Alan Williams, who has died after a long illness, was a gifted computer scientist, manager, player and administrator in both the chess and bridge worlds. He was General Manager of the English Bridge Union between 1994 and 1997. He was made a life vice-president of the Bristol & District Chess League in 1994, having previously served terms as Vice-President, President, Treasurer and General Secretary.
I first met Alan and his wife to be, Chrissie, nearly forty years ago when we were all working in the Computer Centre of the University of Bristol. He persuaded me to join his chess club, Horfield and Montpelier. Alan went off to work for a software house called Praxis, based in Bath, in about 1985. Not long after, he talked me into leaving the University and going to Praxis as well and we worked together for the next six years. He was a talented techie who seemed to effortlessly move into management: a skilled negotiator and administrator, and a true people person.
While treasurer of the Bristol Chess League in the late 1980s, Alan realised that the League was over-reliant on the efforts of one man, the secretary, Chris Carter. Chris did everything: he worked out the fixtures, handled adjudications, processed results, and ran the committee meetings and represented the League externally. He got through a prodigious amount of work and replacing him would be almost impossible. Alan came up with the idea of splitting the secretary’s role into two: the match secretary and a general secretary and took on the latter role himself, leaving Chris with the part he enjoyed. Alan rewrote the baroque set of rules, creating a simplified constitution with accompanying rules; the structure which is still in use today. Once again he talked me into something, becoming the Bristol Chess Times Editor. When the British Chess Federation proposed the introduction of a compulsory player registration scheme in 1992, something deeply unpopular with a number of Bristol players, Alan was a key figure in persuading the clubs of the value of the new system. Believing Bristol should be a major chess centre, he strongly supported Bristol becoming one of the six founders of the 4NCL.
Alan had a weakness all too common amongst good chess players – he also liked bridge, and came to prefer it. In 1994, he was offered a job for which he was ideally suited: General Manager of the English Bridge Union. The downside was he had to leave Bristol and move to Buckinghamshire. Alan was very keen to broaden the base of English Bridge, not least in wanting to promote the game in schools. However the old guard on the management board proved highly resistant to change so after 3 years he decided to move on. Shockingly, in 1998 he was diagnosed with a serious heart defect and underwent major surgery. That didn't stop him, he went on to 3 years of technical support and management work for the Mc Nicholas construction group followed by 11 years of technical support at the Open University. At the same time he worked independently providing Web services and found time to write and publish a book : 'What can possibly go wrong?' detailing 'Chilli' his own bidding system for Bridge.
I was delighted when he accepted my invitation to be my best man at my wedding in 2004. Alan and Chrissie returned to Bristol in 2013 after retirement and moved into an apartment at the harbourside. Alan’s bridge playing continued and he was Chairman of the West of England Bridge Club. He became a volunteer for Transform, a charity campaigning for the legalisation of drugs.
Alan was always good company and had a great sense of humour. A sharp mind and a polymath: Alan had such an outstanding life of varied achievements and personal challenges - always with the same humane intelligence and absence of self-promotion.
John Richards