Ian (Lord) Kirkwood

[Alastair White]

I see from the Scotsman today Lord Kirkwood has died.

He was a former Glorney Cup player and a great supporter of Scottish Chess in general and the Edinburgh Chess Club in particular. I often saw him spectating at the Scottish Championship  and occasionally at the club but not many of those there would know who he was. His duties as a lawyer and subsequently as a high court judge meant that he played very little chess after the 1950s.

The funeral will be private and details of a memorial service will be announced later.

[Craig Pritchett]

This is a sad loss indeed. Lord Kirkwood loved chess and was a longstanding supporter, including financially from time to time, quietly in the background. He believed that his life had been greatly enriched by the game and was intensely proud to have played for Scotland in the Glorney Cup and in two early 1950s international student team championships.

He told me he played Korchnoi in one of the two students' events. Sadly there is little or no database record of the games played at these events, however. I mentioned to him that I thought it may have been another Soviet 'great' Nikolai Krogius. Unimpressed by the mainly circumstantial evidence that I presented, the retired High Court judge insisted 'Korchnoi'. He thought he probably still had the original scoresheet to prove it somewhere in his loft. I wish he had found it ... not to prove a point, of course, but to revel in the moves of a game that he felt privileged to have been part of.

Lord Kirkwood did, however, show me the pennant he received from the Soviet Captain (Korchnoi or Krogius) in the match from that students' event. He still displayed that in his study!

I and Scottish chess will miss him.

[amuir]

Olimpbase shows it was Krogius not Korchnoi he played.
http://www.olimpbase.org/1954y/1954fa03.html

[Craig Pritchett]

Olimpbase shows it was Krogius not Korchnoi he played.
http://www.olimpbase.org/1954y/1954fa03.html

Just seen. Many thanks, Andy. I wonder if this is recent additional detail. I may, of course, simply have missed a trick when I checked this, at least a few years back. I take it olympbase still has no gamescore.