THERE was great sadness among the chess fraternity following the death of 79-year-old Joe French, Basingstoke Chess Club secretary and Hampshire Chess Junior organiser.

French was born in South London and it is understood he learned the basic moves of chess at four-years-old.

He entered a Chess Congress at the Elephant and Castle at a young age and was to go on and play for teams in the strong London Chess Leagues.

After moving to Basingstoke, French took up an accountant post at The Automobile Association and played for Fanum Chess Club.

From there he moved to Basingstoke Chess Club in 1980, where he quickly became involved in the club administration, taking up the position of Club secretary.

Over the years the club was gradually improved to very high standard and in 1992 a visit from the British Chess Federation resulted in Basingstoke Chess Club being named England club of the year.

However, it was while working with junior players that French excelled. Taking on the role of junior organiser, he showed amazing patience to teach many youngsters the basic moves of the game.

His work in this field did not go un-noticed particularly by many of the more forward looking and progressive schools in a wide area around Basingstoke.

Within a few years, he was coaching and developing many top quality chess players and Basingstoke’s reputation in the chess world was high.

An example was the amazing achievements of Kempshott Junior School who were rubbing shoulders with the best public and private schools.

In 2004, The British Chess Federation made a special award from the president directly to French. He was also a finalist for the Basingstoke Gazette awards a few years ago. His accolades were numerous.

The dedication of French to chess was remarkable and countless young players will testify to the progress they made under his coaching.

French remained dedicated to playing the game until the end, even when he was desperately ill. It was fitting that his team won the Southampton League division in the final season before he passed away.

Plans are already afoot to provide a trophy to be played for annually in French's memory.

The funeral will be held at Basingstoke Crematorium on Thursday June 4 at 11am.