May-01-03
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| Ken MacGillivray: (Sir) George Thomas'talents also extended to tennis, where he reached the last eight at Wimbledon. Then in 1923, he achieved the remarkable distinction of becoming British Champion at both badminton and chess; but ironically he is best remembered for his loss to Edward Lasker in a famous "King hunt" game played in London, when with the black pieces his king was driven to g1 where it was mated on move 18. This stemmed from a sensational Queen sacrifice by white on move 11. |
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| Feb-17-04 |
| Whitehat1963: Don't know too much about this guy other than he lost to a lot of big name players in his day and pulled off a few upsets: Capablanca, Nimzovich, Sultan Khan, for example. But apparently a great tennis player too. Anyone know more? |
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| Feb-17-04 |
| Lawrence: Whitehat1963, Bill Wall has a lot of info. http://www.geocities.com/siliconval... |
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| Feb-17-04 |
| Whitehat1963: <Lawrence> Thanks. |
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| Dec-21-04 |
| MidnightDuffer: First half of the 20th Century British sports is fascinating, from their cyclists like Reginald Harris; to the whole Chariots of Fire scenario; Football Soccer of course, by George; I'd say this is a good pick for today. I don't have all of the time lines and whos down; but I'd like too. |
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Mar-15-05
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| Caissanist: Well, one other thing about the man was that he was famous for being an extraordinarily good loser, who was said to exemplify English sportsmanship. Hehe, I can hear the groans from all up and down England. |
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| May-13-05 |
| WTHarvey: Here are some diagrams of critical positions in George's games: http://www.wtharvey.com/thom.html |
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May-13-05
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| xenophon: I think badminton's equivalent of the Davies' cup is named after him |
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Aug-11-05
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| chancho: He made it to round of 16 at Wimbledon. That is quite a feat. |
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| Aug-11-05 |
| jcmoral: Talk about a renaissance man! Anyone with similar achievements nowadays? |
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| Dec-23-06 |
| hellstrafer: Anyone knows why he was born in Turkey (or back then, Ottoman Empire)? His parents were working there? |
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Sep-28-07
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| Phony Benoni: Mention should be made of his performance at Hastings 1934/35. A look at the crosstable will show why: 1 Euwe * 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 6.5
2 Thomas 0 * ½ 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 6.5
3 Flohr ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 6.5
4 Capablanca ½ 0 ½ * 0 ?1 1 1 1 1 5.5
5 Lilienthal ½ 0 ½ 1 * ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 5.0
6 Botvinnik 0 0 ½ ½ ½ * ½ 1 1 1 5.0
7 Michell 0 1 0 0 0 ½ * ½ 1 1 4.0
8 Menchik ½ 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ * ½ 1 3.0
9 Norman ½ 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ * 0 1,5
0 Milner Barry 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 1 * 1.5
Not only a tie for first with Euwe and Flohr, but wins over Capablanca, Lilienthal and Botvinnik. This might just be worth a GM norm by today's standards. |
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| Sep-28-07 |
| FHBradley: Like Frederick D Yates, Sir George played the King's Indian defence regularly in the 20s, when it did not have too many advocates. Is there some explanation why British players in particular should have used the KID (apart from the fact that in the 20s George V was the King and India was still under the British rule)? |
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| Sep-28-07 |
| Resignation Trap: Thomas was a joint-winner with Friedrich Samisch at Spa 1926. Here they are in the foreground: http://users.skynet.be/jardinsdecai... . Another group photo from Spa 1926, this time seated across the board from Savielly Tartakower: http://rogerpaige.me.uk/historicalp... . Yes, the position on the board is 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5!, which occurred in their actual game (result: 1-0, 30 moves ). For those of you who <really> want to know more about Sir George, there is a book of his games available, with 552 pages: http://diggorypress.com/chess-games... |
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Sep-28-07
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| Calli: Sorry, no way I am clicking on a link to see a picture of Sir George and Savielly playing in a spa. :-> |
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Oct-12-07
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| Peligroso Patzer: I am glad that <Phony Benoni> has already (on Sep-28-07) made mention of Sir George's great result at Hastings 1934-35. It really should be mentioned in his biograpical summary near the top of this page. |
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Apr-14-08
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| A.G. Argent: <bidmonfa> Where are you? Anything other than the above sketch of Sir George? |
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Apr-14-08
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| Karpova: Pictures:
http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/...
http://www.chessbase.de/Nachrichten... (standing behind Sultan Khan) |
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| Jun-14-08 |
| Nikita Smirnov: He lived a long life.It was rare that people lived as long as Sir George Alan Thomas did.91 years. |
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| Jun-14-08 |
| Trigonometrist: <Nikita>
Yes..A truly gifted man and a good sport too,allowing Ed Lasker to complete his immortal brilliancy against him... Another photo..
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped... |
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