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The sad news has reached us that FM Tim Upton passed away yesterday, January 10th 2018, in Luxembourg...
Rob McAndrew writes:
'There are many others better able than I to remember his contribution to chess in Scotland. I do not know in how many Scottish Championships he played, or how many Olympiads he played for Scotland. I do know that he played in the Malta Olympiad in 1980, and the Thessaloniki Olympiad in 1984, where he beat Heikki Westerinen.
He has lived, worked and played chess since 1994 in Luxembourg , where he played for the first team of Gambit Bonnevoie in the Luxembourg league. Gambit Bonnevoie, with Tim in the team, won the Luxembourg Championship for the 2016/2017 season. He captained the team which played in the European Club Cup in Turkey in October 2017, having represented and captained the club in a number of previous European Club Cup competitions.
He was the Treasurer of the EU Institutions chess club here in Luxembourg, and regularly attended the Thursday evening meetings, where we played blitz, analysed league games from the previous weekend, and discussed chess and politics and the respective fortunes of Hibs (his club) and Raith Rovers (mine).
He will be much missed here in Luxembourg.'
Chess Scotland passes on its sincerest condolences to Tim's family and friends, and a full obituary will be published in the Chess Scotland magazine.
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Very sad news. I played Tim many times in the 70s and 80s; a fine player and always very friendly.
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13-01-2018, 03:15 PM
(This post was last modified: 13-01-2018, 03:18 PM by Alex McFarlane.)
Leonard Barden on the ECForum
Post by Leonard Barden » Sat Jan 13, 2018 2:09 pm
Tim Upton played in the Oxford v Cambridge varsity match and in the Lloyds Bank Masters. He was probably the leading world expert on the rarely played Ponziani Opening, and used it to effect in his most notable game, his 14-move win against GM Amador Rodriguez in the Scotland v Cuba match in the 1980 Malta Olympiad.
White "Timothy J Upton"
Black "Amador Rodriguez Cespedes"
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 Qe7 4. Bb5 Nf6 5. O-O a6 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. d4 Bg4 8. Qb3 Bc8 9. Nxe5 Nxe4 10. Re1 Nd6 11. c4 Kd8 12. c5 Be6 13. cxd6 cxd6 14. Qb6+ 1-0
Tim made an appearance at the Scottish in Dundee. He intended playing in the Rapidplay but his flight was late. He turned up anyway to meet old friends.
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13-01-2018, 06:28 PM
(This post was last modified: 13-01-2018, 06:30 PM by Craig Pritchett.)
I used that famous 14 move win against Rodriguez in my last column for The (Glasgow) Herald in 2006 (end of a 34 year stint). To me it summed up the potential of young Scots to succeed at the highest level if they worked hard, believed in themselves and stayed in good physical shape. This remains the case today and I added that: 'This game is an emphatic reminder that good moves not reputations win games.'
Tim scored an earlier full point that year (1980) against another Cuban GM, J Nogeuiras, at the World Under-26 Team Championship in Mexico City; Tim was the top points scorer in an excellent team that finished in a high 6th place in the event and he also scored an IM norm. He also had other GM scalps to his name in the very early 1980s, including wins against V Jansa and H Westerinen.
Tim's death is indeed a tragic loss for Scottish chess and a personal one for many, including me.
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Alison Coull has kindly passed along the following from Tim's memorial service in Luxembourg...
'The memorial was a fitting tribute to Tim’s memory. It was standing room only and I was squeezed in right at the back with Alan Ferguson (long standing friend of Tim's from Edinburgh University) and his wife Sue. There was music and readings that paid tribute to his interests and achievements. There was beautiful classical music on the piano (Chopin, Elgar and Mozart).
Tim’s brothers, Nick and Jeremy talked about his life and shared some of their own memories and reflections from childhood. Jeremy noting that Tim always preferred to challenge people at games that involved skill rather than chance. There were various readings. Tim’s children Anthony and Zoe played Finlandia on violin. Tim's mother is Finnish and he always had a strong affinity with Finland as has been referenced in some Olympiad reports when Scotland played Finland.
There were tributes from Tim’s work colleagues at the European Court of Auditors – his immediate team and the ECA football team. Paul Motwani gave a wonderful tribute to Tim’s chess achievements using photos provided by everybody. Paul also read out comments and tributes that he had received from many chess players. There was also a chess tribute from Jan Bednarich of the Bonnevoie Chess Club.
Tim’s son Anthony and nephew Bartholomew gave a tribute to Tim’s life-long devotion to Hibs and Sunshine on Leith was played. The memorial highlighted Tim's interest in travel, history and culture and his ability to make friends in all corners of the world. In particular his interest in former Eastern bloc countries.
A recurrent theme was loyalty - to Hibs, to his friends, the labour party, to chess, to Scotland. Also to Tim as a family man. There was a buffet meal after the service and a large selection of family and chess/football photographs on a large screen. Many people who knew Tim had no idea of the scale of his achievements in chess over many years.'
