Dec-29-04
 | | Benzol: William Albert Fairhurst
Born 21st August 1903 in Alderley Edge
Died 13th March 1982 in Auckland
Awarded the IM title in 1951.
He was Scottish champion 1932, 1932-33, 1933-34, 1935-36, 1936-37, 1938, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1962.
He was also British champion in 1937. |
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| Jan-02-06 | | WMD: <...was a recognized authority in the field of structural engineering, and the builder of some famous bridges.> (Soltis, Chess Lists) Tay Road Bridge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_Ro... |
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| Aug-21-06 | | BIDMONFA: William Albert Fairhurst FAIRHURST, William A.
http://www.bidmonfa.com/fairhurst_w...
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| Sep-07-07 | | Karpova: <‘... Cold-blooded gamesman-planning is rare. But I have one pretty example. At my first British Championship, [at Ramsgate] in 1929, a friend of mine – who is a magnificent analyst and celebrated in the chess world – found himself in a very bad position. But there was a way out. Given that his opponent (a very strong player) did not see the threat, it was possible, with a series of sacrifices, to achieve stalemate. But he had to include in his play a clearly inadequate move, which would inevitably warn his opponent. After all, one plays chess on the assumption that the opponent sees everything. (That is why the word “trap” is not a good chess term.) But my friend devised a psychological trap. He sat and looked at the board with a despairing face until he was well and truly in time trouble. Then he fumblingly made the crucial moves. His opponent, tempted to a little gamesmanship himself, was playing very quickly. Quick came the erroneous capture. Even quicker came the series of sacrifices and, while the flag was tottering, stalemate supervened. Now could he have improved on things in the following way: touched the piece, taken his hand away, and let himself be compelled to move the piece at random? No, he had thought of that, but dismissed it as sharp practice.’>
From pages 24-25 of Not Only Chess by Gerald Abrahams (London, 1974) Fairhurst - T. H. Tylor after 31...Rb3
click for larger view<32.Bd2 Rg3+ 33.Kh1 Rxh3+ 34.Kg1 Rd3 35.Bc1 (‘Leaving himself less than half a minute on his clock.’) 35...Rc7 36.Bg5 (‘Finger staying on his clock; and Black falls for it.’) 36...Rg3+ 37.Kh1 37...Rxg5 38.R1f7+ Rxf7 39.Rxf7+ (‘Forcing stalemate or perpetual check.’)> http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/... (5145) Sadly, the game is not in the database. |
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| Aug-21-08 | | brankat: An amazing chess career!
R.I.P. Mr.Fairhurst. |
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Oct-25-08
 | | GrahamClayton: In October/November 1951 Fairhurst won a "British Empire" championship organised by the Oxford Chess Club: 1. W Fairhurst (Scotland) 4/5
2. D Yanofsky (Canada) 3/5
3. R Wade (New Zealand) 2.5/5
4. L Barden (England) 2/5
5. G Berriman (Australia) 2/5
6. W Heidenfeld (South Africa) 1.5/5
Source: Anthony Wright "Australian International Chess: 1946-1972", Melbourne 2001 |
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| Aug-21-09 | | SimonWebbsTiger: W Fairhurst vs Flohr, 1946 an interesting game from the Britain-USSR radio match 1946. (The book of the match by Klein and Winter is superb, btw.) |
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| Nov-16-09 | | Alan McGowan: Here is the Fairhurst-Tylor game referred to by Karpova. Alan McGowan
Historian, Chess Scotland
Fairhurst,W.A. - Tylor [E72]
Ramsgate (1)
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.Nc3 d6 6.e4 Nc6 7.Nge2 Bg4 8.h3 Bxe2 9.Nxe2 e5 10.0-0 Re8 11.d5 Nd4 12.Be3 Qe7 13.Nxd4 exd4 14.Bxd4 Qf8 15.Qc2 Re7 16.c5 Rae8 17.f3 Nh5 18.Bf2 f5 19.Rad1 fxe4 20.fxe4 Be5 21.cxd6 cxd6 22.Bxa7 Qh6 23.g4 Nf4 24.Rf3 Ra8 25.Be3 Rxa2 26.g5 Qxg5 27.Rdf1 Qxg2+ 28.Qxg2 Nxg2 29.Kxg2 Rxb2+ 30.Kg1 Kg7 31.Rf8 Rb3 32.Bd2 Rg3+ 33.Kh1 Rxh3+ 34.Kg1 Rd3 35.Bc1 Rc7 36.Bg5 Rg3+ 37.Kh1 Rxg5 38.R1f7+ ½-½ |
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| Aug-21-12 | | brankat: Participated in Scottish championship 11 times and won 11 titles! Is there any other example like this one? Seven Chess Olympiads, between 1933 and 1974!
R.I.P. master Fairhurst. |
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| Aug-21-12 | | LoveThatJoker: IM Fairhurst, today you are remembered!
LTJ |
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| Aug-21-12 | | vinidivici: This guy was versatile. He was good in chess and building the bridges. His company (Fairhurst), the consultant company for building the bridge lasted until now with many branches. |
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| Sep-08-12 | | Karpova: He played three serious games against Jacques Mieses in Glasgow in 1934 winning 1 and drawing the other 2. From page 349 of the 1934 'Neue Wiener Schachzeitung' |
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Jan-09-14
 | | Richard Taylor: <Benzol> Did you ever meet him? My father did. He had an engineering company which rebuilt the bridge over the River Tee in Scotland. I met him at Howick-Pak. My father saw him when he was captain of the 1974 Nice Olympiad team - he was a "bloody nuisance" he said as he kept taking off from France to England on personal business... He gave a lecture one night on the two Bs. I should be an expert on that as Sarapu (at the same place) used a Rubinstein game to also lecture on the 2 Bs! |
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Jan-09-14
| | Richard Taylor: I saw him ca 1980 or so - he must have died a year or so after that. Had he not been an engineer he might have done even better at chess. But he was clearly a very strong player. He was a few years older than my father. He possibly lived in Howick in his old age. |
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Aug-21-14
 | | Penguincw: R.I.P. IM William Albert Fairhurst. |
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| Jan-11-16 | | zanzibar: A fairly extensive chess biography:
http://www.chessscotland.com/histor... |
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Jul-14-16
 | | MissScarlett: <In 1970 he was invited to play in the New Zealand Championship as a guest and liked the country so much he decided to retire there.> Racist. |
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Jul-14-16
| | MissScarlett: The Staffordshire Advertiser, October 23rd, 1926, p.7: <Brilliant Chess Player. - On the opening night of the winter session of the Stockport Chess Club the members had the pleasure of meeting Mr. W. A. Fairhurst, the Cheshire champion, who now resides in Stafford. Mr. Fairhurst, who is only 23 years of age, has defeated Capablanca, the world's champion, on the two occasions they have met, and for four years in succession Mr Fairhurst has held the championship of Manchester and district. [...] Mr. Fairhurst is captain of the British Reinforced Concrete team in the Stafford Chess League.> Hmmmm. Capablanca vs W Fairhurst, 1922 |
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| Feb-01-18 | | Alan McGowan: As a result of changes to the Chess Scotland web pages, please note corrected link to the Fairhurst biography at https://www.chessscotland.com/docum... |
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| Feb-01-18 | | Alan McGowan: See also a 1962 article that Fairhurst contributed to Scottish Chess: 'My Thirty Years of Chess in Scotland' is at
https://www.chessscotland.com/docum... |
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| Mar-26-22 | | Z free or die: Thanks for the update <Alan> (shame that the net is so untrustworthy with age). Here's another photo of Fairhurst, far-right standing (w glasses): https://www.chessscotland.com/docum... https://www.chessscotland.com/docum... Maybe someone should archive the page on wayback... |
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Mar-12-24
 | | Sally Simpson: When Fairhurst designed the Tay Bridge (opened in 1966) the footpath originally had coloured slab depicting the moves of a Knight. A movie about the building of the bridge here; https://movingimage.nls.uk/film/2243 around about 1:50 we see Fairhurst playing over a game of chess. This link has a picture of the original walkway but it credits the chess Knight design to the contractor Willie Logan.
https://www.newportontayhistory.org... |
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Kibitzing
