30 Facts About Leonard Barden

Leonard Barden learned to play chess at age 13 while in a school shelter during a World War II German air raid.

Leonard Barden's father ran a business which collapsed during the Great Depression and eventually found employment as a dustman.

Leonard Barden attended Whitgift School when it was a Grammar School before it reverted to independent status in 1946.

In 1946, Leonard Barden won the British Junior Correspondence Chess Championship, and tied for first place in the London Boys' Championship.

Leonard Barden captained the Oxfordshire team which won the English Counties championship in 1951 and 1952.

Leonard Barden represented England in the Chess Olympiads at Helsinki 1952, Amsterdam 1954, Leipzig 1960 and Varna 1962.

Leonard Barden has a Morphy number of 3 by six different routes.

Leonard Barden played four opponents of James Mortimer: Edward Sergeant, Savielly Tartakower, Sir George Thomas, and Eugene Znosko-Borovsky.

In 1964, Leonard Barden gave up most competitive chess to devote his time to chess organisation, broadcasting, and writing about the game.

Leonard Barden has made invaluable contributions to English chess as a populariser, writer, organiser, fundraiser, and broadcaster.

Leonard Barden was controller of the British Chess Federation Grand Prix for many years, having found its first sponsor, Cutty Sark whisky.

Leonard Barden was a regular contributor to the BBC's Network Three weekly radio chess programme from 1958 to 1963.

Leonard Barden's best-known contribution was a consultation game, recorded in 1960 and broadcast in 1961, where he partnered Bobby Fischer against the English masters Jonathan Penrose and Peter Clarke.

Leonard Barden gave BBC television commentaries on all the games in the 1972 world championship.

Leonard Barden's column ran for 63 years, 7 months and 27 days, which exceeds the world record of 45 years and 240 days that Guinness World Records recognizes for Lam Shan Muk of Hong Kong, a daily commentator for the Hong Kong Economic Journal.

Leonard Barden's involvement began in 1971 when he noticed that Tony Miles and Michael Stean were both likely contenders for the biennial 1973 world junior championship, but that the only way for a country to have two representatives was to host the event.

Leonard Barden knew the financier Jim Slater, who offered to co-sponsor the event, which was staged at Teesside.

Leonard Barden worked out the detailed terms, and wrote the speech at Hastings where Slater announced the awards.

Leonard Barden organised weekend junior invitation events at which the best prospects played a tournament and had coaching from masters between games.

Leonard Barden read much Soviet chess literature, and in 1974 decided that an 11-year-old named Gary Kasparov was a likely future world champion.

Leonard Barden's Guardian column of 24 February 1975, headlined "World Champ 1990", made this a specific forecast.

Leonard Barden used his columns to promote his juniors, whom some called "the Leonard Barden babes".

One purpose of the publicity was to attract more sponsorship, and in summer 1976 Leonard Barden secured backing from Lloyds Bank.

Leonard Barden continued to seek new primary school talent, and in 1980 recognised the exceptional promise of the then 8-year-old Michael Adams.

Adams lived in Cornwall, far from the major chess centres, so Leonard Barden arranged for a Devon organiser, Ken Butt, to stage an annual Lloyds Bank under-18 international tournament in Plymouth.

Mr Leonard Barden now has 500 players on his books in whom he takes an active interest, following their tournament games and writing to suggest alternative strategies in their games.

Leonard Barden still spotted talents early, notably Matthew Sadler, who debuted in the Lloyds Bank tournament at 11 and became a leading grandmaster in the 1990s.

In 1992 when the British Chess Federation was reluctant to send Luke McShane, then 8, to the world under-10 championship in Duisburg, Leonard Barden campaigned for a positive outcome which was rewarded when McShane won the gold medal.

In recognition of his efforts, Leonard Barden was offered an OBE, but declined it.

FIDE did not introduce international ratings until 1970, after Leonard Barden had virtually stopped competing.