Collective Nouns - Fischer v Spassky

[Erik Malmsten]

In the 1950s several chess clubs were in ethnic community centres like the Estonians, Scandinavians, or Hungarians. The Harmonie Club, also known as the German Club, was first at 70 Lombard in 1932, 519 Church, then in 1954 they bought 410 Sherbourne (which became the Phoenix nightclub in 1984). It was known for it's dances. In the 1950s contact was Henry O. Herbst. Fuster won the 1956 Toronto Speed Championship held at the Harmonie CC. Zoltan Sarosy won three club championships until Rudy Draxl came along and won in 1957, 59?, 61, 64, 65. H. Stadt was another Expert. Mrs. Freda Ullrich scored 6.5-3.5 in the annual weekend open in 1957. The Ontario Open was held in the club in 1965. Later tournaments were held in the Austrian club on Beverley.

[Hans Jung]

Peter you were lucky with your clock - just think 50 years with the same clock - not many players can say that. I was searching my memory for clock tinkerers. I remember Ted Durrant tinkering with a clock and getting frustrated. To make matters worse I kept asking him interested questions about how he was repairing. Finally he blew up and said I havent a clue why dont you take over but my understanding was worse. London didnt have any tinkerers in those days. For me there were these old clock makers, one on Wharncliffe, one on Oxford West at the 301 plaza, and finally one in the old market downtown. The first two died or retired - the other at the market was forced out of business because he couldnt afford the rents when the new market opened. These guys understood chess players and didnt charge jewellers rates, rather something reasonable.

[Hans Jung]

In 1984 I established (with Bob Edwards help) a London Chess League. It was ambitious. I wanted teams of at least 4 players but those who would analyse together and stay together as a team.
There were 16 teams (great for pairings). Bob Edwards had established a new club on Dundas Street just west of Colborne and that club had an A and B team. The German Canadians had an A and B team. The university had 4 teams. We had a Yugoslav club team. Dan Surlan on top board, Dan Sudar on second board. Do you remember Dan Sudar? Always wore tweed jackets and smoked a pipe and had a gravelly voice. He was a professor of librarian science at Western and was an A player and played in several London Championships. Anyways he had a charming little cottage off a side street off Hamilton Road down by the river. The outside was a riot of flowers, grape vines and old trees and the inside a perfect picture of old Europe (or old Yugoslavia). The match games were at Dan Sudar's cottage (just the team that was playing his team) and Dan served Turkish coffee in little cups and beer or wine. Smoking was allowed. Dan absolutely insisted on analysis of all the games, the more participation the merrier and we analysed to the wee hours and many left tipsy.

[Hans Jung]

There were other teams. We had teams that were grouped around particular players. A Dave Jackson group. Dr. Theodor Ackerman and Carl Ehrman. Strong team. I nicknamed that team the Jewish connection. A team from Fanshawe College. High school teams, one from Central, one from Beal, one from Banting. We even had a team from Tim Hortons. and then there was the Dutch Club. It had existed for years on its own on Clarke Road in the south east. I went there as part of the team. The waitresses served in traditional Dutch costumes. More Dutch was spoken than English. Henry Van Weeren (Hank to those who new him) was in charge of the Dutch team. He was soft spoken and very deliberate about everything he did. When you talked to him he would always deliberate about the answer. Always think before speaking. This was my introduction to Henry Van Weeren and the Dutch club. Good people. Once they knew us they started playing in tournaments regularly. They loved tournament chess - the whole atmosphere of rules and quiet thinking. The best of them was Bill Van der Velde about 2000 at his best. He was Jay Zendrowski's professor at Fanshawe College.
The reason I mention all this was Henry Van Weeren was the first clock tinkerer I knew in London. I wish Id gotten to know him alot sooner.

[Hans Jung]

Summer of 1974 was great anticipation for me. The previous summer the Canadian Open happened in Ottawa. Ted Durrant went and did very well and finally achieved a masters rating (which was hard to do in those years.) Ray Ebisuzaki was my age and did well, in fact it was his coming out tournament. Of course he came back and told me all about it and I was envious. Ray and his brother Wesley (two years older but more importantly in those days two hundred points less in rating) lived in a gorgeous Victorian home with their front lawn the lush never ending grounds of Kings College. Actually it was just across the street but perfect for frisbee, tennis, and touch football. That was my introduction to Kings College and I fell in love with the grounds and the various rooms of King College and spent quite a bit of time there over the next twenty years. Anyways, I saved my shekels and in 1974 the trip to Montreal was much better organised and three car loads of players went down. (I cant remember all of the names now, I think there were twelve players all told.)