C.H.O'D. pt.1: Blunders–Bletchley Park

Alan Turing wrote the algorithm for Turochamp, but wasn’t a particularly prolific player in his own right. One of his colleagues–C.H.O’D. Alexander–was. He is a particularly undervalued player today–although some claim he had Grandmaster potential, his peak years overlapped with World War Two, when he was needed for codebreaking and the opportunities for international play were limited. His best tournament was Hastings 1953/54, where he tied David Bronstein for first, beating Bronstein and Tulosh (a Soviet grandmaster). Also in 1954(Albeit not in the same tournament), he produced this entertaining miniature against Milev (the 1952 champion of Bulgaria.)




Another blunder came against our hero earlier: in Hilversum zt 1947, where Alexander tied for fifth with Szabo, earning a respectable 7.5/13. His opponent, O’Sullivan, was not a bad player, but Irish chess players rarely played in international tournaments back then, and O’Sullivan was out of his league. He scored 0.5/13, with several blunders such as this. According to Harry Golombek, “his play was worse than his score.” Ouch.