Harry Golombek OBE (1 March 1911 – 7 January 1995) was a British

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 ...

player, chess author, and wartime codebreaker. He was three times

British chess champion 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 ...

, in 1947, 1949, and 1955 and finished second in 1948. He was born in

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area e ...

Polish-Jewish The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the l ...

parents. He was the chess correspondent of the newspaper ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' from 1945 to 1985, after Stuart Milner-Barry. He was a

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

official, and served as arbiter for several important events, including the

Candidates' Tournament The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The w ...

of 1959 in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

, and the 1963 World Chess Championship match between

Mikhail Botvinnik Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, ( – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess. Botvinnik ...

and

Tigran Petrosian Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian (, ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing style ...

. He also edited the game collections of

José Raúl Capablanca José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he is widely renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play. Capabl ...

's and Réti, and was a respected author. He was editor of ''

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 ...

'' from 1938 to 1940, and its overseas editor in the 1960s and 1970s. Golombek also translated several chess books from Russian into English. On the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in September 1939, Golombek was in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

, competing in 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 ...

for Britain alongside

C. H. O'D. Alexander Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander (19 April 1909 – 15 February 1974), known as Hugh Alexander and C. H. O'D. Alexander, was an Irish-born British cryptanalyst, chess player, and chess writer. He worked on the German Enigma machine a ...

and Stuart Milner-Barry. They immediately returned to the UK, and were soon recruited into

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...

, the wartime

codebreaking Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic sec ...

centre. Golombek worked in

Hut 8 Hut 8 was a section in the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park (the British World War II codebreaking station, located in Buckinghamshire) tasked with solving German naval ( Kriegsmarine) Enigma messages. The section was ...

, the section responsible for solving German Naval

Enigma Enigma may refer to: *Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling Biology *ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain Computing and technology * Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup * Enigma machine, a family ...

, moving to another section in October/November 1942. After the war he lived at 35 Albion Crescent,

Chalfont St Giles Chalfont St Giles is a village and civil parish in southeast Buckinghamshire, England. It is in a group of villages called The Chalfonts, which also includes Chalfont St Peter and Little Chalfont. It lies on the edge of the Chiltern Hills, we ...

. He was unusual among public figures in replying with care to letters from unknown people, such as young schoolboys, from this address. Golombek represented England nine times in the Chess Olympiad. He earned the title of

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

in 1950 and was awarded that of Honorary Grandmaster in 1985.Allport, D.H. & Friskney, N.J. "A Short History of Wilson's School", Wilson's School Charitable Trust, 1987 He was the first British player to qualify for an

Interzonal Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the C ...

tournament. Golombek studied

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

,British Society for the History of Mathematics Gazetteer
/ref> having been a pupil at Wilson's Grammar School, Camberwell. He was appointed OBE in 1966, the first to be so honoured for services to chess.

Books

Hoogovens schaaktoernooi, Bestanddeelnr 903-1810

* ''The World Chess Championship 1948'', 1948, David McKay Company * ''World Chess Championship 1954'', 1954, MacGibbon and Kee * ''Reti's Best Games of Chess'', 1954, G. Bell & Sons, Ltd, republished 1974 (Dover Publications, Inc.) * ''The Game of Chess'', 1954, Penguin Books * ''The World Chess Championship 1957'', 1957, MacGibbon and Kee * ''Instructions to Young Chess Players'', 1958, Pitman Publishing * ''Modern Opening Chess Strategy'', 1959, Pitman Publishing * ''4th Candidates Tournament 1959: Bled, Zagreb, Belgrade'' (originally BCM Quarterly No.3), 1960, BCM * ''Capablanca's Hundred Best Games of Chess'', 1947, G. Bell and Sons * ''Fischer v Spassky: The World Chess Championship 1972'', 1973, Times Newspapers * ''A History of Chess'', 1976, Routledge & Kegan Paul, * ''Improve Your Chess'', 1976, Pitman Publishing * ''The Best Games of CHO'D Alexander'' (co-authored with William Hartston), 1976, Oxford University Press * ''Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess'' (Golombek as editor-in-chief) 1977, Batsford * ''Beginning Chess'', 1981, Penguin Books

Death

Golombek died 7 January 1995. The Amersham Advertiser of Wednesday, 18 January 1995, on page 6, reported, “His funeral was due to be held as 12.30pm, at Chilterns Crematorium, Whielden Lane, Amersham.”

References

External links

* * * * Translated Penguin Book – a
Penguin First Editions
reference site of early first edition Penguin Books.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golombek, Harry 1911 births 1995 deaths Chess grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors British chess players Bletchley Park people British non-fiction writers British chess writers Jewish chess players Chess arbiters Officers of the Order of the British Empire Sportspeople from London Alumni of King's College London People educated at Wilson's School, Wallington British male writers 20th-century chess players 20th-century non-fiction writers Male non-fiction writers

Books

Death

See also

References

External links