Memorabilia Corner
1. A letter from the famous player and chess problem supporter C.H.O'D.Alexander regarding one of my chess problems.
2. A photograph of a cake in the form of a board and edible pieces, made by his mother and presented by Ged Walsh, prime mover in putting Teesside chess on the map and later British Chess Federation President, on the occasion of my 21 st birthday (published in the Northern Echo 13 November 1971).
3. Invitation letter from Jim Rushton to play for the Northern Counties in an otb match against Scotland at the astounding travel costs of 40p! (7th Septemebr 1971). Also invited were the late Alan Sayers (the Sunderland Echo chess columist) and Paul Bielby who is still, I believe, an active player and organiser.
4. The envelope of a letter from Ged Walsh from the World Junior Ch of 1973 held in Teesside which shows how far chess had progressed in this region from Ged's involvement.
5. The envelope of a letter from Baruch H. Wood, founder of "Chess" magazine and one of the famed promoters of British chess. Sent from the Korchnoi-Karpov match in Merano 1981.
6. Certificate for winning the 1987-88 Northern Counties Individual Postal Championship signed by Peter Tipper and John Littlewood.
7. A hand drawn picture of Correspondence Chess International Master Sakari Raty of Finland (drawn by local artist P.Mattanen). Sakari was my opponent on top board of the England-Finland correspondence match of 1990. Apart form being an excellent player and linguist Sakari helped support himself by prospecting for gold and precious jewels within the Artic circle!
