A dedication written by Alex Saint, Andrew’s brother.
What a tragedy. All would agree this was such a horrible end to a short life but what a life it was. Andrew lived life to the full – never wasting a moment. Andrew has no enemies. He was such a powerful force of good. Andrew I thank you most for your love, your character and your enthusiasm for life. Dad and I wish to thank the Australian Chess Community, and more recently to the Melbourne Chess Club, for such wonderful tributes to Andrew. He obviously made a big impact on many people.
I would like to write some things about Andrew – my brother and best friend:
If you want to really understand my dear brother you need to look back a decade ago when the Australian Chess Championships came to Adelaide. This was his finest hour. Andrew, the Wedding family and I were already involved in the University Open tournaments. After a few years, we made a bid for and were able to hold, with SACA, the Australian Chess Championships in Adelaide at the end of 2003 and start of 2004. We were all looking forward to this event, none more than Andrew. Others may look forward to going to an AFL grand final live watching their team, well this event was his grand final. As many know, Andrew loved to organise, he loved chess, and he loved to help people – and these three things came together in 2003. Robin Wedding and I were there as willing helpers but Andrew was the leading force. He was the driver, we were in the back seat. Without him, the event would not go down in many peoples eyes as one of the most memorable tournaments as stated by people including Grandmaster Ian Rogers.
It was Andrew who organised the most extravagant snack bar in the history of Australian chess!! He joked with me that we needed to ‘go gourmet’. Well we certainly did! Most chess events supply foam cups, a big tin of Blend 43 coffee and a packet of out-of-date dry Arnotts biscuits. Well Andrew would have none of that. He arranged different coffee blends, herbal teas, fancy cordials, chocolate biscuits, a cheese platter, pate, dips, fruit, everything. I remember many people seeing it and saying, “wow”. Andrew paid for stuff like the snack bar out of his own pocket – a lot of money for a uni student. He didn’t want SACA to have to pay for that, which I think was a good thing for SACA! Why did he do it I hear you ask? He did it so you, the chess public could have a great time. The tournament was so well organised. Behind closed doors was someone who was living that tournament 100% from the moment he woke up to the moment he went to sleep for 14 days. It always brought a smile to his face to see so many people enjoying the tournament. This event wasn’t an attempt to puff up Andrew’s pride or stroke his ego. Andrew humbly and quietly sought to please all. Andrew even said, “we need to go to a special newsagent which has all the interstate newspapers”. He thought it would be a nice thing to do for all the interstate players.
He spent two days in the Chemical Engineering department before the event designing a poster describing the chess event and its history. He organised for there to be a blind simul with GM Ian Rogers on Boxing Day, followed by other simuls and opportunities for chess players to play top players. He organised for top players to give lectures in a special room. He arranged for a BBQ dinner night ensuring there was enough food for everyone. He was always checking that people were enjoying themselves. On top of all of this, Andrew and Robin were writing the newsletter for the tournament. They had to create one each day. He and Robin put everything into that, as many do. It took hours. Andrew always made sure it was a good read. He had all games listed, annotations, chess puzzles, even a joke of the day. Andrew also had a wicked sense of humour, as many people know. I remember Robin, Andrew and I laughing about an argument that broke out on a chess chat forum. He decided to publish it and it brought a smile to many faces especially to those who live on chess chat.
Just to go back to the University Opens, I remember the attention to detail he had. He organised a Saturday night transfer tournament with prizes. He made sure with each University Open that there were prizes for players of all standards. We had $50 prizes for players with different ratings e.g. Under 1000, under 1200, etc. That was all Andrew. Yes he loved seeing top players come along and win, but he also loved the everyday people in chess too and wanted them to have something to aim for. The tournament started off being about 27 people and in its final year it had 99. Andrew being the perfectionist, jokingly of course, wished we had cracked triple figures!! The Saturday night dinner became one of the most enjoyable social events in the chess calendar. Alan Goldsmith noted in his weekly column, that the Saturday dinner event had such a friendly, warm atmosphere. The dinners reached the stage of having 4 bain-maries with many dishes to choose from. If it was up to me I would have given everyone a Chicken Parmi. All of this was because of Andrew. He even had Trevor Tao, a brilliant chess player and pianist, playing the piano at one stage. I remember Andrew getting a bit emotional when he saw Evelyn Koshnitsky (a SA chess stalwart) enjoying the company, the food and the classical music.
SACA ran team chess tournaments on Tuesday nights throughout the year. We had four teams from Uni and each year Andrew told me he thought the traditional chess team names were so boring! There were teams like ‘Adelaide Red’ or ‘Norwood Blue’. Andrew thought it would be better to create some names to remember. So each semester had a theme. One time it was cheeses. He didn’t pick Swiss or anything simple, instead he picked one called ‘Queso Blanco’. Another time it was wine and he picked names like ‘Merlot’. He and the whole team had a huge laugh when they’d announce which teams were on top and Bill (Anderson-Smith) would announce, “Norwood Blue is on top ahead by two points from Queso Blanco”. I have never laughed so much and in the chess hall you’re meant to be quiet!! I will always remember those days at Adelaide Uni as the greatest time in my life – I forget about us studying for our degrees there :).
For the chess community, it would be nice for people to remember that Andrew was a State Junior Chess Champion. His biggest win was claiming the Under 18 Junior Title in what was thought to be one of the strongest fields for a long time. Andrew also performed extremely well in Istanbul and as we all know, he won the tournament on the weekend. As many have said though, he was also a gracious loser. Andrew was not about wins and losses though, which meant he truly had won in the game of life.
Rest in peace Andrew XXX.
(Andrew Saint: 26/12/1981 – 1/4/2013)
