Happy Birthday Lawrence

[Hans Jung]

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=16101 Lawrence Day, Chessplayer of the Day on chessgames. Happy Birthday Lawrence, just talking about you on chesstalk and enjoying your games. (will always enjoy your best games)

[Hans Jung]

I was just enjoying the game Zoltan Sarosy - Lawrence Day on chessgames where Zoltan won. It was so long ago that even Zoltan was a relatively young man. and there were some nice moments in the game too.

[Hans Jung]

and there is the humorous quote (chuckle, chuckle) on chessgames: I used to play chess with him, and I would have won sometimes, except he would always take his move back and play the game out differently. - Mark Twain

[Brad Thomson]

Happy Birthday Lawrence!! Keep creating.

[Ian Findlay]

Many happy returns Lawrence!

[Sid Belzberg]

Happy Birthday Lawrence, enjoyed our time together at the 2006 Turin Olympiad!

[Hans Jung]

Lawrence responded on facebook. Im paraphrasing but basically Thanks for the well wishes guys. (and in response to a request to play in a Annex club event) If Toronto were a chessboard I live on the square A8 so its hard for me to get to and from, also I'd like to be home by dark.

[Hans Jung]

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1495700 After showing one of Lawrence's losses I have to show one of his wins. And this is one not so well known. There is plenty of strategy, and tactical points and then lovely points in the endgame.

[Brad Thomson]

Looks like a Lawrence game.

[Fred Henderson]

I recall en epic trashtalk battle on the old chesstalk board, between Mr Day and some 20-something Russian, who was at best a low level National Master, but an awesome speed chess player. There was a challenge, maybe a bet, then an afternoon blitz marathon between the two at Dutton Chess on Bayview, witnessed by only Mr Dutton, who wandered back and forth, myself, and one other gentleman who breathed with an oxygen bottle. Anyways, it was an awesome match, applause broke out afew times, but Mr Day got his butt kicked, quite soundly as I recall. I suspect he got more than he bargained for. Anyways, he looked a little shell shocked after the match, but handled his loss with humor and grace, I'm sure. :)

Happy Birthday, Lawrence. You must be the same age as Bob Dylan, who is on tour this year

Keep on rockin'


edit: Or maybe it was Vlad and the BGC. Easy for me to remember what happened, not easy to say when things happen. I kind of lost track of the years. LOL

[Frank Dixon]

Many Happy Returns to IM Lawrence Day, 74 years young!!!

Lawrence has some interesting Kingston connections. In the 1966 Canadian Open in Kingston (which had four GMs -- William Lombardy, Borislav Ivkov, Pal Benko, and champion Larry Evans; and a then-record 116 players; organized by Dr. Jim Cairns and Dr. George Danilov; directed by Kalev Pugi, later to become CFC President), Lawrence, then 17, was top junior, and in the era before the Canadian Junior Championship was started, that entitled him to a place in the World Junior Championship the next year, in Jerusalem. That was his first big international event, and Lawrence scored in the middle of the pack. It had a surprise winner in IM Julio Kaplan of Puerto Rico, as all the Europeans trailed. The Soviets boycotted due to the 1967 Israeli -- Arab war, won by Israel.

Lawrence played in the 1992 Canadian Zonal in Kingston, which I organized and served as deputy arbiter (Head Arbiter IA Alex Knox), and he placed in the middle of the field; the tournament was won by future GM Alexandre Lesiege, who tied the record of GM Yanofsky by winning at age 16. GM Spraggett and IM Hartman tied for second.

Lawrence played two Kingston simuls which I took part in: 1979 and 1999; I was fortunate to draw both, in interesting games. There may be others.

Along the way, Lawrence played 13 times for Canada's Men's teams in Olympiads, and this is a record, probably forever. My favorite game of all those is his win over GM Mestel of England with Black in 25 moves, Lucerne 1982, and Canada won that match!! It was a Pterodactyl, important to theory. GM Mestel was perplexed and then crushed. One game I still enjoy playing through is Lawrence's win over GM Prins of Netherlands, Lugano 1968, with quite a King hunt!! He beat GM Lalic (2580) at Moscow 1994 with his favorite Closed Sicilian.

[Gordon Taylor]

Lawrence's win over Prins with the black pieces from the Lugano Olympiad is the last game presented in W. H. Cozens book "The King Hunt" (Bell, 1970). Curiously however, Cozens lists the black player as "Laurence". This error was well known during the years I lived in Toronto, I had a copy of the book, so I had *Lawrence* autograph his victory. Ah, cherished memories!

[Hans Jung]

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1037399 Here is the Prins- Lawrence game.

[Hans Jung]

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1037617 Here is the Mestel - Day game from Lucerne Olympiad 1982

Note the Q on b7 and the K on f8. (grin)

[Hans Jung]

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1358812 and here is Howell - Day 2005. GM Raymond Keene included both of the last two games in a recent British Chess Magazine article.

Note Lawrence's fine timing on defence.