John Ling

John Francis Ling (1927-2023)

Chess composer

John Ling, veteran British problemist, died on 13th February 2023. He was 95 years old, and was, until his death, quite likely the oldest living chess problemist in the United Kingdom.

Life

John grew up as an only child in Wolverhampton, attended Wolverhampton Grammar School between 1936 and 1945, eventually becoming Head Boy. He won a scholarship to St John’s College, Oxford where he read Greats – Latin, Greek, Ancient History and Philosophy. However, National Service intervened, and he spent two years as a fitter in the RAF. It was during his time in the RAF that he actually flew in a Lancaster Bomber. John began his degree course in 1948, described by his tutors as ‘a modest, pleasant, sensible man,’ whose work showed ‘great vigour, care and a real interest in the classics.’

The late Warren Derry, Headmaster at WGS wrote ‘his interests are not narrow’. His first great passion was chess, playing chess for Oxford while an undergraduate; he was for many years chess problem editor for The Observer and then ‘The Problemist’.  He continued to be involved in editing chess problem magazines for the whole of his life, latterly his own publication, ‘Problem Observer’. His other interests included steam railways, music, reading, wildlife, motor-caravanning and of course football, supporting Wolverhampton Wanderers all his life.

John became a schoolmaster, first at Stourbridge Grammar School, then Llandovery College in 1960, Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Mansfield in 1966, finally moving to Loughborough Grammar School in 1979; he wrote that Loughborough was the happiest school he had been in, only finally retiring at seventy.

John married in August 1955 and is survived by three children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who he called his ‘Littlies’.

Chess Composition

The earliest composition of John's that I can trace was published in 1942 in Chess and his last original I know about was published in 2020 in John's own magazine Problem Observer. It was a joint composition with David Howard, one of that magazine's most stalwart contributors..

John lived through the years in which the two-mover was transformed. In his youth a two-mover had a key and some interesting play after it, possibly with same set play changed by the key. In the 1950 and 60s though virtual-play (or try-play) was developed leading to new and complex themes involving three or more phases, some of them leading to patterns described by the full solutions when written out. As general editor of The Problemist from 1964 to 1972, John found himself at the centre of these sometimes argumentative debates as the younger generation of composers sought to justify their new-fangled ideas. John, however, stayed firmly in the traditional camp, as shown by his output of mainly two and three-movers.

After handing over the editorship to Colin Vaughan in 1972, John set up his own chess problem magazine, which he titled Problem Observer and he stayed at the helm until just before its 50th anniversary in 2022, when the very experienced John Rice stood in temporarily to edit the anniversary issue. Paul Bissicks, one of the BCPS's several volunteer workers, planned to carry Problem Observe forward, but Paul himself died in January, so we must assume that the magazine is no more.