Geoff Laurence

It is with great sadness we must announce the passing of club secretary Geoff Laurence, aged 75, on the 5th April 2025. The club and its members send our deepest condolences to Lesley, his friends and family at this difficult time.

The funeral will be at Macclesfield Crematorium (Prestbury Road, Macclesfield, SK10 3BU) on Thursday April 24th at 3:30pm and then afterwards at the Cock and Pheasant (15 Bollington Road, Bollington, SK10 5EJ).

The family request no flowers please, but there will be the opportunity to donate to the Critical Care Unit at Macclesfield General Hospital.

The following is an excerpt from “A History of Macclesfield Chess Club: 1886 - 2012
 A R Soames”:

Geoff Laurence joined the club in 1980 when he was thirty. A Yorkshireman from Morley, near Leeds, he had studied mathematics at New College, Oxford from 1969-73 and then gone into teaching at the John Lyon School at Harrow, the day-school section of the well known independent school, leaving there to take up a position at Kings School in Macclesfield in 1978. As he was without a grade and had not played for seven years he found it difficult to get games in the Macclesfield club so he played for the Millstone team. Thereafter he was selected for the Macclesfield B team and moved on quickly to the A team, proving a resilient board 1 from 1982 and taking over the captaincy in 1984.

Geoff won the Macclesfield Challenge Cup a total of thirteen times, most recently in 2017, and was the second most decorated player in Macclesfield Chess Club history.

The following was contributed by Denzil Lobo and Tony Soames.

On a sunny weekend in April 2025, just before Easter, Geoff had planned a surprise visit for his wife Lesley to Bristol to meet up with their daughter and their grandchildren. Unfortunately, fate took a different turn and Geoff Laurence died on Saturday 5th April 2025. He suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage. It was very sudden and was untreatable despite the very best of care in Macclesfield Hospital. Geoff was a mathematics teacher at Kings School for many years and loved by everyone. He retired early, due to high blood pressure. This was a hereditary condition rather than a lifestyle issue. He put on his walking boots and would often be seen walking his dog around the streets of Macclesfield. He loved his competitive Chess and his last match was against his longtime friend Sandra Blackburn which ended in a good draw. It is impossible to exaggerate Geoff’s contribution to the survival and development of chess in Macclesfield over the last forty-five years. A club lives or dies because of the quality of its officers and Geoff was always willing to shoulder the burden of leadership. He joined the club in 1980, aged thirty, and because he was ungraded found it difficult at first to get league games. In two years he was playing on the top board for the first team and in four years he was captain. In 1985 he became club champion for the first time and has vigorously contested for that honour up to his final season, winning the trophy on more than a dozen occasions, the last time in 2017.  It was always a joy to play a game with Geoff. There was never a hint of gamesmanship and whether he won or lost he treated his opponent with respect. In his early days he was a practitioner of the French Defence and we had many fine arguments with the Winawer variation, the original play starting at about move twelve. As he reached maturity he adopted the bizarre Nimzowitsch response of Nc6 with which he had such success that I for one would offer to enter the open game with Nf3. Whenever Geoff took on a new opening he did it after intense study.  He was, however, a stickler for the rules. The only time I have ever seen him annoyed was when his opponent did not record the moves, thus saving himself some time. As Geoff often ran short of time he felt that he was being taken advantage of. Of course he could be annoyed with himself for failing to spot a tactic, but even then the moaning was within the bounds of decency.  Since 1984 Geoff has at some time held every office available in the club, except that of treasurer, which Roy has clung onto for probably fifty years. It is to be hoped that among the current membership there will be another Geoff, or even several Geoffs, to replace him. That would be the response that would best commemorate The Secretary.

He will be deeply missed by Macclesfield and in the chess community beyond.