ICCF

Carlos Flores Gutiérrez (ESP) HM, SIM, IA

Thursday, January 4, 2018: Appreciation of a dear friend by Alan P. Borwell

It was at the 1994 ICCF Congress in Perth that I first met Carlos, when he succeeded Carlos Ros Miro who had been ICCF delegate for Spain (CPAP then AEAC) but had not attended ICCF Congresses. We soon became good friends. 

I remember him asking where we lived in Scotland. I replied "in a village between Perth and Dundee called Inchture, but you will not know it". He replied that he did know exactly where it was as he remembered passing it every year on his way to Dundee to negotiate contracts for providing Seville oranges to Keiller's, to make their very famous marmalade!
 

The following year, the Congress was in Gjørvik in Norway where I was appointed as Deputy President (Development) from 1/1/96, having been the ICCF Treasurer for 12 years. H-J Huybtecht (BEL) was elected to be my successor but he did not take up the duties. Therefore, at the August 1996 Congress, it was proposed and agreed unanimously that Carlos Flores from Spain should become the new Treasurer.

I had completed the accounts up to the end of 1995, so an urgent task was to hand everything over to Carlos to start work on the 1996 accounts and I travelled to Seville soon afterwards to hand over all of the financial documents.
We met in the boardroom of his rather large fruit processing factory in Seville and became personal friends thereafter. He soon converted my very old fashioned manual accounts to a computerised system and for the next 8 years he served as the ICCF Treasurer with much distinction.

 

 Although he retired officially at the end of 2003 (in which year I retired as ICCF President), none of the next (several) elected Finance Directors fully completed the work. Carlos generously agreed to help to finalise the accounts for those intervening years to the end of 2008 to enable Scotland’s George Pyrich, the new Finance Director, to take over from 1/1/2009.   ICCF therefore is greatly indebted to Carlos for all of those years of dedicated work which he did quietly and efficiently, as well as being a very good and diligent delegate for his country.

I was delighted when Carlos told me before the Mumbai Congress in 2004, that Spain was considering making an offer to host the 2007 ICCF Congress. He asked me to assist him in searching for a suitable venue in Andalucia and we went together to the Hotel Alay in Benalmadena to view the facilities and to meet the Management and were impressed. Accordingly, this was confirmed as the 2007 venue and Carlos and his AEAC colleagues arranged a superb event.

Who could forget Carlos and family’s Flamenco dancing!

 

Of course, in his capacity as ICCF Treasurer, Carlos was much involved with the many initiatives taken during his term in office, ranging from inception of financial plans, revision of the fees structure, introduction of new officials allowances, acquiring of Millennium event’s sponsorships, ensuring viability of the ICCF Gold book, the starting of direct entry facilities and financing the webserver system.

 

Above all, I found Carlos to be totally committed to his work for ICCF which he carried out with great skill and diligence and, above all, with a very friendly disposition. 

He was a true gentleman and will be sadly missed by his Bely and lovely family in Seville and all friends Worldwide.

Carlos was also a very active tournament director (IA) as well as being a very strong correspondence chess player, aspiring to a SIM title in 2002 with a rating of almost 2500.

Here are a few photos with captions which bring back some very happy memories to those of us fortunate to know him.

In November 2017, Moira and I visited Benalmadena again for a memory lane trip, staying close to the Marina where the 2007 Congress was held in the Hotel Alay. We arranged to have a day in Seville and meet Soren Peschardt who was the delegate for Denmark for many years and is now married to Anchy Flores, one of Carlos' daughters. As Carlos was very poorly we were not sure whether he would manage to meet but were delighted that he and Bely came to join us for lunch in a restaurant near to their home. Although frail, Carlos was cheerful and lucid and we had lovely conversations with him about the "good old days" and Soren told us later that Carlos has really enjoyed the afternoon, although it had been tiring for him. We will always treasure the memories of a lovely day and we are most grateful to Soren and Anchy for making arrangements and for their kind hospitality during our visit to Seville.

 

 

 

 

[Event "Reg Gillman Memorial 'E' In Friendship"]
[Site "BFCC"]
[Date "1999.12.01"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Borwell, Alan P"]
[Black "Flores Gutierrez, Carlos"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B23"]
[WhiteElo "2327"]
[BlackElo "2379"]
[Annotator "Borwell"]
[PlyCount "84"]
[EventDate "1999.12.01"]
[EventType "tourn (corr)"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2004.11.15"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 {This move order for playing the Grand Prix Attack
avoids the possibility of 2. f4 d5} e6 4. Nf3 d5 {Well, with the French set-up,
it had to come anyway !} 5. Bb5 Nge7 {The main alternative to Nf6} 6. Qe2 {
Castles here is more usual but with this move, White wishes to avoid taking on
d5 to keep options open and the d1 square is now available for the QN} d4 7.
Nd1 a6 8. Bxc6+ Nxc6 9. d3 {We are following Lau-Zahn, Germany 1989, which is
used in Gary Lane's book on the Grand Prix Attack todemonstratethisvariation}
Bd6 {According to Lane, this is inferior because it invites White to play Nf2,
e5 and Ne4. Somehow, I doubt this opinion and do not think Carlos agreed with
it either !} 10. Nf2 b6 11. O-O Bb7 12. Bd2 Bc7 13. e5 O-O 14. Ng5 $5 {
Beginning a tactical manoevre which has some risks} Ne7 15. Qh5 h6 16. Nfe4 {
Diagram [#] My chess engine now would have liked to play Qd5 (loses) or Qd7
but both are inferior to the fine move chosen by Carlos did not feature in its
top 5 choices !} Qe8 $3 {Of course, after 16...Qd5 (or Qd7), 17.Nf6+.gxf6, 18
Ne4 wins ! Maybe if Ihad left the engine "cooking" for longer it would have
found this simple 2 move continuation, but it tells us something about why not
to slavishly follow them!} 17. g4 {White is now "committed" to attack, so this
seemed to most aggressive idea, however, it does not work well!} Bxe4 18. Nxe4
f5 $1 {The real intent of Black's excellent 16th move is now revealed. After
the exchange of Queen's it is Black who has the advantage} 19. Qxe8 Raxe8 20.
gxf5 exf5 $1 {White's passed e-pawn is not enough compensation for loss of the
e4 square or the pawns being fixed on the same colour as the bishop.} 21. Ng3
Nd5 {Ugh!} 22. Rae1 g5 $1 {Obviously thematic, but also good} 23. Nh5 {The
engine thought (can it !?) that this position is about equal - don't believe
it!} Kf7 24. fxg5 Kg6 $1 {Nicely played, now a pawn is lost} 25. Nf6 Nxf6 26.
exf6 hxg5 27. Re7 Rxe7 28. fxe7 Re8 29. Re1 {Here I expected the more obvious
Kf6, but this is also very good} f4 30. Kg2 Kf5 31. h3 Be5 $1 {Very neat,
capturing the pawn without decentralising his King !} 32. Kf3 {According to
engine assessment, I should probably have resigned about this point but, of
course, it does not have "vision" or experience. I have had this kind of
ending before and realise that bishops cannot change the colours of the
squares on which they roam!} Rxe7 33. Rh1 b5 34. b3 {Of course, put it on a
White square and try to keep the Q-side closed.} Rh7 35. Kg2 {Setting trap} Rh8
36. Kf3 $1 {Who is bluffing now !? Well how does Black break through unless he
plays his next move. However, it must be better here to try to change the
point of attack to e-file or the Q-side. Of course, engine still only sees the
tactic!} Rxh3+ $6 37. Rxh3 g4+ 38. Kg2 gxh3+ 39. Kxh3 {Wonderful say engine,
winning easily with at least a +2 advantage!} f3 {What else !?} 40. Be1 $1 {
OK then, how does Black win now !?} c4 41. bxc4 bxc4 {Another rather amusing
finale could be} 42. Bg3 {Here I offered Carlos the draw, which he accepted.
Of course, if Black plays 42...f2, then 43.Bxf2.Kf4, 44.Bg3+ and he must go
back and White could even win ! One possible continuation would be} (42. Bg3
Bf4 43. Bf2 Be3 44. Bh4 f2 45. Kg2 Kg4 46. Bxf2 Bxf2 47. Kxf2 Kf4 {when rather
amusingly White's a-pawn has its first move choice to keep the opposition.})
42... cxd3 1/2-1/2


 


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