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Gordon Thomas Crown
G T Crown 
Gordon reenacts the final move of his most famous game. (CHESS, January 1948)  

Number of games in database: 20
Years covered: 1943 to 1947
Overall record: +13 -5 =2 (70.0%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games.

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Most played openings
D31 Queen's Gambit Declined (3 games)
A07 King's Indian Attack (2 games)
B74 Sicilian, Dragon, Classical (2 games)


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GORDON THOMAS CROWN
(born Jun-20-1929, died Nov-17-1947, 18 years old) United Kingdom

[what is this?]

Gordon Thomas Crown was born on June 20, 1929 in Liverpool, England. He learnt to play chess at age nine and soon became strong enough to win the Lancashire Junior Championship thrice running. He was 2nd at the British Boys Championship in 1946.

In the Hastings Congress of 1946-47 he won 1st place in the Premier Reserve section. He finished third in the British Championship (1947). In September 1947 he played 4th board for Britain in the Britain vs USSR match against Alexander Kotov, scoring a win and a loss in their two games.

Crown, a diabetic, was rushed to hospital in November 1947 suffering from peritonitis. However, complications set in and he died during an operation. His tragic death at age 18 was a great loss to British chess and the chess world.

Wikipedia article: Gordon Crown

Last updated: 2025-05-28 19:53:54

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 page 1 of 1; 20 games  PGN Download 
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. G T Crown vs W Korn  ½-½341943Offhand gameB74 Sicilian, Dragon, Classical
2. P Morley vs G T Crown 0-1231945ENGC37 King's Gambit Accepted
3. J O'Hanlon vs G T Crown 0-1421946Nottingham-B2D31 Queen's Gambit Declined
4. G T Crown vs R L Johnson 0-1481946Nottingham-B2D31 Queen's Gambit Declined
5. G T Crown vs R Guy 1-0421946Nottingham-B2D15 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav
6. K Charlesworth vs G T Crown  1-0461946Nottingham-B2D31 Queen's Gambit Declined
7. G T Crown vs E G Sergeant  1-0461946Nottingham-B2C51 Evans Gambit
8. J A Fuller vs G T Crown 1-091946GBR-ch33 Boys Championship FinalC80 Ruy Lopez, Open
9. G T Crown vs J Thorn Leeson 1-0241947corrB02 Alekhine's Defense
10. G T Crown vs Lipton 1-0381947?C52 Evans Gambit
11. G T Crown vs J Wolstenholme 1-0301947Lancashire-chB24 Sicilian, Closed
12. G T Crown vs L J Tummers  ½-½261947NED-ENGC88 Ruy Lopez
13. L J Tummers vs G T Crown 0-1311947NED-ENGE70 King's Indian
14. G T Crown vs R Broadbent 1-0261947British ChampionshipA07 King's Indian Attack
15. G T Crown vs Golombek 0-1111947British ChampionshipE02 Catalan, Open, 5.Qa4
16. G T Crown vs W Fairhurst  1-0321947British ChampionshipC47 Four Knights
17. W Ritson-Morry vs G T Crown 0-1101947British ChampionshipB58 Sicilian
18. G T Crown vs Kotov 1-0351947Great Britain - Soviet UnionA07 King's Indian Attack
19. Kotov vs G T Crown 1-0371947Great Britain - Soviet UnionE81 King's Indian, Samisch
20. M Gellis vs G T Crown 0-1461947AUS - GB radio matchB74 Sicilian, Dragon, Classical
 page 1 of 1; 20 games  PGN Download 
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Crown wins | Crown loses  

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 1 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Sep-25-04  Benzol: This player might have gone on to GM status had he not died prematurely.
Oct-20-04
Premium Chessgames Member
  ray keene: we are missing his most famous win v kotov!!
Oct-20-04
Premium Chessgames Member
  ray keene: ps can someone supply it -its a superb game i seem to recall
Oct-20-04  AdrianP: [Event "ENG-URS"]
[Site "London"]
[Date "1947.??.??"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Crown,Gordon Thomas"]
[Black "Kotov,Alexander"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Eco "B24"]
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.d3 e6 6.Be3 b6 7.Nge2 Nf6 8.h3 Ba6 9.Qd2 d5 10.exd5 Nxd5 11.Bg5 Qd7 12.Nxd5 exd5 13.Bh6 Bxb2 14.Rb1 Be5 15.0-0 d4 16.Rfe1 0-0-0 17.Nf4 Rhe8 18.Nd5 Qd6 19.Nxb6+ axb6 20.Rxb6 Bb7 21.Reb1 Re7 22.Qc1 Rdd7 23.Bf8 Rc7 24.Qa3 Qe6 25.Bxe7 Qxe7 26.Qa4 Nd8 27.Qb5 h5 28.a4 h4 29.gxh4 Bd6 30.a5 Qd7 31.a6 Qxb5 32.axb7+ Kb8 33.R1xb5 Bf4 34.Ra6 Nxb7 35.Rab6 1-0

<Ray> Here it is and I'll send it to <chessgames.com>

Oct-20-04
Premium Chessgames Member
  ray keene: excellent-deserves to be up
Jun-20-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  Stonehenge: Good to have him as player of the day. He shouldn't be forgotten.
Jun-20-07  yxcvbnm: not seems to have been quite a friend of draws. right?
Jun-20-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  cu8sfan: What an inspiring name for a GotD pun... (-:
Jun-20-07  Wild Bill: <cu8sfan>:

We can use pictures from the 1968 movie.

Is there a game that features a McQueen sacrifice?

Jun-20-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  fm avari viraf: Indeed, very sad to learn that Gordon Crown passed away as a teenager. May God Bless His Soul Peace in Heaven.
Dec-08-07  Jim Bartle: I heard he had an affair. Two, in fact.
Dec-08-07  Benzol: <Jim> It would be a good pun for one of his games. "The Thomas Crown Affair".
May-21-08  vonKrolock: Two Crown photos online - one a fine portrait, and the other a very sugestive caption of him playing the last move in his famous game G Crown vs Kotov, 1947 Thanks to Edward Winter
Jun-20-08  brankat: A terrible loss to all of Chess world was such a tragically premature death of this very talented young man.

R.I.P. Mr.Crown.

Jun-20-09  WhiteRook48: the king with the crown
Jun-20-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  ray keene: is there a link to the fotos?
Jun-20-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  ray keene: i am astonished that the player of the day for june 20 has so far just 2 or 3 kibitzes-any one who comes here shd play thru his win v kotov!!
Jun-20-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Domdaniel: Crown was indeed a very promising player in the 1940s, and his early death a sad loss. But the biog here, as currently worded, contains some small inaccuracies -- ambiguities, if not quite errors. For example:

(1) <"he played 4th board for Britain against Alexander Kotov ...">

The error: he was playing in a match between England and the USSR. This is not the same as playing for Britain, and should be corrected.

The ambiguity: the wording seems to imply that the match itself was against Kotov, rather than a Soviet (USSR) team on which Kotov played 4th board. The context of the match and the overall number of boards should be given.

(2) <"but died during the operation as he was a diabetic">

Even in the 1940s, one did not automatically follow from the other. Prior to 1930 or so diabetics had a very poor survival rate if any kind of complications set in, but insulin treatment was developed in the 1930s and improved significantly by 1946-47. So Crown cannot be said to have died during the operation "as he was a diabetic". (I'm open to correction on this if somebody knows more about Crown's case, but this is my understanding of the historical development of treatment for diabetics.)

I suggest a different wording, something like <"Crown, who was diabetic, was rushed to hospital in November 1947 suffering from peritonitis, but complications set in and he died during surgery.">

Perhaps this level of detail is not really necessary, and something more concise would do.

These may seem like trivial points -- but I'm sure most people would agree with me that CG's biogs should be as accurate as possible, and ambiguities should be avoided.

On a broader scale, it might be a good idea in the long run if these biogs were to include brief references or citations. Nothing too elaborate -- just, perhaps, a reference to a biography if one exists, or to a magazine article or website if that happens to be the main historical source.

Without references, readers have no way of verifying information -- something that still damages the reliability of, for example, some wikipedia entries.

Finally, on a different note -- are there more of his games out there? There must be ... and we should try to track some down.

Jun-20-09  vonKrolock: <ray keene: is there a link to the fotos?> yes, in "Chess Notes" 5583 here http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/...
Jun-20-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Domdaniel: The good news is, I found a drawn game in another database. The bad news is it's zero moves long.
Jun-20-09  Jim Bartle: Well, could you at least post the final position?
Jun-20-09  vonKrolock: The other Crown has only a draw in his credit - but it was Fischer vs S Crown, 1964

S. for Steve?! - well, but not <McQueen> - who played, by the way, a <Thomas Crown>, but not Gordon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA8Y...

Jun-21-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  ray keene: thanks for the foto ref-very sad indeed
Jun-21-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  roberts partner: First, the 1947 match was definitely Britain v USSR (as were the preceding 1946 radio match and the subsequent 1954 match in London) and not England v USSR as domdaniel claims and as chessgames.com now mistakenly states in its changed introduction.

The book of the 1947 match by William Winter and Gregory Levenfish (you can find references to it online) is entitled Great Britain v USSR. The 1947 team included a Scot, Dr James Aitken, who played Vyacheslav Ragozin. Aitken also played against Igor Bondarevsky in 1946, while in 1954 the Scot William Fairhurst played, scoring a draw against Isaac Boleslavsky in the British team's crushing 1.5-18.5 defeat.

Second, as to the circumstances of Crown's death. The finger of blame must be pointed at the family doctor for failing to make a timely correct diagnosis. On Sunday 16 November 1947 a chess friend visited the Crown home at Ingledene Road, Liverpool, and found Crown in bed. He explained that his doctor had diagnosed a stomach upset and had recommended rest. The friend and Crown played and analysed together for several hours, and Crown did not appear in any physical discomfort. But that night sfter the friend left his condition deteriorated and he was rushed to hospital where he died in the early morning hours of 17 November. There was also a belief among some Liverpool chessplayers that the hospital procedures could have been better.

On another thread some CG posters expressed surprise at the Ritson Morry v Crown game where Morry fell into a well-known opening trap.

The British championship at Harrogate in August 1947 was played in a spa building where the underfloor heating was still switched on. This coincided with one of the warmest summers on record (it was the year in which Compton and Edrich made their memorable cricket achievements for Middlesex). By the second week of the BCF congress older and overweight players (the latter group including Ritson Morry) were wilting. Ritson also had some long adjourned games, and by the time of his game with Crown in the final round was exhausted. The game finished in 15-20 minutes so by the time other players went to spectate after their opening moves there was just a reset board with no sign of the players and no indication of what had transpired. Other final round results went Crown's way so that he finished third outright and thus got selected on a high board for the USSR match.

Crown was a hard chess worker, very well versed in opening theory, ambitious and self-critical, and improving fast at the time of his death. He was also charmingly pleasant, articulate, outgoing, and an excellent and prolific writer. If he had had a normal lifespan he would probably have reached a higher level than Penrose and English chess would have become competitive at world level much earlier than it did.

Jun-21-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  ray keene: incredibly well informed-this kibitzer must be someone with a highly detailed knowledge of british chess-my guess is peter c gibbs -but of course i cd easily be wrong!
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