John Littlewood (chess player)

John Littlewood (25 May 1931 to 16 September 2009) was for many years a leading British chess player and took the title of national senior champion in 2006. Perhaps his most famous game was the one he lost against the world champion Mikhail Botvinnik at the Hastings International Chess Congress 1961/2. Littlewood launched a fearsome attack which Botvinnik was able to defend only by means of a tactical finesse. Botvinnik chose to include the game in his autobiographical Best Games 1947-1970.

Life

John Littlewood was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire in 1931. He was the fourth of his eleven siblings. He did not start playing chess until he was 13, when he was introduced to the game by a friend. This is very late compared with most chess players,

He kept on losing to his friend, so he went into the school library and checked out every single chess book. He then read a lot of chess tactics, and eventually beat his friend.

At 16 he was much improved and so joined the local chess club. As he had not played that many people he was surprised when he found he could beat everyone in the club. At this point he became very keen on the game. When he went to study at Sheffield University, he won three university tournaments and won the Sheffield Championship.

After university he did national service where he taught reading and writing to the soldiers. Because of this he did not have the opportunity to play chess for the next two years.

After his national service he began his career as a French teacher in Lincolnshire. His first big break was when he was invited to the British Chess Championship in York. He did well for his first time and was nick-named ‘the Lincolnshire poacher’, a name he protested against because he was born in Sheffield.

Littlewood - Botvinnik (1961)

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

After 20. bxc3.

After his good performance in York he was invited to participate in the prestigious Hastings tournament and played his famous game against Botvinnik, the World Champion at the time. He started with a promising attack, but missed an important resource, enabling Botvinnik to turn the game around and defeat him. Botvinnik includes this game in his autobiographical “Best Games 1947-1970”.

At Hastings he also played the American grandmaster Arthur Bisguier who he beat within 25 moves. After the match his opponent said “What do they feed this guy on? Raw meat?”

Littlewood has since played at two Olympiads, several Anglo-Dutch matches, and European and World Seniors. He was proud to have defeated the German grandmaster Wolfgang Uhlmann on two occasions. Aside from playing the game, he also managed the national blind chess team and was at one stage the Director of Junior Chess.

His brother Norman also played in four Olympiads and his son Paul, an International Master, won the British Chess Championship in 1981.

He lived latterly in Skelmersdale, Lancashire and had seven children and eight grandchildren.

John Littlewood was outright winner of the British Senior Chess Championship in 2006 and finished equal first in 2008, when the contest was held at Liverpool’s St George’s Hall. To be eligible to compete, participants must be sixty and above; he was seventy-seven on this second occasion and one of the oldest players taking part.

He had his own chess column called "Littlewood's Choice", printed once a month in the English Chess Federation magazine.

External links

• John Littlewood player profile and games at Chessgames.com
• John Littlewood vs Mikhail Botvinnik at the Hastings Chess Congress 1961
• Statistics at ChessWorld.net
• John Littlewood's obituary in the Times