George Alan Thomas

Sir George Alan Thomas, Bart. (born Therapia, Turkey; June 14, 1881 – July 23 1972) was a British chess, badminton and tennis player. He was twice British Chess Champion and a seven-time All-England Badminton champion. He also played in the semi-finals of the men's tennis doubles at Wimbledon in 1911. [citation|title=Europe have yet to lift trophy|publisher=Malay Mail|date=May 6, 2004|url=http://moreresults.factiva.com/results/index/index.aspx?ref=MALMAI0020040506e0560001q]

Thomas never married, so the hereditary Thomas baronetcy ended on his death. He was admired for his fine sportsmanship.

Chess

Living most of his life in London and Godalming, Thomas was British Chess Champion in 1923 and 1934. He shared first prize at the 1934/5 Hastings International Chess Congress in very good company, tying with the next world chess champion Max Euwe and leading Soviet player Salo Flohr, ahead of past and future world champions José Raúl Capablanca and Mikhail Botvinnik, whom he defeated in their individual games.

Thomas also defeated Euwe in tournament play and held Alekhine to six draws. His 'lifetime' scores against the world's elite were however less flattering: he had minuses against Emanuel Lasker (−1, not counting a win in a Lasker simultaneous exhibition in 1896), Capablanca (+1−5=3), Alekhine (−7=6), Efim Bogoljubov (−5=3), Euwe (+1−9=2), Flohr (+2−9=4) and Savielly Tartakower (+3−9=10). He also fared badly against Edgard Colle (+1–9=8). More impressively, he did manage even scores with Botvinnik (+1−1), Richard Réti (+3−3=1) and Siegbert Tarrasch (+1−1=3). Against Géza Maróczy, the balance was in Thomas' favour (+3−1=5).

Domestically, he held a plus score against his great English rival Frederick Yates (+13 –11 =13), but was less successful against Women's World Chess Champion Vera Menchik (+7−8=7),

In 1950 he was awarded the International Master title by FIDE and in 1952, became an International Arbiter. At age 69, he gave up competitive chess.

Badminton

As a badminton player he is the most successful player ever in the All England Open Badminton Championships with 21 titles between 1906 and 1928. Four of those titles were in men's singles, nine in men's doubles and eight in mixed doubles.

He was inducted into the World Badminton Hall of Fame as an Inaugural Member.

References

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lab/7378/thomas.htm Sir George Thomas by Bill Wall] .
* [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=10672 445 chess games of Sir George Thomas ]