New Years Honours for chess

[John Upham]

I've just downloaded the 2009 New Years Honours list http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/p ... onours.pdf and scanned it for any occurences of :

chess, Gurney, Walsh, Wilson or Keene.

When was the last time that anyone from English chess (I don't just mean the ECF) was nominated and when was the last time that anyone was actually honoured in any way? I wonder if anyone from the ECF can list their nominations from the last, say, twenty years?

We all know about GMRDKOBE and RG Wade OBE as a starter for ten....

Perhaps John S. can enlighten us on these matters?

[Roger de Coverly]

According to wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Short , an Athens-based grandmaster in 1999.

In 1999 he was appointed MBE, in recognition of his chess accomplishments.

[John Saunders]

Sorry, John, but "honours for chessplayers" wouldn't be my specialist subject on 'Mastermind'.

However, here is a random selection of things I know (or think I know) about the subject of honours for chessplayers.

There were a few honours doled out to chess players between the mid 1960s and late 1970s when Sir Stuart Milner-Barry, OBE, CB, KCVO, was the civil servant in charge of the Ceremonial Branch of the civil service (i.e. the section where they dealt with honours). Golombek, Anderton, Penrose, possibly others whom I have forgotten. Having a chessplayer in such an influential place obviously helped. Hugh Alexander was CMG, CBE, but like Milner-Barry he played a vital part in winning the war - I'm not sure what the citations were for Milner-Barry's and Alexander's various gongs - chess may have been in there somewhere but their war/civil service work was of more significance. I believe Leonard Barden may have refused a gong some years ago. I don't think BH Wood ever got offered one but he should have been. I imagine a good few other chessplayers have received honours for their achievements in other fields (e.g. Sir Jeremy Morse).

I think Nigel Short was the last chessplayer to get a gong for chess. He got the MBE in 1999. Can't think of anyone since then. I would have thought it high time that Mickey Adams got one.

[Paul McKeown]

John,
BH Wood was made awarded the OBE - I know because I read him, in Chess, thank the many that had helped him in his career - unless my memory really has started to crack! I'm trying to track the reference down for you.
I have come across Comins Mansfield receiving the MBE in January 1976 "for services to chess".
I'm sure that CJS Purdy was awarded for services to chess as well, although in Australia, it was from the Queen, at least in theory.
Fairhurst was, I'm sure gonged as well, for services to bridges, if not to chess.
Denis Mardle... The list could go on...
I'll do a short dig.
Not to mention the Swinnerton-Dyer's and other pillars of society beyond chess, etc.

[Paul McKeown]

CJS Purdy's award was the Order of Australia. I'll track down when. Richly deserved of course.

[John Saunders]

Yes, you're quite right - BH Wood was gonged. His Wikipedia entry records it - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Wood

[Paul McKeown]

The sooner someone scans in BCM and Chess and the BCF/ECF Yearbooks and stick them on a bunch of DVD's the better. With a proper, searchable index. Must be worth selling for £150 or so? Post war even for, say, £75.

[Paul McKeown]

You can hire or buy robots to do the donkey work. Probably the British Library would be delighted to help, otherwise.

[Paul McKeown]

Or the ECF?
That would be something really worthwhile for it to do.
I'm sure copyright issues could be resolved?

[Paul McKeown]

William Ritson Morry OBE - January 1984 - presumably for services to chess, rather than penal servitude? He and Barry Wood did seem to patch up their difficult relations eventually.

NO. Chess, August 1984, p. 95: "Sincere apologies for a silly error. Mr. Morry's distinction, announced in the last CHESS, was the B.C.F. President's award for services to chess, NOT the O.B.E. - which he may well have merited."

Don't think anyone would confuse Gerry Walsh for the Queen, would they?

[Paul McKeown]

"My O.B.E. in the New Year's Honours list has brought messages of congratulation in so many hundreds that, though they have touched me to the heart, it has become impossible to acknowledge them personally. Thank you, dear friends! I shall do what I can. Meanwhile, the work goes on. B. H. Wood" - Chess, Vol. 48, Nos. 913-914, January 1984, p. 201

[Paul McKeown]

Gotta go. 'er indoors is out, flying into Heathrow. If I don't meet her, I'll be outdoors, in the dog-house!

[John Upham]

I asked the same question on the ChessParrot forum and received a reply from James (YHM) :

OBEs Anderton, BH Wood, Penrose, Alexander, Wade, Golombek, Keene,
Comins Mansfield. Barden turned it down, Short got the CBE, I think.
Adams is considered too much a professional to qualify perhaps, would
now have to qualify for the World Championship, equalling Short thereby.

Milner-Barry was for public service, Anderton for captaining the silver
medalists in the Olympiad, Keene for organisation. BHW, Golombek,
Alexander largely for writing, Penrose very definitely for play.
Mansfield for problem solving/composition. There is frequently an
element of longevity about it.

Prins to Alexander: Does this mean that you are now a knight?
CHO'D: "Alas, a mere tempo."


YHM

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Adams is considered too much a professional to qualify perhaps, would
now have to qualify for the World Championship, equalling Short thereby."

He reached the final of the KO system, didn't he? That ought to count! Anyway he has done well in team events for England over a number of years, which is another lever. Start a campaign.

Am I the only one wondering at a system which honours someone for winning a gold medal in the 2008 Olympics (which is a great achievement but is after all their job), but a passer by who administered emergency first aid in horrific circumstances after a terrorist attack in London got an MBE three years later?

Kevin

[John Saunders]

Nigel Short has definitely got the MBE. It says so under his Wikipedia entry, which he regularly edits himself. In the good old days, with Sir Stuart as Gongmaster General, OBEs for chess people were (literally) the order of the day. Unluckily for him, Nigel was too young to benefit from the chess-friendly policy of those times and was rewarded with a lesser honour (note to those who may not be aware: CBE outranks OBE which in turn outranks MBE).

Mickey unquestionably deserves a gong. If Paul Collingwood could get an MBE for scoring 7 and 10 in the 5th test in 2005 (making him a target for Aussie sledgers from that day to this), then Mickey's long list of achievements and consistent high placings in world rankings certainly merit recognition.