Has anyone ever given up chess?

[Roger de Coverly]

Would it be cheeky to ask if you could add IMs to that list, too?
Cheers!
Paul M.

Here's the list as downloaded from the FIDE website with some manual additions, It's from the top 100 including inactive players so it's today's rating or when they last played.

Whiteley and Basman don't feature as they've dropped out of the all time top 100
(edit) lower rated IMs now added


 1940  Hindle, Owen M  f
1946 Basman, Michael J
 1947  Hartston, William R  m
1947 Whiteley, Andrew J
 1948  Keene, Raymond D  g
 1949  Horner, Jeff  m
1949 Webb, Simon m
1949 Botterill, George S. m
1950 Williams, Arthur H f
1951 Hutchings, Stuart J f
 1952  Bellin, Robert  m
1952 Beaumont, Chris R m
 1953  Stean, Michael F  g
1954 Cooper, John G m
 1955  Nunn, John D M  g
1955 Miles, Tony g 
1956  Littlewood, Paul E  m
 1956  Speelman, Jon S  g
1956 Crouch, Colin S m
 1957  Pigott, John C  f
 1957  Mestel, A Jonathan  g
 1957  Martin, Andrew D  m
1958 Kosten, Tony g
 1958  Hebden, Mark L  g
 1958  Taulbut, Shaun M  m
 1958  Goodman, David S C  m
1958 Baker, Chris W m
 1959  Sowray, Peter J  f
 1959  Flear, Glenn C  g
 1960  Lawton, Geoff W  m
 1960  Pein, Malcolm  m
 1960  Plaskett, H James  g
 1960  Davies, Nigel R  g
1960 Chandler, Murray g
 1961  Teichmann, Erik O M C  f
 1961  Arkell, Keith C  g
1961 McNab, Colin g
1961 Cummings, David H. m
 1962  Watson, William N  g
 1962  Cox, John J  m
1962 Motwani, Paul g
 1963  Crawley, Gavin  m
 1963  Levitt, Jonathan P  g
 1963  Bell, Stephen D  
 1963  King, Daniel J  g
 1963  Hodgson, Julian M  g
 1963  Hawksworth, John C  m
1963 Jacobs, Byron A m
 1964  Kinsman, Andrew P H  m
 1964  Bradbury, Neil H  m
 1964  Bowden, Karl  
1964 Gallagher, Joe g
1964 Lane, Gary m
1964 Wells, Ian
 1965  Short, Nigel D  g
 1965  Wells, Peter K  g
 1965  Waddingham, Graham A  f
1965 Lalic, Susan K m
 1966  Wall, Tim P  f
 1967  Howell, James C  g
 1967  Dunnington, Angus J  m
 1967  Conquest, Stuart C  g
 1967  Morris, Philip J  m
 1967  McDonald, Neil  g
 1967  Emms, John M  g
1967 Thomas, Ian m
 1968  Ward, Chris G  g
 1968  Norwood, David R  g
 1969  Rossiter, Philip J  f
 1969  Summerscale, Aaron P  g
 1969  Ledger, Andrew J  m
 1970  Quillan, Gary  m
 1970  Rahal, Michael A  m
 1970  Hennigan, Michael T  m
1970 Anagnostopoulos, Dimitri g
1970 Cooper, Lawrence H m
1970 Tozer, Richard J D m
 1971  Adams, Michael  g
 1971  Piper, Matthew S  
 1971  Mortazavi, Ali  m
 1971  Buckley, Graeme N  m
 1972  Collinson, Adam R  f
 1973  Webster, Andrew  m
 1973  Poulton, James R  
 1974  Sadler, Matthew D  g
 1975  Turner, Matthew J  g
 1975  Kumaran, Dharshan  g
 1975  Ansell, Simon T  m
 1976  Parker, Jonathan F  g
 1976  Gormally, Daniel W  g
 1976  Devereaux, Maxim L  m
 1977  Hinks-Edwards, Thomas R J  f
 1977  Ferguson, Mark  m
1977 Rowson, Jon g
1977 Williams, Leighton m
1977 Cobb, James m
1977 Ciuksyte, Dagne m
 1978  Hunt, Harriet V  m
 1978  Cobb, Charles A  m
1978 Houska, Miroslav m
 1979  Greet, Andrew N  m
 1979  Williams, Simon K  g
 1979  Bates, Richard A  m
1979 Rudd, Jack m
 1980  Houska, Jovanka  m
 1980  Hunt, Adam C  m
 1980  Mah, Karl C C  m
 1981  Pert, Richard G  m
 1981  Palliser, Richard J D  m
 1981  Pert, Nicholas  g
 1981  Haslinger, Stewart G  g
 1983  Hawkins, Jonathan  m
 1983  Broomfield, Matthew P  f
1983 Jones, Richard S. f
 1984  McShane, Luke J  g
 1984  D`Costa, Lorin A R  m
 1984  Hanley, Craig A  m
 1985  Buckley, Simon T  
 1986  Trent, Lawrence  m
 1986  Gordon, Stephen J  g
 1986  Rendle, Thomas E  m
 1987  Ghasi, Ameet K  
 1987  Jones, Gawain C B  g
1988 Rees, Ioan f
 1989  Wu, Li  
 1990  Howell, David W L  g


FIDE doesn't have year of birth for

    Webb, Roger  
    Lee, Peter N  
    Eales, Richard G  f
    Haygarth, Michael J  
    Markland, Peter R  
    Bailey, R  
    Penrose, Jonathan  g

They're all 1952 or earlier though.


If I just base the list on current top 100 ENG active players, this is what it looks like.

B-Year
 1947  Whiteley, Andrew J  m
 1948  Carleton, John J  
 1951  Berry, Stephen H  f
 1951  Stebbings, Anthony J  
 1952  Povah, Nigel E  m
 1952  Beaumont, Chris R  m
 1952  Bellin, Robert  m
 1956  Littlewood, Paul E  m
 1956  Crouch, Colin S  m
 1956  Speelman, Jon S  g
 1957  Martin, Andrew D  m
 1957  Kenworthy, Gary  f
 1957  Mestel, A Jonathan  g
 1958  Taulbut, Shaun M  m
 1958  Knott, Simon J B  m
 1958  Baker, Chris W  m
 1958  Hebden, Mark L  g
 1959  Sowray, Peter J  f
 1959  Flear, Glenn C  g
 1960  Lewis, Andrew P  f
 1960  Pein, Malcolm  m
 1960  Plaskett, H James  g
 1960  Brown, Simon D  f
 1961  McMichael, Richard J  c
 1961  Teichmann, Erik O M C  f
 1961  Arkell, Keith C  g
 1962  Cox, John J  m
 1962  Rose, Matthew  
 1963  Crawley, Gavin  m
 1963  Wiley, Tom E  f
 1963  King, Daniel J  g
 1964  Richardson, John R  f
 1964  Dickenson, Neil F  f
 1965  Lalic, Susan K  m
 1965  Short, Nigel D  g
 1965  Wells, Peter K  g
 1966  Thomas, Nicholas  f
 1967  Emms, John M  g
 1967  McDonald, Neil  g
 1967  Eames, Robert S  f
 1967  Conquest, Stuart C  g
 1968  Ward, Chris G  g
 1969  Ledger, Andrew J  m
 1969  Summerscale, Aaron P  g
 1970  Tozer, Richard J D  m
 1970  Webb, Laurence E  f
 1970  Rahal, Michael A  m
 1970  Hennigan, Michael T  m
 1970  Quillan, Gary  m
 1970  Duncan, Chris R  f
 1971  Adams, Michael  g
 1971  Piper, Matthew S  
 1971  Buckley, Graeme N  m
 1972  Rogers, Jonathan W  f
 1972  Collinson, Adam R  f
 1973  Hague, Ben  f
 1975  Ansell, Simon T  m
 1975  Turner, Matthew J  g
 1976  Devereaux, Maxim L  m
 1976  Parker, Jonathan F  g
 1976  Gormally, Daniel W  g
 1977  Hinks-Edwards, Thomas R J  f
 1977  Ciuksyte, Dagne  m
 1977  Savage, Ben D M  f
 1977  Ferguson, Mark  m
 1978  Vigus, James E  f
 1978  Bisby, Daniel L  f
 1978  Cobb, Charles A  m
 1978  Hunt, Harriet V  m
 1979  Greet, Andrew N  m
 1979  Williams, Simon K  g
 1979  Bates, Richard A  m
 1979  Moskovic, David M  f
 1980  Mah, Karl C C  m
 1980  Alfred, Nathan S W  f
 1980  Houska, Jovanka  m
 1980  Hunt, Adam C  m
 1980  Ashton, Adam G  f
 1981  Pert, Richard G  m
 1981  Pert, Nicholas  g
 1981  Palliser, Richard J D  m
 1981  Haslinger, Stewart G  g
 1982  Bigg, Andrew J  c
 1983  Broomfield, Matthew P  f
 1983  Hawkins, Jonathan  m
 1984  Hanley, Craig A  m
 1984  D`Costa, Lorin A R  m
 1984  McShane, Luke J  g
 1985  Buckley, Simon T  
 1986  Trent, Lawrence  m
 1986  Martyn, Rafe  f
 1986  Gordon, Stephen J  g
 1986  Rendle, Thomas E  m
 1987  Jones, Gawain C B  g
 1987  Eggleston, David J  f
 1988  Constantinou, Peter  f
 1989  Poobalasingam, Peter S  f
 1989  Roberson, Peter T  
 1990  Howell, David W L  g
 1994  Zhou, Yang-Fan  f

(edit) 1970 Agnos added
(edit) top 8 Welsh added

[Leonard Barden]

Fine work, Roger.

1964 Lane, Gary m

I would also add 1964 Wells, Ian who would certainly have reached at least IM strength had he lived.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Ah, so I left out Michael Rahal from the list of players from my era. Simple explanation - in thirty years of playing competitive chess in England, I never met him or saw him, as far as I know. Anyone?!

[John Upham]

Fine work, Roger.

1964 Lane, Gary m

I would also add 1964 Wells, Ian who would certainly have reached at least IM strength had he lived.

Would you also include Gordon Crown Leonard?

[Stewart Reuben]

Fine work indeed Roger.
Jacques Mieses 1865.
Leonard Barden 1929 would certainly have been an IM with the more modern opportunities (many of which he created). He has previously denied this, but I disagree.
Jonathan Penrose 1933.
Harry Golombek 1911.

If I remember correctly, it was Ray Keene who arranged for both of the latter two to get the GM title long after their active days. He also pointed out to me that Bill Hartston would have been a GM according to the rules not introduced until 1995.
John Nicholson deserves a special mention. He gained 5 IM norms, but never reached the required rating level, which was only 2350 in those days. Now norms never die, so it is not too late.
I have had correspondence with Erik Teichmann who is currently working on his IM title. Peter Sowray has the same objective.
The late Barry Wood told me he had the ambition to become an IM and be the oldest ever to receive the title. He could have had it in 1950. The first IM list was being agreed. The Spanish Delegate said, 'What about our good friend, Mr Wood?' Barry demurred saying he wasn't good enough. He was always a favourite of the Spanish. After the Second World War, BH was the BCF Delegate. The USSR proposed that Spain should be excluded. Barry made a speech including, 'Gens Una Sumus' and won the day.
Stewart Reuben

[Stewart Reuben]

Michael Rahal. He has lived in Spain for many years. He was very helpful to the English teams in the European Team Championships in Leon.
Was Richard Lobo FM listed by Roger? He has been resident in the Bay Area for many years.
Stewart Reuben

[Roger de Coverly]

Was Richard Lobo FM listed by Roger? He has been resident in the Bay Area for many years.

The source data was the top 100 according to the FIDE website.
http://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml?to ... ountry=ENG

The top 100 for all players including inactive is 2340 and above, while for active only it's 2275 and above. Richard Lobo is still an active player but at 2262 he doesn't quite make the top 100.

Cross-checking against the ECF year book shows I'm missing 12 IMs who are below 2340. I suppose these should be added

[Leonard Barden]

Fine work, Roger.

1964 Lane, Gary m

I would also add 1964 Wells, Ian who would certainly have reached at least IM strength had he lived.

Would you also include Gordon Crown Leonard?

Obviously=but give Roger a break! Otherwise you're querying the omission of Atkins, Blackburne, de Vere and Staunton......

[Stewart Reuben]

Peter Wilson does not quite fit in here, but he does have four FIDE titles. IA, IO, FI, CM; Arbiter, Organizer, FIDE Instructor, Candidate Master. I have only 3 of those, so Peter may be unique - at least in Britain. Jonathan Mestel holds 3 GM titles, one of them for Bridge.

Stewart Reuben

[Roger de Coverly]

Otherwise you're querying the omission of Atkins, Blackburne, de Vere and Staunton......

I gave some thought to how to extend it backwards in time to cover events between 1945 and 1970. Once you get before the post-war generation, measures like IM title or top 100 rating no longer work as a selection criterion.

Possible proxies are all or some of :-
top x place in the British Championship
invitation or qualification to play in the Hastings Premier
Playing in the England/BCF Olympiad team
Playing in the annual Anglo-Dutch match
award of the "old" British or Candidate master title.

I could also include playing in the Student olympiad team - although by 1967 the team was Basman, Keene, Hartston, Whiteley, the early sixties teams were not especially strong.

[Alex Holowczak]

Peter Wilson does not quite fit in here, but he does have four FIDE titles. IA, IO, FI, CM; Arbiter, Organizer, FIDE Instructor, Candidate Master. I have only 3 of those, so Peter may be unique - at least in Britain. Jonathan Mestel holds 3 GM titles, one of them for Bridge.

Stewart Reuben

I think Jack Rudd is well on his way to IM, IA and IO!

Although in fairness, if you can speak English, you're 1/3 of the way towards IO anyway... (Admittedly, the other two criteria are more substantial!)

[Jonathan Rogers]

[quote="Stewart Reuben"]Michael Rahal. He has lived in Spain for many years. He was very helpful to the English teams in the European Team Championships in Leon.


Ok, but when did he ever play chess in England!? Just two years older than me but I've never met him nor even seen a game by him, as far as I know!

[Stewart Reuben]

Michael Rahal. I have just written to ask him about his English exploits. I have probably had yet another senior moment and once knew the answer. Yet I cannot remember ever having had a senior moment.

British Master was fully the equivalent of the IM title in my opinion. I recommended it be dropped because it seemed to me it had become easier to get the IM title due to increased opportunities. Consider Leonard Barden, Peter Clarke and Michael Franklin (indeed he was still active enough to get 1 IM norm in 1978).

stewart Reuben

[Leonard Barden]

Otherwise you're querying the omission of Atkins, Blackburne, de Vere and Staunton......

I gave some thought to how to extend it backwards in time to cover events between 1945 and 1970. Once you get before the post-war generation, measures like IM title or top 100 rating no longer work as a selection criterion.

Possible proxies are all or some of :-
top x place in the British Championship
invitation or qualification to play in the Hastings Premier
Playing in the England/BCF Olympiad team
Playing in the annual Anglo-Dutch match
award of the "old" British or Candidate master title.

I could also include playing in the Student olympiad team - although by 1967 the team was Basman, Keene, Hartston, Whiteley, the early sixties teams were not especially strong.

Some of these would produce some odd qualifiers, such as the local players who used to prop up the Hastings Premier. The simplest procedure would be to take players above a defined rating level on Chessmetrics, though you would of course have to allow for the fact that Chessmetrics historical ratings are hyper-inflated.

[Simon Brown]

Michael Rahal. I've never met or seen him either. I recall seeing him arrive on the rating list and assuming it was someone who changed their name!