Frank Parr was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 player, born in Wandsworth

Wandsworth

Wandsworth is a district of south London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-Toponymy:...

.
He was British Boys (Under 18) champion in 1935.

Biography

Parr won the Hastings Premier

Hastings International Chess Congress

The Hastings International Chess Congress is an annual chess congress which takes place in Hastings, England, around the turn of the year. The main event is the Hastings Premier tournament, which was traditionally a 10 to 16 player round-robin tournament. In 2004/05 the tournament was played in the...

 in 1939/1940 with a score of 6/7, allowing only two draws

Draw (chess)

In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...

.
He played in uniform, having been called up for military service in 1939.
This was his only Hastings Premier appearance, although he played in many Challengers' sections up to 2002/3.

Parr was the British correspondence chess

Correspondence chess

Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through email or by the postal system; less common methods which have been employed include fax and homing pigeon...

 champion in 1948 (joint with Gabriel Wood), 1949 (joint with H Israel), 1950, and 1956.

Parr played in 25 British Chess Championship

British Chess Championship

The British Chess Championship is organised by the English Chess Federation. There are separate championships for men and women. Since 1923 there have been sections for juniors, and since 1982 there has been an over-sixty championship. The championship venue usually changes every year and has been...

s from 1936 to 1991, compiling an overall score of 134.5/275.
He made his first appearance in the championship in 1936, taking fifth place with 6/11 including a victory over George Alan Thomas

George Alan Thomas

Sir George Alan Thomas, Bart. was a British badminton, tennis and chess player. He was twice British Chess Champion and a 21-time All-England Badminton champion. He also played in the semi-finals of the men's tennis doubles at Wimbledon in 1911...

.
In his second appearance in 1955 he scored 7.5 with wins over Robert Wade

Robert Wade (chess player)

Robert Graham Wade OBE , was a British chess player, writer, arbiter, coach, and promoter. He was New Zealand champion three times, British champion twice, and played in seven Chess Olympiads and one Interzonal tournament...

 and Jonathan Penrose

Jonathan Penrose

Jonathan Penrose, OBE is an English chess player, emeritus Grandmaster, and International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster who won the British Chess Championship ten times between 1958 and 1969. He is the son of Lionel Penrose, a world famous professor of genetics, and brother of Roger Penrose...

.
His best result was in 1956 when after managing only a draw in the first two rounds, he won eight consecutive games before drawing with Leonard Barden

Leonard Barden

Leonard William Barden is an English chess master, columnist, author, and promoter. The son of a dustman, he was educated at Whitgift School, South Croydon, and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Modern History. He learned to play chess at age 13 while in a school shelter during a German air...

 in the last round to finish with 9/11. Although this score would have secured first place in most years, he took second a half point behind Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander

Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander

Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander, CMG, CBE was an Irish-born British cryptanalyst, chess player, and chess writer. He worked on the German Enigma machine at Bletchley Park during World War II, and was later the head of the cryptanalysis division at GCHQ for over 20 years...

 despite winning their individual encounter in round eight.

Parr was a traveling reserve member of the English team for the 1937 Anglo-Dutch match in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, but he did not play.
He scored 1.5/2 on ninth board at the 1939 Anglo-Dutch match in The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

. Surprisingly, he never held any FIDE or British Chess Federation titles.

Before retirement he worked as a messenger at the London Stock Exchange

London Stock Exchange

The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...

. He had three sons and one daughter. Aside from chess, his main hobby was gardening, but he was also a supporter of Fulham Football Club and a regular patron of Surrey County Cricket Club

Surrey County Cricket Club

Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...

.

After a long illness Parr died in Epsom

Epsom

Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England. Small parts of Epsom are in the Borough of Reigate and Banstead. The town is located south-south-west of Charing Cross, within the Greater London Urban Area. The town lies on the chalk downland of Epsom Downs.-History:Epsom lies...

 on 28 December 2003, the opening day of the Hastings International Chess Congress

Hastings International Chess Congress

The Hastings International Chess Congress is an annual chess congress which takes place in Hastings, England, around the turn of the year. The main event is the Hastings Premier tournament, which was traditionally a 10 to 16 player round-robin tournament. In 2004/05 the tournament was played in the...

.

Legacy

In memory of an exceptional player, the British Federation for Correspondence Chess introduced a Frank Parr Memorial Tournament in 2005. Held alongside it was the David Parr Memorial, dedicated to Frank's eldest son, another fine chess player who also died in 2003.

Across the chessboard, Frank Parr was a gentleman and a character, who enjoyed one of the longest chess careers on record. To his opponents, he was well known for his aggressive style and alertness to tactical possibilities.

The game given below captured the attention of the chess world and he annotated it for an issue of British Chess Magazine

British Chess Magazine

British Chess Magazine is the world's oldest chess magazine in continuous publication. First published in January 1881, it has appeared at monthly intervals ever since. It is frequently known in the chess world as BCM....

. He even had a tapestry made up of one of the game's key positions, which he hung on the wall of his living room. Reinfeld

Fred Reinfeld

Fred Reinfeld was an American chess master and a prolific writer on chess and many other subjects, whose books are still read today.-Biography:...

 and Chernev

Irving Chernev

Irving Chernev was a prolific Russian-American chess author. He was born in Priluki in the Russian Empire and emigrated to the United States in 1920. Chernev was a national master strength player, and was obsessed with chess...

, in their Fireside Book of Chess, eulogize—"In the opinion of the writers, Parr's masterpiece has well-founded claims to being considered the finest attacking game of all time." After the final move they exclaim "One of the greatest combinative games on record!"

Notable game

Frank Parr vs George Wheatcroft, City of London Chess Club Championship 1938, Neo-Grunfeld, 1-0 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Nc3 Nxc3 7.bxc3 c5 8.e3 O-O 9.Ne2 Nc6 10.O-O cxd4 11.cxd4 e5? 12.d5! Ne7 13.Ba3 Re8 14.Nc3 Qa5 15.Qb3 e4?! 16.Nxe4! Nxd5 After 16...Bxa1 17.Rxa1 Nxd5 18.Rd1! White has too many threats. 17.Rac1 Be6 18.Rc5 Qb6 19.Rb5! Qa6 20.Nc5! Nxe3?! 21.Nxe6! Nxf1 Now Black intends to meet 22.Nxg7 with 22...Nd2! 22.Ng5!! Nd2 23.Qxf7+ Kh8 24.Bd5!! Threatening 25.Qg8+! Rxg8 26.Nf7#. h6 25.Bb2! Again threatening mate; Black cannot play 25...Bxb2 because of 26.Qh7#. Rg8 26.Qd7!! Now White has two pieces hanging, but neither can be captured: if 26...hxg5, 27.Qh3#. In the meantime, White threatens 27.Qh3! and 28.Qxh6#. Qa4 Threatening 27...Qd1+ 28.Kg2 Qf1#! 27.Bb3! Nxb3 28.Nf7+ Kh7 29.Rh5!! Leaving two more pieces en prise. If 29...Qxd7, 30.Ng5+ Kh8 31.Rxh6#. If 29...gxh5, 30.Qf5#. Qa5 30.Rxh6+! 1-0 If 30...Bxh6, 31.Ng5 double check

Double check

In chess, a double check is a check delivered by two pieces at the same time. In chess notation, it is often symbolized by "++".-Discussion:...

Kh8 32.Qh7#.

External links