after I still recall the clarity of his analysis on what was at the time, the cutting edge of opening theory.
At the end of our session Bob lent to me a book on the Zurich/Nierhausen 1953 Candidates Tournament. I am ashamed to say that I never returned the book to him and it was lost in one of my house removals. I met him a number of times afterwards but he never reproached me for the loss of his book. However I did go through the games from Zurich meticulously and learnt a great deal from them particularly about Queen's Pawn Openings. Until that time I had been a wild player with little understanding of basic concepts. Bob set me on the road to properly understanding chess and when I took up correspondence chess in 1970, I used those lessons to achieve some success with my favourite Najdorf Defence and with my new found Queen's Pawn Openings.
It is not appreciated how important a good chess teacher is, and how even with limited contact how influential, a friendly interest can be on a career. Bob Wade, with his warmth and obvious humanity set me on the right road. One day I will do the decent thing and buy him a fresh copy of the 1953 Candidates Tournament."