Michael J Dymond (Mike) / (20 Nov 1940 to 18 June 2022)
This obituary notice contains:
- A very considered and personal narrative by Michael March, a very close friend of Mike Dymond.
- A collection of Mike Dymond’s Chess games throughout his long career, hopefully showing his extraordinary talent for the game – compiled by Arthur F Brameld (with much assistance from the books of Roger L Paige).
- Together with a small number of photographs of M J Dymond
In Memoriam Mike Dymond – a personal tribute – Mike March
My good friend, the late Michael J Dymond – ‘Mike’ to his friends, who sadly passed away on the third weekend of June aged 81, was a fine chess player. He won the Hampshire Individual Championship on at least one occasion (Note 1) and scored well in the Open tournaments of his day.
Yet, he was far removed from what many would imagine a chess player to be like. Away from the chessboard he was something of a larger-than-life character: a hugely talented painter and photographer, who not only rubbed shoulders with celebrities that became household names, but through his camera skills often helped further their careers including that of his own wife Nikki who, with the help of Mike’s publicity shots, went on the become Scorpio in the popular 1990s television show Gladiators.
But there was another restless even reckless side to Mike’s character that courted excitement and danger. He made his way through three fortunes in his lifetime, he told me, would sometimes settle differences using his fists and numbered amongst his South London friends the ex-Great Train robber, Gordon Goody
When he died, Mike was found in his South London flat by his son Sam. He had been reading Practical Chess Endings, a library book, which Sam found wryly amusing as in life, he said, his Dad had been anything but practical. I think Mike would have appreciated the irony too. I have my own chess book story about Mike. As a 75th birthday present, I bought him Vladimir Tukmakov’s Risk and Bluff in Chess. When he showed it to Nikki, he told me later. she said ‘Risk and Bluff? Mike, that’s the story of your life.!’ And indeed she was probably right.
I first met Mike when I joined Portsmouth Chess Club as a fresh faced 14-year-old schooboy. He was an art college student in Portsmouth, a few years older than me and one of the club’s top players. From the outset he was welcoming and encouraging, and he took an interest in helping me to improve by playing matches against me. He was different to some of the older, more conservative and, as it struck me then, somewhat stuffy members of the club. In addition, Mike and another club member about his age, Gordon Comben, became the driving force behind forming a team of younger players from the Portsmouth area including themselves, Arthur Brameld, Peter Collins, Roger Paige, John Jones. the late Clive Campion and myself who, competing under the name Young Pompeians (whoever dreamed that one up, I don’t recall! (Note 2)), won the Hampshire League Championship at the first attempt and repeated the success the following season.
Mike often said he regretted spending so much time on chess and should have devoted more time to developing his talents as a painter. But there’s no doubt he deeply loved the game even if he did regard it as something of an addiction, which is perhaps why he didn’t encourage his son Sam to take it up. Yet you might say he translated his artistry and creative talent into the way he played chess. And he did so right ‘til the end. The last game he ever played (using the ‘handle’ cadmiumorange against Athena2020 – see games list) was on the internet on 17 June 2022, the weekend he died. He won that game, but it is a typical helter-skelter affair, which could have gone either way, full of bold, brilliant ideas and imagination that have characterised his play throughout his chess-playing career. It was played at a rate of 15 minutes per player plus a 10 second per move increment. Show it to a chess player and they’d never believe it was played by an octogenarian.
The last time I saw Mike was at the end of May in London when he invited my wife and me to the Walter Sickert exhibition at the Tate Gallery, where he was a member. We were planning another visit with him a little later and he was keen to invite us to his new flat and show us his latest paintings. Sadly, neither of those things were to be.
Goodbye Mike, painter, photographer, chess player – all round minor genius – and good friend. It has been a pleasure and privilege to know you. But I don’t want to get too solemn. Mike wouldn’t want that. When he thought a conversation was getting too serious and he wanted to lighten things up, he’d often say, ‘But hey, hey, rock ‘n roll!’ So I’ll finish on that note.
Small selection of photographs of Mike
Games
A collection of Mike Dymond’s Chess games throughout his long career, hopefully showing his extraordinary talent for the game – compiled by Arthur F Brameld (with much assistance from the books of Roger L Paige). These are supplied in a link where the games can be played online or downloaded.
Notes
- Michael J Dymond won the Hampshire Individual Championship in 1966 – HCA Archivist. An article on this tournament is now available.
- That might have been me, Mike. The name was later changed to S.T.O.I.C.S which stood for Student Teachers and Other Intellectual Chess Sect – for which I take no credit whatsoever!! – Arthur F Brameld
Acknowledgements and sources:
- Photographs supplied and reproduced by kind permission of Sam Dymond, Mike’s son.
- Michael March for Obituary
- Arthur F Brameld for games (Roger Paige Chess Books as well)
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