No, not meet him at our next meeting! Your scribe meant meet him here by reading about him.
And speaking of meetings, LCCC met on July 11 at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Brighton, MI. It was at our usual time from 4pm until 9pm. And the same time will be for July 25.
Your scribe missed a post due to some health issues (noting serious, but a broken fingertip does make it more difficult to type. HINT: When setting brick pavers with a big rubber sledgehammer, remember to look before striking and move fingers out of the way before striking the paver.
Good thing to know.
Out July 11 meeting was successful and fun. We had 12 players for the evening for casual chess. Hope to see you all on July 25.
Now for the story of a fine gentleman and an excellent chess player. But chess was just one of his talents for which he excelled! I will let him introduce himself!
"I am Sir George A. Thomas. I was born on June 14, 1881, in Constantinople. I starred at chess as a young boy but had very limited opportunities for practice or play. We lived in a small provincial town with no strong players. So I concentrated more on tennis, badminton and hockey in my youth.
I never played in a serious chess tournament until 1905. But I won the City of London Chess Club Championship 12 times, the first time being in 1907. I also won the British Championship in 1923.
Chess was my 'what might have been' career, but owing my fondness of other games probably stood in my way. I have captained English teams for three different games; chess, badminton and lawn tennis. Badminton was my best game as I have won over 300 first prizes in open tournaments."
What he did not mention is that he won the British Championship again in 1934 and represented England in the Chess Olympiads of 1927, 1930, 1931, 1935, 1937 and 1939, and scored an impressive 80% in the matches!
In international tournaments his greatest
successes were 1st at Spa (ahead of Tartakower) and =1st at Hastings 1934/5
(tied with Euwe and Flohr, ahead of Capablanca and Botvinnik).
During his career he has beaten Capablanca,
Botvinnik (in consecutive rounds at Hastings 1934-35), Flohr and and drawn with
Nimzowitsch, Rubinstein and Capablanca. He been noted for his sportsmanship and
for his interest in and encouragement of young players.
He was the author of the book, The Art of Badminton, in 1923.
He died on the 23rd of July in 1972 in a London nursing home.
