[fantasyfan]

As I was reading I noticed a reference to an expert Chess player, Hugh Alexander. I wondered if that was C. H. O’D Alexander who was an International Master player and twice British Chess champion. And it was indeed he. Alexander was born in Cork, Ireland in 1909. He wrote under the name given above (The O’D stood for O’Donel) and he did generally go by Hugh Alexander (His full name was Conal Hugh O’Donel Alexander).

He isn’t given all that much time in the book other than that the ladies considered him a “blonde bombshell” but he was a very significant figure in Bletchley and a close associate of Alan Turing. After the war he became head of the British Cryptanalysis Section until he retired. He died in 1974.

As a chess player Alexander was very impressive. He won games against several Chess Grandmasters including one against Botvinnik in 1946. Two years later Botvinnik won the world championship after Alekhine’s death (Botvinnik almost certainly would have beaten Alekhine.) Alexander was never able to become a Grandmaster as his Government job prevented him from travelling to important tournaments—especially those in Russia. But then Chess was basically an avocation.

I do have one of the last books he wrote before his death. A Book of Chess Published by Hutchinson & Co, London (1973) is exactly that. It covers the nature of Chess and it’s history and development in the first two chapters and in the final three, “Chess for blood”, “Chess for fun”, and “The Iconography of Chess”.

I wonder if Hugh Alexander ran some sort of Chess club at Bletchley.