Jacobs, the greatest chronicler of chess

THE EDITOR: The chess community of TT and the entire Caribbean are mourning the passing of the greatest chess chronicler in the history of chess in the English-speaking region – Carl Jacobs, who died on February 27 in Port of Spain.

For more than a decade, Jacobs wrote a weekly column on chess in the Trinidad Guardian, “Double Rooks,” in which he recorded the national and international events of this millenary sport discipline. He wrote with a clear, simple and clear style.

His column was always oriented towards the promotion, organisation and development of chess in TT.

An avid reader and chess player, Jacobs gathered a wide collection of texts on chess. The best destination his heirs could give to these books would be to donate them to the National Library for the use and enjoyment of chess lovers in the country.

He competed in numerous chess contests without the success he dreamed of achieving. For this reason, very recently, he decided to abandon high-level chess and limit himself to playing friendly games on the Brian Lara Promenade in Port of Spain, which he did almost to the last minute of his life.

Jacobs, who knew and interacted with the most outstanding chess players of TT of the last 60 years, was also a great lover of classical music.

In his conversations he used to quote the great German master Siegbert Tarrasch, who in the preface to his book, The Chess Game, wrote: “I always feel a slight feeling of compassion for the man who has no knowledge of chess, as he would for the man who has ignored love; chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy. The way to this happiness is what I have tried to show in this book.”

The way to this happiness was what Jacobs tried to show in his column Double Rooks. I think he did it in his own way.

Rest in peace, amigo Carl Jacobs.

CESAR RAMOS-CALDERA, Maraval

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