Neil Stein

Bob Hitchens reports:

I heard at the weekend of the death of Neil Stein.

I realise that members probably do not know Neil, but some players who were around in the 1960s will.

He was a founder member of the BGA and helped create the BGA’s first bank balance of any size when he recognised the possibility of compensation from University College London for cancelling our booking for the first European Congress to be held in Britain. That opened up a lot of possibilities for the BGA.

When I came on the scene he was the strongest British Go player at 1 kyu. John Barrs was 1 dan with perhaps an honorary element in it, but Stein had the beating of him. He represented the BGA twice in international amateur tournaments in Tokyo (shown on the right of the picture in 1964) and attended several European Go Congresses, the last in Krems in 1975. He slowly moved away from Go when a new generation of younger minds overtook him.

The funeral was in Croydon on 21st May.