Profiles
Derek Hadley
GLCC
1. What are your earliest chess memories? / 2. How long have you been playing chess?
No one in my family ever played chess although draughts was very popular. When I was about 12 years old my friend Robin taught me the rules of chess and got me interested in the game. I therefore joined the school chess club. It was run by a very enthusiastic teacher called Mr Mould who insisted that our knights should always be on "bishop 3", our bishops on "bishop 4", kingside castling etc. I liked to experiment. I "invented" bishop fianchettos, queenside castling etc much to Mr Mould's disapproval. He kicked me out of the club because I wouldn't play the way he taught me to play.
I didn't play much for the next few years and didn't look at an opening book until I was about 17. I then joined a local club in Birmingham and then played for Bristol university. 55 years after being taught the moves, I am still enjoying the game. It has given me a lot of fun (and pain) over the years.
3. How active are you in the chess world? (e.g. number of games a year)
I play between 20 and 25 games a year. I would play more often if I had the time. Although I am retired (from teaching), I tend to be quite busy. My wife and I travel quite a lot (we were in the Amazonian rainforests earlier this year) and we enjoy socialising, theatre, badminton, dancing etc. I also like playing table-tennis and snooker. I am also tournament controller for the GLCC. It all keeps me out of mischief.
4. What was your best chess experience?
Years ago I used to play in Open weekend tournaments. At Hereford 1971 I scored 3.5 out of 5 against opponents graded 176 to 199. An amusing incident occurred in round 3. I had been studying the Breyer Defence to the Ruy Lopez and my opponent, L S Blackstock, allowed me to play it. He appeared to know the opening very well himself and, at move 20 something, offered me a draw which I accepted. I later realised he was a co-author of the book I had been studying! I think I was about 152 at the time.
At the end of the 1970s I obtained a grade of 170 by devious means. The GLC had two teams in Division 1 and I was top board for the 2nd team. Naturally I was vastly outgraded in every game but I made a point of starting a game by apologising to my opponent that I was only 158. I would then play solidly and they would often be worried about conceding a draw to a lower-graded player. I can recall games when my opponents sacrificed unsoundly and I gained wins on adjudication. At the end of the season my grading had moved from 158 to 170 thanks to the adjudicators. This was the highest I have ever been.
5. And what was your worst?
In 2008 I had a heart attack followed by surgery. A month later I played in the Thanet Intermediate congress. I scored 2 out of 5 against opponents graded 55 to 107. By the end of the season my grading a slumped to an all-time low of 119.
6. Which historical (i.e. dead) chess player do you most admire and why?
I have always admired Morphy, Steinitz and Alekhine, but I suppose Fischer was my favourite simply because he made chess so popular in 1972. Like Alex Higgins (snooker) and Ali (boxing), Fischer had charisma. I also admired the way he tended to do his own analysis. Obviously he didn't use computers but often didn't bother with seconds and support teams.
7. Who is your current chess hero / heroine, if any?
Kasparov; both on the chess board and away from the board (in politics).
8. Which part of the game do you enjoy the most?
The middle game. I have wasted so much time studying openings that opponents never play. They either have their pet variations or they just don't know the main lines of an opening. (If I played at a higher level it would, of course be a different matter.) Endgames can be interesting but are sometimes just a matter of counting.
9. What piece of advice would you give to a young player who was just starting out?
Don't forget to study the endgame. I have seen so many youngsters obtain a vastly superior position and then not know how to turn it into a victory because of ignorance over basic endgame strategies.
10. You are going to be marooned on a desert island with only a chess set for company. Which chess book would you take with you?
The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played, by Irving Chernev, and My Best Games of Chess by Alexander Alekhine.