Henry Ernest Atkins

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Henry Ernest Atkins (born August 20, 1872 in Leicester , † January 31, 1955 in Huddersfield ) was an English chess player and nine-time national champion.

Chess career

Atkins, who studied mathematics at Cambridge University and was a professional teacher in Yorkshire , remained an amateur throughout his life and played only a few tournaments outside of England. In 1895 he was second behind Géza Maróczy in the Hastings side tournament and thus won the title of British amateur champion. In 1899 he won a tournament in Amsterdam with a hundred percent result, four points ahead of second-placed Adolf Olland . At the 13th Congress of the German Chess Federation in Hanover in 1902 he was third behind Dawid Janowski and Harry Nelson Pillsbury . In 1904 he took part in the British Championship for the first time and, like William Ewart Napier, scored 8.5 points from eleven games, but lost the due playoff for the title. He then won the title of national champion seven times in a row from 1905 to 1911. After a long break, he reported back to the very busy international tournament in London in 1922, but had to pay tribute to his lack of match practice and only came in 10th with 6 points out of 15 games (+4 = 4 - 7). In 1924 and in 1925 he was again British champion. In his last participation in the state championship in 1937, at the age of 65, he took a respectable third place.

Atkins represented his country between 1896 and 1911 in twelve comparative battles with the USA carried out by telex and scored 6 points: Victories against Constant F. Burille in 1897, Frank James Marshall in 1902 and John F. Barry in 1907 and 1910, draws against Eugene Delmar in 1896, Edward Hymes in 1898, Hermann G. Voigt in 1908 and Albert B. Hodges in 1911 as well as defeats to Jackson Whipps Showalter 1899, Barry 1900, Hymes 1901 and Marshall 1903. He also played at two Chess Olympiads for England: 1927 in London, where he scored 7 points scored twelve games (+3 = 8 −1) and won the bronze medal with the team, as well as in Warsaw in 1935 , where he got 6 points out of 13 games (+3 = 6 −4).

In 1950, when his chess career was already over, he was awarded the title of International Master by FIDE . According to Harry Golombek , the Soviet delegate initially had reservations about the proposal because he mistook Atkins for a weaker English player named Aitken. But after it was explained to him that Atkins had placed 48 years earlier in the Hanover tournament ahead of Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin , who was very popular in Russia , he withdrew his objection immediately.

Atkins was considered a solid, positional player. The Queen's Gambit was one of his favorite openings . His highest historical Elo rating was 2702 in January 1903, so he was at number 6 in the world rankings at that time.

literature

  • Richard Neville Coles: HE Atkins, doyen of British chess champions . Pitman, London 1952.

proof

  1. ↑ Tournament table Amsterdam 1899
  2. ↑ The International Tournament Hanover 1902 (13th DSB Congress) on TeleSchach (cross table and all games)
  3. ↑ Cable Chess ( Memento of March 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  4. ↑ Henry Ernest Atkins' results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
  5. ↑ Chess , Volume 15, No. 179, August 1950, p. 209.
  6. ^ Terence Tiller (Ed.): Chess treasures of the air . Hardinge Simpole, Ottery St. Mary 2002. p. 71.
personal data
SURNAME Atkins, Henry Ernest
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English chess player
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Leicester
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1955
Place of death Huddersfield