Keith Escott

[LawrenceCooper]

https://suttonchess.wordpress.com/2024/ ... 1948-2024/

[Steve Williams]

I am very sad to hear this and can add a little to the Sutton Coldfield death notice.
I know little of Keith's early life except that he was an alumnus of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. When we met in the 1990s he was living alone, I am not sure whether divorced or unmarried. That meeting was under the aegis of Reg Gillman, then President of the British Federation for Correspondence Chess, for which body Keith organised both the Ladies' Championship and the Team Championship, as well as representing the BFCC on the BCF. When Reg died, and then Norman King too, Keith succeeded them. The place name Sutton Coldfield is synonymous to many chess players of my generation with the magazine "Chess" and Keith sometimes mentioned its founder Barry Wood. I know he was a strong county player, for, I think, Warwickshire. He was tall and slim and must have had good eyes, working, though he never wore glasses at BFCC meetings, as a proofreader for a national chain of solicitors Eversheds. He was a very congenial and affable colleague.

[Roger de Coverly]

I know little of Keith's early life except that he was an alumnus of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

From memory, he would have graduated in 1969 or possibly 1970. He was never quite strong enough to challenge for a place in the Varsity match team, but played on a lower board for the University club and Cambidge county team in other matches of that era.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Are there any details of his work as "an editor of BCM"?

[John Upham]

Are there any details of his work as "an editor of BCM"?

As a current editor and maintainer of the BCM Wiki page I would also be interested.

Over the years many persons have been credited as Editors of BCM when they have not.

Here is the list:

John Watkinson (1833–1923), founding editor 1881–87.
Robert Frederick Green (1856–1925), editor 1888–93.
Isaac McIntyre Brown (1858–1934), editor 1894–1920.
Richard Clewin Griffith (1872–1955), editor 1920–37, and some months in 1940.
Harry Golombek (1911–95), editor 1938–40, International Master.
Julius du Mont (1881–1956), editor 1940–49.
Brian Patrick Reilly (1901–91), editor 1949–81.
Bernard Cafferty (born 1934), editor 1981–91, FIDE Master.
Murray Chandler (born 1960), editor 1991–99, International Grandmaster.
John Saunders (born 1953), editor 1999 – August 2010.
Steve Giddins (born 1961), editor September 2010 – April 2011, FIDE Master.
James Pratt (born 1959), John Upham (born 1960) and Shaun Taulbut (born 1958), International Master, co-editors May 2011 – December 2015.
Jimmy Adams (born 1947) FIDE Master and Josip Asik (born 1969) FIDE Master, co-editors January 2016 - October 2016.
Milan Dinic (born 1986), editor November 2016 - present.

Shaun was never really an editor but Stephen Lowe (or simply "Lowe" as Bernard referred to him) insisted that we added him to the masthead.

[Roger de Coverly]

Are there any details of his work as "an editor of BCM"?

I think he may have worked with BH Wood on Chess for a while, possibly running the "Postal Chess Club".

[Matt Mackenzie]

IIRC issues of CHESS during BHW's final years as editor listed him as a deputy.

[John Upham]

I think he may have worked with BH Wood on Chess for a while, possibly running the "Postal Chess Club".

That is correct. I corresponded with KE on a number of occasions in the 1970s on such matters.

I believe that the BCM reference is total fiction but I stand to be corrected as always.

[MSoszynski]

Are there any details of his work as "an editor of BCM"?

I apologise for my confusion. The obituary has now been amended to "an editor for Chess magazine".

[Rich Wiltshir]

Very early '80s, I was paired against Keith in an individual tourney.
Our mid-winter game was to be played at his bedsit in Sutton Coldfield, where he sat with his back to the fire whilst I froze my threepenny bits off.
Surprised, on briefly returning to the sport in 2015, that he seemed largely unchanged by four decades.
The way he'd changed was, in my perception, that he was no longer painfully shy.

Yes, an icon for league chess as I experienced it.
Sad to see such interesting characters no longer exist.

[Joey Stewart]

Shame to hear about Keith, I played for Sutton for a couple of years and he was always a very organised and friendly person to deal with.

[John Saunders]

Sad news about Keith Escott. I didn't know him personally but I met him over the board in a county match around 50 years ago, when he lost on time in a better position. He accepted the result with equanimity as I recall.

I believe he was an assistant editor at CHESS, Sutton Coldfield, for some time, though he was playing for Essex in 1974, as he would have been entitled to even if he lived elsewhere, as Essex was where he was born.

While I was looking for something else this afternoon, I stumbled across a photo which appeared in the June 1966 issue of CHESS showing him as part of the CHESS party at the 1966 World Championship match in Moscow...

1966-chess-in-moscow-0001.jpg

I recognised Mr and Mrs BH Wood and the three GMs on the right but not any of the other people. Thankfully the caption has all their names. Keith Escott is fifth from the left and the tallest person on the stage.

I was amazed to see such a large party of CHESS staff in Moscow. As a former co-owner of BCM a question immediately popped into my mind: "how on earth did they manage to fund such a jaunt?" Presumably someone wealthy stumped up the cash. (The confident-looking man fourth man from the left, Henry de Vismes, looks like a strong candidate: Google identifies his aristocratic-sounding name as that of a banking family.) I also wonder why they should do it at all, and who was left to 'mind the shop'.

I've also prepared a PGN file of 60 games played by Keith Escott which can be accessed via this link: https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pgn/escottk.pgn

[LawrenceCooper]

It looks like the same Roger Butters from Stafford who did a simul at my junior school and encouraged me to join the town chess club many years ago.
http://www.rogerbutters.uk/archive/

[John Clarke]

I was amazed to see such a large party of CHESS staff in Moscow.

I don't think they were Chess staff, apart from the Woods. Everyone in that party would have paid their own way. I remember the several announcements made beforehand by BHW that he was organising a trip to Moscow to attend the WCM, and asking who'd be interested in coming along.

[John Saunders]

I was amazed to see such a large party of CHESS staff in Moscow.

I don't think they were Chess staff, apart from the Woods. Everyone in that party would have paid their own way. I remember the several announcements made beforehand by BHW that he was organising a trip to Moscow to attend the WCM, and asking who'd be interested in coming along.

Thanks, John, that's very interesting. There's a gap in my run of CHESS Magazines around that time (for example, I'm missing Vol.31, Issue No.500), hence the gap in my knowledge. I shall have to look up the announcements in earlier issues.