Sad news arrived from Malta. Mario Serracino-Inglott, a prominent figure in Maltese chess and devoted friend of OlimpBase (it is him who provided with the unavailable results of the 1980 Chess Olympiad) died at 73 on Saturday, 22nd September 2007.

He was born in Cospicua in 1934. In 1953 he became a clerk at the Dockyard and two years later he joined the civil service as a clerical officer, retiring in 1985 to teach Maltese at Stella Maris College. He also used to be a vice-president of Akkademja tal-Malti.

He had three Big Loves in his life: apart from his family, wife Joan Antida and daughter Lara, they were both inherited from his father: the Maltese language and chess. Since 1983, he had been editing unpublished Maltese manuscripts of his father Erin Serracino-Inglott including one named Il-Miklem Malti. He also compiled his own dictionary and thesaurus, Dizzjunarju Malti. For a number of years he was a teacher of Maltese. For him Maltese was "a great and beautiful language that is second to no other language and that first and foremost makes us what we are - Maltese."

His chess achievements were no worse making him one of most important figures in the history of Maltese chess. In 1947 he was first and youngest ever Malta junior champion. He also wrote a book on a history of chess in Malta 1800-1990. Although he never committed himself to a professional chess career he took part in two international chess tournaments: in La Spezia (Italy) and Yugoslavia in 1957. For many years he served as president of the Malta Chess Association. In 1980 he was the first Maltese to be officially awarded the title of the International Chess Arbiter (IA). On that year he was co-organizer of the 24th Chess Olympiad in La Valletta.

Relatives remembered him as an avid chess player, a classical music and opera fan, a man with an eye for detail, a lover of culture in general, and in particular of all that contributes to the national identity, his memory lives on forever in his works.

My own relationship with Mario was fruitful and truly inspiring. Despite of his age and declining health he was very optimistic and benevolent personality, open for new challenges and helpful to the others. He greatly contributed to growth of our archives, sending original bulletins from Malta 1980 Olympiad; he was also so nice to write an essay with his reminiscences from past years exclusively for OlimpBase readers. It means even more for us these sad days.

He will be deeply missed by the international chess community.
May you rest in peace, Mario.

Wojtek Bartelski
OlimpBase Head Webmaster