No Decoder Needed - LCCC Meets Monday August 22 at BWW in Brighton, MI

 

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.