Chessical: According to Edward Winter's "Chess Notes" (#4860) "E.E. Middleton...was active in Belgian chess circles in the first decade of the twentieth century".He was Belgium champion in 1905 and again in 1906. He appears to have been British and had a father withe the same initials who was also a chess player.
According to: http://www.hastingschessclub.co.uk/...
"E E Middleton Jnr. seems to have been by far the stronger player of the Middletons. We have it on record that he was a member of the Hastings CC in the 1903-4 season, but in 1904 he spent some time living in Brussels, Belgium. There he made a name for himself and won the championship of that country. He played a deciding match against M. Konigs of Malines and won +7 -3 =1.
Early in 1905 he was back in Hastings again and as well as playing for his club, he represented Sussex on board 4 in a match against Kent. Later that year it was almost certainly he rather than his father who played in a strong tournament at Barmen. His score of 7/15 was quite creditable and in the process he obtained a draw against Akiba Rubinstein who became one of the best players in the world. When the Hastings CC undertook its tour to Belgium and Holland, Middleton played for Brussels against the tourists on a low board and defeated the Hastings player, A C Jenour. Later, however, he joined the touring side.
In 1906 and 1907 it was again almost certainly he rather than his father who performed creditably in two amateur tournaments at Ostend. In the 1906-7 season he was back in Hastings again and he came first equal with J C Waterman in the club championship. Waterman was the eventual winner, but I am not sure if there was a play-off or whether Middleton was unavailable to take part in such a decider. In September 1908 he played on board three for Sussex in a match against Hampshire.
Now comes a long break. Perhaps in this time he had gone abroad again. Anyway he competed in the Major Open event of the British Chess Federation Congress at Cheltenham and did well to come 1st equal with A J Mackenzie (a future Hastings CC player) with a score of 9/11.
It seems that he was back in Belgium before too long, but when the war started, he escaped from Brussels to return to Hastings. He played a few games for the club early in 1915 and won the club championship.
By 1920 it seems that he had moved to London and it is likely to have been he rather than his father who played in the British Championship at Edinburgh. Here he did not do quite so well, scoring 3.5/11. Again it was probably he who played in the City of London CC Championship in 1922.
After that the Middletons do not seem to be active in chess circles. The Hastings and St Leonards Observer of 15.1.1944 mentions that the Middletons had spent some time in Belgium before the war (presumably World War II), but nothing had been heard of them for a long time".
Kibitzing
