David Robertson
RIP (1947-2022)
I first met Dave in 1964 when
the chess teams for two schools
located in the Birmingham area,
Bishop Vesey GS [my school] and
King Edward’s GS Camp Hill
[Dave’s school] played each
other. A couple of the Camp Hill
players came across as very
confident [well, “cocky” was the
way I thought of it]. These two
were strong players, and Dave
was one of them. In 1965 I had
brought about some improvement
in my game and edged my way into
the Warwickshire U18 team which
won the national championships.
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Dave
at
Doctor
Duncan's
2006 |
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Photo
©
Steve
Connor |
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Dave was an established
player already playing higher up
the team. After that I played
higher than him for many
different teams over the years
until 8th February 2022 when
Dave played what turned out to
be his last game for Spirit of
Atticus in the on-line 4NCL
championship on board 3 just one
board above me! It had been a
running joke that Dave’s
ambition was to play above me in
a team despite over 50 years of
trying. This was a justified
board order, since Dave had kept
his form and chess studies up to
scratch better than I had. When
the board order was announced,
little did we know how short
Dave’s time for the mock
celebration of this event would
be.
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A
small
collection
of
Dave's
games
from
the
4NCL |
We each arrived at Liverpool
University in the Autumn of 1966
and in fresher’s week we each
approached the Chess Club
display, in due course heading
upstairs to inspect the
well-appointed chess room; I
remember that journey since
Dave, as he explained, had to
pause a couple of times as he
had just undergone an operation
on his back. This was a
typically low-key explanation of
his degenerative illness. Dave,
in the many years I was to know
him was determined to enjoy life
to the full and never had time
to feel sorry for his legacy.
I have no clear recollection
of his playing chess over our
university years, but Dave and I
were called into action to save
the Birmingham Easter Chess
congress since the long- term
organizer of junior chess in
Birmingham, W. Ritson Morry, was
about to up his roots and move
to Jamaica.
In the Christmas
holidays we ensured that there
was a venue booked, that
notification would go to the
schools as normal and tried to
raise some money to allow for
decent prizes. Dave showed
himself to be worldly wise in
our endeavours, far superior to
me in the “getting money from
people” category in particular.
Although we did not get a big
sponsor, he did inveigle a few
donations which eliminated the
possibility of a loss on the
venture. The event went well but
harsh words were exchanged
between us on one occasion, the
only time I can recollect this
over our many years of our
friendship. The congress
returned to its usual
stewardship in the following
year when Ritson made an early
return from Jamaica.
Thereafter, we returned to
normal activities, with a
resumption of university study,
some chess for the University
teams and plenty of relaxation
for me. Dave on the other hand
was throwing himself into
political action to the extent
that in his final year he was
editor of the Students Union
newspaper, was standing as a
candidate for election as
President and was half of the
debating team that represented
Liverpool University in the
prestigious Observer Mace
competition, which carried a
first prize of a debating tour
of the USA. Frank Milner, Dave’s
debating partner, shared their
winning plan with me [thank you
Frank]:
1) to win
2) to
politicise the motion into a
Marxist/left wing one,
3) to
follow this format in speaking:
Frank to deliver the scripted
introduction to their
contention.
Dave would speak
extempore to pick-up and counter
points made by other speakers.
Dave was never known to make
notes, relying instead on his
phenomenal memory recalling who
had said what. Their strategy as
“wild men” proved very
successful up to a point.
What happened? Dave and Frank
missed out narrowly on the trip
to USA. There was a record
turnout in the election for
guild President, the electorate
having been whipped up by two
boisterous campaigns. This was
Dave’s planned battle ground but
the right-wing candidate was
elected. The Guild Gazette had a
good readership throughout
Dave’s stewardship and its
content was greatly admired. I
must admit I wondered whether
the report about Aston Villa’s
come-back from 4-0 down to draw
with Liverpool in 1960 was
either topical in any way or
going to win many friends,
despite the absolutely amazing
supporters of Aston Villa, but
in general agreed with the main
sentiments of the newspaper.
I shall continue by
concentrating on the years from
the early seventies onwards and
Dave’s great contribution to and
involvement in chess.
I spent a year teacher
training and then a year in
London. When I returned to
Liverpool in the autumn of 1971,
I joined a local chess club and
lived in a popular Westminster
Rd. multi-roomed residence
designed for students. On
reflection, residence is way too
grand a term for the
environment. But Dave lived
there too as did Geoff Hall [now Sir Geoffrey Hall] who
arrived having “graduated” from
Bishop Vesey’s.
Dave was now
really “into” chess again and
was devouring chess material.
The three of us realised that we
could probably challenge for the
first division title of the
Liverpool League [once promoted
from our likely starting point
in division 2] including me and
players currently not in clubs.
Thus, the three of us founded Kirkdale Chess Club playing at
Kirkdale Community Centre and
started in the Liverpool league
in September 1972. The cost of
our match venue was covered by
us organising a chess club for
the local children on one night
a week. Dave, Geoff and I did
just that always having at least
2 of the 3 of us present. The
tricky part was that our session
clashed with woodwork’s night,
so we got an unusual mixture
consisting predominantly of
girls but also containing the
occasional boy banned from
woodwork, usually for being a
danger.
The following year we changed
our venue to Atticus bookshop
and name to Atticus having won
promotion. Thereafter, we duly
won the 1st division. The club
just grew and grew, attracting
many players from Merseyside,
and just five years after
formation Atticus won the
National Championships, an
incredible achievement at the
time.
A Northern Club winning
the title was unheard of and
Dave had flagged it up at the
quarter-final stage with a local
pub which promised and delivered
on its promise of much champagne
should we succeed. Dave, as well
as being one of the team who
played every round, also kept
the whole club up-to-date with
frequent newsletters with
reports on all of our teams,
including some good games played
by members.