On the 25th February 1990 I for some reason thought back to something that I had read in a London chess magazine in the 1970s.
It was a comeback letter by the author of an article on an opening variation. He was responding to a letter which had been critical of his work and had apparently appeared in the previous issue of the magazine.
He conceded that his article had been "quite embarrassingly full of holes."
He was a player of expert stength whom I had seen several times in London.
I tried to picture him as he then was; a dark-haired, bearded, bespectacled man of perhaps thirty.
I remembered that he was shy and a member of the Bayswater club.
(He may be seen looking down from the back row as Belyavsky plays me in the photo in Entry 153.)
Living the Dream: A Coincidence Diary: (153) Messrs Borcherds, the Monster and other Moonshines (james-plasketts-coincidence-diary.blogspot.com)
Having strained for several minutes to recollect his name, I gave up.
Two days later I bought a copy of The Observer and noticed a letter by the very chap whose name I had been trying to remember, headed
Individuals can change the world
It addressed the tragic case of sixteen year old Alexander Moschini who committed suicide because he believed that he could not change this rotten world.
The writer, Bill Linton of London N13, said how particularly saddened he was by the case for, from what had been written about him, it was clear that Alexander was exactly the kind of person who could have changed the world.
One articulate, passionate individual, capable of enrolling his friends to help, can make an enormous difference to any problem. Alexander has made his contribution by his death, but I wish he had found another way - and I wish I had known him.
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