Harry Golombek

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Harry Golombek (left) in the game against Albéric O'Kelly de Galway (1949)

Harry Golombek (born March 1, 1911 in London , † January 7, 1995 in London) was a British chess player . During the Second World War he contributed significantly to the deciphering of the German rotor key machine Enigma . Golombek studied philology at King's College London . After the war he lived in Chalfont St Giles . In 1966 he was honored by Queen Elizabeth II and accepted by her into the Order of the British Empire .

chess

Interzonal tournament 1979 in Rio

Golombek was an outstanding English chess master and won the British championship in 1947, 1949 and 1955. Between 1935 and 1962 he took part in nine Chess Olympiads . He was the first British chess player to qualify for an interzonal tournament (1952). For his successes he received the title of International Master from FIDE in 1950 , and in 1985 he was made an Honorary Grand Master .

In addition, he worked as an organizer for FIDE and on the rules committee for more than 40 years. He was also frequently used as an international referee , including six World Cup matches. In 1979 he was together with Gertrude Wagner referee at the interzonal tournament in Rio de Janeiro .

For many years he was a chess correspondent for The Times . From 1938 to 1940 he worked as editor of the British Chess Magazine , in the 1960s and 1970s as a foreign reporter for this magazine. He was also the editor of the Encyclopedia of Chess published in 1977 .

He published more than 30 books, some of which were later translated into multiple languages, among others

  • Reti's Best Games
  • Capablanca's Best Games
  • A History of Chess

Bletchley Park

The legendary "Hut 6" (photo from 2004) in Bletchley Park is one of the barracks where code breakers like Harry Golombek successfully worked on deciphering the German Enigma during the Second World War.

Harry Golombek was in 1939 together with his teammates Stuart Milner-Barry and Hugh Alexander in Argentina when in Buenos Aires held the 8th Chess Olympiad . While the tournament was in progress, the participants were surprised by the outbreak of World War II after Great Britain declared war on the German Reich on September 3, 1939 in response to the German invasion of Poland . Golombek and his team-mates then canceled the tournament and immediately returned to England.

Golombek joined the so-called Government Code and Cypher School (abbreviation: GC&CS , German about: "Staatliche Code- und Chiffrenschule"), which was located about 70 km northwest of London in Bletchley Park . It was a camouflage name for the military service that successfully deciphered the message traffic that the German military encrypted with their Enigma key machine during World War II .

Golombek worked under the direction of Alan Turing in the Hut Eight (German: "Baracke 8"), in which the British code breakers specifically dealt with the deciphering of radio messages from the German navy that were encrypted with the Enigma-M4 key machine .

To decipher them, they used a method that has been known and proven for centuries, namely the "Probable Word Method" (see also: Pattern Search ). Here the attacker guesses, suspects or knows that a certain phrase (English crib , French mot probable ) appears in the text , for example "OBERKOMMANDODERWEHRMACHT". This “crib” (probable word) is used to suitably set an electromechanical deciphering machine, called the “ Turing bomb ”, which was devised by Alan Turing, and with its help to find the unknown roller position and basic position used by the German encryptors Had chosen encryption.

The British code breakers at Bletchley Park succeeded in maintaining the Enigma's deciphering ability for the entire duration of the war, with the exception of a few interruptions , and thus contributed significantly to the rapid victory of the Allies.

literature

  • Friedrich L. Bauer : Deciphered Secrets. Methods and maxims of cryptology. 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Springer, Berlin et al. 2000, ISBN 3-540-67931-6 .
  • Francis Harry Hinsley, Alan Stripp: Codebreakers - The inside story of Bletchley Park. Oxford University Press, Reading, Berkshire 1993, ISBN 0-19-280132-5 .
  • Gordon Welchman : The Hut Six Story - Breaking the Enigma Codes. Allen Lane, London 1982; Cleobury Mortimer M&M, Baldwin Shropshire 2000, ISBN 0-947712-34-8 .
  • Harry Golombek (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Chess. 1977, ISBN 0-7134-0878-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ H. Benesch: On the way to the World Cup 1980 - Interzonal tournament in Rio . Schach Aktiv 11/1979, p. 239 (report and cross table).
personal data
SURNAME Golombek, Harry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British chess player
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1995
Place of death London