]Chess Chat - Australia's Premier Chess Forum - View Single Post - Australia's greatest chess players[/url]


Hi Santa,

I think that I agree with you. C.J.S.Purdy was my hero when I was young and I even got to play him once!

On the question of who taught Rogers etc their chess (you could add Solo to this list), perhaps we can use our chess powers of deduction to work it out.

The first question is did anyone "teach" them as in those days I don't think they had chess coaches like everyone has today. They may have taught themselves, just as I did. No-one ever coached me. I learnt from chess books and playing chess.

If they did have a coach/mentor then he must have been a Victorian as they all lived in Melbourne. I guess he must have also been a strong player. Who were the leading players in Melbourne at that time? Hamilton, Ozols, Hanks and Woodhams spring to mind. I don't remember any of them doing any coaching though.

You said that 4 of these players went to Waverley Chess Club. Perhaps then someone who was running the Waverley CC at the time could help us?

What we need is some old guy who was around at the time to advise us.
Perhaps one of the Canterbury CC guys will read this and let us know.

Hope my comments have been of interest.

Regards,
Jammo