Jimmy Doyle

[andybburnett]

Very sad to hear this news about Jimmy. We met a few times in weekend congresses over the years and he was always a very tough opponent, but very fair and a great character. As Alex says above, Jimmy's games were always among those I'd seek out - guaranteed excitement! RIP

[amuir]

I knew Jimmy from the early 1970s and we played together at Giffnock, Shettleston & Crowwood. He was a fine attacking player , good at blitz, endings , and fearless with his h-pawn. I would have gone to his funeral if I had found out about it. Colin McNab was lucky to escape in this game from the 2010 Scottish Championship
[White "Doyle, Jim"]
[Black "McNab, Colin Anderson"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
1. d4 d6 2. c4 e5 3. d5 f5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. g3 g6 6. Bg2 Bg7 7. h4 Nbd7 8. Nh3 a5
9. Ng5 Nf8 10. e4 h6 11. Ne6 Nxe6 12. dxe6 c6 13. h5 Bxe6 14. hxg6 fxe4 15. Qe2
d5 16. Bd2 Bg4 17. f3 exf3 18. Bxf3 Bxf3 19. Qxf3 dxc4 20. Qe2 Qc7 21. Qxc4
O-O-O 22. O-O-O Nd5 23. Ne4 b6 24. Rhf1 Rhf8 25. Kb1 Kb7 26. Bxa5 Qe7 27. Nc5+
Kb8 28. Na6+ Kb7 1/2-1/2

[Alan Bell]

Very sad to hear this. I also played Jimmy several times in the 70s. This was pre-Fitbit days so no heart rate monitoring but I'm pretty sure my heart rate would have been consistently in 3 figures for most of the time facing his fierce attacking play. Like Walter I remember his tremendous win at the Grangemouth Open and from memory there were a good number of considerably higher graded players including Roddy. RIP

[Nicolas Skettos]

I had the honour of meeting Jim Doyle in 2015 when I first arrived in Glasgow, as a student and joined the Phones Chess Club in Charing Cross. Back then, I was in the second team and of course, he was one of the best players in the first team, but a few times, I played for the first team too so we were teammates. Jim was always an inspiration to me, as he played very well despite the problem with his hearing.

The next season, 2016-2017, I got promoted to the first team and we were teammates. One of my nicest memories with Jim was the Spens Cup Final of 2017 in Kirkcaldy, Fife in the Adam Smith Centre, where Phones won the trophy after 18 years. In the final, our team defeated Bellshill by 3-2. I was a reserve player for the team but our highest-rated player, Pavlos Bozinakis, was unavailable so was called in to play. Jim was on board 2. Board 1 was Bob Dickson, who gave us all a lift to the playing venue from Glasgow. Board 3 was Stephen Misanjo and board 4 was Luke Barker. Bob won, Jim lost, Stephen won, and Luke and I made a draw. On the way to the final, Phones defeated Hamilton by 3.5-1.5, Irvine by 5-0, and Wandering Dragons by 2-3. Jim played in 2 of those games and won both of them, massively helping our team. His last official chess game was the first game of the 2017-2018 season in the Glasgow League Division 1, where Phones lost at home to Paisley with 3.5-4.5, where Jim lost.

Since then, he first went to the hospital, and then went to a care home and I was regularly in contact with his relative Jane Mcdonald via Facebook, to learn updates on his news. He got diagnosed with onset dementia, vascular dementia and depression and a few other ageing problems. One of them was mobility, specifically his legs, which meant he could not move without aid. His hearing also deteriorated further. His main interests while in the care home, were watching TV and reading books. Jim was always a massive inspiration for me, as despite his health problems, he was a massive fighter over the board and a very nice person too. A few months before going to the care home he was travelling to many other parts of Scotland to compete, such as Inverness, Dundee, Aberdeen, etc. I never got to face Jim, not even in a friendly game.

Jane was the person that informed me that he passed away. I received the message from Jane that Jim passed away on Saturday the 19th of March, however, it was one week late, so he passed away on Saturday the 12th of March. Unfortunately, I missed his funeral too. Dear Jim, it was my pleasure and honour to meet you, even for a short while and I will never forget you.