Citations

David Welch Born 1945
International Arbiter since 1977. At the Olympiad in September 2016 he is to receive the FIDE Honorary Award as an International Arbiter for his contribution to high level FIDE competitions. He has been the Chief Arbiter, first of the BCF and now of the ECF, since 1993. He has been an arbiter at the Hastings International Chess Congress for nearly 40 years. He was also organiser of the Liverpool Junior Congress when it was the biggest congress ever in Britain with 2000+ entries in the 1970s. He organised the British Chess Championships for some years. He is a trustee of the John Robinson Trust.

Peter Purland Born 1945
It is highly appropriate that Peter and David receive the award on the same day. They both became teachers at Liverpool College on the same day and used to share a house together. Peter has been an International Arbiter since 1991. He was born in Wales and his title is registered with FIDE as Wales. He is currently Chief Arbiter of the British Chess Championships. Like David he has been an arbiter at many chess events. He was Junior Director of the ECF for some years. He was and is very active in the English Primary Schools Chess Association. Both David and Peter have been associated with the Gibraltar Chess Congress since it started in 2003. They are both arbiters at the event. They also introduced coaching at primary school level there and chess now flourishes in all schools in Gibraltar.

Richard Haddrell
Richard has provided many years of service to the game of chess and chessplayers, from the grass roots through to the national level, and has received previous recognition through a BCF President’s Award in 1994. Richard is a man of Kent, and a member of Tunbridge Wells Chess Club. Many will first have encountered him through his long-term involvement with the Southern Counties Chess Union, where among his other posts there stand out particularly Bulletin Editor from 1978/9 until this ceased publication, and Webmaster from 1998/9. For the ECF, Richard is probably best known for his work as the Grading Administrator and the controller of the National Schools Championship. He has been a regular attendee at Council meetings, representing Kent and Kent Juniors, and his exceptionally sharp eye for detail has made him an invaluable member of the Governance Committee.

Brian Callaghan OBE
Brian received his OBE for services to Gibraltar Tourism and to chess. He is the proprietor of The Caleta Hotel and it was his idea that a chess tournament should be held there. Thus the Gibraltar Chess Congress started in 2003 and next January to February will be the 15th. He is now the Chief Organiser. The event comes under the umbrella of the ECF for FIDE purposes. The Masters is recognised as the strongest open chess tournament in the world and is highly popular with all players. It is mainly Brian's influence that so much resources have been poured into the event. He is also responsible for encouraging, more than any other open event, the participation of female contestants.

James Humphreys
James is CEO of Tradewise Insurance Company Ltd. It is based in Gibraltar and has been active since 1994. The company will have been chief sponsor of the Gibraltar Chess Congress for five years next year. In 2015 they also became sponsors of the Tradewise ECF Grand Prix; Hastings International Chess Congress and The Colin Crouch Celebration Chess Congress. The company also offers reduced rates for insurance to ECF members.