Frank Parr - Legacy

Legacy

In memory of an exceptional player, the British Federation for Correspondence Chess introduced a Frank Parr Memorial Tournament in 2005. Held alongside it was the David Parr Memorial, dedicated to Frank's eldest son, another fine chess player who also died in 2003.

Across the chessboard, Frank Parr was a gentleman and a character, who enjoyed one of the longest chess careers on record. To his opponents, he was well known for his aggressive style and alertness to tactical possibilities.

The game given below captured the attention of the chess world and he annotated it for an issue of British Chess Magazine. He even had a tapestry made up of one of the game's key positions, which he hung on the wall of his living room. Reinfeld and Chernev, in their Fireside Book of Chess, eulogize—"In the opinion of the writers, Parr's masterpiece has well-founded claims to being considered the finest attacking game of all time." After the final move they exclaim "One of the greatest combinative games on record!"