Page 116 - Gonzaga at 60
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GONZAGA AT SIXTY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
In 1984, when I irst strolled though the doors of Gonzaga College, I was already an
enthusiasic chess player. My father had taught me the game some years before,
and as I began to improve he sent me to a Junior chess club in Newtown Park
Avenue, which I atended assiduously every Wednesday evening from 7.30 pm to
9pm, paying the organisers the grand total of forty pence on each visit. Like all kids
atending primary school for the irst ime, everything is new and somewhat mysifying. There
are many new faces, a new environment, a whole new world to discover and come to terms with.
On arriving in Gonzaga, I would discover that, unusually for the ime, chess played a
signiicant part of school life, and the man who was reponsible for creaing this world was Gerry
Murphy. A highly respected teacher of Music, Lain and Classical studies Gerry Murphy was also a
keen and passionate chess player, who had started a chess club in the school some years before.
Gerry cut a striking igure amongst the teaching staf at Gonzaga, with a long lowing red beard,
sandals and an animated black cape that used to trail ater him as he paced around the school.
The chess club used to meet every Wednesday aternoon all year round, in a small musty
room above the rugby changing rooms, in a complex of buildings near the old bikesheds. Each
Wednesday, Gerry would turn up around 1.45pm and open up the club. There he would hold court,
coaching and encouraging players staring out and playing blitz against all-comers. His passion and
enthusiasm for the game was infecious and tangible to anyone who would turn up to look or play.
There he would resolutely defend his beloved Benko Gambit and always maintain that with best
play, white should retain a litle edge with the English. I will never forget the look he gave me once
when I cheerfully announced one day at the club that the Benko was refuted by some new line with
f3. Several blitz games followed where I tried to put this theory into pracice, but each ime saw
Gerry’s beloved Benko c5 pawn coasing home in the endgame, much to his delight!
Left of Gerry Murphy, Mark Quinn, now an IM. Denis Cusack is standing on the left, back row
GONZAGA AT SIXTY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
In 1984, when I irst strolled though the doors of Gonzaga College, I was already an
enthusiasic chess player. My father had taught me the game some years before,
and as I began to improve he sent me to a Junior chess club in Newtown Park
Avenue, which I atended assiduously every Wednesday evening from 7.30 pm to
9pm, paying the organisers the grand total of forty pence on each visit. Like all kids
atending primary school for the irst ime, everything is new and somewhat mysifying. There
are many new faces, a new environment, a whole new world to discover and come to terms with.
On arriving in Gonzaga, I would discover that, unusually for the ime, chess played a
signiicant part of school life, and the man who was reponsible for creaing this world was Gerry
Murphy. A highly respected teacher of Music, Lain and Classical studies Gerry Murphy was also a
keen and passionate chess player, who had started a chess club in the school some years before.
Gerry cut a striking igure amongst the teaching staf at Gonzaga, with a long lowing red beard,
sandals and an animated black cape that used to trail ater him as he paced around the school.
The chess club used to meet every Wednesday aternoon all year round, in a small musty
room above the rugby changing rooms, in a complex of buildings near the old bikesheds. Each
Wednesday, Gerry would turn up around 1.45pm and open up the club. There he would hold court,
coaching and encouraging players staring out and playing blitz against all-comers. His passion and
enthusiasm for the game was infecious and tangible to anyone who would turn up to look or play.
There he would resolutely defend his beloved Benko Gambit and always maintain that with best
play, white should retain a litle edge with the English. I will never forget the look he gave me once
when I cheerfully announced one day at the club that the Benko was refuted by some new line with
f3. Several blitz games followed where I tried to put this theory into pracice, but each ime saw
Gerry’s beloved Benko c5 pawn coasing home in the endgame, much to his delight!
Left of Gerry Murphy, Mark Quinn, now an IM. Denis Cusack is standing on the left, back row
