We remember Brian Patrick Reilly who passed away on December 29th, 1991, thirty years ago today.

From The Encyclopaedia of Chess (Batsford, 1977), Harry Golombek OBE (written by Wolfgang Heidenfeld) :”Irish master born at Menton, of Irish descent, who has represented Ireland in nine Olympic team tournaments between 1935 and 1968; three times on top board.

He was also Irish representative at seven FIDE congresses. Reilly played in a number of small international tournaments, wining first prize at Nice 1931 and sharing fourth prize with Klein and EG Sergeant behind Reshevsky, Capablanca and Sir G. Thomas at Margate 1935.

Winner of Irish championship in 1959 and 1960. General Editor of British Chess Magazine since 1949.”

His obituary in British Chess Magazine was written by Bernard Cafferty and appeared in Volume CXII (112, 1992), Number 2 (February), page 70:

“With great regret we have to report that Brian Patrick Reilly has, to use the older term, ‘joined the great majority’.

B. P. Reilly (Menton, 12 xii 1901-Hastings, 29 xii l99l) was born into an expatriate family on the French Riviera, and so was bilingual. He learned his chess in France where he had many friends and acquaintances. He knew Alekhine in the 1920s and 1930s and was a witness at Alekhine’s wedding.

[pgn]
[Event “Kent County CA-29 Premier”]
[Site “Margate”]
[Date “1936.04.23”]
[Round “8”]
[White “Reilly, Brian Patrick”]
[Black “Thomas, George Alan”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “E95”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “73”]
[EventDate “1936.04.15”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 1999”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,69,19,31,14,30,50,30,43,31,33,56,30,38,55,55,57,21,31,0,0,-4,28,20,30,
30,28,24,35,28,50,36,32,31,40,24,46,56,60,67,97,80,80,71,89,75,109,105,89,113,
86,84,169,180,172,183,183,98,99,87,90,95,111,87,87,95,91,66,134,127,438,422]}
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c4 Bg7 4. Nc3 O-O 5. e4 d6 6. Be2 Nbd7 7. O-O e5 8. Re1
Re8 9. Bf1 exd4 10. Nxd4 Nc5 11. f3 Nh5 (11… a5) 12. Be3 Be5 13. g3 (13. Qd2)
13… a5 $146 {[#]} 14. Qd2 $16 {Black has yet to equalise and White maintains
an edge.} Ne6 15. Nce2 (15. Rad1) 15… Nxd4 16. Nxd4 Bd7 17. Bg2 a4 18. Rac1
c5 19. Ne2 (19. Nb5) 19… a3 20. b3 Bc6 21. Rcd1 Qc7 22. Nc3 Qa5 $6 23. Nd5 $1
Qxd2 24. Rxd2 Rab8 25. Red1 {[#]} b5 $2 {A natural enough looking move but Sir
George has missed something} 26. cxb5 Bxd5 {Black is forced to make this
unpalatable exchange.} ({If} 26… Bxb5 27. f4 Bb2 28. Nc7 $18 {is the problem
for Black} Rec8 29. Nxb5 Rxb5 30. Rxd6 {and the d-pawn falls.}) 27. Rxd5 $18 {
f4 is on the horizon.} Nf6 28. R5d2 Rxb5 29. Bf1 Rb6 30. Bc4 Rc8 31. Rc2 Kg7
32. Kg2 h6 33. f4 $16 Ng4 $4 {Sir George blunders} (33… Bb2 34. Kf3) 34. Bg1
Bd4 35. Rxd4 $1 {and Black resigned} {since} cxd4 36. Bxd4+ Kf8 37. Bxb6 1-0
[/pgn]

Many years later he was to do extensive research on Alekhine’s life, and was the first to establish (though he did not publish the fact) that the Russian did not complete his doctorate studies at the Sorbonne, so that “Dr” Alekhine must be considered a purely honorary title.

Brian won the Nice tournament of 1931, ahead of Noteboom, Mieses, . . . Sir George Thomas . . . Znosko-Borovsky. . . and played for Ireland at the 1935 Olympiad beating Fine.

These results, taken with his fourth place at Margate 1935, behind Reshevsky, Capablanca and Sir George Thomas, made it clear that he was of IM strength.

We are grateful to Tony Gillam for providing the following score which has only recently come to light. See Warsaw Olympiad 1935, The Chess Player, Nottingham, 2020.

[pgn]
[Event “Warsaw ol (Men)”]
[Site “Warsaw”]
[Date “1935.08.31”]
[Round “19”]
[White “Reilly, Brian Patrick”]
[Black “Mikenas, Vladas Ivanovich”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “D95”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “107”]
[EventDate “1935.08.16”]
[EventType “team”]
[EventRounds “19”]
[EventCountry “POL”]
[SourceTitle “Tony Gillam”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2003.11.25”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2003.11.25”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
[WhiteTeam “Ireland”]
[BlackTeam “Lithuania”]
[WhiteTeamCountry “IRL”]
[BlackTeamCountry “LTU”]

{[%evp 0,107,19,31,14,30,45,39,20,40,69,45,23,12,39,-4,15,21,52,32,79,77,100,
84,93,19,18,39,35,13,87,85,89,99,102,76,58,29,35,27,23,20,29,32,35,35,40,34,40,
37,48,51,50,41,63,65,80,69,85,91,97,95,106,96,104,98,98,104,108,107,107,115,
125,125,125,134,148,120,146,121,191,134,136,129,136,136,136,136,171,170,268,
148,150,120,224,168,149,159,189,195,317,195,265,170,535,535,535,535,1060,1083]
} 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c4 Bg7 4. Nc3 d5 5. e3 O-O 6. Qb3 c6 7. Be2 e6 (7…
dxc4 8. Bxc4) 8. O-O Nbd7 9. Qc2 {[#]} (9. Rd1) 9… Nb6 $6 $146 (9… b6) 10.
b3 a5 11. Bb2 a4 12. c5 a3 13. Bc1 Nbd7 14. Na4 Qc7 15. Bxa3 Ne4 16. Bb2 f5 17.
Nc3 e5 18. Nxe5 Nxe5 19. dxe5 Bxe5 20. f4 Bxc3 21. Bxc3 Nxc3 22. Qxc3 Re8 23.
a4 Qe7 24. Rf3 Be6 25. b4 Bd7 26. Ra3 $18 {From now on Reilly outplays Mikenas
from a better position.} Ra7 27. Rf1 Rea8 28. Rfa1 Be8 29. Qd4 h6 30. a5 Bf7 {
Blacks bishop is pretty awful !} 31. a6 bxa6 32. Rxa6 Rxa6 33. Rxa6 Rxa6 34.
Bxa6 Be8 35. Be2 h5 36. Bf3 Bf7 37. g3 Kh7 38. h4 Bg8 39. Kf2 Qb7 40. Be2 Bf7
41. Qb2 Be8 42. Qe5 Bf7 43. Qf6 Be8 44. Qd8 Bd7 45. Qa5 Kg7 46. Ba6 Qb8 47. Qb6
Qe8 48. Qc7 Kh6 49. Qe5 Qa8 50. Be2 Qc8 51. Qe7 Be8 {Black can do nothing
useful apart from resign.} 52. Qf8+ Kh7 53. b5 $1 Qd7 54. b6 {and Black
resigned. Source : Reilly’s notebook and Tony Gillam.} 1-0
[/pgn]

During the war Brian was interned in France as a British citizen, coming close to starvation for a time. He described all this in the very detailed account of his life in the September 1980 BCM, on which we have drawn, along with the many reminiscences Brian passed on to the present writer.

After working for the Sutton Coldfield magazine just after the war (he did not get on well with B. H. Wood, thinking him not very business-like – do we put this too diplomatically?) Brian was a freelance translator in the pharmaceutical industry before taking over BCM in 1949. At the time the magazine was technically bankrupt.

In 1964 he moved the office from London to St Leonards, showing his business acumen yet again. He ran the bookstall for many years at the Hastings Congress at the Sun Lounge and the Falaise Hall.

After the union troubles of 1970-71 and the Fischer boom he arranged for the magazine to be typeset by his son Freddy at the family home in West Norwood. This led to an expansion in the pagination after some teething troubles.

All this while, Brian was playing for Ireland in Olympiads, and attending to FIDE affairs as a FIDE delegate.

After the death of his son Freddy in 1980, the magazine was sold to the BCF and Brian retired as editor in September 1981, remaining as a consultant for nearly a decade.

His last years were spent in Hastings, where it was his wont to carry on with the long sea-front walks that he had practised since a breakdown in health due to overwork. He had strong views on correct diet and exercise which he could expound to anyone willing to listen. The fact that he could walk up to six miles a day in his late eighties and that his faculties, including his memory, only seemed to be weakening in his last two years, is proof enough of the validity of his theories.

On his 90th birthday he attended the office and drank a glass of champagne to celebrate the occasion. We have the testimony of Mrs Arnold, who worked with him so long, that he was still talking of visiting the Hastings Congress. This was on Boxing Day, the day after he had been admitted to St Helen’s Hospital with a chest infection. He assured her he would be up and about again, but old friends such as Harry Golombek and Ritson Morry waited for him in vain as Hastings got under way. . .

BCM readers, too, must be counted amongst his old friends who will miss him. They should be aware that, but for Brian, and his decades of hard work. there would now be no BCM.”

From British Chess Magazine, Volume CI (101), Number 8 (August), pp 352 – 369 a conversation between B.P. Reilly and W.H. Cozens :

He won the BCF President’s Award in 1983 along with BH Wood

Here is his Wikipedia entry

[pgn]
[Event “Olympiad-06”]
[Site “Warsaw”]
[Date “1935.08.20”]
[Round “6”]
[White “Reilly, Brian Patrick”]
[Black “Fine, Reuben”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “A98”]
[Annotator “ChessBase”]
[PlyCount “79”]
[EventDate “1935.08.16”]
[EventType “team-tourn”]
[EventRounds “19”]
[EventCountry “POL”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2004”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2003.11.25”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2003.11.25”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
[WhiteTeam “Ireland”]
[BlackTeam “US of America”]
[WhiteTeamCountry “IRL”]
[BlackTeamCountry “USA”]

{[%evp 0,79,19,31,33,12,74,67,60,60,65,56,49,50,50,58,73,53,60,48,180,218,218,
177,181,188,174,198,218,201,192,206,178,185,185,123,122,98,172,88,129,101,149,
57,38,67,34,63,7,27,88,0,0,94,154,154,161,173,173,183,312,363,328,534,790,833,
1052,1084,1150,1064,1084,1145,1147,1180,1176,517,556,458,1076,1137,29997,29998]
} 1. d4 e6 2. Nf3 f5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. c4 d6 6. Nc3 O-O 7. O-O Qe8 8. Qc2
Nbd7 9. e4 Nh5 $2 10. exf5 exf5 11. Re1 Ndf6 (11… Qf7 $2 12. Ng5) 12. Ng5 $1
c6 13. d5 c5 14. Bd2 Ng4 15. Nb5 Qd8 16. Ne6 Bxe6 17. Rxe6 a6 18. Rae1 Rf7 19.
Nc3 Ne5 20. Nd1 f4 21. Be4 $1 g6 22. Bc3 Ng7 23. Bxe5 $1 dxe5 24. Nc3 Rf8 25.
Rd1 fxg3 26. hxg3 Nxe6 27. dxe6 Qe8 28. Rd7 Bf6 29. Bd5 $1 Kh8 30. Ne4 Bg7 (
30… Be7 31. Qc3 Bf6 32. Nxf6 Rxf6 33. Qxe5 Qf8 34. Rf7 $18) 31. Nd6 Qb8 32.
e7 $1 Re8 33. Nf7+ Kg8 34. Nxe5+ Kh8 35. Nf7+ Kg8 36. Nd6+ Kh8 37. Qe4 $1 Bd4
38. Kg2 Bf6 39. Qe6 Bxe7 (39… Bg7 40. Qg8+ Rxg8 41. Nf7#) 40. Qe5+ 1-0

[/pgn]