Tony Miles (chess player)

Tony Miles
Surname	Anthony John Miles
Association	England (until 1987, from 1992) United States (1988 to 1991)
Born	Birmingham April 23, 1955
Died	November 12, 2001 Harborne , Birmingham
title	International Master (1974) Grand Master (1976)
Best Elo rating	2635 (January 1996)

Anthony John Miles (born April 23, 1955 in Edgbaston , Birmingham , † November 12, 2001 in Harborne , Birmingham) was an English chess grandmaster .

Life

Miles and Chandler , Rio 1979

Miles was second behind Alexander Beliavsky at the Junior World Championships in Teesside in 1973 . The following year he won the Junior World Championship in Manila . In the same year he became an international master . In February 1976 he scored the last missing grandmaster norm at a tournament in Dubna . As the first British grandmaster after Jacques Mieses , Miles won a prize of £ 5,000 offered by investor and chess patron James Slater, who had also financially supported the Teesside youth tournament. He enrolled at the University of Sheffield to study the mathematics , but then opted for the professional chess.

Miles experienced his best chess time from the end of the 1970s until he was clearly defeated by Garri Kasparow (0.5: 5.5) in Basel in 1986.

His victory against the then world champion Anatoli Karpow at the European team championship in Skara in 1980 is well known. Miles beat Karpow with the black pieces with the unusual opening response 1. e2 – e4 a7 – a6 ( ECO code B00). He won the 3rd Baden-Baden Chess Festival in 1981 together with Zoltán Ribli before Viktor Kortschnoi . In 1982 he became British champion . He won the traditionally high-profile tournament in Tilburg in 1984 and 1985 (shared with Robert Huebner and Viktor Kortschnoi), where he played some games lying on his stomach in his second win there because of back problems.

On May 20, 1984 Miles set a German record in blind simultaneous chess in the Eifel community of Roetgen with 22 games (+10 = 10 −2) , which was only broken in 2009. Miles was enemies with some English chess players, in particular Raymond Keene and Nigel Short , and therefore lived in the USA from 1987 to the early 1990s and then in Australia , also took part in the national championships there, but eventually returned to England. In 1990 he won the Bad Wörishofen chess festival ahead of Philipp Schlosser and Norbert Lücke .

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

The Miles variant in the Queen's Indian Defense

The Miles variant in the women's Indian defense is named after him. It arises after the moves 1. d2 – d4 Ng8 – f6 2. c2 – c4 e7 – e6 3. Ng1 – f3 b7 – b6 4. Bc1 – f4.

He wrote several articles for the English magazine Kingpin that showed his bizarre humor, including a review consisting of just two words (Utter crap) . He also had a monthly column titled The Miles Report on Chesscafe.com from July 1999 to October 2001 .

Miles, who had diabetes , was found dead in his apartment by a friend on the night of November 12, 2001. His last sign of life was dated November 11, 2001 at 2:08 a.m. The heart failure , which was stated to be the cause of death, was attributed to his illness.

His highest ranking in the FIDE world rankings was ninth place, which he took in January 1986 together with Lajos Portisch and Boris Spasski .

Miles was temporarily married to Grand Master Jana Bellin , who also took part in GM tournaments.

Team chess

Jonathan Speelman , Nigel Short , John Nunn and Tony Miles at the 1986 Chess Olympiad in Dubai

National team

Tony Miles took part in nine Chess Olympiads with the English national team, playing on the top board from 1974 to 1986, and being the first reserve player in 1994, 1998 and 2000. In the team standings he came second in 1984 and 1986, and third in 1976 . In 1976 he also took third place in the individual ranking on the top board.

Miles took part in four European team championships , where he reached third place with the team in 1980 and 1992; In 1980 he was also the top player with the highest points.

At the first team world championship in Lucerne in 1985 he played for England on the top board. The English team took third place, Miles achieved the second best result on the first board.

Club chess

In the British Four Nations Chess League Miles played from 1995 until his death for Slough and was with this club in 1996 , 1999 and 2000 British team champions.

In the German federal chess league he played from 1981 to 1990 with SG Porz and became German team champion with them in 1982 and 1984 .

literature

• Geoff Lawton (Ed.), Tony Miles: 'It's Only Me'. Batsford, 2003, ISBN 0-7134-8809-3 (English).

Web links

Commons : Tony Miles  - Collection of Images

• Playable chess games by Tony Miles on 365Chess.com (English)

Obituaries:

• Obituary by Malcolm Pein (English).
• Leonard Barden : Tony Miles (obituary), Guardian, Nov. 14, 2001.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Martin Breutigam : Anthony Miles: April 23, 1955 to November 12, 2001 In: de.chessbase.com. November 12, 2001. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
2. ↑ Manila 1974. 13 ° Campeonato Mundial Juvenil.
3. ↑ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002. Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 76.
4. ↑ L. Barden: Tony Miles. In: Guardian. November 14, 2001.
5. ^ British Championships in Scarborough: How many Miles on the Clock? ( Memento of October 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ).
6. ^ Theo Schuster : 3rd Baden-Baden Chess Festival 1981 . Schach-Echo 1981, issue 15, title page.
7. ↑ Record attempt in blind simultaneous on November 21 ( memento of February 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). Article by Frank Hoppe from November 15, 2009 on the website of the German Chess Federation.
8. ↑ archive page. ( Memento of March 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). At: Chesscafe.com. (English).
9. ↑ Tim Krabbé : Open Chess Diary, item 163 (English).
10. ↑ Schach-Echo 1979, p. 151.
11. ↑ Tony Miles´ results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English).
12. ↑ Tony Miles´ results at European Team Championships on olimpbase.org (English).
13. ↑ Tony Miles´ results at team world championships on olimpbase.org (English).