St Leonards Chess Club History & It's People.
The place to enjoy and learn about and play Chess!
Hugh Peters -
Founder of the St Leonards Chess Club - 2015
Hugh Peters interest in chess started at the age of nine, when his father and mother taught his the game. Once he started winning games against his father his Dad left it his Mother to continue to develop his chess Chess skills. Not long after WWII in 1951 the family moved to Australia.
Then after retirement from the Police force in 1994 and living in St. Leonards, Hugh had often tried to start a local Chess Club without much success.
It was in then in May 2015, when and Hugh and David Palmer met on a weekly basis at the St. Leonards' Salty Cow Cafe to play the game. They have been playing chess together ever since.
They were initially joined by Pip Mangle, Di Sloan, Nick Martin, Steve Sproal, and later by Harry Balmer, Stan Rusiniak, Adrian Slykerman, Hans Lemmens, Darryl Rowe, John Griffiths, and Paul Martin. In 2021 Sam Sopovski, Bill Sayers, and Jim Edmonstone.
The Chess Club now meets at the St Leonards Community Space with terrific support from Lynn Blackall, including supplying the clubs chess sets, and sewing drawstring storage bags for the chess pieces.
Here Hugh is instructing his son Dwight, aged about 4 (1971), on the the finer points of chess and how the "horsey" moves. Note that Hugh had hair then!
David Palmer-
David Palmer recalled that when he was diagnosed in about 2012 with Parkinson's condition. One of the possible hazards of Parkinson's is the onset of premature dementia. David say as chess is a thinking game it provides regular a "mental gymnastics exercise" which helps to alleviates it. With David's help and encouragement "Hugh established a small group of weekly players which has been of great personal help”.
Like most of us my chess playing commenced as a kid (my parents taught me), but throughout my adult life I had pretty much abandoned the game until I retired. Then I had a few games with a friend who lives in Glen Iris who has one of those large-scale outdoor garden chess sets. He and I have been keen chess rivals for over 9 years. We continue to play about once per month.
My other related all-consuming passion is historical wargaming (with model figurines). Anyone who is interested in learning about wargaming should contact me via the chess club.
2021- June Club Members
Left to right, front row David Palmer (co-founder), Nick Martin and Hugh Peters (founder), back row Stan Rusiniak, Adrian Slykerman, Harry Balmer, Daryl Rowe, and John Griffiths.
