Hans Ree letter 22nd October 2000: Free the Henderson One

Hello Free the Henderson One. This note you may transmit to the organizers or use in whatever way you want.

As a fellow journalist of John Henderson I am quite shocked by his expulsion from the press room by the organizers of the Braingames World Championship. In my years as a chess reporter I have had to suffer many a disgruntled look from organizers and officials, but I think an incident like this is unprecedented in the history of chess. The stated reason, that Henderson would have been abusive to members of the Braingames staff, seems incredible to me. I think it is obvious that it were Henderson's irreverent articles that brought the organisers to their action. Now this brings me in a difficult situation. I attended the match during its first week and my intention was to come back near the end of it. But the idea that the benevolence of heavy-weight attendants would depend on the kindness of my articles, would be insufferable. Is it safe for a chess journalist to come to London? The action against Henderson, brutal in itself, constitutes a threat to the freedom of expression of all journalists in the press room. I expect the Braingames people to come to their senses, reïnstate Henderson to the press room and make prompt and humble apologies to him and to us all.

Yours sincerely, Hans Ree, Amsterdam

Hans Ree is the chess columnist for the Dutch newspaper NRC-Handelsblad. Some of these columns appear in English on the internet site ChessCafe.com http://www.chesscafe.com/hans/hans.htm