Professional chess players in Britain

[Dr Adrian Harvey]

Has anyone any idea when players began to earn their livings by playing chess in the modern era? It would be most interesting to try and quantify their numbers and the extent of their careers. In Victorian times a large number of professionals, at least thirty, were based in Britain: how does the period after 1980 compare?

[Jonathan Rogers]

Just out of interest, are you the same Adrian Harvey who recently published in KAISSIBER?

[John Upham]

Just out of interest, are you the same Adrian Harvey who recently published in KAISSIBER?

Do you mean http://shop.chesscafe.com/item.asp?PID=3070 ?

[Jonathan Rogers]

Yes (is there another KAISSIBER?). An excellent journal, though naturally not much read over here because it is only published in German.

[isaac wallis]

Dr Harvey

I could post an interesting response, but bearing in mind you asked a question on deceased clubs previously, and were given detailed and informative responses which you failed to acknowledge with even a brief 'Thank you', I think I'll pass.

[Roger de Coverly]

Has anyone any idea when players began to earn their livings by playing chess in the modern era?

You need to look at the career of Tony Miles and those of the same era. Tony won the GM title in 1976 and dropped out of University shortly after that. Internationally he was in heavy demand. Also he declined to play for England in the 1977 European unless paid for his appearance.

The increase in numbers from the Fischer boom enabled organisers to run weekend swiss tournaments from the early seventies onwards with attractive prize funds and there were players who specialised in playing in these. I don't think it necessarily replaced their day job although the day job may have been "student" or "job seeking".

The shake out of university funding in the early 80s encouraged others, notably John Nunn into professional chess.

There were others, Ray Keene for instance, who made money as a chess author. He has written that he gave up over the board chess because the rewards of being a writer, journalist and organiser were greater than those of a player.

[Dr Adrian Harvey]

Dear Isaac and anyone else who replied to my question concerning the disappearance of the chess clubs at Hampstead and Islington, sorry if I have given any offence by not thanking you for your interesting response, I did not know that such things were normal in this format. Yes, I had an article on professional chess players in the Victorian era published in Kaissiber in 2000 and should have an article on the same subject published in the academic journal Sport and History in 2011. I have written quite a lot about chess history and am particularly interested in examining the present through such a lense. I find the role of top notch players in Britain quite fascinating. As a juniour player I represented Willesden and Brent chess club in the only season that we had in London League division one. I played board eleven against Waltham Forest, whose top board was Bill Hartston. Those of you with long memories might recall that Hartston was the best player in Britain at the time and it has always struck me as quite remarkable that having disposed of our top board it is likely that his next few games were against such luminaries as Spassky, Portisch and Gligoric. Without any disrespect to John Stainton, W&B's top board, the fusion of the two world's seemed somewhat surreal.

[Roger de Coverly]

. As a juniour player I represented Willesden and Brent chess club in the only season that we had in London League division one. I played board eleven against Waltham Forest, whose top board was Bill Hartston. Those of you with long memories might recall that Hartston was the best player in Britain at the time and it has always struck me as quite remarkable that having disposed of our top board it is likely that his next few games were against such luminaries as Spassky, Portisch and Gligoric.

That sounds like 1973 as the European Championships at Bath is the only event I found featuring all of Hartston, Spassky, Portisch and Gligorich. I'm not sure how Hartston would have described himself in 1973, probably graduate student. You might have been able to class him as semi-professional given that he was already an established author and writer. Hartston's main predecessor as English/British number 1 was Penrose who mostly played in British domestic events with only the occasional international event normally just the team ones. The "Miles generation" who followed spent a lot of time playing internationally and didn't really reconnect with domestic chess until the advent of the 4NCL in the mid-nineties.

The BCF of the seventies didn't really know how to handle international standard players taking part in domestic events. The counties championship was arguably a flagship event and the final could potentially have featured some of the English team. So they scheduled it to clash with the European Championships in Bath to set up a classic Club/County v Country conflict or even spectator v participant. Needless to say, the counties championship final wasn't played that year.

[Dr Adrian Harvey]

Congratulations Roger on some efficient detective work concerning Bath 1973. I am interested in the history of professional chess players based in Britain and until the 1970s it appears that there were few of such people. Barden and Golombek did well from literature, largely journalism, whereas Wade taught chess and was quite active on the international circuit. Penrose does not seem to have ever entertained serious ambitions about turning professional and to my knowledge it was not until Keene and Hartston that anyone made any real effort to earn a living from chess (I believe that Kottenauer used to teach the game along with his bureaucratic work). Of course it was Miles who transformed things by winning the grandmaster title and for quite some time (possibly over twenty years) a lot of players in Britain made a living from chess. I suppose that the demise of the Berlin wall spelt the beginning of the end for chess professionalism in Britain, for it led to the influx of large numbers of players from the former Soviet Union. I must admit that I was quite surprised when a previous correspondent blamed the demise of the Hampstead and Islington clubs on the payment of professional players.

[Simon Spivack]

Congratulations Roger on some efficient detective work concerning Bath 1973. I am interested in the history of professional chess players based in Britain and until the 1970s it appears that there were few of such people. Barden and Golombek did well from literature, largely journalism, whereas Wade taught chess and was quite active on the international circuit. Penrose does not seem to have ever entertained serious ambitions about turning professional and to my knowledge it was not until Keene and Hartston that anyone made any real effort to earn a living from chess (I believe that Kottenauer used to teach the game along with his bureaucratic work). Of course it was Miles who transformed things by winning the grandmaster title and for quite some time (possibly over twenty years) a lot of players in Britain made a living from chess. I suppose that the demise of the Berlin wall spelt the beginning of the end for chess professionalism in Britain, for it led to the influx of large numbers of players from the former Soviet Union. I must admit that I was quite surprised when a previous correspondent blamed the demise of the Hampstead and Islington clubs on the payment of professional players.

Shouldn't this be in the chess fiction section?

[Roger de Coverly]

I am interested in the history of professional chess players based in Britain and until the 1970s it appears that there were few of such people. Barden and Golombek did well from literature, largely journalism,

You could add PH Clarke to the literature list.

Also an article about Owen Hindle in Chess over the last couple of years suggested that he made some attempt to become a professional player. The article indicated that he left working for a bank (which gave two weeks holiday a year) to work for BH Wood who gave him 6 weeks a year so he could play in tournaments.

Willie Winter wrote some articles about chess professionals in the mid sixties. One article suggested that adjudications were a good thing for professional players because they could earn money by processing them.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Willie Winter wrote some articles about chess professionals in the mid sixties. One article suggested that adjudications were a good thing for professional players because they could earn money by processing them

Hmm, would that be the same William Winter who died in (I think) 1957? Or are you thinking of the serialising of his memoirs by CHESS magazine??

[Roger de Coverly]

Or are you thinking of the serialising of his memoirs by CHESS magazine??

The latter.

I had forgotten that he had died fairly young. This means his comments related to chess in the 1950s rather than 60s. He didn't like "amateurs" like Alexander holding chess columns either - suggesting this deprived professionals of income.

[Keith Arkell]

Has anyone any idea when players began to earn their livings by playing chess in the modern era? It would be most interesting to try and quantify their numbers and the extent of their careers. In Victorian times a large number of professionals, at least thirty, were based in Britain: how does the period after 1980 compare?

Golombek,Clarke,Wade and Barden all earned their living from chess in the pre-70s era,but largely had to supplement their incomes by journalism etc.There are of course others,but again none who actually earned their living by playing chess.

In the period after 1980 Miles,Nunn,Speelman,Keene and Bellin have at one time or another been Professional players in the full sense.

I'm not sure where the cut off point comes between ''Professional players'' and those who simply play chess all the time and don't earn a living any other way-perhaps signing on as unemployed.
Short and Adams have both been top ranking Professional Players for pretty much all of their working life.
Hebden,Wells and myself clearly also come into the Professional player category.We have obtained properties and paid our bills etc,mostly on the strength of earnings from playing chess for most of our working lives,Conquest too,although he has only recently moved back to Britain. And then there are the new batch of promising professional players-players such as D.Howell,Haslinger and Williams.I don't know whether I can count Jones as he has recently moved to New zealand

I think this more or less sums up the situation,although I have of course left out some names,for example those who appear to me to earn the bulk of their income from chess related activities,rather than from chess playing itself.

[Ola Winfridsson]

Has anyone any idea when players began to earn their livings by playing chess in the modern era? It would be most interesting to try and quantify their numbers and the extent of their careers. In Victorian times a large number of professionals, at least thirty, were based in Britain: how does the period after 1980 compare?

Golombek,Clarke,Wade and Barden all earned their living from chess in the pre-70s era,but largely had to supplement their incomes by journalism etc.There are of course others,but again none who actually earned their living by playing chess.

Considering that such stronger players as Tartakower, Larsen, Ståhlberg and Najdorf all extensively supplemented their income from playing by journalism, book writing and simul displays on both sides of WWII, I don't think the term 'chess professional' should or could ever be interpreted exclusively to mean someone making a living from tournaments and match play alone.