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Chessville
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Death of a Prodigy
British chessplayer Krishna Parmer was amongst those who identified Jessie's body after the fall. She spoke to English chess fan in London Jim Rajah who conveyed the sad news to The Times, which first broke the astounding news to an astonished chess world. Mr Rajah said that the police were still investigating the reasons for the fall and had as yet come to no firm conclusion. Miss Gilbert had been performing reasonably well in the strong tournament with four draws and a win with no losses after five games. This story, tragic as it was prima facie, was to go on to become a front page sensation in the British press. In the aftermath of the tragedy English Chess Federation officials were by and large either unavailable or refused to comment. ECF President Gerry Walsh declined any discussion on the matter, and Claire Summerscale the ECF Director of Women's chess refused point blank to make any comment at all about the incident, apart from the sole meaningful remark "I think it unlikely that Jessie has committed suicide." Meanwhile the English Chess Federation office in the small town of Battle, near Hastings, would not even confirm Jessie's date of birth. Her family would only communicate via their legal representatives. At this point I began to smell a rat. On the surface, Jessie had everything to live for, having reached unusual heights in international chess competition, was popular with her colleagues on the English Women's Olympiad team, and was due to go up to Oxford University this year to continue her studies in medicine. In 1999 Jessie first hit the headlines at the age of 11: 11-year-old Jessie Gilbert, from Croydon, by winning the Women’s World Amateur Championship at Hastings at the start of that year became the youngest person to win a senior world championship in any competitive arena. Against opposition from 13 countries, she acquired the Women’s World Chess Federation Master title and an automatic rating of 2050 - both age records for a British female chess player. To recognise her achievement the Brain Trust Charity, in concert with the Swedish health care and education giant Bure, awarded Jessie a £4,000 chess scholarship to America, where she studied with Edmar Mednis, the New York grandmaster, for a week. As a board member of the brain trust charity, which was founded by Tony Buzan, the inventor of mind maps, I was the one to recommend the award for Jessie and also to select Edmar Mednis as her trainer. I thought it important to have a good communicator as the teacher, and also a family man with daughters of his own. JESSIE HERSELF SAID:
Ironically, FIDE confirmed Jessie's WIM title posthumously. Jessie continued:
The authoritative British Chess Magazine provided the following epitaph:
Stewart Reuben, a senior official from the British Chess Federation (which later metamorphosed into the English Chess Federation) was shocked into speechlessness when confronted with the news. He said he had been on very friendly terms with Jessie and regarded her as a level-headed person. What nobody knew at the time was that Jessie's father had undergone a particularly messy divorce from her mother - one of the items of contention being alleged sexual abuse of Jessie by her father! This sensational news was soon splashed all over the front page of the Daily Mail, who had picked up the story from my initial report in The Times. It appears that Jessie faced the virtually unimaginable prospect of having to give evidence in court against her own father. No wonder she was under such terrible, suicidal strain, for suicide now appears to be the most likely answer, and the one that fits all the facts. Although widely reported as the benefactors, the British Chess Federation-in fact- had nothing to do with the £4k award to Jessie - I organised it - as noted above - through the brain trust charity - of which I was a trustee - as a result of her winning the title she acquired. Edmar Mednis was a highly respected trainer and the fact that Jessie ended up in the UK Women's team vindicated the amount invested in her. The point was also to give her some life experience, foreign travel, intense work with a GM - and I recall it was for much longer than one week--as a result of the award Jessie also got to visit Parliament to accept the award and to meet Garry Kasparov. Money well spent in my view - and since it was in my gift I don't regret a penny of it! Jessie was born on January 30, 1987 and fell to her death on July 26 , 2006. Since she was 12, Jessie had represented England every year at World or European Girls' Championships. In 2001 she won the bronze medal in the European Girls' Under 14 Championship. In 2006 she was a member of the English team at the Turin Olympiad. What really upsets me is to see this talented and happy young girl with her life ahead of her - with the chess pieces in front of her obviously enjoying life - and then to think of the dark passions which contributed to snatching her life away so young. I feel really sorry for her and I lament the terrible waste and the love of life she must have had. I remember her eager little face when I gave her the award seven years ago - no one should have been allowed to take that away so prematurely. Here are two games illustrating Jessie's tactical prowess: Gilbert,J (2144) - Rantanen,T (2123)
Gilbert,J (2151) - Nagy,L (1933)
Many cultures have their own preferred board game, which can trace its origins back to either chataranga or one of its very early offshoots. In essence, what becomes ‘the variant’ or what remains the mainstream game over the course of time is highly subjective and varies from culture to culture. Given that this is the case, there is no harm in at least asking the question: “Is the current configuration of the chessboard the one that results in the most satisfying game?” This must have been on the mind of the
great José Capablanca. With his astonishing tournament record you have to wonder: "Why
would he want to change the game?" He foresaw that draws among
the chess elite would become very commonplace...Read
More! Visit the Gothic Chess Federation
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