NZ Chess History - Listener Columns

© New Zealand Chess Federation Inc 2020


Listener Columns

After moving to England to seek a career as a chess professional in the 1970s, future grandmaster Murray Chandler produced a weekly column for the New Zealand Listener. In those days, the Listener had a monopoly on television and radio listings guaranteeing a huge circulation. The magazine was a national institution and the column gave chess mainstream media exposure we can only dream of today.

The columns will be presented here as the scans become available. The cuttings (from Murray's personal memorabilia collection) do not necessarily preserve the precise date of publication, but this will be listed whenever it is available. Murray reports that Listener sub-editors John Lilley and Bernard Carpinter, (the latter still an active player in New Zealand), were responsible for the pithy titles.

The columns continued until 1988, there is already a lot of great material here, with much more to come. To complement the columns, PGN files (for viewing on your computer) and interactive web pages are being prepared, coverage will be extended as time allows.

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985