English Chess Forum

I've just posted the 1965 BCF (British Chess Federation) Grading List at the BritBase library...

https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pdfs/1 ... glist.html

... with all the players down to BCF 185 (roughly equivalent to Elo 2040). This list appeared in the 1965/66 BCF Yearbook - if you would like to view a scan of the pages as they originally appeared, click on this link.

I have added forenames where known and also links to biographical information at Wikipedia and elsewhere.

There are still some names for whom I don't have forenames. Hopefully the forum can help to fill in the gaps.

The forum will recall that I did something similar for the 1956 Grading List some years ago.

P.S. A few of the links to West of England players may not work at the moment. These are to files located at the Wayback Archive which appears to be down at the moment.

Philip C Owen (Richmond & Twickenham)

It would be nice to know if the two Drs were medical doctors, though sadly their names are very common:

Lewis, Dr. G (Swansea) 6B
Jones, Dr. H (Newport) 5A

Both Welsh Chess Union.

Interesting name here:

Schiffer, Otto (Cardiff North) 6A

Will silently pass over (while not trying to fall in) the following:

Poolake, Maximilian Ernst (Bristol; 4a) 189

Wonder if that name is German or Austrian as well?

Poolake is apparently a rare Estonian surname. The only Poolakes I can find in the UK are Max and his wife.

Henry Morton (MCCU 185) is definitely correct.

George H Stephens (Richmond & Twickenham) later Plessey Radar (Addlestone), and even later Cobham

I'm not certain, but I think NE Wade was Norman Ernest Wade; born 19th July 1924, Romford, Essex; died 23rd August 2014, Liskeard, Cornwall.
There are records of him living in Newport in the 1960s. In the English ratings database there is a record for a Norman Wade, playing for Liskeard in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
https://rating.englishchess.org.uk/play ... de=120910D
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/pe ... s/PXJC-TFS

Jon D'Souza-Eva wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 29, 2026 11:55 am

In the English ratings database there is a record for a Norman Wade, playing for Liskeard in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

If it is the same person, his performances in more recent years are a long way below where he was in the 1960s.

My thanks to those who have helped so far. I've updated the page to reflect the additional information.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 28, 2026 1:26 pm

It would be nice to know if the two Drs were medical doctors, though sadly their names are very common:

Lewis, Dr. G (Swansea) 6B
Jones, Dr. H (Newport) 5A

Both Welsh Chess Union.

Researching Welsh names is particularly difficult as I know only too well from researching my own Welsh family. A further problem is the fact that some of the Welsh players on this particular list have been given with one forename initial when I think they had at least one middle name. If you want to look further, you could try the club history pages at the Welsh Chess Union website. Martyn Griffiths has done some fine work there.

One possible lead on the Newport page: Dr H V M Jones beat Golombek in a simul in 1955. As anyone who has done any biographical research knows, three forename initials make identifying a person infinitely easier than if they only have the standard two or the next to useless one, even when the surname is a common one. So finding this guy was easy - Dr Harry Victor Mainwaring Jones (1901-1976), with the 1939 census confirming that he was the assistant medical officer of health in Newport. (There's a lot more non-chess info to be found about him.) He won the Monmouthshire (Gwent) county title in 1964 and a leading light in chess in that area from the 1930s to the 1960s so he is probably our man.

Jon D'Souza-Eva wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 29, 2026 11:55 am

I'm not certain, but I think NE Wade was Norman Ernest Wade; born 19th July 1924, Romford, Essex; died 23rd August 2014, Liskeard, Cornwall.
There are records of him living in Newport in the 1960s. In the English ratings database there is a record for a Norman Wade, playing for Liskeard in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
https://rating.englishchess.org.uk/play ... de=120910D
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/pe ... s/PXJC-TFS

Thanks, Jon. I have found a reference to "Norman Wade" in a chess context in the South Wales Argus, 23 September 1970, so I think that corroborates your hypothesis. I take Roger's point - a decline from a 153-160 grade at age 40 to sub-100 at the age of 70 is a quantum leap - but I guess it can happen in a number of circumstances (decades-long lay-off, poor health, impaired vision).

EDIT: I'm starting to have second thoughts about Norman Wade. There is a newspaper record of a N Wade playing chess for Liskeard in 1953. Could we have two chess-playing Norman Wades?! Or did he move around a lot?

Norman Ernest Wade definitely married Mavis Gwendoline Knapman in Liskeard on the 16th September, 1949.
This link will only work if you have an account with Ancestry:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/colle ... cessSource

And then in the 1960s there are several electoral registers where a Norman E Wade and Mavis G Wade are living together in Newport, Wales. e.g. this one from 1962:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/colle ... cessSource

The name "Norman E Wade" with a wife called "Mavis G Wade" is specific enough to make me reasonably confident that the couple living in Newport in the 1960s are the same ones who married in Liskeard in 1949 (and perhaps lived there in the 1950s?).

This Norman and Mavis died in Liskeard (Mavis was also born there) in 2014 and 2025 respectively, though I don't know when they moved back there.

Thanks, Jon. It seems to indicate that there was only one Norman Ernest Wade and that he moved back and forth between Gwent and Cornwall a couple of times. I found another address for him in a piece in the South Wales Argus, 22 August 1963, in which he was referred to as "N. E. Wade, Monmouthshire Chess Association secretary" and the address was 92 Queen's Hall Crescent which is in Newport.

A middle name (and a good one for a chess player): Philip H Breach was Philip Hastings Breach. Born 25th August, 1920 in Lowestoft, Suffolk. Died 16th November, 2003 in Somerset. He was Cornwall Chess Champion in 1965 (https://cornwallchess.org.uk/html/archi ... cong.shtml).

"A middle name (and a good one for a chess player): Philip H Breach was Philip Hastings Breach. Born 25th August, 1920 in Lowestoft, Suffolk. Died 16th November, 2003 in Somerset. He was Cornwall Chess Champion in 1965 (https://cornwallchess.org.uk/html/archi ... cong.shtml)."

So he headed from the extreme East coast to the extreme West coast, and was on his way back, when sadly he died?

John Saunders wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 29, 2026 1:37 pm

I take Roger's point - a decline from a 153-160 grade at age 40 to sub-100 at the age of 70 is a quantum leap - but I guess it can happen in a number of circumstances (decades-long lay-off, poor health, impaired vision).

Oh certainly. One of my clubmates in the 1970s was a solid 140-ish player, but thirty years on was rated only 84 (he subsequently recovered to 114).