The death of David Anderton of Walsall Kipping Chess Club has been announced. David was not only a giant of Staffordshire Chess; he served the English Chess Federation and its predecessor the BCF in several diverse roles. With the Staffordshire Association he was President of the Association for many years and captained the County Open team.
There are additional obituaries on both the ECF and Wolverhampton and District Chess Association websites.
The condolences of the Staffordshire Chess Association go out to his widow Doreen and his wider family.
Please find this tribute from the current President of the Staffordshire Chess Association, Robert Milner to his predecessor.
I was first introduced to David Anderton in 1972.
I had been busy for three years introducing the children in my care to the basics of chess and some of them had arrived at a point where they needed to go further.
David invited me to go and visit him and this I did. He suggested that I formed a club and got the children playing against adults rather than against other juniors. He gave me many names of people to contact and loads of useful advice.
I acted upon everything he said and I have never regretted any of it. In the ensuing years, I have always found him to be what I found him then – fifty years ago. He was always friendly, always helpful, always full of good ideas – in fact the sort of person that everyone values as a friend.
Both I and my club owe most of what we are today to David Anderton and his advice.
I never knew him particularly well – we lived too far away from each other for that. But I have always found him to be a towering figure in the chess world and someone I was always proud to know.
