Henry Ernest Atkins
Encyclopedia
Henry Ernest Atkins was a British chess
master
who is best known for his unparalleled record of winning the British Chess Championship
nine times in eleven attempts. He won every year from 1905 to 1911, and again in 1924 and 1925. A schoolmaster, Atkins treated chess as a hobby, devoting relatively little time to it and playing in only a handful of international tournaments. He was an extremely gifted player who would likely have become one of the world's leading players had he pursued the game more single-mindedly. FIDE, the World Chess Federation, awarded him the International Master title in 1950 in recognition of his past achievements.
, Atkins was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys
. In 1890, he went to Peterhouse, Cambridge
as a mathematical scholar. He was mathematical master at Northampton College
from 1898 to 1902 and at the Wyggeston School from 1902 and 1909. He was then appointed principal of what later became Huddersfield New College
in 1909, serving in that position until 1936.
Atkins died on 31 January 1955 in Huddersfield
, England.
, and modeled his play so closely on Steinitz's that he became known on the European continent as "der kleine Steinitz" ("the little Steinitz").
Atkins learned chess from one of his brothers, and joined the Wyggeston School Chess Club at age 10. One of his sisters gave him a copy of Howard Staunton
's treatise
The Chess-Player's Handbook, which he closely studied. At 15, he joined the Leicester Chess Club and within two years was playing on first board. While in college, he also played on first board for Cambridge University. In four years playing for Cambridge he only lost one match game.
Between 1895 and 1901, Atkins played in seven minor tournaments
, winning four and finishing second or equal second in the others, and losing just 3 out of 70 games. These included the minor tournament at the great Hastings 1895 tournament
, where he finished equal second, behind Géza Maróczy
, and was awarded the Newnes Cup for the best result by a British amateur. At Bristol 1896, he yielded just one draw in nine games. At Southampton
1897, the Eighth British Amateur Championship, he scored an undefeated 8.5 points out of 10 possible, retaining his British amateur title. At Craigside
1899, he scored 7.5/10, behind Amos Burn
(9/10), whom Chessmetrics
ranks number 8 in the world at that time. At Amsterdam 1899, an amateur tournament that was Atkins' first international appearance, he achieved a rare perfect score, winning all 15 games and finishing 4 points ahead of the second-place finisher. He scored 4/6, again finishing behind Burn (5/6), at Birmingham 1899. At Bath 1900, he scored 12.5/14, yielding just 3 draws in 14 games. At Llandudno
1901, a four-man double-round robin, Atkins was again bested by Burn, who scored 4.5/6 to Atkins' 3.5 points. Between 1896 and 1911, Atkins participated in the annual 10-board cable match between Britain and the United States every year except 1909.
Atkins' best-ever result came at his first major international tournament, Hanover
1902. He finished third with 11.5/17 (8 wins, 7 draws and just 2 losses), behind David Janowski (13.5 points) and Harry Nelson Pillsbury
(12 points), but ahead of Mikhail Chigorin
and Frank Marshall, among others. Chessmetrics ranks Pillsbury number 2 in the world at the time; Chigorin had played matches for the World Chess Championship
in 1889 and 1892, and Marshall and Janowski would go on to do so in 1907 and 1910, respectively. Although Atkins could at this point have considered making chess his career, he did not, and indeed played in no international tournaments for the next 20 years because "he 'never found it possible again to play'".
His record in the British Chess Championship
is without parallel. Atkins played eleven times, winning in all but his first and last attempts. He first played at Hastings
1904, the first Championship organized by the newly formed British Chess Federation. He tied for first with William Ewart Napier
, each scoring 8.5/11. However, Atkins lost the playoff (3 draws, 1 loss) and was thus relegated to second place. Remarkably, this was to be Atkins' worst result in the Championship for a third of a century. He proceeded to win the next seven Championships: Southport
1905 and Shrewsbury
1906, again scoring 8.5/11 each time; Crystal Palace
1907 (7.5/11); Tunbridge Wells 1908 (8/11); Scarborough 1909, where he tied for first with Joseph Henry Blake
, each scoring 8.5/11, but won the playoff with 2.5/3; Oxford 1910 (8.5/11); and Glasgow
1911, tying for first with Frederick Yates
at 8.5/11, and winning all three games in the playoff. Coles writes, "His success in these years was all the more striking because of his lack of other first-class practice, which not infrequently caused him to get away to a bad start; yet such was his natural ability and determination that he invariably overhauled the field before the end as confidence and skill returned." Atkins wrote the introduction to the first edition of Modern Chess Openings
(1911).
After the 1911 Championship, Atkins retired completely from tournament chess for the next 11 years. He later remarked, "I really can't say why I didn't play after 1911 for so many years." He had agreed to play in the 1919 Hastings Victory Congress, but withdrew at the last moment "by doctor's orders". In 1922, a major international tournament was organized in London, the first in almost a quarter of a century; many of the world's leading players agreed to compete, such as newly crowned World Champion José Raúl Capablanca
, Alexander Alekhine
, and Akiba Rubinstein
. Despite his long layoff from the game, Atkins was also invited, and agreed to play. After such a long hiatus, he unsurprisingly had a disappointing tournament, scoring only 6/15 and finishing 10th out of 16 players. He finished just outside the prize list, for the first and only time in his career. He did have the consolation of claiming among his victims Rubinstein and Savielly Tartakower
, whom Chessmetrics ranks numbers 3 and 6 in the world at the time.
His appetite for competition having been stirred, he returned to the British Championship, playing at Southport 1924. This time he showed his old form, winning his eighth championship with his usual score of 8.5/11. The following year, he exceeded himself, winning at Stratford-on-Avon with his best-ever score of 9.5/11 (8 wins, 3 draws). His final Championship appearance was in 1937, when he tied for third at the age of 65.
Atkins also represented England at the Chess Olympiads of 1927 and 1935. Playing first board for England in the London 1927 Olympiad
, he scored 3 wins, 8 draws, and 1 loss (58.4%), leading the English team to what author Árpád Földeák calls an "unexpected but well deserved" third-place finish. England did not place this high again until Haifa 1976
. At age 63, he played fourth board for England at the Warsaw 1935 Olympiad
, scoring 3 wins, 6 draws, and 4 losses (46.2%).
G. H. Diggle
recollected of Atkins:
: an early ...Ne4 by Black
in order to exchange off
a pair of minor pieces and ease the pressure on Black's position. He played it successfully against Marshall in a 1902 cable match between England and the United States, the game beginning 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.Nf3 Nbd7 6.e3 Ne4. (See "Notable games" section below.) Today, the ...Ne4 maneuver is generally referred to as the "Lasker Variation", after Emanuel Lasker, who later adopted it, but is also sometimes referred to as the "Atkins Variation". Today, Black usually employs a different move order, such as 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 0-0 6.Nf3 and now either 6...h6 7.Bh4 Ne4, or immediately 6...Ne4.
calculation, Atkins' strength during his five-year peak was equivalent to an Elo rating of 2540. Another assessment system, Chessmetrics, calculates that Atkins' highest rating was 2702 in January 1903, and ranks him as the sixth strongest player in the world at that time.
World Champion Emanuel Lasker
believed that if Atkins had devoted more time to chess, he would have become one of the world's leading players. Sir George Thomas
, one of Britain's leading players in the first half of the 20th century, observed, "H. E. Atkins ranks, indisputably, as the greatest figure in English chess since Amos Burn, and only lack of opportunity prevented him, in my opinion, from definitely establishing his position in the world championship class." Anne Sunnucks
writes that, "His devotion to teaching and his insistence on treating chess as merely a game was all that prevented him from becoming one of the leading players of the world."
) won the following game at London 1922 against Savielly Tartakower
(White
), then one of the world's leading players. Tartakower thought highly enough of the game to include it in his book 500 Master Games of Chess.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nxe4 5.Nxe4 d5 6.Bd3 dxe4 7.Bxe4 Bd6 8.d4 Nxd4 9.Nxd4 exd4 10.Qxd4 O-O 11.Be3 Qe7 12.O-O-O Re8 13.Bd5? This allows Black to gain time for his queen-side pawn storm with ...c6. Correct was 13.Bf3. Be5 14.Qa4 c6 15.Bf3 Be6 16.Kb1 a5! With the surprising threat of 17...Qb4! 18.Qxb4 axb4 19.b3 Rxa2! and wins. 17.Bd4 Bd6 18.Bb6? Bb4 Threatening to drive away the bishop
with ...Ra6, followed by ...b5 winning the queen
. 19.c3 Ra6! Now if 20.cxb4, axb4 is devastating. 20.Be3 Bf5+ 21.Ka1 b5 22.Qb3 Bd6 23.a4? Instead of weakening his queen-side with this move, White should have played 23. Rd2. Rb8 24.Rd2 Be6 25.Qd1 Be5 26.Bd4 Bf4 27.Be3 Bxe3 28.fxe3 b4! 29.cxb4 Rab6! Tartakower and du Mont remark, "Black conducts the game with superb élan." Weak would have been 29...Rxb4?? 30.Rd8+; 29...Qxb4? 30.Rd8+; or 29...axb4 30.b3, keeping the queen-side closed. 30.Rd6 Black's attack has become overwhelming. If 30.bxa5, Rxb2! wins. Or 30.Rd4 Rxb4 31.Rxb4 Qxb4 32.Qc2 Bb3 33.Qxc6 Bc4 34.Rb1 Bd3 and wins. Rxb4 31.Bxc6 Rxb2 Threatening 31...Ra2#
. If 32.Rxe6, Qa3#! 32.Bb5 Ra2+ 33.Kb1 Rxa4! 34.Kc2 White tries to escape; if instead 34.Qxa4 Qxd6, White will lose the bishop on b5. Ra2+ 35.Kc3 Rc8+ 36.Bc6 Rxc6+! Tartakower and du Mont observe, "This curious break-through sacrifice is the crowning touch to a powerfully conducted game." 37.Rxc6 Qb4+ 38.Kd3 Qb5+ 39.Kd4 Qxc6 40.Ke5 Qc5+ 41.Kf4 Qf5+ 42.Kg3 Qf2# Oddly, White's king rook never moved.
Here, using his novel ...Ne4 maneuver in the Queen's Gambit Declined, Atkins routs the young American star Frank Marshall:
Marshall-Atkins, USA v. England cable match 1902 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.Nf3 Nbd7 6.e3 Ne4 7.Bxe7 Qxe7 8.Nxe4 dxe4 9.Nd2 f5 10.Be2 O-O 11.O-O e5 12.d5? Rf6! 13.a3? Rh6 14.g3 Qg5 15.Qb3 Rh3 16.Kg2? Qh6! 17.Rh1 Nf6 18.Qc2 Bd7 19.Kg1 f4! 20.exf4 exf4 21.Nxe4 Nxe4 22.Qxe4 Re8 23.Qf3 fxg3 24.fxg3 Qb6+! 25.c5 Qxc5+ 26.Qf2 Qxd5 27.Rd1 Qe6 28.Bf3 Bc6 29.Bxc6 Qxc6 30.Rf1 Qd7 31.Qxa7 b6 32.Qb7 Rh6 33.Qf3 Rf6 34.Qb3+ Kh8 35.Rxf6 gxf6 36.Qf3 Qd2! 0-1
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...
master
Chess master
A chess master is a chess player of such skill that he/she can usually beat chess experts, who themselves typically prevail against most amateurs. Among chess players, the term is often abbreviated to master, the meaning being clear from context....
who is best known for his unparalleled record of winning the 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...
nine times in eleven attempts. He won every year from 1905 to 1911, and again in 1924 and 1925. A schoolmaster, Atkins treated chess as a hobby, devoting relatively little time to it and playing in only a handful of international tournaments. He was an extremely gifted player who would likely have become one of the world's leading players had he pursued the game more single-mindedly. FIDE, the World Chess Federation, awarded him the International Master title in 1950 in recognition of his past achievements.
Non-chess life
Born in LeicesterLeicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
, Atkins was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys
Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College
Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College, or "Q.E" is a sixth form college in Leicester, England.-Admissions:There are 1,865 full-time 16-18 year-old students and 140 teaching staff. More than 40 subjects are offered at A Level. Somewhat against the national trend Mathematics and Sciences account...
. In 1890, he went to Peterhouse, Cambridge
Peterhouse, Cambridge
Peterhouse is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the oldest college of the University, having been founded in 1284 by Hugo de Balsham, Bishop of Ely...
as a mathematical scholar. He was mathematical master at Northampton College
Northampton College
Northampton College, formerly known as Northampton College of Further Education, is a further education college in Northampton, Northamptonshire, England...
from 1898 to 1902 and at the Wyggeston School from 1902 and 1909. He was then appointed principal of what later became Huddersfield New College
Huddersfield New College
Huddersfield New College is a former grammar school and current sixth form college located in Salendine Nook on the outskirts of Huddersfield, in the English county of West Yorkshire. The current Principal is Angela Williams.-Admissions:...
in 1909, serving in that position until 1936.
Atkins died on 31 January 1955 in Huddersfield
Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....
, England.
Chess career
Atkins is considered by many to be Britain's most talented player ever. A schoolmaster who played chess only in his spare time, he nonetheless became one of the strongest amateur players. He made a deep study of the games of Wilhelm SteinitzWilhelm Steinitz
Wilhelm Steinitz was an Austrian and then American chess player and the first undisputed world chess champion from 1886 to 1894. From the 1870s onwards, commentators have debated whether Steinitz was effectively the champion earlier...
, and modeled his play so closely on Steinitz's that he became known on the European continent as "der kleine Steinitz" ("the little Steinitz").
Atkins learned chess from one of his brothers, and joined the Wyggeston School Chess Club at age 10. One of his sisters gave him a copy of Howard Staunton
Howard Staunton
Howard Staunton was an English chess master who is generally regarded as having been the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Saint-Amant. He promoted a chess set of clearly distinguishable pieces of standardised shape—the Staunton pattern—that...
's treatise
Treatise
A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject.-Noteworthy treatises:...
The Chess-Player's Handbook, which he closely studied. At 15, he joined the Leicester Chess Club and within two years was playing on first board. While in college, he also played on first board for Cambridge University. In four years playing for Cambridge he only lost one match game.
Between 1895 and 1901, Atkins played in seven minor tournaments
Chess tournament
A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard form of chess competition among serious players.Today, the most recognized chess...
, winning four and finishing second or equal second in the others, and losing just 3 out of 70 games. These included the minor tournament at the great Hastings 1895 tournament
Hastings 1895 chess tournament
The Hastings 1895 chess tournament was a round-robin tournament of chess conducted in Hastings, England from August 5 to September 2, 1895.Hastings 1895 was arguably the strongest tournament in history at the time it occurred. All of the strongest players of the generation competed...
, where he finished equal second, behind Géza Maróczy
Géza Maróczy
Géza Maróczy was a leading Hungarian chess Grandmaster, one of the best players in the world in his time. He was also a practicing engineer.-Early career:...
, and was awarded the Newnes Cup for the best result by a British amateur. At Bristol 1896, he yielded just one draw in nine games. At Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
1897, the Eighth British Amateur Championship, he scored an undefeated 8.5 points out of 10 possible, retaining his British amateur title. At Craigside
Craigside
Craigside is a small village in County Durham, in England. It is situated close to the River Wear, west of Crook....
1899, he scored 7.5/10, behind Amos Burn
Amos Burn
Amos Burn was an English chess player, one of the world's leading players at the end of the 19th century, and a chess writer....
(9/10), whom Chessmetrics
Chessmetrics
Chessmetrics is a system for rating chess players devised by Jeff Sonas. It is intended as an improvement over the Elo rating system.-Implementation:...
ranks number 8 in the world at that time. At Amsterdam 1899, an amateur tournament that was Atkins' first international appearance, he achieved a rare perfect score, winning all 15 games and finishing 4 points ahead of the second-place finisher. He scored 4/6, again finishing behind Burn (5/6), at Birmingham 1899. At Bath 1900, he scored 12.5/14, yielding just 3 draws in 14 games. At Llandudno
Llandudno
Llandudno is a seaside resort and town in Conwy County Borough, Wales. In the 2001 UK census it had a population of 20,090 including that of Penrhyn Bay and Penrhynside, which are within the Llandudno Community...
1901, a four-man double-round robin, Atkins was again bested by Burn, who scored 4.5/6 to Atkins' 3.5 points. Between 1896 and 1911, Atkins participated in the annual 10-board cable match between Britain and the United States every year except 1909.
Atkins' best-ever result came at his first major international tournament, Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
1902. He finished third with 11.5/17 (8 wins, 7 draws and just 2 losses), behind David Janowski (13.5 points) and Harry Nelson Pillsbury
Harry Nelson Pillsbury
Harry Nelson Pillsbury , was a leading chess player. At age 22, he won one of the strongest tournaments of the time , but his illness and early death prevented him from challenging for the World Chess Championship.- Early life :Pillsbury was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, moved to New York City...
(12 points), but ahead of Mikhail Chigorin
Mikhail Chigorin
Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin also was a leading Russian chess player...
and Frank Marshall, among others. Chessmetrics ranks Pillsbury number 2 in the world at the time; Chigorin had played matches for the World Chess Championship
World Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....
in 1889 and 1892, and Marshall and Janowski would go on to do so in 1907 and 1910, respectively. Although Atkins could at this point have considered making chess his career, he did not, and indeed played in no international tournaments for the next 20 years because "he 'never found it possible again to play'".
His record in the 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...
is without parallel. Atkins played eleven times, winning in all but his first and last attempts. He first played at Hastings
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...
1904, the first Championship organized by the newly formed British Chess Federation. He tied for first with William Ewart Napier
William Ewart Napier
William Ewart Napier was an American chess master of English birth.- Life :...
, each scoring 8.5/11. However, Atkins lost the playoff (3 draws, 1 loss) and was thus relegated to second place. Remarkably, this was to be Atkins' worst result in the Championship for a third of a century. He proceeded to win the next seven Championships: Southport
Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...
1905 and Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...
1906, again scoring 8.5/11 each time; Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...
1907 (7.5/11); Tunbridge Wells 1908 (8/11); Scarborough 1909, where he tied for first with Joseph Henry Blake
Joseph Henry Blake (chess player)
Joseph Henry Blake was an English chess master.Blake won many tournaments played in England toward the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. He won at Stamford 1887, Oxford 1891 , Brighton 1892, Cambridge 1893, and Salisbury 1898...
, each scoring 8.5/11, but won the playoff with 2.5/3; Oxford 1910 (8.5/11); and Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
1911, tying for first with Frederick Yates
Frederick Yates
Frederick Dewhurst Yates was an English chess master who won the British Chess Championship on six occasions...
at 8.5/11, and winning all three games in the playoff. Coles writes, "His success in these years was all the more striking because of his lack of other first-class practice, which not infrequently caused him to get away to a bad start; yet such was his natural ability and determination that he invariably overhauled the field before the end as confidence and skill returned." Atkins wrote the introduction to the first edition of Modern Chess Openings
Modern Chess Openings
Modern Chess Openings is an important reference book on the chess openings, first published in 1911 by the British players Richard Clewin Griffith and John Herbert White...
(1911).
After the 1911 Championship, Atkins retired completely from tournament chess for the next 11 years. He later remarked, "I really can't say why I didn't play after 1911 for so many years." He had agreed to play in the 1919 Hastings Victory Congress, but withdrew at the last moment "by doctor's orders". In 1922, a major international tournament was organized in London, the first in almost a quarter of a century; many of the world's leading players agreed to compete, such as newly crowned World Champion José Raúl Capablanca
José Raúl Capablanca
José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. One of the greatest players of all time, he was renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play...
, Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was the fourth World Chess Champion. He is often considered one of the greatest chess players ever.By the age of twenty-two, he was already among the strongest chess players in the world. During the 1920s, he won most of the tournaments in which he played...
, and Akiba Rubinstein
Akiba Rubinstein
Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein was a famous Polish chess Grandmaster at the beginning of the 20th century. He was scheduled to play a match with Emanuel Lasker for the world championship in 1914, but it was cancelled because of the outbreak of World War I...
. Despite his long layoff from the game, Atkins was also invited, and agreed to play. After such a long hiatus, he unsurprisingly had a disappointing tournament, scoring only 6/15 and finishing 10th out of 16 players. He finished just outside the prize list, for the first and only time in his career. He did have the consolation of claiming among his victims Rubinstein and Savielly Tartakower
Savielly Tartakower
Ksawery Tartakower was a leading Polish and French chess Grandmaster. He was also a leading chess journalist of the 1920s and 30s...
, whom Chessmetrics ranks numbers 3 and 6 in the world at the time.
His appetite for competition having been stirred, he returned to the British Championship, playing at Southport 1924. This time he showed his old form, winning his eighth championship with his usual score of 8.5/11. The following year, he exceeded himself, winning at Stratford-on-Avon with his best-ever score of 9.5/11 (8 wins, 3 draws). His final Championship appearance was in 1937, when he tied for third at the age of 65.
Atkins also represented England at the Chess Olympiads of 1927 and 1935. Playing first board for England in the London 1927 Olympiad
1st Chess Olympiad
The 1st Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between July 18 and July 30, 1927, in London, United Kingdom...
, he scored 3 wins, 8 draws, and 1 loss (58.4%), leading the English team to what author Árpád Földeák calls an "unexpected but well deserved" third-place finish. England did not place this high again until Haifa 1976
22nd Chess Olympiad
The 22nd Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between October 26 and November 10, 1976, in Haifa, Israel.-References:* OlimpBase...
. At age 63, he played fourth board for England at the Warsaw 1935 Olympiad
6th Chess Olympiad
The 6th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between August 16 and August 31, 1935, in Warsaw, Poland...
, scoring 3 wins, 6 draws, and 4 losses (46.2%).
G. H. Diggle
G. H. Diggle
Geoffrey Harber Diggle was a British chess player and writer. Diggle contributed articles to the British Chess Magazine from 1933 to 1981, and to the British Chess Federation's publications Newsflash and Chess Moves from 1974 to 1992. C.H.O'D. Alexander called Diggle "one of the best writers on...
recollected of Atkins:
... we well remember his giving a "simultaneous" at the LincolnLincoln, LincolnshireLincoln is a cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England.The non-metropolitan district of Lincoln has a population of 85,595; the 2001 census gave the entire area of Lincoln a population of 120,779....
Chess Club in 1924, winning 17 and drawing two. One of his more elderly opponents (a notorious non-resigner) who for 30 moves had been wobbling along with a piece down until "time" had to be called, then proceeded to "demonstrate a draw" by concocting a continuation so optimistic that even clubmates with lifelong experience of his powers stood aghast. Atkins, with his greatcoat on ready to go home, made no attempt to refute this analytical masterpiece but merely remarked with great deference: "I don't think we can play it quite like that!" and then beat a craven retreat "escorted by Club Officials".
An unobtrusive man, we last saw him as a spectator at "Nottingham, 1936Nottingham 1936 chess tournamentNottingham 1936, was a 15-player round robin chess tournament held August 10-28 at the University of Nottingham. It was one of the strongest of all time....
" wandering about as if he was nobody.
Contribution to chess theory
Atkins originated an important defensive strategy in the Queen's Gambit DeclinedQueen's Gambit Declined
The Queen's Gambit Declined is a chess opening in which Black declines a pawn offered by White in the Queen's Gambit:This is known as the Orthodox Line of the Queen's Gambit Declined...
: an early ...Ne4 by Black
White and Black in chess
In chess, the player who moves first is referred to as "White" and the player who moves second is referred to as "Black". Similarly, the pieces that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces". The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some...
in order to exchange off
Exchange (chess)
In the tactics and strategy in the board game of chess, an exchange or trade of chess pieces is series of closely related moves, typically sequential, in which the two players capture each others pieces. Any types of pieces except the kings may possibly be exchanged, i. e. captured in an...
a pair of minor pieces and ease the pressure on Black's position. He played it successfully against Marshall in a 1902 cable match between England and the United States, the game beginning 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.Nf3 Nbd7 6.e3 Ne4. (See "Notable games" section below.) Today, the ...Ne4 maneuver is generally referred to as the "Lasker Variation", after Emanuel Lasker, who later adopted it, but is also sometimes referred to as the "Atkins Variation". Today, Black usually employs a different move order, such as 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 0-0 6.Nf3 and now either 6...h6 7.Bh4 Ne4, or immediately 6...Ne4.
Playing strength
In 1950, FIDE, in its first award of international titles, awarded Atkins the International Master title in recognition of his past achievements. Today it often awards the higher Grandmaster title to players with Elo ratings of 2500 and above. By Arpad Elo'sÁrpád Élo
Arpad Emrick Elo is the creator of the Elo rating system for two-player games such as chess. Born in Egyházaskesző, Austro-Hungarian Empire, he moved to the United States with his parents as a child in 1913.Elo was a professor of physics at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was...
calculation, Atkins' strength during his five-year peak was equivalent to an Elo rating of 2540. Another assessment system, Chessmetrics, calculates that Atkins' highest rating was 2702 in January 1903, and ranks him as the sixth strongest player in the world at that time.
World Champion Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years...
believed that if Atkins had devoted more time to chess, he would have become one of the world's leading players. Sir George 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...
, one of Britain's leading players in the first half of the 20th century, observed, "H. E. Atkins ranks, indisputably, as the greatest figure in English chess since Amos Burn, and only lack of opportunity prevented him, in my opinion, from definitely establishing his position in the world championship class." Anne Sunnucks
Anne Sunnucks
Patricia Anne Sunnucks is an author and the several time British Women's Chess Champion .Although she learned how to play chess at age 8, she did not play seriously until age 21 when she joined the same chess club as Imre König, who became her tutor...
writes that, "His devotion to teaching and his insistence on treating chess as merely a game was all that prevented him from becoming one of the leading players of the world."
Notable games
Atkins (BlackWhite and Black in chess
In chess, the player who moves first is referred to as "White" and the player who moves second is referred to as "Black". Similarly, the pieces that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces". The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some...
) won the following game at London 1922 against Savielly Tartakower
Savielly Tartakower
Ksawery Tartakower was a leading Polish and French chess Grandmaster. He was also a leading chess journalist of the 1920s and 30s...
(White
White and Black in chess
In chess, the player who moves first is referred to as "White" and the player who moves second is referred to as "Black". Similarly, the pieces that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces". The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some...
), then one of the world's leading players. Tartakower thought highly enough of the game to include it in his book 500 Master Games of Chess.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nxe4 5.Nxe4 d5 6.Bd3 dxe4 7.Bxe4 Bd6 8.d4 Nxd4 9.Nxd4 exd4 10.Qxd4 O-O 11.Be3 Qe7 12.O-O-O Re8 13.Bd5? This allows Black to gain time for his queen-side pawn storm with ...c6. Correct was 13.Bf3. Be5 14.Qa4 c6 15.Bf3 Be6 16.Kb1 a5! With the surprising threat of 17...Qb4! 18.Qxb4 axb4 19.b3 Rxa2! and wins. 17.Bd4 Bd6 18.Bb6? Bb4 Threatening to drive away the bishop
Bishop (chess)
A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...
with ...Ra6, followed by ...b5 winning the queen
Queen (chess)
The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...
. 19.c3 Ra6! Now if 20.cxb4, axb4 is devastating. 20.Be3 Bf5+ 21.Ka1 b5 22.Qb3 Bd6 23.a4? Instead of weakening his queen-side with this move, White should have played 23. Rd2. Rb8 24.Rd2 Be6 25.Qd1 Be5 26.Bd4 Bf4 27.Be3 Bxe3 28.fxe3 b4! 29.cxb4 Rab6! Tartakower and du Mont remark, "Black conducts the game with superb élan." Weak would have been 29...Rxb4?? 30.Rd8+; 29...Qxb4? 30.Rd8+; or 29...axb4 30.b3, keeping the queen-side closed. 30.Rd6 Black's attack has become overwhelming. If 30.bxa5, Rxb2! wins. Or 30.Rd4 Rxb4 31.Rxb4 Qxb4 32.Qc2 Bb3 33.Qxc6 Bc4 34.Rb1 Bd3 and wins. Rxb4 31.Bxc6 Rxb2 Threatening 31...Ra2#
Checkmate
Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
. If 32.Rxe6, Qa3#! 32.Bb5 Ra2+ 33.Kb1 Rxa4! 34.Kc2 White tries to escape; if instead 34.Qxa4 Qxd6, White will lose the bishop on b5. Ra2+ 35.Kc3 Rc8+ 36.Bc6 Rxc6+! Tartakower and du Mont observe, "This curious break-through sacrifice is the crowning touch to a powerfully conducted game." 37.Rxc6 Qb4+ 38.Kd3 Qb5+ 39.Kd4 Qxc6 40.Ke5 Qc5+ 41.Kf4 Qf5+ 42.Kg3 Qf2# Oddly, White's king rook never moved.
Here, using his novel ...Ne4 maneuver in the Queen's Gambit Declined, Atkins routs the young American star Frank Marshall:
Marshall-Atkins, USA v. England cable match 1902 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.Nf3 Nbd7 6.e3 Ne4 7.Bxe7 Qxe7 8.Nxe4 dxe4 9.Nd2 f5 10.Be2 O-O 11.O-O e5 12.d5? Rf6! 13.a3? Rh6 14.g3 Qg5 15.Qb3 Rh3 16.Kg2? Qh6! 17.Rh1 Nf6 18.Qc2 Bd7 19.Kg1 f4! 20.exf4 exf4 21.Nxe4 Nxe4 22.Qxe4 Re8 23.Qf3 fxg3 24.fxg3 Qb6+! 25.c5 Qxc5+ 26.Qf2 Qxd5 27.Rd1 Qe6 28.Bf3 Bc6 29.Bxc6 Qxc6 30.Rf1 Qd7 31.Qxa7 b6 32.Qb7 Rh6 33.Qf3 Rf6 34.Qb3+ Kh8 35.Rxf6 gxf6 36.Qf3 Qd2! 0-1