Bob Wade: New Zealand-born chess master
The Times
December 2, 2008
Wade: he was an authority on Soviet chess and training techniques
Bob Wade made his mark as a successful chess player ‘ he was twice
British chess champion ‘ as an author and as chief chess coach to the
British Chess Federation (now the English Chess Federation).
Robert Graham Wade was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1921 and began
a career in the scientific civil service. He won the national
championship of New Zealand in 1944. A second victory in 1945 led to an
invitation as a Commonwealth champion to the British championships of
1946. He had a poor result but felt he could do better with more
application and took a break from his job to travel and play chess in
international tournaments.
After a brief return to work in New Zealand, winning the New Zealand
chess championship for the third time in 1948, he settled in England.
In the developing but meagre chess scene of the 1950s and 1960s he was
undoubtedly Britain’s most active international player. He represented
his adopted country in no fewer than six Chess Olympiads (Amsterdam
1954, Moscow 1956, Munich 1958, Leipzig 1960, Varna 1962 and Skopje
1972). He also represented New Zealand in the 1970 Chess Olympiad at
Siegen in West Germany.
His best results in international chess were fifth prize at Venice in
1950 and again fifth prize a quarter of
a century later in the masters’
section of the Capablanca memorial at Cienfuegos, Cuba, in 1975.
Wade established something of a reputation as a giantkiller, taking the
scalps of such grandmasters and world title contenders as Viktor
Korchnoi, Pal Benkö, Lajos Portisch, Wolfgang Uhlmann and Fridrik
Olafsson.
In match play his most notable performance was a drawn 1950 contest
against the West German grandmaster-to-be Lothar Schmid. The run of
play was remarkable in that, although the final outcome was a tie, no
single game in the match ended as a draw.
He won the British championship for the first time at Chester in 1952
and repeated the feat at Coventry 18 years later, in the days when all
the leading players would still turn out for the championship,
including Keene, Hartston, Penrose, Botterill and the visiting
Australian Max Fuller.
Still an active player in his eighties, Wade was able to play at a high
level, as evidenced by his draw against grandmaster Murray Chandler in
the Queenstown Chess International 2006.
However, it is an organiser and coach that Wade is best remembered.
Active in the world chess federation, Fide, he was a member of the
committee that drew up the first official rules of the game and he sat
on the committee that decided on the original holders of the
International Master and Grandmaster titles (his own IM title was
awarded in 1950). He also helped to dec
ide the arrangements for the
first world championship interzonals and the candidates’ tournament
held at Budapest in 1950. He attended the first Fide world championship
match between the incumbent Botvinnik and the challenger Bronstein
(obituary December 7, 2006) held at Moscow in 1951, deputising for the
Fide president, Folke Rogard, of Sweden, whenever he could not be
present.
This championship inspired Wade to write his first important book, an
account of the championship games co-written with the British champion
and international master William Winter ‘ the book is still in print.
He wrote several more classic books, including an authoritative volume
on Soviet chess and an account of the 1963 world championship clash
between Botvinnik and his latest challenger, the Armenian Tigran
Petrosian. Wade served on various Fide committees to the end of his
life.
Struck by the phenomenal ability of Soviet training methodology to
produce legions of grandmasters, Wade took it upon himself to distil
its essence and to implement what he could in the UK environment. As
part of this strategy, he developed a TV format to promote chess with
the popular magician David Nixon. He also persuaded the publishing firm
Batsford to inaugurate its longstanding programme of chess
publications, many concentrating on mainstream theory which had been
ignored by previous generations of British chess talents. He instituted
regular adult chess
classes at Morley College in London, tirelessly
visited schools around the UK and also participated in numerous
training tournaments where his experience could be imparted first hand
to up-and-coming British players.
He cemented his growing reputation as a chess coach and author by
helping Bobby Fischer (obituary January 19, 2008) to prepare for his
1972 World Championship match with Boris Spassky by collating a special
book of Spassky’s games.
When Wade settled in the UK, the chess scene was composed of cheerful
amateurs. Within two decades an explosion in chess strength was
apparent: England’s first grandmasters qualified in the 1970s and the
English team came second to the Soviet Union in two chess Olympiads of
the 1980s ‘ this progress was due in no small part to Wade’s vision and
efforts. He was appointed OBE for his services to chess in 1979. He did
not marry.
Bob Wade, OBE, International Master, chess writer, coach and
administrator, was born on April 10, 1921. He died on November 29,
2008, aged 87