We remember John Fuller who passed away aged 76 on Wednesday, December 8th 2004. His death was recorded in the district of Lancaster. At the end of his life he lived in Carnforth, in Lancashire.

John Arthur Fuller was born in Hendon, Middlesex on Saturday, May 12th 1928. His parents were Horace Arthur Fuller (a Bank Officer) and Phyllis Fuller (née Gooch).

John had three brothers: Julian Frederick who was two years older, Nigel Anthony who was three years younger and Adrian Easterbrook who was six years younger.

They lived at 12, High View, Pinner in Middlesex.

On August 26th 1939, aged eleven, John (described as a scholar) departed from Liverpool on board the SS Ceramic (part of the Shaw Savill & Albion Company shipping line) and duly arrived one hundred and twenty days later in Sydney, New South Wales.

The family returned to Liverpool in March 1945 on board the Athlone Castle which was of the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company Ltd. John was now sixteen years old.

According to ancestry.co.uk he is survived by a son, Robin. The family tree indicates that John had two sons and two daughters but his wife is marked as Private and so her name is not visible. We speculate that it may be Ann Fuller (née ?) but this is awaiting confirmation.

From The Encyclopedia of Chess (Robert Hale, 1972 & 1976) by Anne Sunnucks :

“British Master, British Boy Champion in 1946 and British Correspondence Champion from 1953-1955. Born on 12th May 1928 Fuller learned to play chess when he was 11. In 1946 , the year in which he won the British Boys Championship, he also tied for the London Boys Championship. He went on to win the Middlesex Championship three times and the Warwickshire Championship twice. Fuller played for England in matches between Scotland and the Netherlands and in the Clare Benedict International Team Tournament. He also had the best British score in the Premier Tournament at Hastings in 1949 and 1955.

He was a design engineer.”

[pgn]
[Event “Christmas Congress 1955/56-31 Premier”]
[Site “Hastings”]
[Date “1956.01.05”]
[Round “8”]
[White “Golombek, Harry”]
[Black “Fuller, John Arthur”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “E85”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “86”]
[EventDate “1955.12.28”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “MCD”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1999.07.01”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1999.07.01”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 O-O 6. Be3 e5 7. Nge2 Nbd7 8. Qd2
a6 9. d5 Ne8 10. Ng3 {[#]} ({Relevant:} 10. g4 f5 11. gxf5 gxf5 12. Bg5 Bf6 13.
Rg1 Kh8 14. exf5 Bxg5 15. Rxg5 Ndf6 16. Bh3 Ng7 17. O-O-O b5 18. Rdg1 Nge8 19.
Ne4 bxc4 20. N2c3 Nxe4 21. Nxe4 Nf6 22. Rg7 Ng8 23. Ng5 Nf6 24. Nxh7 Ng4 25.
R1xg4 {1-0 (25) Chaude de Silans,C-Radzikowska,K Moscow 1955}) 10… f5 $146 ({
Predecessor:} 10… Nc5 11. b4 Nd7 12. Rc1 a5 13. a3 axb4 14. axb4 f5 15. Bg5
Bf6 16. Bh6 Bh4 17. exf5 gxf5 18. Kd1 Rf7 19. Bd3 Nf8 20. Kc2 Ng7 21. Ra1 Bd7
22. Kb2 Rxa1 23. Rxa1 Ng6 24. Qc2 Qc8 25. Nge2 Bf6 26. Ra7 Qb8 27. Ra3 Ne7 28.
Kb3 c6 29. Ng3 Rf8 30. Nge2 b5 31. Qd2 e4 32. fxe4 fxe4 33. Nxe4 Be5 34. Kc2
bxc4 35. Bxc4 cxd5 36. Bxd5+ Nxd5 37. Qxd5+ Be6 38. Qa5 Qb7 39. N4c3 Qxg2 40.
Kd2 {Kottnauer,C-Botvinnik,M Budapest 1952 0-1}) 11. Bg5 $14 Bf6 12. Bxf6 Qxf6
13. exf5 gxf5 14. O-O-O Qh4 15. f4 e4 16. Nge2 Nc5 17. Nd4 a5 18. g3 Qh6 19.
Be2 Ng7 20. Qe3 Bd7 21. Rdf1 Rae8 22. h3 Kh8 23. g4 Qh4 24. Nd1 b6 25. b3 Re7
26. Qc3 e3 27. Bf3 Rfe8 28. Re1 Qg3 29. Rxe3 Rxe3 30. Nxe3 Qxf4 31. Re1 fxg4
32. hxg4 Ne4 33. Bxe4 {[#]} Rxe4 $2 (33… Qxe4 34. Kb2 Bxg4 35. Rf1 $14) 34.
Ndf5 $2 (34. Rf1 $1 $18 Rxe3 35. Rxf4 Rxc3+ 36. Kd2 Nh5 37. Rf8+ Kg7 38. Rd8
$18) 34… Bxf5 35. gxf5 Re5 36. Kb1 Nxf5 37. Nc2 h5 38. Rg1 Ne3 (38… h4) 39.
Nd4 Qf2 40. Rc1 (40. Qc1) 40… Kh7 41. Qd3+ Kh6 42. Rh1 Qg2 43. Re1 {[#]} Nxc4
$1 0-1
[/pgn]

From The Encyclopedia of Chess (Batsfords, 1977) by Harry Golombek:

“British master and design engineer by profession. British Boy Champion in 1946. Fuller was a player of great promise with a fine understanding of the game. But a serious illness disturbed the even flow of his chess career and, though he recovered and made some more appearences in the chess world, he eventually withdrew from chess on an international and national level.

Fuller played twice in the Hastings Premier tournament: =5th 1949/50 and 6th in 1955/6.”

The Oxford Companion to Chess is silent on JAF.

There has been considerable discussion of JAF in another place.

BCN would like to acknowledge help received from Richard James, Leonard Barden, Rob Fuller and John Upham in putting this article together.

[pgn]
[Event “British Boys Ch”]
[Site “Hastings ENG”]
[Date “1946.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “John A Fuller”]
[Black “Gordon Thomas Crown”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “C80”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “17”]
[EventDate “1946.??.??”]

{[%evp 0,17,19,38,25,7,30,29,28,3,-1,-1,15,26,22,-12,-25,-20,782,781]} 1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. Re1 Nc5 7. Nc3 Nxa4 8. Nxe5 Ne7 {[#]}
$4 (8… Be7 9. Nd5 O-O 10. Nxc6 dxc6 11. Nxe7+ Kh8 12. Qh5 $14) 9. Qf3 $18 1-0
[/pgn]

Subsequent to this post being originally published in 2020 our attention was kindly drawn by John Saunders to the obituary in BCM, Volume 125 (2005), #5 (May), page 247. Here is the article:

John Fuller (12 v 1928 – 8 xii 2004, Carnforth) was a British Master and British correspondence champion in 1954 and 1955. Having spent some of the war years in Australia, he quickly made his mark in junior chess on his return to Britain. He shared first place with Leonard Barden in the 1946 London Boys’ Championship and went on to win the British Boys’ Championship in 1946 with 5/5 in the final section, ahead of Gordon Crown and Leonard Barden. He beat an off-form Crown in nine moves in the last round (see game above) He played a number of correspondence games with Crown, himself a richly gifted player, who w0as to die tragically young in 1947, and it was reported that Fuller had the better of these encounters.

Fuller became a design engineer, but his business and chess careers were both affected by a serious bout of tuberculosis when he was a young man. He won the Hastings Premier Reserves ‘B’ with 8/9 in 1947/48 ahead of Alan Phillips and Arthur Winser, and in 1949 Leonard Barden remembers playing off with him for a place in the 1949/50 Hastings premier after the two of them had made similar scores at the 1949 British Championship.

“We played the match at Sir George Thomas’s flat in autumn 1949… and John crushed me in that. Not sure of the score, I think it was 2.5- 0.5.”

He played in the Hastings Premier in 1949/50 and again in 1955/56,and made the best British scores on both occasions – 4/9 and 3.5/9 respectively. He also represented England in matches against Scotland and the Netherlands, and in the Clare Benedict team tournament. He only appeared three times in British Championships, scoring 6.5 in 1949, 5.5 in 1950 and 6.5 in 1958. He ranked in the top ten of the British Chess Federation Grading List on six occasions, with a best place of third equal in 1958. He seems to have dropped out of over the board competition chess shortly after being awarded the (now defunct) British Master title in 1963/64.

Harry Golombek referred to Fuller in The Encyclopaedia of Chess (1977) as a player of great promise with a fine understanding of the game”. Alan Phillips told BCM that he was “one of the most promising players of his generation… he slaughtered me three times”.

[pgn]
[Event “ENG-ch corr”]
[Site “England”]
[Date “1955.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Parr, Frank”]
[Black “Fuller, John Arthur”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “E81”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “100”]
[EventDate “1955.??.??”]
[EventType “tourn (corr)”]
[EventRounds “10”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “Corr 2000”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2000.04.19”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2000.04.19”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,100,39,27,27,-20,44,37,31,38,32,10,15,-12,3,13,-6,-12,19,26,33,24,36,
-34,0,-2,0,-35,5,1,11,-20,18,17,11,11,7,3,0,-21,9,9,11,-24,-17,-15,-29,-68,-69,
-64,-87,-91,-98,-123,-120,-118,-120,-120,-120,-116,-110,-126,-125,-103,-123,
-159,-150,-182,-188,-215,-214,-222,-168,-162,-159,-164,-115,-133,-145,-147,
-151,-177,-181,-197,-217,-239,-162,-210,-190,-197,-188,-202,-177,-206,-202,
-275,-281,-297,-299,-349,-412,-426,-442]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4
d6 5. f3 O-O 6. Bg5 c5 7. d5 Nbd7 8. Qd2 Re8 9. Nge2 a6 10. Ng3 Qa5 ({Relevant:
} 10… Rb8 11. Be2 Qa5 12. a4 Qb4 13. O-O Ne5 14. Nd1 Qxd2 15. Bxd2 h5 16. h3
e6 17. Nc3 exd5 18. exd5 Nh7 19. Nge4 Bf8 20. f4 Nd7 21. f5 Ne5 22. fxg6 fxg6
23. Rxf8+ Rxf8 24. Nxd6 Bd7 25. Bh6 Rf6 26. Nce4 Rbf8 27. Bxf8 Rxf8 28. Nxc5
Bc8 29. a5 Nf6 30. Rf1 Kg7 31. Ndxb7 {1-0 (31) Lilienthal,A-Shamkovich,L Kiev
1954}) 11. Bh6 {[#]} Bxh6 $146 ({Predecessor:} 11… Bh8 12. Be2 Nb6 13. Nf1
Na4 14. Nxa4 Qxa4 15. h4 b5 16. Ne3 bxc4 17. Nxc4 Rb8 18. g4 Qb4 19. h5 Nd7 20.
hxg6 Qxd2+ 21. Bxd2 fxg6 22. O-O-O Nb6 23. b3 Nxc4 24. Bxc4 Rf8 25. Rh3 Be5 26.
Rdh1 h5 27. Be2 hxg4 28. fxg4 Rf2 29. Kd1 Rxe2 30. Kxe2 Bxg4+ 31. Kd3 Bxh3 32.
Rxh3 Rf8 33. Bg5 Rf2 34. Bxe7 Rxa2 35. Rf3 Rb2 36. Rf8+ Kg7 37. Rd8 Rxb3+ 38.
Kc2 Rb2+ 39. Kd3 Rb3+ 40. Kc2 Rb2+ 41. Kd3 {Goodman,J-Pollitt,J Hastings/ East
Sussex 1953 1/2-1/2}) 12. Qxh6 $11 b5 13. Qd2 bxc4 14. Bxc4 Rb8 15. Be2 Nb6 16.
b3 e6 17. dxe6 Bxe6 18. Nb1 {[#]} Qb4 $1 19. Kf2 Red8 20. Rd1 a5 21. Qxb4 $6 (
21. Nc3) 21… axb4 $15 22. Nd2 Ra8 23. Bd3 Ra7 24. Ne2 Rda8 25. Nc1 Nfd7 26.
Bb5 Ne5 27. h3 Ra5 28. Bf1 Nc6 29. Nc4 Nxc4 30. Bxc4 Bxc4 31. bxc4 Ra3 32. Rb1
$2 (32. Rxd6) 32… Rc3 $19 33. Rxd6 Nd4 34. Ke1 Rxc4 35. Nb3 Nc2+ 36. Kf2 Rxa2
37. Rd2 Rc3 38. Nc1 Ra1 39. Rxa1 Nxa1 40. Nd3 Nb3 41. Rd1 Rc2+ 42. Ke3 Na5 43.
Ne1 Rc3+ 44. Ke2 c4 45. Rd8+ Kg7 46. Rb8 Rb3 47. Rb6 Rb2+ 48. Ke3 c3 49. Rb5
Nc4+ 50. Kd4 Na3 0-1
[/pgn]

Leonard Barden had the following memories of John Fuller: “He was a member of West London Chess Club, which was historically significant as his good friend and fellow member (both living in Harrow) was Jim Slater, who 25 years later told me that knowing John was one of the factors which kept his interest in chess up to the point where he became our Maecenas… John was a tall redhead, outgoing and friendly, and a natural talent who also worked on theory. With the better opportunities available to later generations I’m sure he would have reached IM strength.”