May-10-20
 | | mifralu: £9,000 Will Surprise of ex-Rail Clerk Who Was Chess Expert
By OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT
Mr. JOHN FREDERICK KEEBLE, of Rosary Road, Norwich, was in life a retired railway clerk and a brilliant chess player—one of the best in England just below the "master" standard. When he died he became a mystery too, for he left nearly £1O,OOO, when those who had known him for years had no idea that he possessed so much money. In his will, published to-day, his estate is given as £9,864 gross (£9,798 net) and he left £1O each to a number of chess writers, including Mr. E. S. Tinsley, chess editor of the "Times," who died some time ago. He also gave £3OO to the British Chess Federation, £2O to the British Chess Problem Society and £15 to the Hastings Chess Club.
Club Champion
To-day a chess authority who knew Mr. Keeble very well told me: "He was a great character—a fine old man who, with a flowing white beard, as deaf as a post in recent, but a sound player to the last.
“For many years he was champion of the Norwich Chess Club and you would find him at all the big events at Margate, Hastings, and elsewhere.
"Keeble was not only a fine player, but he had an international reputation in the specialised branch of evolving and solving chess problems. He was leader of the England team in international problem-solving competitions.
"I am surprised to hear that he left so much money. Perhaps he had inherited his wealth; he could hardly have saved it out of his salary, especially as he travelled about so much all his life attending chess congresses.
"In his youth he was also a brilliant shot an odd accomplishment perhaps for a working man."<Manchester Evening News, 26 April 1939, p. 11> |
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| May-10-20 | | Sally Simpson: ***
More here including a photograph:
http://chesscomposers.blogspot.com/... "Keeble, who never married and lived very frugally, worked for fifty-three years as a railway clerk, rarely taking a day off. He conducted a chess column in the Norfolk News for several years before the First World War but only started playing tournaments in 1925, a few years after his retirement." *** |
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May-10-20
 | | wordfunph: watta man, rest in peace master John Keeble.. |
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| Jun-26-20 | | sneaky pete: From Chess Nos. 897-8, May 1983. As so often Baruch Wood was ahead of his time. RACISM IN CHESS
Simon Garrow's recent book about Dan the Pawn seemed an innocent frolic aimed to teach a youngster how to play chess whilst enjoying a tale of a white bishop outwitting a black queen. Not to Mr. Keeble, editor of the National Union of Teachers' official magazine though he has never been a teacher. He wrote "Children are susceptible to propaganda ... it would have been more symbolically exciting if the blacks had been allowed to win. It is a comment on the times that the whites beat the blacks." "Racist stereotypes and assumptions" he wrote to the author "permeate our culture in many subtle ways." (National Union of Teachers is often abbreviated to NUT). Would our readers (especially in tropical climes) like us to arrange that Black wins at least half of our published games? |
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Kibitzing
