Albania Reflections Eight (8) by Dr Lyndon Bouah

We are reaching the end of the event now. In this event I met many new players and also met up with old friends as well.

This reflection I dedicate to the late Stewart Reuben from England. Let me tell you a bit about Stewart. We need to go back to 1987.

In 1986 and 1987 devoured all the chess books at West End library. The local librarian decided to refer me to the Port Elizabeth Central Library. I had always driven past the library but never entered. With another intrepid chess player, Conrad Blignault, we took the requisite taxi to the library. This was of course an adventure on its own. As my high school, Bethelsdorp, was next to the Windvogel taxi rank we took a taxi to Norwich which was the central bus and taxi depot. The procedure stayed the same for many a week. After disembarking we then went to the local pie shop first to eat. Next to the pie shop was Fogarty’s Books which was a veritable treasure trove of books. We then checked all the latest books.

Then we were off to the library. An imposing building it had prime space in the centre of town. A statue of Queen Victoria greeted us upon arrival. The entrance was on the side and sometimes the front door was open. We immediately headed for the chess section. We then discovered that they had about 50 new books that we had not read before. But another discovery intrigued us even more. The library subscribed to the British Chess Magazine (BCM). As the authors of the various articles invited readers to write to them we seized the opportunity and wrote to one author called Stewart Reuben. The correspondence from us was well received and this started a lifetime of friendship. I met Stewart for the first time in 1992 after corresponding for five years!

Stewart Reuben was very surprised when a group of chess players which included Ashley Schuller from Cape Town, Shane Bassett, Conrad Blignault and me started writing to him. We shared the details of our lives and he in turn told us about life in England and in Europe. I was the most conscientious and wrote to Stewart with analysis of my games. He then would play through the games and also propose different ideas and moves and comment on our positions. He sent video tapes and some books and other material that I absorbed. These comments assisted me greatly and today I realised he was my international chess coach.

In the September 1990 issue of the British Chess Magazine on page 446 in his monthly column, Stewart Reuben wrote the following about our correspondence:

“About two years ago a number of South African schoolboys started writing to me. They did so after seeing one of my articles in this magazine about how to improve your results without increasing your actual chess ability.  The boys asked me to comment on their games. However weak I may be, their access to formal instruction is extremely limited. One told me had a published rating of 1382 (if Elo, about 100 BCF). I was quickly able to disabuse him of this idea. Relatively speaking in South Africa that might be accurate but internationally his games were more of a 2000 strength player. In fact I was able to send one of his combinations to Leonard Barden for consideration for publication in the London Evening Standard, where it duly appeared. Remembering my own pleasure at a similar age at having a position published in a national journal, it gives me a warm glow that I was able to achieve this for the 14-year old so far away. (The player in question was Conrad Blignault and the position was from Blignault vs. Errol Ruiters EP Prestige 1988. LB)

It started out with two correspondents and then suddenly it was four. I was gripped by a sudden fear. Were my days going to be filled by letters to and from two teenagers intensely interested in politics, chess and music of which I have never heard- still less actually listened to? However I needn’t have worried. In the main, they lost interest before me and their letters tailed off, so now I am in regular correspondence with only one of their number, Lyndon Bouah, who is probably the strongest player. Perhaps the others realised I just wasn’t good enough to make constructive comments on a handful of games.

Normally the colour, race or religion of a fellow chess player isn’t central to a relationship. In these cases, if nothing else, I was curious. In due course photographs answered the question. All four are “coloured.’ What a terrible term and how much worse a political system which makes the matter important.

 SA has two chess organisations. The South African Chess Federation is accused of being white-dominated and racist. The youngsters play under the banner of the SA Council on Sport which considers itself non-racist and is affiliated to FIDE. My reservation is that I doubt they have many white members. SACOS does not believe SA should be represented internationally as they consider it impossible to have normal sport in an abnormal society. Thus they do not want FIDE to permit SA to play in the Olympiads. All the boys were careful when they first wrote to impress on me the strength of their political feelings and how anti-apartheid they were. They feared that I would refuse to reply but I believe all youngsters are entitled to their youth and cannot be blamed for the political actions of their elders. But how can you expect a teenager not to be involved in such burning issues.

I hear the editor calling: what about the title and have you forgotten that this is chess magazine? Naturally the players are isolated. They cannot afford subscriptions to foreign magazines. Opportunities to play against strong players are extremely limited. There aren’t many around and the cost of travel and accommodation is prohibitive. The common problem is alleviated by chess publication such as this one. It may not do the profitability of the BCM much good to know that it is stocked in a South African public library, but at least it is serving a useful social function…

The schoolteacher of these lads in SA has done an excellent job encouraging chess but this has had the effect that there are no school teams around that can give them a decent match…

My young correspondents teach chess to players weaker than themselves. You always learn a great deal when teaching. I don’t do much chess tuition, so I haven’t the full experience of helping somebody become a stronger player than me. Chess being so competitive, I wonder how people feel about that. The youngsters intend producing a chess magazine. They have been at it a year now and presumably have discovered that it is not as easy as it seems. Nonetheless this stimulates concrete analysis and it is better to have a definite objective when working at chess than just the airy- fairy idea that perhaps one day you make use of some study. I find it extremely hard to work at chess. It is far easier to do so as part of a cooperative. But even this has its negative side if members of your group are the only ones you compete against.

In the end, I doubt it is possible to sustain interest in the game if there is no prospect whatsoever of international contact. A player can only go so far before he hungers for opposition which will test him to the full” . end of Stewart Reuben article. 

In July 2024 I met Stewart again at the FIDE World Senior Team Championships in Poland. We spent some time together as he was playing in the over -65 section. He passed away in February 2025. In his own way he did a lot for SA Chess and mentored many of us who crossed his path. he was a coach of mine who analysed all my games played in events in SA. Thank you, Stewart for your contribution to my and SA chess.

I also met up again with Professor Barry Hymer who is the Emeritus Professor of Psychology in Education at the University of Cumbria. He played many youth events in SA and informed us that he played Sa Schools in 1977 and 1978 as well. in 1982 he spent a year in the Eastern Cape and won the EP Open.  We shared many stories. I thoroughly enjoyed his book written with Peter Wells called Chess Improvement.

Prof Hymer was recently the key note speaker at a  Chess in Education conference in New York where Gary Kasparov also addressed the audience.