Chess Miscellany

Chess sometimes seems to suffer from something of an image problem. The purpose of these pages is to light-heartedly attempt to redress the balance by giving space to articles and anecdotes - be that amusing, informative, or inspirational - which present a different perspective on our sport. Please feel free to contribute.

Thanks to Dr. John Higgs who starts us off with this article which illustrates the historical significance of three of Britain's twentieth century chess players.

Chess and Code breaking: Enigma and Bletchley Park

It is often said of chess – by those who can’t play it – that it is socially useless.  It is a solitary pursuit and who ever heard of anyone’s life being saved by chess?  Yet 70 years ago, with the outbreak of the Second World War, the British Government found chess players to be uniquely useful in work which saved the lives of countless servicemen and servicewomen in the field: cracking the secret code – the Enigma – which the German forces used.

The 1939 Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires was interrupted by the outbreak of World War 2. On the English team were Stuart Milner-Barry (later knighted), Hugh Alexander and Harry Golombek. All three left immediately and made their way back to Britain. Milner-Barry was the first to be recruited into Bletchley Park, and he in turn recruited both Alexander and Golombek.

Three of the best chess players in England were part of the Bletchley Park intelligence war.  Each contributed substantially in their own way.  Milner-Barry headed up Hut 6 and was later the person chosen to hand-deliver a petition to Winston Churchill begging for funding to keep the Bletchley Park operation going.

Hugh Alexander became the head of Hut 8, the Enigma code-breaking effort, taking over from Alan Turing. Alexander showed so much promise in the pre-war years, establishing himself in International tournaments like Nottingham 1936 where he was highly placed despite having to face 5 World Champions. That promise and intellect was refocused into intelligence work through his experiences in Bletchley Park, so what was robbed from the chess world played a part in keeping Britain safe during the War and the subsequent cold war.  After the war in a radio-match he beat the Russian champion Mikhail Botvinnik (who was regarded as the strongest player in the post-war world, and two years later becoming World Chess Champion). 

Golombek also worked in Hut 8, the section responsible for solving German Naval Enigma, moving to another section in October/November 1942. He was a British chess International Master and honorary grandmaster, chess arbiter, and chess author. After the war he was three times British chess champion, in 1947, 1949, and 1955 and finished second in 1948. He became a grandmaster in 1985. He was appointed OBE in 1966, the first to be so honoured for services to chess.

Sir Winston Churchill called the men and women of Bletchley Park "my geese that laid the golden eggs and never cackled". The story of what they did there remained a secret for almost 30 years.  Where Chess leads, others follow.