UK Chess Grand Master Competed in Dorset

Raymond Keene, OBE, Chess Grand Master provided a unique fund raising simultaneous chess tournament at Kingston Maurward on Sunday 12^th.  Competing against twenty Dorset players, he won 15 games, drew four and lost 1. He was beaten by Allan Pleasants from Weymouth Chess Club, which makes him the second Grand Master that Allan has beaten this year.  The youngest competitor was Jack Brewer, aged 13, who is also from Weymouth.

Competitors came from across Dorset to compete. Although Paul Booker, from the Good Food Chess Club, Bournemouth, in reality lost, he felt differently:  “I won! I lasted forty moves against a Grand Master and OBE – I also had a thoroughly enjoyable, excellent game and he advised afterwards where he took the ascendancy from an innocuous king move I made that was totally unnecessary. It was fear on my part and he was then one move up for the rest of the game. This was tremendous learning – Lose the Fear!”

Raymond Keene, who had kindly given up his time to support this event, presented the prize of a chess board made especially for the competition by prisoners at HMP The Verne. This was a thank you to the Mind Your Head Challenge for bringing chess and other mind stimulating activities into the prison.

The competition was part of the Mind Your Head Showcase run by the Phoenix Legacy and was one of twenty different activities on display on the day.

Running alongside the showcase was the Mind Your Head Conference, which was supported by The Brain Trust Charity. In the morning, delegates heard from Leontxo Garcia about his Spanish research which shows that playing chess reduces the onset of symptoms of Alzheimers. He believes that chess is the best gym for the mind and that working out in a mental gym is as important  as a physical gym. He questioned how much cheaper it would be for the NHS to prescribe a chess set than years of medication and care. With his Spanish passion for the game, he inspired a number of the audience to go out and buy a chess set.  It’s a game you can play in a small way or really get into it. As he quoted the Hindu proverb: