Following an ECF forum post on the 1968 (16th) Churchill Memorial, Bognor Regis on the ECF Forum James Pratt has supplied an obituary on David Browning, who played for Gosport Chess Club in the Portsmouth Chess League. David is the player standing 5th from the left in the photograph above of Gosport Chess Club.
There was some additional details on David on the mentioned ECF Forum post, if anyone has anything they wish to add to this post, please do let me know.
In Memoriam: David Browning 1st Dec 1951 – 13th Feb 1998 – James Pratt
David Browning was born in 1951 and played his first good chess at Hilsea College, where he was a pupil. He lived with his parents in Oakley near Basingstoke, where he joined the Basingstoke club which at the time, was at the Conservative Club in Bounty Road. he was soon to make headlines winning the Club Championship, the Silver Rook, with a record 8/9, aged sixteen. Ken Wyld’s minutes for the club record: “A very fine performance’.
He repeated this success the following year winning wining his qualification section with 5/5, then beating the challenger DJ Harrison 2-0. The winner moved quietly up the county batting order from 24 to board 9.
At the Churchill Memorial at Bognor in 1969, David comfortably scored 50%.
Following a family move to Marine Court in Gosport, David became a student in Business Studies at Enfield Polytechnic and in 1974 emigrated to Guernsey, where he met and married his future wife. They had three children.
DK Browning played at Haifa ’76 – see below – scoring +7, =2. -3 all on top board. As a senior Guernsey civil student, an HR specialist, and devoted family man, his thought were understandably taken away from the 64 squares, although his wife was pleased to recall that he always had a set at hand “fiddling around with the pieces”
He continued to play in the Inter-Island Championship but never played again in an Olympiad. They must have badgered him every time! He was to win the Island Championship with impressive regularity. 1
David contracted cancer in 1988. My Friend Peter Wilson, former president of the Commonwealth Chess Association, to whom I am indebted to help with this article, was one of the last to see him in hospital.
A trophy was later pledged in his memory, his wife. Yvonne, still lives on the Island. His parents retired to Worcestershire.
Games
Three games from the Hampshire Junior Championship, which were originally sourced from the Portsmouth News. Light comments by James Pratt.
A fine with against chess legend Bob Wade from the Southend Open in 1970.
A loss by David in the annual match against Jersey. His opponent was Roland Blow who played in the British Chess Championship in 1937 and 1947.
An exciting Goring Gambit played at the Olympiad against Bermuda.
Acknowledgements and sources:
- James Pratt
- ECF Forum
- Britbase
- Chess
- BCM