Paddy Connell

Paddy Connell, one of the great characters of the Canberra chess scene in the 1990's passed away early last week. Although he hadn't been involved in chess for the past decade (having found religion), he was still fondly remembered by those who knew him.
As a player he was a fan of the off-beat opening, and even once played the Irish Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nxe5??!) against me. His approach to analysis was simply to let the opponent do it for him ie he would play the move that struck his fancy, and leave it up to the opponent to prove whether it was sound or unsound.
Patrick (as he was christened) was also a hard working chess organiser, running Street Chess every Saturday in Canberra for nearly a decade. It was here he showed a passing familiarity with the english language when he introduced a rule which read 'non-aspersive adversarial banter is permitted between consenting equals' (which should simply read 'sledging is allowed').
For those in Canberra who wish to attend the funeral service it is at 10:00 am Monday 16th November at William Cole Funerals, Belconnen.

Connell,Patrick - Green,Robert [D11]
ACT-ch Canberra, 1993

1.Nf3 c6 2.d4 d5 3.c4 Bg4 4.Ne5 Bh5 5.g4 Bg6 6.Nxg6 fxg6 7.Nc3 e6 8.Bf4 Nd7 9.Bh3 g5 10.Bg3 Ngf6 11.c5 Be7 12.0-0 0-0 13.f4 gxf4 14.Bxf4 Nxc5 15.dxc5 Bxc5+ 16.e3 d4 17.Na4 Be7 18.g5 Ne8 19.Bxe6+ Kh8 20.Qh5 Bd6 21.g6 Nf6 22.Qh3 Bxf4 23.Rxf4 h6 24.Rh4 Qe7 25.Rf1 Rae8 (D)
26.Rxf6 1-0