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Steve Boniface (1951 - 2005)Some personal memories, by John Richards Steve came to Bristol in the early 90's, or so I'm told, but it seems like he had been around for a lot longer because he did so much. He was everywhere, organising and controlling a huge number of events. Steve soon realised there were not enough arbiters in the West Country and so he set about changing this. I was one of the many people Steve trained and got through the exam. Once he had sorted out Bristol and the West he turned his attention to other parts of the country and must be responsible for a considerable number of the new arbiters in the last fifteen years. He also threw himself into the Bristol-Hannover Exchange: organising visits of teams of chess players from one city to another. He, and his Hannover alter-ego Frank Palm, revitalised the Exchange and I took part in a number of these annual events. Steve and Frank were tireless in organising, though they were like chalk and cheese: Frank ever the anarchist who would leave things until the last moment and Steve being the meticulous planner. I think Steve despaired of Frank on a number of occasions but there was genuine friendship there. On one occasion, Steve bought a subscription to Private Eye for Frank as he knew how much he enjoyed it. Steve did not play many competitive games - he was usually controlling - but when he did he liked to attack. Here's one game he played for Bristol against Hannover, with his own notes. I happen to know that he was very pleased with this effort. 
Steve had other good friends in Hannover, including Bernd and Gabi Watermann. One day last year, he phoned me to ask if I would help him book a trip to Hannover on the Internet as he was going to stay with the Watermanns. He wanted the cheapest route, regardless of complexity. Eventually, we settled on a train and two buses to Bournemouth Airport, flight to Frankfurt Hahn on Ryanair, a one hour train ride to Frankfurt central station, with just a fifteen minute gap to pick up the last train to Hannover arriving about half past midnight. The total length of the trip was about sixteen hours with some very tight connections but this did not worry Steve. When he returned I asked him how the trip went. It was fine, he said, but he was very miffed that Bournemouth Airport security had confiscated his umbrella. For somebody who used to work in IT support, Steve had a very practical attitude to computers. He saw them as a tool, nothing more. He never really took to email and was concerned that his address might end up known too widely and he would get swamped with trivia. On using computers for pairing tournaments, Steve accepted that there were advantages in speed but believed that software would never generate as good pairings as could be done manually. He would ask, for example, whether a program could ever cope with avoiding pairing two people from the same club who had just driven over 200 miles to get to the tournament in the same car? Or could it avoid pairing a couple who had just had an acrimonious divorce? Early in his career, Steve had made the mistake of pairing a blind player with a deaf player, only realising this when shouts of "What did you say? Speak up!" were coming from the far end of the room. After this, Steve was always careful to try to ensure a level playing field for all players, regardless of disability, and was unstintingly helpful and kind. I remember one Bristol tournament where a player revealed in the first round on the Friday evening that he had an eye problem which meant he found it difficult to see the board in normal artificial light. That night, Steve went up in his attic to find an old anglepoise and rewire it ready for the next day. By the end of the nineties, Steve had taken early retirement and was able to spend a lot of time on controlling tournaments. His reputation had spread and when the 4NCL were looking for additional arbiters I told the Management Board I could think of no one better than Steve. I'm sure it wasn't just my recommendation but Steve took up the new role and when Richard Furness died last year, Steve became the 4NCL Chief Arbiter. By now he was also a BCF Senior Arbiter and also had gained the FIDE Arbiter title. Over the next few years he was surely set for greater recognition. Steve was a great friend. We used to meet up occasionally, either getting through two or three bottles of red wine in my garden discussing the latest absurdities of the chess world, or in one of his favourite pubs, the Old Fox (now also sadly no more) and work our way along the hand pumps, finishing with the bottled stout. We even played one league game continuation in the Old Fox - in deference to league rules we used the no-smoking bar. I'll miss his phone messages, usually telling me I had to get round to Tesco's smartish as he'd found a great wine offer and it would soon sell out. The last time I saw him was the 4th October, just under two weeks before he was found dead. He was playing for Civil Service against Horfield C - this was another piece of typical Steve, he knew Civil Service were short of players so he had moved clubs to help out. We chatted about this and that: I told him my cat had died and he said he was sorry because he'd really liked Jake and how was Anne taking it? I offered him a lift home if he could wait till my match was over but, no, he had to go and dashed off for the bus. You never realise when it's the last time you'll see someone. One story shows, I think, why he was such a good arbiter. One year at Paignton, one of his favourite events, Steve had the evening off while the other controllers organised a blitz tournament at the playing hall. On his way back from the pub (almost certainly one that was in the CAMRA Good Pub Guide) he could not resist dropping in at the hall to see how things were going. One of the controllers came running up: "We're glad you're here, Steve. There's been a dispute - could you sort it?" A boy of about ten was playing a man in his late seventies and the boy was winning easily. He got a pawn to the eighth rank and announced a queen, but not finding a queen to hand he left the pawn in situ. When on his next move he attempted to move his pawn as a queen the man claimed a win for an illegal move (they were playing the blitz rule that illegal moves lose). Steve knew the final round was being delayed and the man was adamant that he must have the win; the small boy was looking very confused. Having checked that the result would not make any difference to any prize money, Steve came up with a quick and unique solution. He took the man off to one side and informed him that he had won the game. He then did exactly the same thing with the young lad. One point each: truly a modern judgment of Solomon!
Obituary by Bob Jones on the BCF site Obituary by John Saunders on the BCM site A letter from Steve's familyDear Friends, Colleagues and Acquaintances of Steve Boniface, We are writing to thank you all for your kind words, tributes and memories of Steve that provided us with so much comfort at one of the most unexpected and saddest moments in our lives. It was a wonderful surprise to see that our brother and uncle had touched so many people’s lives unbeknown to us and, probably, to him as well. Steve was truly one in a million and in our struggle to come to terms with what happened, seeing the amount of people who had their lives brightened by him has made the last couple of months that bit more bearable. We would also like to thank everyone who donated to The British Heart Foundation in memory of Steve. You raised a phenomenal £934.78 so thank you all. We would have loved to have shown our gratitude to you all personally but the amount of people that held Steve in high regard, was so overwhelming it would have been impossible; but please know you are in our hearts and we appreciate all you have done for us since the untimely death of our beloved brother and uncle. We feel very proud of him. Paul, Sue, Catherine and Samantha Boniface
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