Frans Van de Ven passed away peacefully on May 6, 2025, at Vancouver Hospital.
Frans was born on June 3, 1948 in Lamalou-les-Bains, France. The family lived in Belgium for a time before immigrating to Canada.
For many years and up until he retired in 2022, he was the Business Agent for CUPE 2950 at UBC. He had a law degree and an MA in Philosophy, but his favourite job was driving the Stanley Park train, which he did in costume on holidays. He was passionate about chess, the arts, animal advocacy and cooking.
He is survived by his companion of 43 years, Crista Dahl, family in BC and Ontario, and his cat Lydia.
A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, July 12th from 1pm to 4pm at 2061 Venables Street, Vancouver.
July 8th, 2025
I was very sad to learn of his passing. Frans had been a wonderful friend in my early days in London Ontario. He is remembered among other things as fine chess player in the style of the great Capablanca whose play he most admired. In my early days in London he was my inspiration too for developing my chess, starting in High School where he started a chess club, and later by 1965 he was also London Club champion. He was also very socially conscious in those days, so it is no surprise to me how he chose his career.
If the memorial for him will be streamed or recorded I would love to be able to see it. I live in Ontario and won’t be able to travel in person.
Those who shared his passion for chess in his later life may be interested to see a very fine game he won against one of Canada’s best-known players of the day. The game was intensely followed by all, and of course by me especially, not only as his good friend but because his his win was to be the reason my McGill team edged Toronto by half a point in total points for the championship.
A WINNING CHESS GAME TO REMEMBER:
Frans Van de Ven (U W O) - Bruce Amos (U Toronto)
Eastern Canada Intercollegiate, Board 1 (last round) 28 January 1968
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.b4 c6 4.Bb2 Bg7 5.Bg2 Qb6 6.a3 Ne4 7. d4 d5 8.Nbd2 Nd6 9.Ne5 Nd7 10.c4 Nxc4 11.Ndxc4 dxc4 12.Nxc4 Qb5 13.Qc2 0-0 14.0-0 Nb6 15.Na5 Na4 16.Nxc6 bxc6 17.Bxc6 Bf5 18.Qxa4 Qxe2 19.Bxa8 Rxa8 20.Qb3 Be6 21.d5 Bh3 22.Bxg7 Bxf1 23.Rxf1 Kxg7 24.Qc3+ Kg8 25.Re1 Qa2 26.Qc6 Rd8 27.Rxe7 Kg7 28.d6 Qxa3 29.Rxf7+ Kg8 30.Qc7 Qa1+ 31.Kg2 Rxd6 32.Re7 Black resigned
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