This article was first published in CHESS in April, 1994. It is republished here (slightly edited by the webmaster) with permission.
A nice position ...
Domestically, my chess life has been very good. My wife Nora has never complained about my activities, be it playing two or three nights a week, Weekend Tournaments, or even chess events lasting whole weeks.
However, there is one blemish in the career which, looking at it today, is very funny - but not at the time.
We have to go back to the halcyon days of chess in Sheffield around 1954 when we had two thriving leagues. The Sheffield Works Chess Association and the Sheffield Chess Association. The latter consisted of members from the professional classes and the other from the Steel Works. The highlight of the year was at the end of May, when the two associations met in a one hundred board match.
On this occasion I was drawn against a lady chess player - the only one among the two hundred players. After much fair play we agreed to a draw and discussed the game later on in a nearby pub. I had never seen the girl before or ever seen her name in a team list - and I played in both leagues. I never expected to see her again. I must add she was very good-looking.
We must now go forward to the following Saturday at the local church, at which day they pick the Sunday School captain and queen.
I was standing in the centre of the church hall with the vicar, his wife, church warden, my wife, two daughters and many other ladies who make the church their whole life. We were in polite conversation when suddenly the lady chess player burst into the circle and, in a loud voice which could be heard around the hall, exclaimed "Why, it's Bill Pettigrew. I was thinking: that was a nice position you had me in the other evening." and then walked away to mingle with the rest of the crowd. There was stunned silence in our circle until my daughter said "That's my new teacher Dad - she was talking about you yesterday but I didn't know it was you."
So you can guess the explaining I had to do for weeks to come.
And I never saw the girl again.
Domestically, my chess life has been very good. My wife Nora has never complained about my activities, be it playing two or three nights a week, Weekend Tournaments, or even chess events lasting whole weeks.
However, there is one blemish in the career which, looking at it today, is very funny - but not at the time.
We have to go back to the halcyon days of chess in Sheffield around 1954 when we had two thriving leagues. The Sheffield Works Chess Association and the Sheffield Chess Association. The latter consisted of members from the professional classes and the other from the Steel Works. The highlight of the year was at the end of May, when the two associations met in a one hundred board match.
On this occasion I was drawn against a lady chess player - the only one among the two hundred players. After much fair play we agreed to a draw and discussed the game later on in a nearby pub. I had never seen the girl before or ever seen her name in a team list - and I played in both leagues. I never expected to see her again. I must add she was very good-looking.
We must now go forward to the following Saturday at the local church, at which day they pick the Sunday School captain and queen.
I was standing in the centre of the church hall with the vicar, his wife, church warden, my wife, two daughters and many other ladies who make the church their whole life. We were in polite conversation when suddenly the lady chess player burst into the circle and, in a loud voice which could be heard around the hall, exclaimed "Why, it's Bill Pettigrew. I was thinking: that was a nice position you had me in the other evening." and then walked away to mingle with the rest of the crowd. There was stunned silence in our circle until my daughter said "That's my new teacher Dad - she was talking about you yesterday but I didn't know it was you."
So you can guess the explaining I had to do for weeks to come.
And I never saw the girl again.
