Henry Ernest Atkins

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 had studied mathematics at Cambridge University and was a teacher by profession in Yorkshire, remained lifelong amateur and played only a few tournaments outside of England. In 1895 he was in the side event of Hastings second to Géza Maroczy and thus won the title of the 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 Hannover 1902, he finished third behind Dawid Janowski and Harry Nelson Pillsbury. In 1904 he took part for the first time at the British Championship and scored as William Ewart Napier 8.5 points from eleven games, but lost the tie-break due to the title. After he won the title of National Champion from 1905 to 1911 in seven series. After a long pause, he answered on the very strong field of international tournament back in 1922 London, but had to pay tribute to his lack of match practice and came up with 6 points from 15 games ( 4 = 4-7 ) only in 10th place in the years 1924 and in 1925 he became British Champion again. In his last participation in the national championship he won in 1937, at the age of 65 years, a respectable third place.

Atkins represented his country 1896-1911 in twelve discharged by telex comparison battles with the United States, scoring 6 points: Wins against Constant F. Burille 1897, Frank James Marshall in 1902 and John F. Barry in 1907 and 1910, draws against Eugene Delmar 1896 Edward Hymes 1898, Hermann G. Voigt 1908 and Albert B. Hodges in 1911 and defeats Jackson Whipps Showalter 1899, Barry 1900, Hymes 1901, Marshall 1903 he also starred in two Chess Olympiads for England. , 1927 in London, where he 7 points from twelve games ( 3 -1 = 8 ) scored and won the bronze medal with the team, and in 1935 in Warsaw, where he made ​​up 6 points from 13 games ( 3 = 6 -4).

In 1950, when his chess career was already over, given the title of International Master was awarded by the FIDE. According to Harry Golombek the Soviet delegate had initially objections to the proposal because he mistook Atkins with a weaker British player named Aitken. After but tells him that Atkins had placed 48 years previously in the tournament of Hanover before very popular in Russia Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin, he took his objection immediately.

Atkins was considered a solid, positional players. One of his favorite openings owned the Queen's Gambit. His historical highest Elo rating was 2702 in January 1903 that he was at that time at No. 6 in the world rankings.