{Presumably the Bh6 35. b3 axb3 36. [EventCountry "ENG"] In 1965 he started CC Olympiad 6 preliminaries on board 3 in section 1 for GB and scored 3 wins and 5 draws; he was the only player not to lose to M. Ali Farboud of Iran, the country which won the group. [SourceVersionDate "2012.11.12"] -263,-335,-355,-409,-478,-554,-588,-764,-1013,-1240,-483,-624,-503,-503,-503, Qh7 Kd6 (32... Nxe2 33. They had an Enigma machine that they used to show my kids, but they were probably too young to understand the significance. O-O-O Bf5 11. Ng3 {intending Nh5 but is g3 a Qxg7+ Kxg7 30. In 1964, Alexander became non-playing captain of the B.C.F. An Irish-born British cryptanalyst, chess player, and chess writer, he was born in Cork, Ireland, the eldest child of an engineering professor at University College, Cork. Bg4 1-0, [Event "Christmas Congress 1953/54-29 Premier"] Qc1 {Forced, but Bd3 Kf8 $1 15. -169,-153,-153,-153,-153,-153,-153,-153,-153,-153,-187,-193,-189,-190,-190, Bh4 $18 {Harding}) (22... CHO’D took up international postal chess in 1963 playing board 3 for the BCCA “Socrates” team in the Eberhardt Wilhelm Cup, a European team event. Currently his burial / cremation site is unknown. [ECO "A83"] Qc8 Nd8 28. g4 Kg7 29. b3 c6 30. g5 Qe7 31. On the whole Black did better than White for both of us. Bxf1 {The depised Bishop has had great }) 10. We remember Hugh Alexander who passed away on Friday, 15-ii-1974. Alexander’s opponent was Fred Reinfeld (according to Chess Magazine) but I have never seen a result and don’t know if they actually played many moves. Francis was born in 1741, in Ballycroy. The game with Bronstein lasted over 100 moves and Alexander won a most difficult Queen and Pawn ending by impeccable technique. He plays imaginative and courageous chess and is never afraid of the wildest complications.”. [Annotator "Harding,T"] I am myself a man of peace, and intellectually lazy; so in deference to my feelings the argument was suspended, before it became too hot. Following PSMBs contribution, in the same obituary there was this from Harry Golombek : I have written elsewhere about Hugh Alexander both as a person and as a chess-player and I also intend to devote a forthcoming article in ‘The Times‘ on Saturday to an appraisal of his place in British Chess. His great adversary was outplayed. Nxc3 d6 11. exd6 Nxd6 12. Bxc7 Rd7 [Black "Clarke, Peter Hugh"] At the time of the census all members of the household were capable of reading and writing apart from Hugh who was recorded as “cannot read”. That's it. 28. But then he usually did.”. Similarly his book on the Spassky-Fischer match. [PlyCount "81"] Bxe2 Nc3 29. Qf7# 1-0. It worked as well as could have been expected but inevitably there had been a decline both in quality and financially. Born in 1915, the tree can now be updated with his death date Qc3 Bg7 Qd8+ Kc5 67. 417,449]} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. [Site "Hastings"] Nxc8 Alekhine's Best Games of Chess : 1938 - 1945 by Alexander, Conel Hugh O'Donel London: G. Bell and Sons, 1966, This page was last edited on 16 February 2021, at 08:26. Qh7 Bxf6 28. Qf7 Qf8 29. Qf6+ Ke8 29. Kh1 Nd4 37. You could also do it yourself at any point in time. Bg5 $5 Re8 20. Qf6+ Ke8 31. He 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. 28. Qc2 Ne7 11. Bb2 g4 {Who would not enjoy having Black from this On the British championship scene, although he always did well before the War, and won convincingly at Brighton in 1938 in a strong field, his record did not match his abilities. Nh5 d4 13. f4 $1 $14 { As for the game, it was not one of our most exciting encounters. 4. d4 g5 5. g3 {MB: This Alexander was perhaps the only English player of his day whom the Grandmasters would have treated as on a level with themselves. But I think he felt he had scaled all the peaks he could scale, and that he was finding top-class competitive chess a burden difficult to reconcile with his Civil Service work and the prospect of a gradual and inevitable decline in his powers did not appeal to him. Nxb4 40. [EventDate "1973.12.23"] From about 1937 to the mid 1950s he was regarded as the strongest player in Great Britain, although he won only two (1938, 1956) of the 13 British Chess Federation Championships in which he competed; he played for the BCF in six Olympiads from 1933 to 1958. point.} Amongst the photos she sent me were some of my great grandfather and his Irish relatives. Kc2 Qf4 87. The Alexander Family Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander was born on Monday, April 19th, 1909 in Cork, Munster, Republic of Ireland. He looked ill, but he was very cheerful and as good company as ever. Of all those who thought like this Alexander was the most effective in his approach to the problems. Among varied other interests were croquet and philately. [Site "The Hague"] It was rather a disappointing period for British chess, and the results, while we were rebuilding a young team, could not – even with Penrose’s outstanding efforts at top board – have been expected to be favourable. Be3 Be5 39. -218,-226,-234,-235,-236,-216,-214,-228,-241,-245,-239,-288,-262,-263,-281, The household consisted of his father, mother and two servants Maud McAuliffe (19)  from County Cork and Johanna Hanlon (20) from Cork City all living at 20, Connaught Avenue, Cork. [Source "ChessBase"] Praise for Alexander’s leadership is a theme common to all those who worked in Hut 8. [Result "1-0"] John O'Donel Alexander. Alexander and T. J. Qc8+ $18) 24... Kxg7 25. [Black "Botvinnik, Mikhail"] Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com: accessed ), memorial page for Conel Hugh O'Donel “C.H.O'D” Alexander (19 Apr 1909–15 Feb 1974), Find a Grave Memorial no. -65,-43,-60,-26,-41,-24,-24,-41,-32,-60,-64,-75,-70,-73,-74,-74,-86,-84,-114, Alexander, author of Fischer v. Spassky, Reykjavik, 1972, on LibraryThing. and the Friends of Chess to find and develop talent in the younger generation, and before he died the fruits of these labours were beginning to appear. [WhiteTeamCountry "NED"] Qf4+ Kg7 77. Re2 ({If} 28. g4 h5 { 23,17,8,-13,27,3,25,-10,5,-7,-7,5,34,44,36,21,48,36,51,48,48,37,37,16,36,0,221, Bd6+ Here is the entry in the passenger list for September 19th, 1939 : and here is Alexander’s entry in detail. Nf1 Ke2 107. Bf4 Rxe1+ 18. [Round "1.1"] Bh4 a5 31. Qe7 Kh6 50. He always had something fresh and original to say, especially, I think, to the intelligent amateur rather than the expert; and he said it in a way that was both disarmingly modest and yet lively and entertaining. criticised this move.} ({If} 26. Rxe1 Rd8 (17... Re8 18. [SourceVersionDate "2002.11.25"] Before, however, that he gave up this post he, again in the most practical way possible, rendered the ‘BCM‘ another service. But Hugh had, I believe, exceptional talents as a journalist. Source : The Anglo-Soviet Radio Chess Match. Bxd1 Nxg3 27. Kd2 g6 31. [EventRounds "2"] Bf4 Bf8 16. Mr Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander FO Civilian For service in support of the work of Bletchley Park during World War Two. Nh4 f3 {BCN : has [Site "Hastings"] Qc3 Nc6 38. -417,-381,-468,-513,-496,-420,-420,-290,-301,-301,-308,-301,-421,-267,-338, cxd4 8. Bxe6 Qxe6 28. Kg2 h3+ 21. The story goes that one day when Turing arrived late at the Park and the record book asked him to name the head of his section; Turing wrote “Mr Alexander” and with the logic of bureaucracy Alexander was treated as the head of Hut 8 from then onwards. Qe5+ Qd6 50. been tried a few times.}) In chess, he twice wins the British Chess … From British Chess Magazine, Volume XCIV (94, 1974), Number 4 (April), pp. Qf4 Qb5 34. He became deputy head of Hut 8 under Alan Turing. [Round "?"] Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander: | | | Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander | | | | ... World Heritage Encyclopedia, the aggregation of the largest online encyclopedias available, and … Qe4+ f5 45. Qc3+ Kf7 26. g5 $3 Rd8 (26... Rf8 27. Bxd5 cxd5 31. [White "Alexander, Conel Hugh O'Donel"] He said all the right things about Bronstein, but he did not claim, as one tends to do on these emotional occasions, that international sport was a panacea for friendship between the nations. Kb1 Qe1+ 40. [1] He represented Cambridge in chess. 1974, page 118, gam"] He died in 1974 and although his obituaries rightly spoke in glowing terms of his chess achievements, the impact of his more secret work still cannot be fully revealed.”. 15. fxg5 O-O-O (15... Qxe5+ 16. Bg7 Bd4 0-1, [Event "Match/Nation radio"] At some point they returned to Cork and then relocated to Birmingham. When he returned from Buenos Aires (“good air”) from the 1939 Olympiad he travelled aboard the RMS Alcantara. [Annotator "PS Milner-Barry & British Chess News"] is not so bad as it looks.}) [1] Alexander won a scholarship to study mathematics at King's College, Cambridge, in 1928, graduating with a first in 1931. Qc3 Qe7 52. BCN : Both Ivanchuk and Grischuk have played this.} top board. For a while I was able to ‘bully’ my way to wins, until I came up against people who really knew what they were doing. In February 1940, Alexander arrived at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking centre during the Second World War. Bb3 c6 26. Bxf6+ Kg8 25. Qxg8+ Kc7 32. Qf7 Qg6 49. Bxh8 Qxh4 16. c5 Qf6+ Kc7 48. -1022,-1022]} 1. d4 f5 2. e4 fxe4 3. Alexander was awarded the International Master title in 1950 and the International Master for Correspondence Chess title in 1970. He worked on the German Enigma machine at Bletchley Park during the Second World War, and was later the head of the cryptanalysis division at GCHQ for 25 years. [EventType "tourn"] Re2 Rae8 16. Latterly he lost some of this elan, and adapted his style to the responsibilities of the B.C.T. [ECO "C34"] Before the war they were played mostly at my mother’s house in Cambridge, and after the war and my own marriage at our house in Blackheath. Rxe5 Rxe5 23. When he moved to Cheltenham the opportunities became fewer but no year ever passed without two or three such games, usually at Easter or Christmas. Hugh Alexander was born into an Anglo-Irish family on 19 April 1909 in Cork, Ireland, the eldest child of Conel William Long Alexander, an engineering professor at University College, Cork (UCC), and Hilda Barbara Bennett. In 1941, Alexander transferred to Hut 8, the corresponding hut working on Naval Enigma. You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization. Qxg4 32. In chess, he… By 1949 he had been appointed head of the cryptanalysis division. 12. Re3 e5 Bf3 Nf5 23. Bb3+ Ke8 29. 21. My great aunt, his sister, was the family archivist. [Black "Alexander, Conel Hugh O'Donel"] [Source "ChessBase"] Rf1 Re6 30. [Black "Alexander, Conel Hugh O'Donel"] Nxc7 Qe5 22. which it was unlikely to be shaken. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. but he had a soft spot for the Dutch defence and trotted it out on special Kc1 Qe4 20. [SourceVersion "1"] Re1 Bg4+ 22. Qg7+ Kd6 47. Alexander had one of the most agile minds of the new breed of mathematical cryptanalysts; he proved the best at the pen and paper methods of ‘banburismus’ that reduced the computational work of Enigma attacks and his military aptitude test assessed him as suitable for development up to four star general. During the Second World War, he worked at Bletchley Park with Harry Golombek and Sir Philip Stuart Milner-Barry, deciphering German Enigma codes and later for the Foreign Office. good square for a knight?} Alexander finished 2nd= at Hastings (1937/38) tied with Paul Keres after Samuel Reshevsky and ahead of Salomon Flohr and Reuben Fine. Qd2 O-O 8. Hugh O'Donel was born in 1788, to Francis (Hugh mor) O'Donel and Catherine O'Donel. I abandoned that too. Qd5 Qa1+ 53. [SourceDate "2002.11.25"] Qe2 Ne5 $19 {or is this the move Nd6+ Ke6 29. Re1 Ne5 (21... Qe6 Qa5 34. Qh8+ Ke7 Qe1 Qf6 51. There was some discussion of Drapery Manager in another place. Kxf3 Rg5 28. He played for the Philadelphia athletics, Boston red SOx, Detroit tigers and Chicago white SOx. Bd2 Ke6 38. Awarded the IM title in 1950 at its inception and the IMC title in … 233,233,248,248,265,261,261,615,1029,1180,1180,1153,1300,1300,1428,1495,1484, [Annotator "British Chess News"] Qg7+ Ke8 34. Nf3 Ba6 13. 1. e4 {Myers Harding} e5 2. will know, with many good and interesting writers on the game. Qxg4 Nb5 $5 $15 {Myers}) (21. an immediate attack with} h5 {and then …h4}) 18... Re8 19. [SourceDate "1998.11.16"] During the Second World War, he worked at Bletchley Park with Harry Golombek and Sir Philip Stuart Milner-Barry , deciphering German Enigma codes and later for the Foreign Office. Want to improve your Chess game? “Correspondence chess is only mentioned briefly in the article. Qd7+ Qd6 69. Bg8 $18 {Harding}) (26... Nxe7 27. Qe7+ Kb6 66. I have only 17 plus a few that Messere completed.”. Rh2 Ba4 $10 {Schwarz}) 31... Ba4 $1 {Schwarz}) 22. The ship was the Alcantara operated by Royal Mail Lines Ltd hence the RMS Alcantara. : Remembering Tony Miles (23-iv-1955 12-xi-2001) | British Chess News, Remembering Jim Slater (13-iii-1929 18-xi-2015), Best Wishes GM Dr. Jonathan Mestel (13-iii-1957), Best Wishes GM Jonathan Mestel (13-iii-1957) | British Chess News, Birthday Greetings IM Shaun Taulbut (11-I-1958), Best Wishes GM Michael Stean (04-ix-1953).