John 'Jack' Monteith Taylor
July 11, 1907 - September 9, 1974

Photo courtesy Pansy-Paws

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, the Taylor family immigrated to Canada when Jack was fourteen, arriving at Quebec aboard the S.S. Cassandra on July 1, 1922.  They first lived in Regina, Saskatchewan, but settled permanently in Vancouver a few years later.  After completing a Freight Traffic Management night course from the University of British Columbia Jack worked as a traffic manager, initially for the David Spencer Department Store (bought by Eatons in 1948), later for Forsts Ltd.

Taylor did not learn to play chess until he came to Vancouver, but progressed so rapidly that only five years later, in 1929, he won the B.C. Championship:

"The victory of Mr. J.M. Taylor by 5-0 proclaims the appearance of a new star in the British Columbia chess firmament.  The new champion is a British Columbia University man, twenty-one years of age, and is evidently modest and unassuming, for he asks for explanatory notes to the game and helpful information.  His opening is scholarly with considerable combinative power in the middle game, is our verdict."  [Thomas Piper, Daily Colonist, 14 April 1929]

"Mr. J.M. Taylor gave us the pleasure of his company for a few days.  The new champion is well versed in the learning of chess, plays over the classical examples from memory, and has a sound position judgment with combinative powers of a high order.  He is a most pleasant opponent, courteous and unassuming in manner, and is a valuable acquisition to British Columbia in general and Vancouver in particular."  [Thomas Piper, Daily Colonist, 4 August 1929]

Taylor repeated as B.C. Champion in 1930, 1938, and 1945, and tied for first in 1953; he was also Vancouver Champion on numerous occasions.

Jack never made much of a mark nationally, always finishing in the lower half of the Canadian Championships he played in (Saskatoon 1945, Vancouver 1951, Winnipeg 1953, Vancouver 1957).

1945 Canadian Chess Championship Participants
Photo courtesy Pansy-Paws

1951 Canadian Chess Championship Participants
Photo courtesy Pansy-Paws

However, he did win a number of miniatures in these competitions due to his sharp eye for tactics; he won games in 12 and 10 moves respectively in the 1945 and 1953 competitions.

In addition to a large collection of books covering the game of chess, Jack compiled an extensive scrap book of his competitions, interesting newspapers clippings, and stories related to B.C. chess in the 1950's.

Jack's grandson, Lyle McClelland,  recounts the following anecdotes:

In the 1970’s, Jack’s interest in chess was renewed, jointly attributed to one of his grandsons taking an interest in chess [yes, that would be me], and the highly publicized 1972 match between Fischer and Spassky, which he followed with great interest including collecting newspaper clippings of the games.

Jack would play postal chess with his grandson, and enjoyed the occasional ‘over-the-board’ game when his grandson visited (usually spotting him a few pieces to make things interesting).  He also used the Fischer-Spassky games to coach his grandson on chess strategy.  Jack first experienced postal chess in 1955 and stated that he found it surprisingly interesting.

Even into his mid-60’s, Jack was active and successful at the tournament level.  His scrapbook lists three tournaments that he participated in during 1973 (the year he turned 66 years of age) - Louis Riel Open, Jan 27/28 (finishing first in the B section); Dominion Day Open Jun 30-Jul 2 in Vancouver (tied for first in the A section); and the B.C. Open Championship Oct 6-8 (finishing in the middle of the pack).

Stephen Wright adds the following note: "Correspondence chess: first organized by the Province newspaper in 1948, for twenty years the B.C. Correspondence Chess Association ran an annual provincial championship in several stages.  Taylor joined the competition in 1955 (there were usually 70+ entrants per year) but didn't manage to win the championship."

And at (almost) the last, we provide the briefest of obituaries from the Canadian Chess Federation Bulletin:

"We note with regret the passing of Jack Taylor.  Jack loved chess and played a very good game.  In 1929, Jack won the B.C. Championship. In his last tournament, Jack came second in the 'A' Section of the B.C. Class Championships in April.  However Jack will be remembered most for his candour and cheerfulness; whenever you wanted to see somebody enjoying himself, all you had to do was go and watch Jack Taylor, the man with the smile."  [CFC Bulletin, January/February 1975]

Taylor was a very popular player, and was instrumental in the development of the City Chess Club in Vancouver.  Jack Taylor was Vancouver city champion a number of times and also played in international matches.

There was a series of large matches between BC and WA 1944-1963 Taylor frequently took part in; at the bottom of that page there are some intercity matches he also participated in.

The Victoria Chess Club has, since 1985, held a Jack Taylor Memorial Chess Tournament.  25th Annual Jack Taylor Memorial will be held in November, 2010.

Click here to download a zipped PGN file containing 90 of Taylor's games.

From that collection, provided by Stephen Wright, a few of Jack's more interesting games:

The following game received the prize for Shortest Game at the 1953 Canadian Championship:
 

Information in this vignette was harvested from the BCCF Bulletin, produced by Stephen Wright, and his British Columbia Chess History website [Sources: Death registration; Lyle McClelland (Focus on Chess); Daily Colonist: 14 April 1929, 10; 4 August 1929, 16], supplemented by other online sources, most importantly the family history (along with high-resolution images graciously shared by Lyle McClelland) found at Pansy-Paws.

Also from Mr. McClelland we offer this image of a newspaper clipping recounting Jack's exploits in a simultaneous exhibition given at the Kerrisdale Chess Club, circa 1953:

About this simul, Stephen Wright adds: "Kerrisdale simul: the exact date was 3 March 1954 and the newspaper headline is disingenuous: as noted in the second paragraph, Taylor only played 19, scoring 15 wins and 4 draws.  This from the report in the Vancouver Province chess column of 13 March, 1954.  The Kerrisdale chess club met at the Kerrisdale lawn bowling clubhouse on Elm street, which happens to be about 100 yards south of where I live!"

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