In memory of Bob Wade

Few players earn enough respect to have a memorial tournament named in their honour. Some world champions, official and unofficial, have achieved this distinction—Staunton, Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe, Botvinnik—but only a handful of non-champions have registered on this particular seismic scale. Robert (“Bob”) Wade, who died in 2008 aged 87, has now joined that select company. A memorial tournament was held last month in his honour in his native New Zealand. It was won by the British grandmaster Michael Adams.

Bob Wade Master Tournament (2026) – Cross-table

Although I knew him well from an early age, I found the two-decades-old obituary of Bob from the Guardian most useful in reconstructing his key biographical details. Thus, I learned that Wade had played a pivotal role in the most famous of all world chess title contests, at Reykjavik in 1972. Long before the match, Bobby Fischer secretly hired Wade, who had won the British Championship twice, to compile a complete file of the games of Boris Spassky, his future opponent.

But Wade was also the chess consultant and editor at Batsford, then the leading chess publisher, and he co-authored The Games of Robert J Fischer, a definitive collection including previously unpublished games, which appeared before the match. In this predigital era, the book handed Spassky an invaluable addition to his preparation on a plate. Fischer was not pleased—his lawyer said his client felt “ambivalent”—but, characteristically pragmatic, the American challenger relied upon Wade’s covert preparation to good effect in his own lucubrations before this celebrated match against Spassky.

Wade was also the most influential chess mentor of the golden generation of English talent that emerged in the 1970s and began to rival the dominance of the USSR. He had travelled widely in eastern Europe during his playing youth and absorbed the dynamic approach favoured by Soviet coaches. When the financier Jim Slater, who had saved the Reykjavik match from collapse by doubling the prize fund, offered backing to train the five best English hopefuls, Wade oversaw their progress. All five became grandmasters and formed the core of England’s teams in the 1980s, when England three times won the silver medals in the chess Olympiads of 1984, 1986 and 1988, culminating in Nigel Short’s world title challenge in 1993. For this match I jointly raised the financial backing from The Times, in collaboration with our Editor at The Article, Daniel Johnson.

Robert Graham Wade was born in Dunedin, New Zealand. His interest in chess developed late, and he was still unknown when, as New Zealand champion, he finished second at Sydney in the Australian Championship in 1945. He then decided to play in Europe. His debut international tournament, Barcelona 1946, was a disaster: nine defeats in his first ten games. But he persevered. He was attractive to organisers because he represented a different continent, and he accumulated experience on a vast scale. By 1950 he was holding his own in high-class events and was awarded the international master title.

By 1951 he was also the Anzac delegate to FIDÉ, the world chess federation, and attended the world title match between Mikhail Botvinnik and David Bronstein held in Moscow that year. That visit brought another painful lesson: a simultaneous exhibition against 30 young Muscovites in which he scored twenty defeats and ten draws. Yet he also gained insight into Soviet chess education, which he later applied in London schools and in his adult classes at Morley College.

Wade’s aggressive style over the board exposed him to many defeats, but his fearlessness also earned him an impressive haul of distinguished victims. Among those he defeated were Hartston, Speelman, Barden, Penrose and myself in England. Abroad he won games against many grandmasters including Lothar Schmid, Wolfgang Uhlmann, Fridrik Olafsson, Gyula Sax, Lajos Portisch, Pal Benko and even the formidable Viktor Korchnoi—the last six all having been Candidates for the World Championship.

Wade first got to know Fischer in 1960 and drew with him at Havana in 1965. Fischer liked him and, in 1970, asked for help preparing for the Candidates matches of the following year. Wade supplied detailed game dossiers on Mark Taimanov, Bent Larsen and Tigran Petrosian, all of whom Fischer famously demolished. Those victories cleared the path to the 1972 title match with Spassky. Wade was proud that, in 1992, a leading magazine editor arrived at a match hoping to interview Fischer with 1,400 Spassky games on disk, unaware that Wade had already provided over 2,000.

At Batsford, Wade launched a range of specialist opening books aimed at both experts and amateurs. This was innovative at a time when it was assumed that only general surveys of all openings would sell. He also recruited young English masters as authors, raising their standing to the point where, in the 1980s, they were feared worldwide for their depth of preparation. His own writing included a seminal study of Soviet chess and an early biography of Garry Kasparov. He was appointed OBE in 1979.

In later years Wade continued to work in new fields. He helped establish the TWIC (The Week in Chess) database and website under the pioneering Mark Crowther, the then leading source of online chess news; acted as an arbiter at the Kasparov v Nigel Short world title match in 1993 and at the annual Oxford v Cambridge contests; and continued to encourage young talent. He assisted many future grandmasters, from Jonathan Speelman to David Howell, and his sharp wit, kindness and generosity made him probably the most liked figure in English chess.

Robert Graham Wade, chess master, was born on April 10, 1921, and died on November 29, 2008.

Our first game, from the Bob Wade Memorial, features a player who was a junior who would surf the wave of English talent which emerged under Wade’s stewardship, and having peaked as the world’s number #4 more than 25 years ago, can still today claim a place in the world’s top 100.

The second game showcases Wade at his most deadly. Bob was always a direct player whose play invited a decisive result more often than not. In this game, we witness his ferocious conclusion against the strong Hungarian/American Grandmaster, Pal Benko.

Michael Adams vs. Tom Middelburg

Bob Wade Masters, Auckland, 2026, round 2

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. h4 h6 5. Bd3 Bxd3 6. Qxd3 e6 7. Ne2 Qa5+ 8. c3 Qa6 9. Qd1

Adams varies from 9. Qxa6, which led to a draw in Adams-Li, Cambridge, 2025.

9… c5 10. Nd2 TN

A new move by Adams which prioritises strong-pointing the d4-square and deviates from a premature 10. O-O, played in Guigonis-Anic, Meribel, 1998. Adams has a different plan for his king’s rook and his king safety.

10… cxd4 11. cxd4 Ne7 12. Rh3 Nec6 13. Nf3 Nd7 14. Kf1 Be7 15. Kg1 O-O-O 16. Bd2 Kb8 17. h5 Rhe8 18. a4 f6 19. Nf4 Bf8 20. Ng6 fxe5 21. dxe5 Bc5 22. Rh4!

Adams takes full advantage of Black’s previous inaccuracy, where he should have preferred 21… Qd3 or …Qb6 over the weak 12… Bc5?. White is building a commanding position.

22… Qd3 23. b4 Bb6 24. Rb1?

Stronger continuations were available, for example, 24. Ne1 Qg3 25. Rf4 Ncxe5 26. a5 Nxg6 27. axb6 Qxf4 28. Bxf4+ Nxf4 29. Kh2, when Black has no time to push his central pawns as his king’s position is perilously vulnerable.

24… Qf5 25. a5!

White drives home the attack, much encouraged by Black’s rather dubious 24… Qf5, when instead 24… Nf8 25. Nf4 Qh7 26. b5 Na5 27. Bb4 Qf5 28. Qd3 Qe4 29. Rg4 Rd7 30. Bd6+ Bc7 31. Qxe4 dxe4, would have given some chance of salvage further down the line. Black now completely collapses and it is instructive to watch how White prosecutes his attack and almost effortlessly destroys black’s defences in a smooth style that is his own hallmark.

25… Bc7 26. b5 Nxa5 27. b6 axb6 28. Bxa5 bxa5 29. Nd4 Qf7 30. Rf4 Qg8 31. Nc6+ Ka8

31… Kc8 fares no better due to White’s forking threats on the e7-square.

32. Qa4 Nc5 33. Qb5 b6 34. Nxa5 Rd7 35. Ra4 Bd8 36. Qxc5 bxc5 37. Nc6+ Ra7 38. Rxa7 checkmate 1-0

Robert Wade vs. Pal Benko

Buenos Aires International, 1960, round 15

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 e5 6. Nge2 c6 7. Be3 Nbd7 8. d5 Nb6 9. Nc1 cxd5 10. cxd5 O-O 11. Qd2 Nh5 12. Bg5!? TN

Improving on 12. Nb3 [Lombardy-Uhlmann, Munich Oly., 1958]. However, modern analysis suggests that it is best to eject the misplaced knight on b6 starting with 12. a4!

12… f6 13. Bh4

Preferable is the retreat 13. Be3 with the intention of the follow-up a2-a4!

13… Bd7 14. Nd3 Nc4 15. Qc1 Qc7?!

More coherent is 15… Rc8. This move misplaces the queen which belongs on the kingside.

16. g4 Nf4 17. Nxf4 exf4 18. Bxc4 Qxc4 19. Ne2?!

More flexible is freeing up the c1-square for the rook, with 19. Qd2.

19… Qa6 20. Qd2 f5?

White has the advantage after this premature advance. Black was best advised to prepare first with, 20… Rae8 21. O-O h5 22. h3 hxg4 23. hxg4 f5.

21. gxf5 gxf5 22. Rg1 Kh8?

After having cruised through the game quite comfortably, perhaps a sense of ennui overcame Benko, because if his 20th move rendered parity in the game, his 22nd quite ruined his chances. Both 22…. Rae8 and …fxe4 maintain equality.

23. Nxf4!

Wade needs no second invitation and strikes with the strongest move.

23… fxe4?

A last vestige of a misplaced optimism. Black must either defend against White’s next with 23… Rg8 or pose a counter threat with …Rae8. However, both are likely to be insufficient.

24. Rxg7!!

The culmination of the deadly attack leaves Black in a hopeless position. Black cannot capture as 24… Kxg7 leads to a mate in five: 25. Nh5+ Kf7 26. Qf4+ Bf5 27. Qxf5+ Kg8 28. Qg4+ Kf7 29. Qe6#; 24… Rxf4 leads to a more convoluted mate, but still certain disaster.

24… e3 25. Qd4 Rxf4 26. Rg6+  Black resigns 1-0

Ray Cannon’s book, Bob Wade: Tribute to a Chess Master , is available on Amazon.

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