Chess skills add another dimension to Noble’s play
MARK Noble dreamed of being an All Black, but settled for a masterful career in chess and bowls.
Noble, who was part of the North team for the interisland match in Dunedin at the weekend, was 13 when his rugby hopes were dashed.
He was hit by a car, causing his left hip to shatter, and faced regular surgery to replace the plates that held his lower limbs in place.
Realising that the physicality of topflight rugby was no longer an option, Noble took up chess after being fascinated with the Russian champions of the 1970s.
Playing correspondence chess in the late 1970s and 1980s was by mail and often replies would take months.
‘‘The world championship cycle I played in back in those days took 20 years to get there.
‘‘I ended up thirdequal out of about 100,000 players that started the event.’’
He became a correspondence chess grandmaster in 2010 and joint world champion in chess 960 (Fischer random), while also representing New Zealand in para bowls at the past three Commonwealth Games, winning two silver medals.
Noble said chess was a lot like lawn bowls in tactical terms.
‘‘Sometimes, in lawn bowls, you can play a good shot and trail the jack, but you might open up the jack in other areas.
‘‘Well, chess is the same. You play a move and it creates what can come back to you.
‘‘So you do have to think ahead of the square in lawn bowls as well. You can’t chuck up bowls and go, ‘oh, I’ve just trailed the jack’, without thinking about what the outcome is after you’ve played the bowl.’’
Noble said combining the two disciplines helped him concentrate for longer periods when a game in either went the extra distance.
His first senior selection in chess was for the 1996 Chess Olympiad in Russia.
Noble and pairs partner Barry Wynks had indulged in plenty of highjinks over the years, once clambering into legendary rugby ground Cardiff Arms Park for an unauthorised tour, and another time negotiating with security to sneak some liquid refreshments into their rooms at the Commonwealth Games.
Wynks — who was missing an arm and a leg — died in late 2020, and his former partner felt that absence in Birmingham.
‘‘It’s tough when you’ve built up such a good rapport with somebody and you’re best mates,’’ Noble said.
He and new partner Graham Skellern were only a nudge away from bronze at the Games this year.
Noble is not one to dwell on his disability, preferring to play alongside ablebodied bowlers and claim the scalps of New Zealand’s top bowlers from time to time.
‘‘I’m not playing much para bowls because I want to play ablebodied and beat the best. And I’ve been lucky enough over my career to have accumulated 28 open titles.’’
❛ I’m not playing much para bowls because I want to play ablebodied and beat the best