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Graeme at Redland School taking part in the Summer
Congress 2005 |
It is with great regret that I have
to inform you that Graeme Thomson of Clifton Chess Club died last
monday morning 2nd November after a short spell in hospital
following a long and bravely borne illness.
Graeme was involved in League Chess
for over 34 years and many of us knew him well as he was not only a
permanent fixture in one of the Clifton teams as he also regularly
participated in local congresses.
Many of us would have had the
pleasure of playing him, including me, and would have noted his
brave attacking style as he tried many of the gambit lines that
would have brought him so much enjoyment over the years. His
sportsmanship in defeat would not have gone unnoticed as win or lose
he always had a smile on his face at the end of the match.
Dave Tipper
Funeral Arrangements |
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Graeme Thomson RIP
Obituary by John
Gooch a long standing friend from Clifton Chess Club
Graeme Thomson died on Monday 2nd November 2009. Besides being a
great family man and a talented designer with the BBC, he had a
dangerous obsession-Chess! Week after week, year after year, he
struggled to subdue other chess players in the city and beyond. For
outsiders, chess is just a board game but for those who play the
game seriously, it’s an infernal and all consuming passion in which
the highs of victory lead to delusions of grandeur while losing,
particularly to an 8 year old who has to stand on his or her chair
to deliver checkmate, can mean days or weeks of depression and self
doubt!
Chess players all share the dream of
a continuous improvement, an upward graph in their grading, so the
idea of reaching a plateau, let alone never achieving invincibility
is a hard realisation to face. Graeme never seemed to have
difficulties with the choppy waters of amateur chess, savouring
every win with complete and almost childlike delight, remaining
balanced and phlegmatic in defeat yet coming back again every week,
his appetite for the game undiminished and relishing the next
battle. He only stopped coming to the club when he feared his
grading might have fallen back!
The Chess world is a strange
mixture oddness and intelligence and Graeme loved and revelled in
the eccentricity of those who are literally addicted to the great
game. In a very kind way, his dry sense of humour could be brought
to bear on those with whom he came into contact . With deftness and
humour, he could defuse situations that arose, quickly finding a
solution problems, pacifying aggression, deflating pomposity, as
when waiting to enter a matchroom one evening of a cup match, a host
captain appeared from a back room and gruffly tried to unsettle our
team by asking to move aside as we were “impeding his ingress”.
Graeme’s eyes sparkled again. “Don’t you mean
egress?” said Graham, confusing and flustering the opposing captain
who retired whence he came. He was not just a player but a real
stalwart of the club, serving variously as secretary, treasurer and
also a captain at times. His presence was at once reassuring and
entertaining, always cheerful and positive, even when his own chess
was not in good shape and he was losing too many games. There are
many, chess players and others, who will miss him terribly, his
great good humour, his welcoming smile and the feeling one was in
the presence of a good man.
John Gooch
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