English Chess Forum

Interesting video including his son and players who remember him, and an interview with 'Miss Fatima':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYCwOpjKab0

Clearly the ECF should aim to send selected top juniors to Pakistan to serve in Sir Umar's household and England will be a force again in world chess in short order.

Great stuff. Appears to be cut down from a 1990 TV film which I'm sure I remember seeing.

Amazing video, the last days of the British Empire, not to mention Milner Barry, and Ritson-Morry. Sultan Khan, and the Household of Sir Umar defies logic. It is not enough to have a natural talent for playing chess. To develop your game, you have to play against stronger players than yourself. Did Sir Umar secretly hire a chess master, to train Fatima and Sultan Khan ? One of the great chess mysteries.

Gordon Cadden wrote:Amazing video, the last days of the British Empire, not to mention Milner Barry, and Ritson-Morry. Sultan Khan, and the Household of Sir Umar defies logic. It is not enough to have a natural talent for playing chess. To develop your game, you have to play against stronger players than yourself. Did Sir Umar secretly hire a chess master, to train Fatima and Sultan Khan ? One of the great chess mysteries.

Sultan Khan had some training from William Winter when he first arrived. I thought that was well-known.

Which is interesting given that SK had a much poorer score against W Winter than nearly all other English players he encountered?

Edward Winter has just updated his feature article on Sultan Khan with two portraits of Miss Fatima, forwarded by Olimpiu G. Urcan, from the Edwin Smith photographic archive:

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/ext ... nkhan.html