4pm until 9pm or so. Stop on by for some casual chess and great restaurant server service from the lovely, talented and friendly Sydney.
Our club numbers are growing as we approach chess season (fall /winter). We had 18 players last meeting, so it will not be hard for you to find an opponent, no matter what your skill level.
Hope to see you this Monday at the Brighton BWW in the Green Oak Shopping Center.
Now, meet another great chess player and human being most people have never heard of:
Conel Hugh O’Donel Alexander, 1909 to 1974, was one of Britain’s greatest
cryptanalysts ever and certainly one the most brilliant chess players of
his generation. A Cambridge educated mathematician, he soon found
himself recruited by the government when the second world war broke out. Alexander
worked on the German Enigma machine
at Bletchley Park during World War II and was later the head of the
cryptanalysis division at GCHQ for over 20 years. He was so well known was
he in his field, that when he retired Alexander was sought out by the
NSA to work for them, but he declined.
Chess was Alexander’s
passion, and he was twice British Champion, the last time being in 1956. He was
awarded the International Master title. Alexander’s style of play
was very sharp and his real strength was revealed in complicated and messy
positions.
He played many of the
best players of his day, including Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Smyslov,
Botvinnik, Bronstein, Keres and Fine. He defeated Botvinnik and Bronstein
once each.
Alexander represented
England at 6 Olympiads (it would have been more, but he was prohibited to play
behind the iron curtain lest he be kidnapped and was non-playing captain of the
English team after he stopped competing from 1964 until the early
1972. Alexander was also a well-respected chess author.
Alexander
represented Cambridge University n the Varsity chess matches of 1929,
1930, 1931 and 1932. He was twice a
winner of the British Chess Championship, in 1938 and 1956. Alexander
represented England in the Chess Olympiad six times, in 1933, 1935,
1937, 1939, 1954 and 1958. At the 1939 Olympiad, Alexander had to leave
part-way through the event, along with the rest of the English team, because of
the declaration of WWII, since he was required at home for codebreaking
duties.
He
was also the non-playing captain of England from 1964 to 1970. Alexander was
awarded the International Master title in 1950 and the International Master
for Correspondence Chess title in 1970. He won at Hastings 1946/47
with the score 7½/9, a point ahead of Tartakower.
Alexander's best tournament result may have
been first equal (with David Bronstein) at Hastings 1953/54, where he went
undefeated and beat Soviet grandmasters Bronstein and Tolush in individual
games.
Alexander's
opportunities to appear abroad were limited as he was not allowed to play chess
in the Soviet bloc because of his secret work in cryptography.[4]
He
was also the chess columnist of The Sunday Times in the 1960s and 1970s.
Many
knowledgeable chess people believe that Alexander had Grandmaster potential,
had he been able to develop his chess abilities further.[5] Many
top players peak in their late twenties and early thirties, but for Alexander
this stretch coincided with World War II, when high-level competitive
opportunities were unavailable.
After
this, his professional responsibilities as a senior cryptanalyst limited his
top-class appearances. He defeated Mikhail Botvinnik in one game of a
team radio match against the USSR in 1946, at a time when Botvinnik
was probably the world's top player. Alexander made important theoretical
contributions to the Dutch Defense and Petroff Defense.
