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Last update: Friday June 3, 2005 9:44
We have only just learnt that Peter M Shaw, past President of the British Chess Federation died in October at the age of 83.
Peter was President from 1982-5, part of the most successful period in the history of the BCF. He was also a past President of Surrey County Chess Association.
His primary interest was in chess for all players, as an arbiter and an officer of the National Chess Centre. He ran the Battle of Britain competition. He was Director of Home Chess for a very long period and thus in charge of such Championships as the National Club, English Counties, County and Correspondence, British Championship Qualifying Competition and the Adjudication Service. I can still remember his stentorian cry of, "Quiet Please", at the Churchill Memorial International Congresses in Bognor in the 1950-60s. One year I was playing IM Roman Toran. He chain smoked and I had a streaming cold. The ashtray became a disgusting mess of ash and discarded tissues. Unbidden, he quietly removed the ash tray and brought a new one. A good arbiter does all he can to provide the optimum conditions for the players.
Peter worked for the Meteorological Office and brought his understanding of statistical theory to bear on chess matters, including grading. He told me that, when a young man, he kept his interest in chess confidential. He felt his bosses would not have approved.
His other abiding passion was Lewis Carroll. Perhaps this helped him in BCF circles to believe six impossible things before breakfast!
He was a member of the Committee which ran the National Chess Week in England in the 1950s. There could be no more fitting tribute to his memory than that we make a success of National Chess Month and The Match of the Generations being organised this year as part of the Centenary Celebrations.
Our condolences to his wife Patricia.
Stewart Reuben