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The Most Famous

CHESS PLAYERS from United Kingdom

This page contains a list of the greatest British Chess Players. The pantheon dataset contains 374 Chess Players, 14 of which were born in United Kingdom. This makes United Kingdom the birth place of the 8th most number of Chess Players behind Poland and Germany.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary British Chess Players of all time. This list of famous British Chess Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of British Chess Players.

1. Howard Staunton (1810 - 1874)

With an HPI of 55.09, Howard Staunton is the most famous British Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 33 different languages on wikipedia.

Howard Staunton (April 1810 – 22 June 1874) was an English chess master who is generally regarded as the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant. He promoted a chess set of clearly distinguishable pieces of standardised shape – the Staunton pattern promulgated by Nathaniel Cooke – that is still the style required for competitions. He was the principal organiser of the first international chess tournament in 1851, which made England the world's leading chess centre and caused Adolf Anderssen to be recognised as the world's strongest player. From 1840 onwards he became a leading chess commentator, and won matches against top players of the 1840s. In 1847 he entered a parallel career as a Shakespearean scholar. Ill health and his two writing careers led him to give up competitive chess after 1851. In 1858 attempts were made to organise a match between Staunton and Paul Morphy, but it never came about. It was alleged by British Chess Association president Lord Lyttelton that Staunton misled Morphy while trying to avoid the match; it is also possible Staunton overestimated his chances of getting physically fit and of making time available for a match. Modern commentators consider Staunton's understanding of positional play to have been far ahead of his contemporaries. Although not a rampant attacking player, he attacked when his preparations were complete. His chess articles and books were widely read and encouraged the development of chess in the United Kingdom, and his Chess-Players' Handbook (1847) was a reference for decades. The chess openings the English Opening and Staunton Gambit were named for his advocacy of them. Staunton has been a controversial figure since his own time, and his chess writings could be spiteful. On the other hand, he maintained good working relationships with several strong players and influential chess enthusiasts, and demonstrated excellent management skills.

2. Joseph Henry Blackburne (1841 - 1924)

With an HPI of 54.49, Joseph Henry Blackburne is the 2nd most famous British Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Joseph Henry Blackburne (10 December 1841 – 1 September 1924) was a British chess player. Nicknamed "The Black Death", he dominated the British scene during the latter part of the 19th century. Blackburne learned the game at the relatively late age of 17 or 18, but he quickly became a strong player and went on to develop a professional chess career that spanned over 50 years. At one point he was one of the world's leading players, with a string of tournament victories behind him, and popularised chess by giving simultaneous and blindfold displays around the country. Blackburne also published a collection of his own games.

3. Michael Adams (1971 - )

With an HPI of 49.02, Michael Adams is the 3rd most famous British Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 41 different languages.

Michael Adams (born 17 November 1971) is an English chess grandmaster and is an eight-time British Chess Champion. His highest ranking is world No. 4, achieved several times from October 2000 to October 2002. His peak Elo rating is 2761, the highest achieved by an English chess player. He has achieved good results in World Chess Championship tournaments. Several times a World Championship Candidate, he reached the semifinals in 1997, 1999 and 2000. He reached the final at the 2004 FIDE Championship, narrowly losing out to Rustam Kasimdzhanov in the tie-break games. Adams won the World Senior Chess Championship (Over-50 category) in 2023.

4. Jonathan Penrose (1933 - 2021)

With an HPI of 48.57, Jonathan Penrose is the 4th most famous British Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Jonathan Penrose, (7 October 1933 – 30 November 2021) was an English chess player, who held the titles Grandmaster (1993) and International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster (1983). He won the British Chess Championship ten times between 1958 and 1969.

5. Alexander McDonnell (1798 - 1835)

With an HPI of 47.89, Alexander McDonnell is the 5th most famous British Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Alexander McDonnell (1798–1835), sometimes spelled MacDonnell, was an Irish chess master, who contested a series of six matches with the world's leading chess player Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais in 1834.

6. Henry Bird (1830 - 1908)

With an HPI of 46.37, Henry Bird is the 6th most famous British Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Henry Edward Bird (14 July 1829 – 11 April 1908) was an English chess player, author and accountant. He wrote the books Chess History and Reminiscences and An Analysis of Railways in the United Kingdom. Although Bird was a practising accountant, not a professional chess player, it has been said that he "lived for chess, and would play anybody anywhere, any time, under any conditions."

7. Amos Burn (1848 - 1925)

With an HPI of 44.29, Amos Burn is the 7th most famous British Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Amos Burn (1848–1925) was an English chess player, one of the world's leading players at the end of the 19th century, and a chess writer. Burn was born on New Year's Eve, 1848, in Hull. As a teenager, he moved to Liverpool, becoming apprenticed to a firm of shipowners and merchants. He learned chess only at the relatively late age of 16. He later took chess lessons from future World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz in London, and, like his teacher, became known for his superior defensive ability. Aron Nimzowitsch, in his book The Praxis of My System, named Burn one of the world's six greatest defensive players. Although never a professional chess player, Burn had a long tournament and writing career. In 1913, Leopold Hoffer, the editor for over 30 years of the chess column in The Field, the leading chess column in Great Britain, died. The proprietors of The Field took seven weeks to select a successor, finally settling on Burn. He moved to London and wrote the column until his death in 1925 from a stroke.

8. Harry Golombek (1911 - 1995)

With an HPI of 42.52, Harry Golombek is the 8th most famous British Chess Player. Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Harry Golombek OBE (1 March 1911 – 7 January 1995) was a British chess player, chess author, and wartime codebreaker. He was three times British chess champion, in 1947, 1949, and 1955 and finished second in 1948.

9. Nigel Short (1965 - )

With an HPI of 41.41, Nigel Short is the 9th most famous British Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English chess grandmaster, columnist, coach and commentator who has been the FIDE Director for Chess Development since September 2022. Short earned the title of grandmaster at the age of 19 and was ranked third in the world by FIDE from July 1988 to July 1989. In 1993, he became the first English player to play a World Chess Championship match, when he qualified to play Garry Kasparov in the PCA world championship in London, where Kasparov won 12½ to 7½. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1999 Birthday Honours for services to chess.

10. Fred Yates (1884 - 1932)

With an HPI of 41.15, Fred Yates is the 10th most famous British Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Fred Dewhirst Yates (16 January 1884, Birstall – 11 November 1932, London) was an English chess master who won the British Chess Championship on six occasions. He started a career in accountancy, but in 1909, abandoned it in favour of becoming a professional chess player and journalist.

People

Pantheon has 14 people classified as chess players born between 1798 and 1971. Of these 14, 5 (35.71%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living chess players include Michael Adams, Nigel Short, and John Nunn. The most famous deceased chess players include Howard Staunton, Joseph Henry Blackburne, and Jonathan Penrose. As of April 2022, 1 new chess players have been added to Pantheon including Raymond Keene.