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Bonar Law and Chess
August 17, 2016
There is a little street in Toronto called Bonar Place. It is in the College-Dufferin area of town. I have often speculated if it was named after the British Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law.
From:
http://www.historytoday.com/robert-p...drew-bonar-law
At the funeral of Andrew Bonar Law, in Westminster Abbey on 5 November 1923, Herbert Asquith stated, with a certain satisfaction, that 'the unknown Prime Minister' was being buried by the side of the Unknown Soldier. The phrase has served as epitaph to the man who was prime minister for only 211 days, the shortest tenure in the twentieth century. Yet this dismissive remark should not lead us to underestimate the political importance of Bonar Law or to misunderstand the man.
There were some who believed him to be entirely colourless. Lloyd George once relayed a conversation he had with Law, while the two men motored along the Mediterranean coast. When the Welshman praised Mozart, he replied, 'I don't care for music'. When he extolled the beauty of the sea on one side of them and the snow-capped Alpine mountains on the other, the reply came: 'I don't care for scenery'. When he pointed to a group of beautiful women, Law responded that he did not care for women. Finally, when the exasperated Lloyd George asked, 'Then what the hell do you care for?', Bonar Law replied, 'I like bridge'.
Yet this conversation is an example not of Law's dullness but of his dry sense of humour. Certainly he cared for many other things besides bridge. There was chess, and he was also inordinately fond of smoking. In addition, he was a devoted family man. If he often seemed pessimistic, this was an entirely appropriate response to the vicissitudes of life. Born in New Brunswick, in Canada, in September 1858, his mother died when he was only two. At the age of 12, his father remarried and he was taken to live with an aunt in Glasgow. He had escaped the influence of a depressive father, an Ulsterman who was employed as a Presbyterian minister in Canada, and he became happily married in 1891, to Annie Robley. But his wife died in 1909 and during the Great War two of his sons died, within six months of each other. The losses hit him hard.
________
From:
http://www.chessscotland.com/history...s/bonarlaw.htm
He was referred to as Bonar Law (Bonar pronounced like honour), and called Bonar by his family and close friends, never Andrew. He was born in what at that time was a British colony, for Canada was not founded until Confederation in 1867.
Law had allegedly been interested in the game since his teens, one report stating that when attending school in Glasgow he carried a pocket set with him on the train and challenged other passengers to play.
In September 1889 Capt. G.H. Mackenzie visited Scotland for a series of exhibitions, and in a simultaneous display at Glasgow CC, Bonar Law defeated the vastly experienced master. In November 1895, shortly after having been elected president of the club for season 1895-6, he won against the English master Joseph Blackburne in a similar display at the club.
Shortly after the London tournament, on 23 October 1922, Bonar Law assumed the position of Prime Minister. He resigned the position on 22 May 1923, having been diagnosed with terminal throat cancer. He died a few months later on 30 October. His funeral was at Westminster Abbey, where his ashes are interred.
______
And a nice anecdote from Edward Winter’s Chess History:
http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/bonarlaw.html
From Recollections of Three Reigns by Sir Frederick Ponsonby (London, 1937) pp 353-354 which relates an episode concerning Bonar Law, Sir Walter Parratt and King George V:
In April 1921 Bonar Law and his daughter came to stay at Windsor Castle from Saturday to Monday. I knew him slightly and had once or twice played bridge with him. Although reserved and difficult to know, he became quite human when he thawed and had a great sense of humour. After his son was killed in the war, he gave up going out into society and never went anywhere except to the House of Commons.
It was four years after his son’s death when he came to Windsor and so he had more or less recovered from his grief.
On Sunday the King said to me that he and the Queen were motoring to see somebody, and I was therefore to find out what Bonar Law would like to do and make the necessary arrangements. I asked Bonar Law to say frankly what he would like most to do. Would he like to go round the pictures and furniture? But he said that this would bore him. I then suggested the library, but he said that he would want a week at least to see this even superficially. He would rather go out. I suggested the farms but he said this would be worse than the pictures. After I had exhausted all the usual sights with no success, I said he had better propose something himself. He said he would like to go for a drive in the park with his daughter and I replied that nothing would be easier.
I asked whether he would care to play bridge when he returned, but he said he had quite given up cards, and added that what he would really like was a game of chess. He warned me however, that it was no use asking him to play ‘bumble-puppy’ chess, as that was tiresome. He had of late years studied chess very thoroughly and now invariably played with professionals, but of course he could not expect anything of this sort at Windsor; all he asked was someone who could play a first-class game. I said I quite understood and would arrange all this.
I went away and ordered the carriage but scratched my head over the chess. My own chess was infantile and therefore out of the questions, and although I knew that some of the Household played chess, was quite sure that their games came under the head of ‘bumble-puppy; and that it was a waste of time to ask them to take on Bonar Law. It suddenly occurred to me that Sir Walter Parratt had in his day been a first-rate player, and that I remembered his telling me that he found all the chess problems in the newspapers never took him more than ten minutes to solve.
So I wrote an note to him asking him to come and play Bonar Law at chess soon after six; that is, after the evening service at St. George’s Chapel. Then a short scribble to Bonar Law explaining who Parratt was. When I thought I had arranged everything I found there was some difficulty about the board and chessmen. There were innumerable and valuable sets under glass cases, but a common or garden board seemed impossible to find. I consulted Derek Keppel, the Master of the Household, and he at once started his myrmidons on the sent of one. Eventually, an ordinary set was found in the cupboard of the room that was formerly where Princess Mary worked with her governess.
Keppel arranged a charming setting for the game with a small table, two comfortable arm-chairs and shaded electric light lamps.
I went to the room soon after six and talked to Bonar Law. When Parratt came in I introduced them, and while a footman handed cigars and offered tea or coffee, Bonar Law whispered in my ear: ‘Isn’t my opponent a bit old?’ I merely replied that he knew the game; as a matter of fact Parratt was 80 or more. So I left them.
I heard afterwards that they played in dead silence for an hour and that Parratt then said: “That is checkmate.’
Bonar Law replied: ‘Not at all, I have seven different moves.’ ‘Precisely,’ said Parratt, ‘but if you move one, I do so and so. Checkmate. If you move two, I do so and so; again checkmate.’ He went through the whole seven moves and described what would happen in each case.
Bonar Law studied this for twenty minutes and then said: ‘That is right.’ I told the King and, not very tactfully, when His Majesty came to dinner he said to Bonar Law: ‘I hear old Parratt beat your head off at chess.’ Bonar Law merely said he had had a very interesting game.
[Sir Walter Parratt KCVO (10 February 1841 – 27 March 1924) was an English organist and composer. It was said (Chess Review, 1939) that he was able to play a Beethoven Sonata while contesting two games of chess - blindfold!]
See also Frank Dixon’s thread on Canadian politicians and their chess interests:
http://forum.chesstalk.com/showthrea...onar#post53425
Reposted September 25, 2016
August 17, 2016
There is a little street in Toronto called Bonar Place. It is in the College-Dufferin area of town. I have often speculated if it was named after the British Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law.
From:
http://www.historytoday.com/robert-p...drew-bonar-law
At the funeral of Andrew Bonar Law, in Westminster Abbey on 5 November 1923, Herbert Asquith stated, with a certain satisfaction, that 'the unknown Prime Minister' was being buried by the side of the Unknown Soldier. The phrase has served as epitaph to the man who was prime minister for only 211 days, the shortest tenure in the twentieth century. Yet this dismissive remark should not lead us to underestimate the political importance of Bonar Law or to misunderstand the man.
There were some who believed him to be entirely colourless. Lloyd George once relayed a conversation he had with Law, while the two men motored along the Mediterranean coast. When the Welshman praised Mozart, he replied, 'I don't care for music'. When he extolled the beauty of the sea on one side of them and the snow-capped Alpine mountains on the other, the reply came: 'I don't care for scenery'. When he pointed to a group of beautiful women, Law responded that he did not care for women. Finally, when the exasperated Lloyd George asked, 'Then what the hell do you care for?', Bonar Law replied, 'I like bridge'.
Yet this conversation is an example not of Law's dullness but of his dry sense of humour. Certainly he cared for many other things besides bridge. There was chess, and he was also inordinately fond of smoking. In addition, he was a devoted family man. If he often seemed pessimistic, this was an entirely appropriate response to the vicissitudes of life. Born in New Brunswick, in Canada, in September 1858, his mother died when he was only two. At the age of 12, his father remarried and he was taken to live with an aunt in Glasgow. He had escaped the influence of a depressive father, an Ulsterman who was employed as a Presbyterian minister in Canada, and he became happily married in 1891, to Annie Robley. But his wife died in 1909 and during the Great War two of his sons died, within six months of each other. The losses hit him hard.
________
From:
http://www.chessscotland.com/history...s/bonarlaw.htm
He was referred to as Bonar Law (Bonar pronounced like honour), and called Bonar by his family and close friends, never Andrew. He was born in what at that time was a British colony, for Canada was not founded until Confederation in 1867.
Law had allegedly been interested in the game since his teens, one report stating that when attending school in Glasgow he carried a pocket set with him on the train and challenged other passengers to play.
In September 1889 Capt. G.H. Mackenzie visited Scotland for a series of exhibitions, and in a simultaneous display at Glasgow CC, Bonar Law defeated the vastly experienced master. In November 1895, shortly after having been elected president of the club for season 1895-6, he won against the English master Joseph Blackburne in a similar display at the club.
Shortly after the London tournament, on 23 October 1922, Bonar Law assumed the position of Prime Minister. He resigned the position on 22 May 1923, having been diagnosed with terminal throat cancer. He died a few months later on 30 October. His funeral was at Westminster Abbey, where his ashes are interred.
______
And a nice anecdote from Edward Winter’s Chess History:
http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/bonarlaw.html
From Recollections of Three Reigns by Sir Frederick Ponsonby (London, 1937) pp 353-354 which relates an episode concerning Bonar Law, Sir Walter Parratt and King George V:
In April 1921 Bonar Law and his daughter came to stay at Windsor Castle from Saturday to Monday. I knew him slightly and had once or twice played bridge with him. Although reserved and difficult to know, he became quite human when he thawed and had a great sense of humour. After his son was killed in the war, he gave up going out into society and never went anywhere except to the House of Commons.
It was four years after his son’s death when he came to Windsor and so he had more or less recovered from his grief.
On Sunday the King said to me that he and the Queen were motoring to see somebody, and I was therefore to find out what Bonar Law would like to do and make the necessary arrangements. I asked Bonar Law to say frankly what he would like most to do. Would he like to go round the pictures and furniture? But he said that this would bore him. I then suggested the library, but he said that he would want a week at least to see this even superficially. He would rather go out. I suggested the farms but he said this would be worse than the pictures. After I had exhausted all the usual sights with no success, I said he had better propose something himself. He said he would like to go for a drive in the park with his daughter and I replied that nothing would be easier.
I asked whether he would care to play bridge when he returned, but he said he had quite given up cards, and added that what he would really like was a game of chess. He warned me however, that it was no use asking him to play ‘bumble-puppy’ chess, as that was tiresome. He had of late years studied chess very thoroughly and now invariably played with professionals, but of course he could not expect anything of this sort at Windsor; all he asked was someone who could play a first-class game. I said I quite understood and would arrange all this.
I went away and ordered the carriage but scratched my head over the chess. My own chess was infantile and therefore out of the questions, and although I knew that some of the Household played chess, was quite sure that their games came under the head of ‘bumble-puppy; and that it was a waste of time to ask them to take on Bonar Law. It suddenly occurred to me that Sir Walter Parratt had in his day been a first-rate player, and that I remembered his telling me that he found all the chess problems in the newspapers never took him more than ten minutes to solve.
So I wrote an note to him asking him to come and play Bonar Law at chess soon after six; that is, after the evening service at St. George’s Chapel. Then a short scribble to Bonar Law explaining who Parratt was. When I thought I had arranged everything I found there was some difficulty about the board and chessmen. There were innumerable and valuable sets under glass cases, but a common or garden board seemed impossible to find. I consulted Derek Keppel, the Master of the Household, and he at once started his myrmidons on the sent of one. Eventually, an ordinary set was found in the cupboard of the room that was formerly where Princess Mary worked with her governess.
Keppel arranged a charming setting for the game with a small table, two comfortable arm-chairs and shaded electric light lamps.
I went to the room soon after six and talked to Bonar Law. When Parratt came in I introduced them, and while a footman handed cigars and offered tea or coffee, Bonar Law whispered in my ear: ‘Isn’t my opponent a bit old?’ I merely replied that he knew the game; as a matter of fact Parratt was 80 or more. So I left them.
I heard afterwards that they played in dead silence for an hour and that Parratt then said: “That is checkmate.’
Bonar Law replied: ‘Not at all, I have seven different moves.’ ‘Precisely,’ said Parratt, ‘but if you move one, I do so and so. Checkmate. If you move two, I do so and so; again checkmate.’ He went through the whole seven moves and described what would happen in each case.
Bonar Law studied this for twenty minutes and then said: ‘That is right.’ I told the King and, not very tactfully, when His Majesty came to dinner he said to Bonar Law: ‘I hear old Parratt beat your head off at chess.’ Bonar Law merely said he had had a very interesting game.
[Sir Walter Parratt KCVO (10 February 1841 – 27 March 1924) was an English organist and composer. It was said (Chess Review, 1939) that he was able to play a Beethoven Sonata while contesting two games of chess - blindfold!]
See also Frank Dixon’s thread on Canadian politicians and their chess interests:
http://forum.chesstalk.com/showthrea...onar#post53425
Reposted September 25, 2016
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