Who was L. Alexander?

[Gerard Killoran]

I came across this photograph on Ancestry.com and was pleased to find a report of the match. The second board for Lud Eagle (the name comes from an amalgamation of the Ludgate Circus and Spread Eagle clubs) was L. Alexander. He is not to be confused with F. F. L. Alexander. Does anyone know more about him?

Lud Eagle 1.jpg

Lud Eagle 2.jpg

[Gerard Killoran]

This is the report:

Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 27 May 1944a.png

Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 27 May 1944b.png

Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 27 May 1944c.png

Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 27 May 1944d.png

Black's 26th move is missing, but it think it was Qa8.

[Event "Lud-Eagle - Allied Forces"] [Site "Bryanston Square, London W2"] [Date "1944.04.26"] [Round "?"] [White "Alexander, L."] [Black "Simonson, Albert Charles"] [Result "0-1"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. c4 d5 4. e3 Nbd7 5. Nc3 c6 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. e4 dxe4 8. Nxe4 Nxe4 9. Bxe4 f5 10. Bc2 O-O 11. O-O e5 12. c5 Be7 13. dxe5 Nxc5 14. Qe2 Be6 15. b4 Ne4 16. a3 a5 17. bxa5 Rxa5 18. Bb2 c5 19. Bd3 Qc8 20. Bc4 Kh8 21. Rfd1 Bxc4 22. Qxc4 b5 23. Qe2 c4 24. Rd5 c3 25. Bc1 Bc5 26. Nd4 Qa8 27. Qa2 Ra4 28. Ne6 Bxf2+ 29. Kf1 Rc8 30. Rxb5 Qa6 31. Qd5 Bc5 32. Nc7 Qa7 33. Qd7 Rf8 34. e6 Bd6 {Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 27 May 1944} 0-1

[Richard James]

Possibly Laurie Alexander?

Some information here.

Mike Sheehan knew him well and often spoke to me about him.

[Leonard Barden]

Laurie Alexander was a strong Surrey player, about 2350 at his peak. Writers sometimes confused him with CHO'D or FFL Alexander, notably Horowitz in Golden Treasury who praised a trivial win to the skies while naming CHO'D as the winner. The game is possibly from the 1947 Surrey championship: Laurie Alexander v Edgar GR Cordingley
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 b6 4 g3 Bb7 5 Bg2 c5 6 d5 ed 7 Nh4 d6 8 Nc3 Qd7 9 Nxd5 Nxd5 10 Bxd5 Be7 11 Nf5 O-O 12 Bxb7 Qxb7 13 Qd5 1-0.

from nearest camera going backwards Fred Leicester v J Montgomerie (ridiculusly high board for Fred who was just a Gambit Cafe coffee house player, but he probably subsituted for an absentee)

HH Cole (former British championship competitor) v A Peters

Otto Friedman v O Range

Jacques Mieses (absent from the board) v Milton Hanauer

Laurie Alexander v Albert Simonson Simonson was second to Reshevsky in the 1936 US championship and third to Reshevsky and Fine in 1938

Paul List v Savielly Tartakover

[Richard James]

A game between L Alexander and FFL Alexander, played in the 1936 Surrey County Championship. (Linlithgowshire Gazette 26 June 1936: the column also includes a problem by FFLA)

[Leonard Barden]

FFL in old age defeated Bogolyubov at Southsea 1950.

[Mike Gunn]

Surrey's interclub cup competition is called the Alexander Cup and is presumably named after either L or FFL Alexander.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Surrey's interclub cup competition is called the Alexander Cup and is presumably named after either L or FFL Alexander."

FFL, it's stated in "50 Years of Battersea Chess" (assuming I remembered the title correctly.) I did inform one of your Surrey colleagues a few years ago, but he never acknowledged receipt.

[Richard James]

Surrey's interclub cup competition is called the Alexander Cup and is presumably named after either L or FFL Alexander.

The Alexander Cup has been going since 1922 so it wouldn't have been named after L Alexander. Possibly something to do with FFL Alexander, but I can't find anything immediate online.

L Alexander was Surrey Champion in 1934, 1937 and 1946. His name first appears in Surrey county teams in early 1931. FFL Alexander was Surrey Champion in 1924.

I've found a death record for a Laurie Alexander born 11 Nov 1913 died in Hatfield, Hertfordshire November 1986, which might be him, although it would mean that he was 17 when he first represented his county. However I can't find any birth, electoral roll or 1939 Register records which match. He may, I suppose, have been in the Forces at the time of the Register.

The name Laurie suggests a possible Scottish connection but I couldn't find anything on Scottish genealogical sites. It's possible, of course, that his first name was Laurence/Lawrence, but I can't find anything obvious that matches. I also can't find him in any online trees.

All a bit of a mystery at the moment: perhaps Mike Sheehan knows more.

[Leonard Barden]

From the Battersea website:
The trophy was in fact in memory of another earlier Alexander, believed to be F. F. L. Alexander, who is mentioned in our club history and was Battersea treasurer from 1919, Surrey champion in 1924 and Surrey treasurer from 1931 to 1938.

Battersea first won the Alexander Cup in 1927 and went on to pick it up a further six times, the last being in 1953. Wimbledon hold the record for wins in this competition, having scooped it 12 times.

[John Saunders]

BCM, May 1944, p109, gives the score of the board which is nearest the camera, where about half the board can be seen with the white bishop on c4, etc.

[Event "Lud-Eagle v Allied Forces"] [Site "London, Bryanston Square, W2"] [Date "1944.04.26"] [Round "1.6"] [White "Leicester, Frederick R"] [Black "Montgomerie, John"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C56"] [PlyCount "44"] [EventDate "1944.04.26"] [EventType "team-match"] [EventCountry "ENG"] [WhiteTeam "Lud Eagle"] [BlackTeam "Allied Forces"] [WhiteTeamCountry "ENG"] [BlackTeamCountry "ENG"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. O-O d6 6. d4 exd4 7. cxd4 Bb6 8. Bg5 h6 9. Bxf6 Qxf6 10. e5 dxe5 11. Nxe5 Nxe5 12. dxe5 Qf4 13. Na3 O-O 14. Qe2 Bg4 15. Qe1 Rae8 16. Qc3 Rxe5 17. Rae1 Rfe8 18. Rxe5 Rxe5 19. Nc2 Be2 20. Bxe2 Rxe2 21. g3 Bxf2+ 22. Kg2 Be3+ {Source: BCM, May 1944, p109} 0-1

Leonard's earlier assessment of Fred ('Red'?) Leicester's ability seems accurate. BCM promised more annotated games from this match in the June 1944 issue but, infuriatingly, that issue is missing from my collection. Can anyone else oblige?

In the photo the gentleman paying close attention to the games from the Armed Forces side, roughly between boards 3 and 4, is Harold Meek, then secretary of the BCF and, so BCM tells us, in charge of the Forces team. I recognise him from lots of other photos from the era.

BCM dates the match to 22 April 1944 but I'd be more inclined to put my trust in the date supplied by the professional agency photographer present at the match. All manner of riff-raff edit chess magazines...

[Kevin Thurlow]

Linlithgowshire Gazette published a lot of reports on Southern England chess, which is interesting. Nowadays, local papers are owned by the same company and there is little local news in them, but I would not have thought that applied then.

[Richard James]

Fred ('Red'?) Leicester

Very cheesy. I thought he was known as 'Coxy' Leicester because he played for Cox's Bank.

[Richard James]

When looking for other mentions of this match I chanced upon this extraordinary article from a magazine called Good Morning (22 July 1944).

Intrigued by the idea of servicemen playing chess, they commissioned an article from a non-specialist writer.

[Richard James]

BCM promised more annotated games from this match in the June 1944 issue but, infuriatingly, that issue is missing from my collection. Can anyone else oblige?

The June 1944 issue published the L Alexander-Simonson and Hanauer-Mieses games, both annotated by Dr Aitken. Stockfish 12 is not very impressed with the annotations.







Here's the latter game:

[Event "Forces v London"] [Site "Lud Eagle Chess Club"] [Date "1944.04.22"] [Round "?"] [White "Hanauer, Milton Loeb"] [Black "Mieses, Jacques"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A52"] [PlyCount "83"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] [SourceVersionDate "2020.11.01"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 Ng4 4. e4 h5 5. Be2 Nc6 6. Nf3 Ngxe5 7. O-O Nxf3+ 8. Bxf3 Ne5 9. Nc3 c6 10. Bf4 Qf6 11. Bxe5 Qxe5 12. Be2 Bc5 13. Kh1 d6 14. f4 Qd4 15. Qc2 Bg4 16. Rad1 Qf6 17. e5 Qf5 18. Ne4 O-O-O 19. Bxg4 Qxg4 20. exd6 Be3 21. Ng5 Bxf4 22. Nxf7 Rhe8 23. Rxf4 Qxf4 24. Nxd8 Kxd8 25. c5 Qg4 26. h3 Re2 27. hxg4 Rxc2 28. gxh5 Rxc5 29. g4 Rc4 30. Rg1 Kd7 31. Kh2 Kxd6 32. Kg3 Ke5 33. Kh4 Rc2 34. Kg5 Rxb2 35. Kg6 Rh2 36. Kxg7 Kf4 37. Kg6 Rd2 38. h6 c5 39. h7 Rd8 40. g5 c4 41. Kg7 b5 42. h8=Q 1-0