Baruch Harold Wood (13 July 1909 – 4 April 1989) was an English chess player, editor and author. He was born in Ecclesall,

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

, England.

Playing career

Between 1938 and 1957, Wood won the championship of

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

eight times. In 1939 he represented England at the

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 an ...

in Buenos Aires. He won the tournaments at

Baarn Baarn () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, near Hilversum in the province of Utrecht. The municipality of Baarn The municipality of Baarn consists of the following towns: Baarn, Eembrugge, Lage Vuursche. The town of Baarn ...

(1947),

Paignton Paignton ( ) is a seaside town on the coast of Tor Bay in Devon, England. Together with Torquay and Brixham it forms the borough of Torbay which was created in 1998. The Torbay area is a holiday destination known as the English Riviera. Paignt ...

(1954),

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Clif ...

(1963),

Tórshavn Tórshavn (; lit. "Thor's harbour"), usually locally referred to as simply ''Havn'', is the capital and largest city of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the northwest of the city lies the ...

(1967) and

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the l ...

(1975). He Took part in the Gijon International Chess Tournaments of 1947 (5th), 1948 (2nd) and 1950 (8th). He tied for 4th–6th, scoring 5 points out of 9 games, at the 1948–49 Hastings Christmas Chess Congress, 1.5 points behind winner

Nicolas Rossolimo Nicolas Rossolimo (russian: Николай Спиридонович Россоли́мо, translit=Nikolai Spiridonovich Rossolimo; February 28, 1910 – July 24, 1975) was a Russian Empire-born chess player. After acquiring Greek citizenship in 1 ...

. In 1948, he tied for second place at the

British Chess Championship The British Chess Championships are organised by the English Chess Federation. The main tournament incorporates the British Championship, the English Chess Championships and the British Women's Chess Championship so it is possible, although it has ...

held in London. He won the British correspondence chess championship in 1944–45.

Writings

In 1935, Wood founded the magazine

CHESS Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

, which became one of the two leading chess magazines in Great Britain. He edited it until 1988, when it was taken over by

Pergamon Press Pergamon Press was an Oxford-based publishing house, founded by Paul Rosbaud and Robert Maxwell, that published scientific and medical books and journals. Originally called Butterworth-Springer, it is now an imprint of Elsevier. History The ...

. Wood was the chess correspondent for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' and ''

The Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication i ...

''.

Harry Golombek Harry Golombek OBE (1 March 1911 – 7 January 1995) was a British chess player, chess author, and wartime codebreaker. He was three times British chess champion, in 1947, 1949, and 1955 and finished second in 1948. He was born in Lambeth to ...

, ''Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess'', Crown Publishing, 1977, p. 345. . From 1948 to February 1967, he was responsible for the chess column of the

Birmingham Daily Post The ''Birmingham Post'' is a weekly printed newspaper based in Birmingham, England, with a circulation of 2,545 and distribution throughout the West Midlands. First published under the name the ''Birmingham Daily Post'' in 1857, it has had a ...

. He also wrote a popular and often reprinted book ''Easy Guide to Chess'' (Sutton Coldfield 1942), described by Grandmaster Nigel Davies as "one of the best beginners books on the market". His other books include ''World Championship Candidates Tournament 1953'' (Sutton Coldfield 1954) and ''100 Victorian Chess Problems'' (1972).

Administrative roles

From 1946 to 1951 he was a president of the ICCA, a forerunner organization of the

International Correspondence Chess Federation International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) was founded on 26 March 1951 as a new appearance of the International Correspondence Chess Association (ICCA), which was founded in 1945, as successor of the Internationaler Fernschachbund (IF ...

. Wood was a FIDE Judge, an international chess arbiter, and the joint founder of the Sutton Coldfield Chess Club. Wood represented England when it joined FIDE, the world chess federation. He was longtime President of the British Schools Chess Association and also of the British Universities Chess Association.

Family

Wood was the son of Baruch Talbot Wood and Florence Muriel Herington. He married Marjory Elizabeth Farrington in October 1936. Wood's daughter Margaret (Peggy) Clarke won the British Girls' Championship in 1952, 1955, and 1956, and was the joint British Ladies' Champion in 1966. Her husband Peter Clarke was a full-time chess player and writer, who finished second in the British Chess Championship five times, represented England in the Chess Olympiads seven times, wrote five chess books, and was the Games Editor of the

British Chess Magazine ''British Chess Magazine'' is the world's oldest chess journal in continuous publication. First published in January 1881, it has appeared at monthly intervals ever since. It is frequently known in the chess world as ''BCM''. The founder an ...

.Sunnucks, p. 76. Wood's sons Christopher, Frank and Philip are also strong chess players. Christopher Baruch Wood is a FIDE Master.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Baruch Harold 1909 births 1989 deaths English chess players English magazine editors English non-fiction writers Sportspeople from Sheffield British chess writers Chess arbiters English male non-fiction writers Officers of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century chess players 20th-century English male writers