Our erstwhile London League 1st team Captain, Larry Marden, sadly passed away two weeks ago. His funeral and celebration of his life will be held at the City of London Cemetery on Wednesday 6 August at 2pm. His wife, Caroline, has extended an open invitation and supplied full details, which are attached (link below).
If you are planning to attend the 3pm gathering at the cemetery tea room can you please let me know on or before Tuesday 29 July so we can give Caroline an indication of numbers of Larry’s attending chess friends. Use the Contact Form and select ‘Tournament Secretary’ or ‘Fixtures Secretary’ from the dropdown (Officer to contact).
The 2019-2020 season was in full swing when Larry suffered a series of strokes over the Christmas/New Year break. At that time he was joint leader in the Club Championship after four rounds, having held Steve Rix, his last over-the-board opponent, to a draw. Larry had also taken his London League team into a strong position in Division 2, with three wins out of four before he was forced to step aside. Larry was the Club’s longest continuously serving captain of the same team, having been appointed by the Committee to the London League 1st team captaincy on 10 October 1989 and therefore in his 31st season, 2019-20. He also served on the London League Committee as a player’s representative. In his Junior days he was Essex Junior Champion 1970-71.
With his extensive chess knowledge and a tactical, often attacking game, he was a long standing top order club player, a mainstay of every first team for the Club, and from time to time taking board 1. A regular at the annual Hastings match away day and in our National Club exploits. 2009-10 Club Champion (shared and surprisingly just the once), five times Blitz Champion, four times Lightning Champion and Rapid Champion once.
He was an almost ever-present first and second team player for Essex and part of many championship winning teams.
Notwithstanding his physical limitations since his illness, he spent his final years in a series of online correspondence games with Philip, maintaining his tactical flare.
Larry described chess as an addiction. There are very few members of longer standing and none as addicted.
We have already missed his presence of course with his quirky anecdotes, chessboard pumps, and insightful analysis. We now say our farewell.
Mark Murrell
Sorry to hear of the death of Mr Marden. I didn’t know him personally apart from playing him once in a county match , however he always seemed to be a very decent chap whenever he played against either Middlesex or when I captained Athenaeum in
the national club championships.
Condolences to his family and friends.