English Chess Forum

Ron Harman died today in a London Nursing Home. He was 75. A retired accountant, he played three times in the British Championship, co-wrote a Batsford Book about the Scandinavian Defence. His colleagues at Cavendish CC in particular will miss his lively presence. He would, I know, be pleased to remembered to so many such as Danny Wright, Stewart Reuben, Natasha Regan and Syd Kalinsky, Senior Partner at King & King, London League friends and rivals.

His brother, Ken, has asked me to place this notice.

James Pratt

Sad news. I met Ron only once, at the Blackpool Major in April 1986, when we played in round 4; he struck me as a real gentleman. He was then living in Southport, my ageing scorebook tells me. We fought out a 57 move draw; I played my habitual Scandinavian (Centre-Counter). After the game he told me that he had just written a book on the opening and kindly shared some of the forthcoming analysis. It was later published by Batsford in 1993, co-authored by Shaun Taulbut.

R.I.P.

Before Ron joined Cavendish, he was a leading member of the Islington Chess Club, together with his brother Ken. The Islington Club was renowned for attracting strong chess players, and poker players.
Ron was well known on the London scene. When we met across the board, I took great care not to play the Scandinavian Defence ! Farewell Ron, great chess personality.

Ron Harman was one of the great characters of English chess. Many stories about him will doubtless be recalled and recounted in the coming days. My favourite anecdote, told to me by Stewart Reuben, concerns the occasion when he decided to try to lose all his games in a five minute tournament, but found the task unexpectedly challenging as one of his opponents was extremely weak.

He could be an arbiter's nightmare, but I always felt that the cause of this was that few people loved chess more than he did.

Rest in peace, Ron.

I remember Ron as one of our most erudite members at Centymca in the mid 1970s. He was a leading member of our "Egghead Quiz" team in the Inter-YMCA championships, and on one famous occasion at Dartford YMCA he gave the answer "Kemal Atatürk" to some question about the first President of Turkey. The chairman of the event – some titled candidate for Monty Python's Upper Class Twit of the Year - firmly rejected this answer, because he had "Mustafa Kemal" written on his answer card.

Ron went completely ballistic: but it's the same person!, as the pompous twit kept saying "That is not the answer I have on the card." in an absurd plummy accent.

Ron was still fuming over this incident several hours later.

Extraordinary mind, but prone to long bouts of severe and debilitating depression, as I recall.

RIP

A fan of Bob Pentecost as I recall:) He was a good friend. Rest in peace Ron.

Apologies for veering off-topic, but Andrew's reference to Bob Pentecost prompts me to ask: would anyone here be able to bring me up to date about Bob? We were work colleagues and partners in chess crime for several years during the 70s, but on his own admission he was a pretty poor correspondent, and I haven't heard from (or about) him for some time now. Use a PM if that seems more appropriate.

Sadly Bob Pentecost has been institutionalised for some years.

Ken Harman writes:
Ron's funeral is to take place at Islington Crematorium, Islington and St.Pancras Cemetery,
278 High Road, East Finchley, N2 9AG at 2.45pm on Friday 26/9/2014.
There is plenty of parking space for cars.




If anyone, from the Ringwood/New Forest would like a lift please ring Kenny on 01425 470177.

See Fifty Years Ago by RFA Harman

I never met Ron Harman, but he seems very well respected in the chess world and will be sadly missed by those who knew him. I assume that the Ken Harman mentioned here is the same player who recently played for Ringwood in the Southampton Chess League.

If I recall correctly Daryl Taylor also mentions YMCA staff member Les Osborne becoming infuriated by the same quizmaster in another thread.

I realise that by the time of posting this the funeral has long since passed, but I have only just come across this thread.

Jimmy Adams has written a warm, funny tribute to his friend http://www.kingpinchess.net/2014/10/ron ... hess-club/.