English Chess Forum

I've just seen the very sad news that Peter Richmond has died.

Peter came from Nottingham, where it seems he was better known by his middle name, Allan. He was a strong player, reaching a FIDE rating of 2284 in the early 2000s, and coming close to winning the Welsh Championship a few times in the 1990s. He played in the 1983 British Championship in Southport, scoring a creditable 5.5/11.

I knew him from the 4NCL where we were South Wales Dragons teammates. He was a gentle giant of a man, of few words but with a ready smile.

Peter was the younger brother of Robert Richmond (1956-2020), one-time BCF Finance Director and himself a player of around 2200 strength.

Peter's wife Jane (née Garwell) is of course a fine player of similar strength herself, with one British Women's Championship and 12 Welsh women's titles to her credit. Jane and Peter settled in Wiltshire where Peter was a much-admired chess coach.

My condolences to Jane and their daughter Hannah.

Allan, as he was usually known in Nottingham, became a very strong player as a junior at West Bridgford Chess Club. He won several county junior titles in the 1970s: https://www.nottinghamshirechess.org/wp ... s-List.pdf He was the younger brother of Robert Richmond, who was of similar strength (Robert died in January 2020: viewtopic.php?f=46&t=10582 )

Allan was joint Nottinghamshire champion in 1974-75 and again in 1980-81. He was a very active player when I first met him in the mid-1980s, including participating in the Nottingham Chessforce tournament in January 1987: https://saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/198701nott-viewer.html

Allan subsequently married Jane Garwell, moved from Nottingham and played for Wales as well as for several 4NCL teams. Others will be able to comment in far more detail about this post-Nottingham period of his life.

My sincere condolences to his widow Jane, daughter Hannah and wider family,

We played each other a lot in the days when Wiltshire played county matches. Always fun games.

Peter Richmond, from The 101st British Chess Championship which were hosted at The University of Aberystwyth, Wales from 18th July to August 2nd.

My earliest memories of Peter are from Nottingham days. On the first occasion, I was showing some friends a recent game which had started 1 b4 d5 2 Bb2 Qd6 3 b5?! (yes, I had been white) Qb4 4 Qc1 Qxb5 5 e4 Qd7 6 exd5, and I claimed to have compensation. Peter came over and agreed and everyone looked at us both as though we were mad.

We played once, at West Bridgford, and drew an relatively uneventful game. At one point Peter played exf6 ep and I thought for a while about recapturing with a piece, to have an open f-file, but eventually settled on the "positional" exf6 in reply. Peter returned to the board and exclaimed "I should think so too!"

Alas, when I saw him in later years at 4NCL it seemed that his health was not so good. RIP, and condolences to his family.

Jonathan Rogers wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 10, 2026 11:03 pm

Alas, when I saw him in later years at 4NCL it seemed that his health was not so good.

I played him in 2015 in the 4NCL He had a medical device that periodically would beep. He warned me about it before the game and presumably the arbiters wete aware.

We were very shocked to hear about this, as we saw Peter as recently as early January.

Peter moved to Swindon in the early 1990s, and became an active member in local league chess (both for teams in Swindon in the Wiltshire League, and for Witney in the Oxford League), county chess (including being part of our "dream team" when Wiltshire got to the Finals of the ECF Minor County Competition in 1996 only to lose by the narrowest of margins to Sussex), and also 4NCL (where he represented a few teams over the years).

He was also for many years part of the organising committee for the large Wiltshire and West of England Junior Chess Championships, held in the February half term in Swindon, until it folded around Covid times.

He was extremely helpful with coaching many local juniors over many years, including our own two, and passing on huge amounts of knowledge and wisdom especially on endgames.

In more recent years where he hasn't been able to play due to health reasons, he has been very active with community chess in local libraries, and in coaching at one of the junior chess clubs here in Swindon.

The game I have linked to is the one Tim says that he would definitely want to be remembered by, a brilliant win in Peter's usual style, against Graeme Buckley in an early season of the 4NCL.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1163592


We shall remember fondly a dear friend and team mate.

Our heartfelt condolences to Jane, daughter Hannah, and his 2 granddaughters.

That is a truly wonderful game!

[Event "BCF-chT 0001 (4NCL)"] [Site "UK"] [Date "2001.05.06"] [Round "10"] [White "Graeme N Buckley"] [Black "Peter Richmond"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D31"] [WhiteElo "2374"] [BlackElo "2237"] [PlyCount "72"] [EventDate "2001.04.23"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 e6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. e3 b5 6. a4 Bb4 7. Bd2 Bb7 8. axb5 Bxc3 9. Bxc3 cxb5 10. b3 a5 11. bxc4 b4 12. Bb2 Nf6 13. Bd3 Nbd7 14. O-O O-O 15. Nd2 Qc7 16. f4 a4 17. e4 a3 18. Bc1 Nb6 19. e5 Qd8 20. Kh1 Qxd4 21. Nb3 Qc3 22. exf6 Rfd8 23. Qg4 g6 24. Qg5 Rxd3 25. Nc5 Qxa1 26. Nxd3 Rd8 27. Nb2 Nd7 28. Rd1 Bd5 29. Nd3 Nxf6 30. cxd5 Rxd5 31. Qg3 Ne4 32. Qe3 Rxd3 33. Rxd3 Nf2+ 34. Qxf2 Qxc1+ 35. Qg1 Qxg1+ 36. Kxg1 a2 0-1

I still dodge the Noteboom, entirely due to Peter's influence. RIP.

There was one minute's silence for him at the recent Swindon Rapidplay. I think this is a good idea that could be adopted more widely. How about a silence for everyone remembered in this Forum? It should be possible to organize, in spite of the difficulties. Everyone wants to leave a trace.

I am pretty sure Peter beat me at Southport, where he gave an object lesson in how to win a bishop ending 2 pawns up.

I also played him more recently in 4NCL. He told me he preferred activity over structure, which I suppose is a fair summary of his style.

Nick Ivell wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 31, 2026 6:05 pm

I am pretty sure Peter beat me at Southport, where he gave an object lesson in how to win a bishop ending 2 pawns up.

Opposite coloured Bs, presumably (in most positions it isn't that hard when they have the same squares)

Yes, as I recall, with multiple pawns. It wasn't that difficult in the days of adjournments.