Roger Andrew Fenn (1942-2025)

[John Saunders]

Roger Andrew Fenn (July 1942 - 1 January 2025)

Links: Clare College, Cambridge obituaries and the London Mathematical Society Newsletter, September 2025.

Roger Fenn was the West of England Under-18 Champion in 1960. Source of info: the 1960 WECU Congress bulletin, which may be found in the BritBase Library.

He also took part in the 1957 British Under-15 and 1959 and 1960 British Under-18 Championships.

Whilst at Cambridge, he did not play in a Varsity match but played for Cambridgeshire in county matches. He appeared at 5b and 6a in early 1960s grading lists, indicating a strength of around BCF 170 / Elo 1960. Later, having taken up a post as a mathematics lecturer at Sussex University, he played for Sussex in county matches.

A non-chess claim to fame appeared in both obituaries, that Roger Fenn was the first person from a comprehensive school to be admitted to Cambridge University.

[John Saunders]

The claim mentioned in the previous post is not fully corroborated in the following contemporary clip from the Evening News (London), 24 January 1961. Still quite an achievement, of course...

1964-01-24-evening-news-roger-fenn.png (156.23 KiB) Viewed 1497 times