Chess Club

Ta-da! Nerd Central, the Chess Club. This club was so nerdy that occasionally a teacher would show up and risk his dignity by taking on a student. Yah say you don't believe it? Well, here's the proof.

(Rescan 20040729)

...then...and now...

The chess club used to meet at noon hour on the main floor of the old building at the west end in the room to the south of the stairs. We met there after school, too, and sometimes in the lunch room. Interschool tournaments were held in the lunch room. Here we all are, nerding at noon, and, in the foreground, mirabile dictu, a teacher ponders his move. Ummm! He's sitting on a desk! (Though the practices were strictly forbidden, no officious teacher ever once came around and gave us a hard time about sitting on desks and putting feet on seats. We had tried other methods but it was really the only practical way of positioning a board between the players.)

Jerry Freeman sits toward the rear engaged in a game with Sandy Campbell (perched on desk). Jerry regards the spectacle of Nick Marsden, playing a teacher who might be Mr Cairnie. The vastly improved scan made 20040729 shows that the player facing Mr. Cairnie is not Nick but our club president, Dave Morrow. It also shows that Dave is eating a sandwich during the end game while Mr. Cairnie moves either a pawn or a bishop around his exceedingly vulnerable king.

On the right hand side of the page is the appearance of the same room on 990922.

We visited other high schools in the Victoria area during the year and played their chess teams and they visited Oak Bay. Wasn't it Dave Morrow who was our president in 1963? In interschool play, we finished with a more or less even score for the year; wins, draws and losses in about equal numbers.