Posted on by Spike

Nigel Staddon

I’m sad to relay the news that Nigel Staddon died on 20th March, aged 93. He was a member of Bedford Club for 57 (!) years, holding several offices and regularly played for the club’s teams. He was always encouraging, especially to the younger members, and had a lovely sense of humour.

Here is a photo of him playing in the Cordon Trophy in 2015 – I remember the wily old fox somehow managed to win from the pictured position!


Here’s a game of his from 1976, with a creative conclusion.

Paul has found this typical struggle in his archives:

And Kevin Williamson has found this as commented …

I’m sure many will have equally fond memories – please feel free to share in the comments.

The funeral will be held at Bedford Crematorium at 11.30am on 4th May.

6 Replies to “Nigel Staddon”

  1. Mike reached out to let me know about his passing, only just saw the message, very sad indeed. Nigel was my teammate in my first ever league match on bottom board for Bedford C. I remember the game well, I was the black side of a French (Exchange variation) and after much shuffling I got a winning position, but managed to overlook giving mate in one. My opponent made an inconsequential next move, missing the threat again, and I finally landed the coup de grâce, at which point Nigel loudly exclaimed: “Two bites at the cherry there!”, which I will never forget. He was a stalwart of the club for all the time I was there and our many encounters in the club championship were hard-fought. I remember fondly those lighting tournaments, or sharing a car with him and Les Mabb on many a trip to Milton Keynes! As a teammate and fellow club member he was very supportive, and his wry sense of humour gave us all many a great laugh.

  3. I was very sorry to hear the sad news about Nigel, one of the nicest people you could meet at the chessboard. He was one my first opponents when I started playing in the Beds league in 1986 and we played together for the County second team many times (I think Joe Valerio was the captain back then) . Most of the team would meet up at Glebe Road for the away matches and travel together, so it was a good way of getting to know players from other clubs.

    Here’s one of our early encounters, played on the 24th March 1987. Bedford A v Leighton Buzzard B, Board 6. I had the black pieces and had my chances but Nigel came out on top.

    I’ve realised that looking at your old games with Stockfish is a sobering experience! I should have resigned a few moves before I did, but perhaps we were short of time.

    1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. h3 c5 6. Be3 cxd4 7. Nxd4 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. Nb3 a6 10. O-O-O b5 11. a3 Ne5 12. f3 Be6 13. Nd4 Bc4 14. Bh6 Qa5 15. Bxg7 Kxg7 16. f4 b4 17. fxe5 dxe5 18. Qg5 bxa3 19. Nf5+ Kh8 20. Nxe7 axb2+ 21. Kxb2 Rab8+ 22. Kc1 Qa1+ 23. Kd2 Rfd8+ 24. Bd3 Rxd3+ 25. cxd3 Qb2+ 26. Ke3 Qb6+ 27. Kf3 Re8 28. Qxe5 Qe6 29. Qxe6 fxe6 30. Nxg6+ hxg6 31. dxc4 Rf8 32. Ke3 Kg7 1-0

  4. I was very sad to hear of Nigel’s death. I have written a piece on the Milton Keynes Chess Club website which visitors here may be interested in. The link to it is:

    miltonkeyneschessclub.co.uk/news—nigel-staddon.html

  5. I found a tactical skirmish (inserted into post) with many swings of fortune but Nigel Staddon has the last word.

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