Bletchley Park Code-Breakers on BBC News

[John Saunders]

A photo depicting famous old chessplayers such as Hugh Alexander, Harry Golombek, etc, appeared on BBC TV News today.

The news clip can be viewed here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14165088 and appears about 48 seconds in.

The news story was about the Queen unveiling a memorial at Bletchley Park to the WW2 code-breakers who worked there. As the photo appears on the screen, the voice-over mentions that the Bletchley Park code-breakers included "mathematicians, crossword experts and linguists". But it doesn't mention chess or chessplayers, despite the fact that everyone in the photo is a chessplayer!

The photo was actually of the players who played in the chess match between Oxford University and the so-called Bletchley Chess Club and appeared in CHESS Magazine at the time (1944) and again in an article I wrote for the February 2011 issue. Some of the people in the photo were just university students and not code-breakers at all.

[Simon Dixon]

Some of the people in the photo were just university students and not code-breakers at all.

Journalistic licence. The BBC asked a friend of mine to take part in a documentary about code breakers. He could hardly play chess let alone break codes, but there he was on TV, playing chess with the enigma machine perched next to the chess board like some giant chess clock.

[Tryfon Gavriel]

Hi John

There was quite a good forum thread on Chessworld.net about Bletchley park, and this page has that part of the film annotated with chess players:

http://www.myemailchess.com/chessclubs/ ... umpuzzles=

"

(See photo 3 posts down)

1—C.H.O’D Alexander, chess player and author, British Champion 1938 and 1956

2—Harry Golombek, chess player and author, British Champion 1947, 1949, 1955.

3—James M Aitken, Scottish Champion ten times between 1935 and 1965.

4-Irvine John (Jack) Good, Chess-player, Mathematician, Statistician, Cryptographer, and Polymath.

5—N Anthony Perkins, who was also a strong chess player.
"

Best wishes
Tryfon

[John Saunders]

Here's a link to my CHESS Magazine article as published on ChessBase - http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7037. The relevant photo is about three-quarters of the way down the page. It has the names of all the people who appear in the photo. At least one of the people in the photo, John Cornforth (now Sir John) is still alive. He's a Nobel prizewinner and said (by Wikipedia) to be actively engaged on scientific research. Very strong player who used to turn out for Sussex, I think.

Looking at the photo again, I've played against at least two of them.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

5—N Anthony Perkins, who was also a strong chess player.

Look at the length of his games - he was the Keith Arkell of his day!

[Simon Brown]

I think you will find they are half-moves.

[John Moore]

Still plays about twice as many as I try to do

[Stewart Reuben]

Harry told me Turing was a queen odds player.
In 1972 I asked Harry what effect chess had had on his life. His reply. I wouldn't be alive. My battalion was biing shipped out. My CO called me i nto his office. 'I am told you are a srtong chessplayer'. I'm seconding you to Bletchley Park.' They had no idea of its purpose, the call had simply gone out for intelligent people. Only 3 of Harry's battalion survived.
Stuart Milner-Barry doesn't seem to be in the photo.

Stewart Reuben

[Richard Bates]

Harry told me Turing was a queen odds player.
In 1972 I asked Harry what effect chess had had on his life. His reply. I wouldn't be alive. My battalion was biing shipped out. My CO called me i nto his office. 'I am told you are a srtong chessplayer'. I'm seconding you to Bletchley Park.' They had no idea of its purpose, the call had simply gone out for intelligent people. Only 3 of Harry's battalion survived.
Stuart Milner-Barry doesn't seem to be in the photo.

Stewart Reuben

How would they go about identifying "intelligent people" today?

[Alistair Campbell]

How would they go about identifying "intelligent people" today?

I imagine they'd start by looking at those who contribute to this forum...

[Krishna Shiatis]

How would they go about identifying "intelligent people" today?

I imagine they'd start by looking at those who contribute to this forum...

and then rule them out?

[Stewart Reuben]

Surely first you look for high rated chessplayers.
Then you look at those who never started a degree course. They are Ace.
If you don't have enough. Then those who didn't complete it. They are King.
And there you have it. Still not enough - you do make it difficult.
Those who did their degree but never used it in any way. They are Queen.

Stewart Reuben

[John Saunders]

The rest, presumably, are regarded as knaves.

[Paul Cooksey]

The rest, presumably, are regarded as knaves.

I'm going to assume high rated is 2400+, since I'd rather be classed as a knave than the alternative

[E Michael White]

Of course in WW2 if you were Good you were referred to as Jack ( is there a smilie for get it ? )