Hyde Park Chess

A CCLA (Correspondence Chess League of Australia) meeting meant a lightning visit to Sydney today. The venue for the meeting wasn't far from Hyde Park, so I paid a quick visit to the giant chess board located outside the entrance to St James Station. I first visited this Sydney chess icon way back in 1983 and it seems nothing has changed. The usual collection of elderly gentlemen, either playing, or more usually, offering "helpful" advice. A number of games being played on the tables or benches surrounding the large board. And a number of curious onlookers taking photos or trying to work out why these people were here.
In fact my first visit to the Hyde Park chess board was also my first encounter with an IM, although I didn't realise it straight away. Having hung around for a while watching the games, I was invited to play a game on a spare board (not the big pieces) by someone looking for an opponent. We played a few games when a noticed that we had attracted an interested spectator. Attempting to explain my poor play I said "I'm just learning the game", to which he replied "That's OK, I'm just learning too". A few days later I was observing the 1982-83 Australian Open when the same "learning" spectator turned up. As he was being greeted warmly by a number of the tournament top seeds I began to wonder who it was. I must have asked one of the officials who replied "Oh, that's International Master Terry Shaw".
Having met Terry on a number of occasions following that first meeting it was clear that his comments to me were a combination of his sense of humor, as well as his natural modesty.