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Biographical sketches

	Robert Hübner, b. Cologne, November 6, 1948, was three times a Candidate, including once as a finalist, and reached a rank of third in the world. In May 1971, less than two years after Castlebar, he made his Candidates début against Petrosian in a quarter-final of the 1970-72 cycle, resigning the match while one game down with three to play in a protest over playing conditions. In the 1978-81 cycle victories over Adorján and Portisch brought him to the Candidates final against Korchnoi. He again resigned the match, this time while one down with two unfinished games. In 1983 he tied 7-7 with Smyslov in a quarterfinal of the 1982-84 cycle, losing on the spin of a roulette wheel after Smyslov refused the option of a blitz playoff. He played in 11 Olympiads, representing West Germany six and Germany five times, winning a team silver medal in Istanbul 2000 and individual gold medals on board 1 at Skopje 1972 and Novi Sad 1990. His peak rating was 2640, in the July 1981 list, placing him third in the world after Karpov and Korchnoi. Photo: Hübner, date unknown, though probably close to Castlebar (Chessgames.com).
	Mogens Moe, b. 1944, was runner-up in the 1969 Danish championship. He represented Denmark in the Olympiads of Siegen 1970 and Nice 1974 and the Student Olympiads of Krakow 1964, Örebro 1966, Harrachov 1967 and Ybbs 1968. He is currently an FM. Photo: Moe, 2010 (http://www.ksu.dk).
	Bjørn Brinck-Claussen, b. Copenhagen, 1942, was Danish champion in 1966, 1970, and 1977. He represented Denmark at six Olympiads: Varna 1962, Tel Aviv 1964, Havana 1966, Thessaloniki 1984 and Novi Sad 1990, winning a silver individual medal in 1962. He also represented Denmark at six Student Olympiads: Helsinki 1961, Mariánske Lázne 1962, Krakow 1964, Sinaia 1965, Örebro 1966 and Ybbs 1968, and at the European Team Championship in Plovdiv 1983. He became an IM in 1986. Photo: Brink-Claussen in 2008 (Chessdom.com).
	Robert G. (Bob) Wade, b. Dunedin, New Zealand, April 10, 1921, d. London, November 29, 2008, was twice British champion and one of the first winners of the IM title, and had enormous influence on the growth of British chess through his life-long work as a mentor, coach, promoter, editor and writer. He won the New Zealand championship three times, in 1944, 1945 and 1948. He moved to England in the late 1940s, competing prolifically in international tournaments; he was a popular choice for organisers as he represented a different continent. He was awarded the International Master title in 1950, one of the first awardees. He participated in several Irish tournaments, finishing 1st at the Clontarf International 1951 and at the O'Hanlon Memorial, Dublin 1962, and 2nd at An Tóstal, Dublin 1954. He was British champion in 1952 and 1970. He represented England at six Olympiads between 1954 and 1972, and New Zealand at Siegen 1970. He was series editor for the ground-breaking and highly influential Batsford series on Contemporary Chess Openings, authoring several books of the series himself, including The Velimirovic Attack, Sozin Sicilian (with Tim Harding; 1970), The Closed Ruy Lopez (with Les Blackstock and P. J. Booth; 1970), and Sicilian: Lasker-Pelikan (with Blackstock, N. E. Povah and Jonathan Speelman; 1978). He wrote many other chess books on a broad range of subjects, including Soviet Chess (1968), Bobby Fischer's Chess Games (with Kevin O'Connell; 1972) and The Children's Book of Chess (with Ted Nottingham; 1978). He received an OBE for services to chess in 1999. He remained active in chess until his death. Photo: Wade, date unknown (BCM news archive 2008).
	James Macrae Aitken, b. Calderbank, Scotland, October 27, 1908, d. Cheltenham, England, December 3, 1983, was Scottish champion ten times, in 1935, 1952-53, 1955-58, 1960-61 and 1965, of which only the last was joint. He represented Scotland at the Olympiads of Stockholm 1937, Munich 1958, Tel Aviv 1964 and Skopje 1972, and played in the zonal tournaments of Bad Pyrmont 1951, Munich 1954 and Entschede 1957. In 1946 he played in the Great Britain-USSR radio match on board 8, losing both games to Igor Bondarevsky. He worked as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park during World War II, and also played for the chess team. So impressive was the chess talent there that he played on board 3, with Alexander and Golombek occupying the top two boards. He wrote one book, though it was not of chess interest: The Trial of George Buchanan Before The Lisbon Inquisition (1939). Photo: Aitken in 1963 (BCM).
	Wolfgang Heidenfeld, b. Schönberg/Berlin, May 29, 1911, d. Ulm, West Germany, August 3, 1981, was six times Irish champion, among many other achievements in Irish and world chess. He played chess and studied law in Germany but being Jewish was forced to emigrate, and in the mid-1930s moved to South Africa. He won the South African championship eight times, in 1939, 1946-47 (both joint), 1949, 1951, 1955, 1957 and 1959 (joint), and represented South Africa in their Olympiad debut at Munich 1958. After visiting Dublin for An Tóstal 1956, he moved to Ireland in 1957. He was Irish champion in 1958, 1963-64, 1967-68 and 1972, and represented Ireland at the Olympiads of Havana 1966, Lugano 1968, Siegen 1970 and Nice 1974, and the European Team Championship preliminaries in Copenhagen 1967. He wrote several chess books, including South Africans Abroad (1948), Chess Springbok (1955), My Book of Fun and Games (1958), Große Remispartien (1968), and Lacking the Master Touch (1970). He was awarded the title of National Master in 1977 when the title programme (now discontinued) was inaugurated. He returned to Germany in 1979. He is the father of IM Mark Heidenfeld, Irish champion in 2000. Photo: Heidenfeld, date unknown (ICU collection).
	Bernard Kernan, b. Dublin, 1955, was Irish champion in 1976. He represented Ireland at the Student Olympiad in Teesside 1974, the EEC Team Championship in Ostend 1975, and the Olympiad in Manila 1976. He was awarded the title of National Master in 1977 when the title programme (now discontinued) was inaugurated. Photo: Kernan in 1980 (ICU collection).
	Nick Patterson, b. London, 1947, was Irish champion in 1969. His early chess experience was in England, where he won the British Boys U-16 championship, and he represented England at the Student Olympiad in Ybbs 1968. Though he was never resident in Ireland, three of his grandparents were Irish, motivating his connection to Irish chess. He finished equal 3rd-4th in his first Irish championship in Cork 1967, and was sole winner in the 1969 tournament in Dublin. He represented Ireland at the Siegen Olympiad in 1970, scoring 8/13 on boards 1 and 2. He gave up tournament chess in the 1970s in favour of a career spanning cryptology, financial analysis for a hedge fund, and research into the human genome. Since 1980 he has lived in the U.S. Photo: Patterson, ca. 2006 (Jonathan Player / The New York Times).
	Stewart Reuben, b. London, 1939, is a former Chairman of the British Chess Federation. He has authored several chess books, including Chess Scene (with D. N. L. Levy; 1974), Chess Organisers' Handbook (1998), and Chess Openings: Your Choice (2004). He is an International Arbiter. He is also well known as a poker player and has authored numerous poker books, including Poker 24/7: 35 Years as a Poker Pro (2005). Photo: Reuben, date unknown (D&B Poker).
	Les Blackstock, b. Perth, Scotland, 1949, represented Scotland at the Student Olympiad in Haifa 1970. A prolific author, he wrote The Closed Ruy Lopez (with Wade and P. J. Booth; 1970), Ruy Lopez: Breyer System (1976), Sicilian Lasker Pelikan (with Wade, N. E. Povah and Jonathan Speelman; 1978), Korchnoi's 400 Best Games (with Korchnoi and Wade; 1978), Budapest Gambit (with Otto Borik; 1986) and Developments in the Open Spanish 1982-1987 (1987), as well as many tournament opening surveys in the Tournament Chess series. He is an International Arbiter. Photo: Blackstock in 2009 (ChessBase).
	Ove P. Eriksen plays with the Kerteminde Skakklub. He has played in several correspondence chess events, including the semi-finals of the 16th ICCF world championship in 1985 and the preliminaries for the 10th ICCF World Cup in 1994. His current over the board Danish rating is 1917. Photo: Eriksen, at left, 2008 (Næsby Skakklub blog).
	Steen Grabow, b. 1947.
	Elaine Pritchard, née Saunders, b. January 7, 1926, d. Gloucester ENG, January 7, 2012, was a child prodigy, multiple time British Ladies Champion and member of England's Women's Olympiad team. Her strong showing as a 12-year-old against Alekhine in a 30-board simul in 1938 attracted wide press coverage and captured the public imagination. In the last game to finish, she was defending a rook ending that contemporary accounts say was level. 'Give the child a draw,' urged a spectator; 'I know what I'm doing' was Alekhine's reply, and he eventually ground out a win. 'She's a genius,' was his assessment the following day. The following year she won the first of four British Ladies' Championships, with other victories following in 1946, 1956 and 1965. She represented England at the Women's Olympiads of Emmen 1957, Skopje 1972, Medellin 1974, Haifa 1976 and Buenos Aires 1978. She became a WIM in 1957. She married David Pritchard in 1952. Photo: Elaine Saunders, 1930s (Chess Notes).
	Gerald McCurdy, b. 1946, d. January 26, 2016, represented Ireland at the Lugano Olympiad, 1968, and at the Student Olympiads of 1966 (Örebro), 1967 (Harrachov) and 1969 (Dresden). He finished first in the Belfast Feis tournament 1966. He played in the Irish championships of 1966, 1970, 1971, and 1972; his best result was joint 3rd out of 42 in the 1966 championship in Belfast. Photo: McCurdy in 2012 (Cahors Echecs blog).
	David Pritchard, b. Streatham, London, October 19, 1919, d. London, December 12, 2005 was best known as a prolific author and one of the world's foremost authorities on chess variants. He served in the RAF during World War II, and later rejoined to work in intelligence. He won the Malayan championship in 1955, was Southern Counties' champion in 1959 and 1966, and won the Bognor Regis open in 1969. He participated in several British championships, and while never a title contender he inflicted defeats on Penrose and Miles. He wrote three chess books for beginners, two of which sold half a million copies. His most critically acclaimed work was The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (1994), a second edition of which he was working at the time of his death, and also Popular Chess Variants (2000). Photo: D. B. Pritchard, date unknown (Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog).
	Niels Schnegelsberg, b. 1945, plays for Frederiksberg Skakforening and has a current (January 2019) FIDE rating of 1893.
	John Brennan, b. ca. 1952, won the Leinster Schools championship in January 1970, and in April that year finished joint 1st-4th in the Irish Schools championship, though missing out on the title on tie-break, and in the same month was joint winner of the Ierne Open. He played on the Leinster team that won the Interprovincial Championship in 1971 and was a member of the U.C.D. team that won the Armstrong Cup in 1973 and 1974.
	Olaf Burke, Collegians C.C., was winner of the Dublin Open in 1970.
	Seán Ryan, Cúig Cúigí and Dublin C.C.s, participated in the Irish championships of 1965, 1966, 1967, and 1971. Photo: Ryan at the Irish championship, Cork 1967 (ICU collection).