Stewart Reuben

London 1980: Phillips and Drew Kings Chess Tournament Stewart Reuben

Phillips & Drew/GLC Kings 1980 was one of the great chess events. London was a desert for international tournament chess from 1948-1973. In 1975 there was the Evening Standard London Chess Fortnight. Although these were fine events and very valuable to English chess; they could not be compared with the events in Hastings and Teesside. Really the photo from the Daily Mail says it all. The game between 14 year old Nigel Short and Viktor Korchnoi attracted immense interest. I had feared there wouldn't be many spectators. How foolish! So a large number of children were hired to fill up the hall. Of course they couldn't see what was going on, so they came to the front in order to have a better view. Harry Golombek muttered, 'We can't have a mess like that again.' Leonard Barden said, 'We'll have to wait another 20 years anyway.'