English Federation for Correspondence Chess

David Woodruff 1945-2020 RIP ✝

The Officers of the English Federation for Correspondence Chess (EFCC) offer their condolences to the family, friends and fellow members of Keynsham Chess Club, of David Woodruff who, sadly, died in August 2020 aged 74 years. David was a Life Patron of the EFCC and a member of the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) since 1993 having a ICCF rating of 2004 when he joined. He was also a member of the British Correspondence Chess Association (BCCA) and often played in their webserver trio tournaments. In 2016/7 he played for the BCCA and won two games against Correspondence Chess League of Australia CCLA Kangaroos on Board 20. He played correspondence chess until about 2017 when his health, unfortunately, started to decline.

Before and after taking up correspondence chess, David was a stalwart of the Keynsham Chess Club playing around 1,000 over-the-board (OTB) games for them. In the 1980s David had an OTB grade in the high 160s. He also held the positions of President, Secretary, Treasurer and various team captains over the years. David was also involved in organising and controlled the Keynsham Quickplay many times. He also coached beginners and juniors. With his wide general knowledge, David also set questions for the Saturday night quiz at the BCF/ECF Championships with the late Richard Furness as question master.

Herewith a game which David played in an International Match against West Germany in 1985: -
BPCF v West Germany 1985
White: David G. Woodruff
Black: H. Kuntermann

1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 d6 4.Bg2 Be6 5.d3 Qd7 6.Nf3 Bh3 7.Bxh3 Qxh3 8.Nd5 Rc8 9.Qb3 b6 10.Qa4 Qd7 11.Be3 Na5 12.Qxd7+ Kxd7 13.b4 Nb7 14.Ng5 Nd8 15.b5 f5 16.Rb1 Ne7 17.h4 Nxd5 18.cxd5 h6 19.Nf3 g6 20.Nd2 Bg7 21.Nc4 Nf7 22.Rb3 g5 23.Ra3 f4? (23...Ra8 was necessary) 24.Rxa7 fxe3 25.Nxb6+ Kd8 26.Nxc8 e4 27.fxe3 Bc3+ 28.Kd1 Kxc8 29.Ra8+ Kd7 30.Rxh8 Nxh8 31.hxg5 exd3 32.exd3 hxg5 33.d4 Ng6 34.Kc2 1-0 (34...Ba5 35.Rh7 Ne7 36.Rg7 Ke8 37.e4 Kf8 38.Rxg5)