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Mubin Boysan
1914 - 28 October 1989
Glasgow CC Champion 1961
Mr Boysan was a Turkish engineer by profession, whose work took him around the world. His travels permitted him to indulge his interest in chess in various locations.
While living in Berlin in the late 1930s and early 1940s he defeated Keres and Alekhine in simultaneous exhibitions. He won against Keres on 12 January 1938 and world champion Alekhine on 8 September 1942.
He arrived in Glasgow in 1960, and by the time the following article appeared in the Glasgow Herald, he had already won the championship of Glasgow CC.
Glasgow Herald, Thursday, 7 September 1961, p 6: It may not be exactly child's play, but his marathon match in Glasgow tonight against 20 members of the Polytechnic Chess Club is unlikely to cause Mubin Boysan, chess champion of Turkey, much trouble. After all, he once, in Istanbul, played 53 games in 5 hours - even if he only, as he admits with just a hint of shame, won 48.
He took up the game later than most chess champions, as an engineering student in Berlin in the 1930's, has been playing it all over the world ever since (apart from 18 bleak, chessless months in Japan), and believes he can tell a man's character from the kind of game he plays. (He himself plays in a quick, rather off-hand, manner.) Doctors and musicians make the best chess players, he says (he himself plays the violin); military men are not as good as one might expect; and politicians are no good at all.
For 16 months now he has been living in Scotland, supervising the construction on the Clyde of nine ferry boats for a Turkish firm. He is smaller than average, smartly dressed, cheerful, and speaks English excellently, though sometimes with engagingly roundabout methods of expression. He also speaks French, German, and Russian; the Russian was picked up as a small boy during the six years when his father was Turkish Consul at Baku.
This photo shows Mr Boysan conducting the simultaneous exhibition on 20 boards in St Andrew's Hall, Glasgow, on September 7, 1961 that opened the Polytechnic CC season.
Mubin Boysan represented Turkey at the Olympiads at Varna 1962 (W6 L8 D5 - no reserve) and Lugano 1968 (W3 L3 D7).
Paul Keres - Mubin Boysan
Berlin (simultaneous) 12 January 19381. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Nf3 Ne7 5. e3 Nbc6 6. Bd2 b6 7. Bd3 dxc4 8. Bxc4 O-O 9. O-O Ng6 10. Qe2 a6 11. Rac1 Bb7 12. Rfd1 Be7 13. Be1 b5 14. Bb3 Na5 15. Bc2 f5 16. d5 e5 17. g3 e4 18. Nd4 Nc4 19. Ne6 Qd6 20. Nxf8 Rxf8 21. Bb3 Nge5 22. Bxc4 bxc4 23. Rc2 Qh6 24. f4 exf3 25. Qf1 Bc5 26. Bf2 Ng4 27. h4 Qg6
28. Qxc4 Nxf2 29. Kxf2 f4 30. Ne4 fxe3+ 31. Ke1 Bd6 32. g4 Rf4 33. Rd4 Qxg4 34. Qd3 Rxe4 35. Rxe4 Qg1+ 36. Qf1 Bg3+ 0-1Additional note:The Glasgow Herald chess column of 7 April 1961 reported that Mr Boysan had given a simultaneous display at Knightswood CC against 14 opponents, winning 12, drawing against D.H. Beattie, and losing to C.M. Malcolm.
Source for main article: Glasgow Herald, Thursday September 7 (p 6), and Friday September 8 (p 9), 1961.
Berliner Nachtausgabe, 21 January 1938.
Deutsche Schachzeitung 1942, p. 121.
Alan McGowan
Historian/Archivist, Chess Scotlandupdated 15/4/2021
