Monday 7 June 2010

Bill Hook

I was somewhat shocked to open the latest issue of "Chess" and read that Bill Hook had passed away last month (10 May 2010). Bill Hook had represented the British Virgin Islands at almost every Olympiad since 1968, playing 229 games for his country.
I played Bill in his final Olympiad (Dresden 2008), winning the game, although this result annoyed my team mate Rupert Jones who considered Bill one of his chess heroes. Bill's best result at the Olympiad would have been in Malta 1980, where he won the Gold Medal for the best percentage on Board 1. The Birtish Virgin Islands even released a stamp to commemorate the feat.
Bill played plenty of strong players at the Olympiad, garnering the scalps of a number of titled opponents. He even got to play Bobby Fischer in the 1970 Olympiad, although Fischer collected the point with a brilliant win.

Fischer,Robert James - Hook,William [C18]
Siegen ol (Men) Siegen (5), 1970

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Qa5 7.Bd2 Qa4 8.Qg4 Kf8 9.Qd1 b6 10.h4 Ne7 11.h5 h6 12.Rh4 Ba6 13.Bxa6 Nxa6 14.Rf4 Qd7 15.Qf3 Nc6 16.Nh3 Rc8 17.g4 Qe8 18.g5 Ne7 19.gxh6 gxh6 20.Rf6 Nf5 21.Nf4 Ke7 (D)
22.Nxd5+ Kd8 23.Ne3 Nxe3 24.Bxe3 Rc7 25.dxc5 Nxc5 26.Rd1+ Ke7 27.Bxc5+ bxc5 28.Rxe6+ 1-0

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