Intersection between academia and international chess titles

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Surrey were simply not so strong in the 1980s and 1990s"

There were plenty of good players around, but they did not play for various reasons.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

"Surrey were simply not so strong in the 1980s and 1990s"

There were plenty of good players around, but they did not play for various reasons.

Hmm. Are the reasons interesting or boring?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Just a quick note (though he is not a titled chess player) to note the subsequent academic career of chess player Martin Luke Hazelton (mathematics and statistics, currently at the University of Otago). Not sure what his peak strength was as a chess player.

https://www.otago.ac.nz/maths-and-stats ... n-hazelton

[Jonathan Rogers]

about 2150-2200. I played him in the the Universities Championships 1991, Oxford v Nottingham. The time when Nottingham beat Oxford and Cambridge on the same day

For another thread no doubt, but which is the strongest University now? It was Warwick a few years back but these things can change quickly.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Hmm. Are the reasons interesting or boring? "

One captain tended to ring people on Friday night and say, "Can you play tomorrow?"
A lot of the venues (both home and away) were not great.
I can remember at least three occasions where a venue changed on the day - we arrived at the stated venue to be greeted by the captains saying, "The match has changed, it's now at X - here's directions".
Travelling was not great. The M25 was completed in 1986, which was some help, but there were not enough lanes from the start.
Adjudication was still used (I think)
There were too many defaults
Giving up an entire Saturday for one game was not appealing.

[AustinElliott]

For another thread no doubt, but which is the strongest University now? It was Warwick a few years back but these things can change quickly.

Might be hard to tell what current player rosters would be, given that a lot of the stronger University players are likely to be non-British and may not have a current OTB grading.

We just played a friendly against the University of Manchester, who rustled up a team where the three top boards, all from India, had no current OTB ratings and few or no recent OTB games, but had online chess.com blitz ratings of 2400, 2000 and 2000 (in the right ballpark judging from their OTB play).

PS Back when the Univ of M'cr last ran a team in the Manchester League (c a dozen years ago) it was already a feature that very few of the team's players were UK-raised. Recall the Univ of M'cr team that came 3rd in the British Universities Ch'ship in 2015 consisted of a Dane, an Azerbaijani, a Mexican and a Bulgarian, all of whom played for the Denton club in the MCF League that year.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Interesting. I encountered a high-rated Armenian in the London League pre-pandemic (was soundly thrashed both times). Appears to be inactive now (the name is a fairly common one in Armenia).

Bit scary when you find someone's online rating to be in the 2400 ballpark!

[MJMcCready]

How many British GMs have a Ph.d and are a doctor as such. GM Nunn and Rowson spring to mind immediately. How many more do we have?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Jonathan Mestel (who is in the first post in this thread, as he is a professor). The late Jonathan Penrose as well.

The fact that all four are John/Jonathans is entirely coincidental!

(To be fair, Mestel's forename from birth was Andrew.)

[MJMcCready]

What were those two doctors in do you know?

I think Nunn was mathematics and Rowson wisdom/philosophy.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

What were those two doctors in do you know?

I think Nunn was mathematics and Rowson wisdom/philosophy.

As you probably know, you can look up and download a wide range of theses these days (unless embargoed). Sadly, the British Library ETHOS service is probably still down. But you should be able to at least get the titles of the theses for all four. I would be interested in seeing all four laid out. But the wider topic of which areas chess players take to PhD level is an interesting one.

[Ian Thompson]

How many British GMs have a Ph.d and are a doctor as such. GM Nunn and Rowson spring to mind immediately. How many more do we have?

Colin McNab (mathematics) is another.

[MJMcCready]

Oh yes, forgot about him.

[Roger de Coverly]

I would be interested in seeing all four laid out.

John Nunn's thesis is regarded as his least accessible work. Even with a Maths degree, getting beyond the first paragraph or even the first sentance is a struggle.

[MJMcCready]

Many academic text's are. Try reading Satre's Being and Nothingness. In our seminars as an undergrad it was one page a seminar at most!

Nunn is noted as a strong mathematician but I never read any of that, his books on endings were enough for me.