British Chess Champions of the past
Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 6:35 pm
I made the following post on the `When Anteaters Attack` thread in General Chat.
In both lists and particularly the ladies side; for every player enshrined in legend there are some that are completely forgotten. For the 100th championship in Torquay next year perhaps somebody could produce a commemorative book of former champions and tell the stories of those who are less well known.
Another interesting thing about the ladies championship is that Vera Menchik never won it (she won the British girls championship in 1921). Obviously by 1927 she would probably be too strong for it but did she ever compete? I'm guessing that the ladies event was seperate in those days and she entered the main tournament instead but I may be wrong.
I've now had a chance to see how my question (oldest living winner, earliest champion still living) might apply to the Ladies champions. It would appear to be Anne Summucks although there may be a little known champion from earlier who is still alive. Also Miss Fatima's death date is unknown; I believe after her victory at the age of nineteen she disappeared from view before resurfacing briefly in the nineteen sixties and it is theoretically possible for her to still be alive.Andrew Zigmond wrote:I think the obvious problem is that there are relatively few veterans one could call upon for a former champions tournament. Most of those still living are either long retired and unlikely to be tempted back into active play or are still strong enough to enter the championship proper. How would you deal with the 2002 and 2003 champions who won when Commonwealth players were still allowed to enter?
One could always invite the 1972 champion if you knew where to find him. It would be his own silly fault if he turned up.
Going off topic but I found myself looking at the list of champions on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Chess_Championship.
Who is the oldest living champion and who is the earliest champion still living? I'm assuming both distinctions belong to Leonard Barden (born 1929, won 1954), however there are a few obscure champions from the 1940s who could conceivably still be alive.
I was also under the impression that England's great `lost` chess talent Gordon Crown had won the title but apparently I was mistaken.
In both lists and particularly the ladies side; for every player enshrined in legend there are some that are completely forgotten. For the 100th championship in Torquay next year perhaps somebody could produce a commemorative book of former champions and tell the stories of those who are less well known.
Another interesting thing about the ladies championship is that Vera Menchik never won it (she won the British girls championship in 1921). Obviously by 1927 she would probably be too strong for it but did she ever compete? I'm guessing that the ladies event was seperate in those days and she entered the main tournament instead but I may be wrong.