by Keith Arnold
I loved Charles French. That is a term I do not throw around much, but I loved Charles French,who passed away, age 90 on November 13. All of us, who can remember the time before a stroke severely limited his tournament, workshop and Congress attendance, will recall him fondly.
Charley found go as a chess player fairly early in his life, but never truly got to play until he found the AGA in his retirement. His enthusiasm for the game was perhaps the greatest I have ever witnessed, and he played with a glee that would rival any child.
He also played at a pace rivaled only by a glacier. His determination and concentration were amazing and he played with deliberate joy, outlasting if not outplaying you. Indeed, his motionless pose before the go board became a thing of legend, immortalized by me in my poem “Charley at the Ban.”
He was an inveterate tournament goer and congress attendee. Charley ran a go club from his home in Pennsylvania for many years and, with skills from his work as Treasurer of the Philadelphia Gas Works, he patiently sorted out some long neglected tax issues for the AGA back in the 1990s. He was a favorite student of Jujo Jiang, who unfailingly asked about him long after he stopped holding his Cleveland Workshops. He reached 2 kyu, a respectable achievement for a man who started playing in retirement. The AGA database shows 522 games and 108 tournaments, but many of his games were too early for the database to capture.
Charley was a wonderful man, a gentleman of the last century in every good way, and perhaps a few of the bad, that term implies. He was unfailingly courteous, polite, generous and kind. He loved family and children and above all a good joke and a laugh. Charley also appreciated women, a handsome man, he enjoyed attention, and yes, to be waited upon, but was always thankful and full of praise for the efforts of others.
Probably because he loved my wife, we spent many, many July weekends at his home on the Jersey Shore. These were truly some of the favorite times of my life, well fed and taken care of by his wife Addie, and the only price of admission endless games (and with Charley games were endless) in the sun on the deck. And “Uncle Charley’s” delight and joy in the arrival of our daughter is something I will always remember and appreciate.
stalwart opponent
always, now forever, I
await your next move
