George Thomas was one of England’s strongest chess players in the 1930s, and also achieved success at both badminton and tennis. Below, I explore his life and games.
Photo: Polygoon Hollands Nieuws, Public Domain, via WIkimedia Commons
Table of contents:
Biography
Early life
George Thomas was born in 1881 near Istanbul in Turkey. As a child, he learned to play chess from his mother, herself a very strong player – she won the women’s tournament at Hastings 1895. The young Thomas is said to have met several famous players who visited his parents’ house, including Steinitz, Lasker, Chigorin and Pillsbury. Thomas showed his talent early on in life when he won a game in a simultaneous exhibition in England against the then World Champion Emmanual Lasker in 1896.
However, his talents were not limited to chess, as he soon showed himself to be a promising tennis and badminton player. Thomas reached the semifinals of the doubles tournament at Wimbledon in 1907 and 1912, and reached the quarterfinals of the singles event in 1911. Also in 1911, Thomas found the time to become the Champion of the City of London Chess Club.
His successes both on and off the chessboard were soon interrupted by the outbreak of the first world war. International sporting events became very rare during this time. Thomas spent the war years serving as a subaltern in the British army. Fortunately, he survived the war and was able to continue his sporting career after its end.
Chess, Tennis and Badminton
After the war, Thomas immediately built on his success both on the court and on the chessboard. He became the All England Badminton Singles Champion every year from 1920 to 1923. In the same time period, he finished an impressive 2nd at the British Chess Championships of 1920 and 1921, and finished clear 1st in 1923. Thomas was therefore the national champion of both badminton and chess at the same time. Also in 1923, Thomas published a book called The Art of Badminton.
It had become clear that Thomas had become one of the best chess, tennis and badminton players in England. When the first international chess Olympiad was held in London in 1927, Thomas therefore competed for the English team. There he shared the prize for the best score on board three. Thomas would go on to represent his country again at the Hamburg Olympiad in 1930 and the Prague Olympiad in 1931.
Competing at the top
The middle of the 1930s would prove to be a very successful time in Thomas’ career. He won the British Chess Championship again in 1934, showing that he was still a dangerous opponent in his fifties. However, his best achievement came at the end of the year. Thomas travelled to Hastings to compete in its 1934/5 event, where he competed in a particularly strong field. The former World Champion Capablanca, current champion Euwe and future champion Botvinnik were all there, as well as other famous names like Flohr, Lilienthal and Menchik.
In this exceptional field, Thomas shared 1st place with Euwe and Flohr, two of the world’s leading players at that time. Defeating both Capablanca and Botvinnik to finish at the head of the field, Thomas proved himself to be one of the world’s strongest players, able to compete with anyone.
Thomas again represented England at the 1935 Olympiad in Warsaw and the 1937 Olympiad at Stockholm, before travelling to Margate in 1939. There he competed in another strong international event, finishing an impressive 4th. He finished behind only Keres, Capablanca and Flohr, and ahead of Najdorf and Menchik, among others.
Later years
At the 1939 Olympiad in Buenos Aires, Thomas was appointed captain of the English team. The event would however be interrupted by the outbreak of WWII. The English team withdrew from the event when the war began, and Thomas travelled with his team back to England.
Thomas resumed his chess career after the war, although by this point, he had entered his seventh decade, and was past his prime. Despite this, he found the strength to win the London Chess Championship in 1946 at the age of 65. Four years later, he won a lightning tournament at the British Chess Congress in Buxton with a perfect 7/7 score in a 28-player field.
In 1950 Thomas was awarded the International Master title and retired from professional chess. FIDE awarded him the title of International Judge two years later. Thomas lived a long life, and died in a nursing home in London in 1972, at the age of 91.
Legacy
Today Thomas is remembered as one of England’s strongest players between the world wars, as well as a very successful badminton and tennis player. In 2005, The Chess Games of Sir George Alan Thomas was published, containing a collection of Thomas’s games.
Game Analysis
Thomas won an interesting game against Réti at Kent 1927, which demonstrates many instructive themes.
Lessons from this game:
- The side with a lead in development must play energetically, before the opponent can coordinate their forces.
- It can be worth sacrificing a pawn to activate previously dormant pieces. In this game, 18…d4!? would have been a good example.
- It is always useful to identify the least active piece and reroute it to a better square. In this game, 18.Nd1 begins the knight’s journey from passivity on c3 to a more promising post on g4.
Puzzles
Thomas – Scott, Edinburgh 1920
Thomas – Yates, Hastings 1922
Drewitt – Thomas, Weston Super Mare 1924
Mieses – Thomas, Frankfurt 1930
Solutions
Further Reading
To find more about Thomas’ life and games, the following are useful sources:
His chessgames.com page,
this article by britishchessnews.com,
this chess.com article,
this article by Matthew Sadler,
this article by Matthew Sadler,
and this article by Edward Winter.
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