Charles Edward Ranken (5 January 1828 – 12 April 1905) was a Church of England clergyman and a minor British chess master.

Charles Ranken Sr.[1][2][3] He learned chess at age 12, but first made a serious study of the game while attending Wadham College, Oxford University in 1847–50.

[3][4] He particularly devoted himself to study of Howard Staunton's The Chess-Player's Handbook (1847),[4] a book that he said "marked the beginning of a new era in English chess literature".

[10] Ranken was a leading member of a group of clerics who played a prominent role in early Victorian Era English chess.

[4][11] In addition to Ranken, these included the Reverend George Alcock MacDonnell, John Owen, William Wayte, Edmund Thorold and Arthur Skipworth.

[11][12] Mike Fox and Richard James remark that, "The English parsons were a talented mob; presumably quiet country parishes in the nineteenth century gave one the leisure needed to become a star.

[14] After leaving Oxford, he played in the provincial section of the great London 1851 tournament, finished second behind Samuel Boden.

[4] His best result was in 1872, when he finished first in the first-class section at the 8th British Counties Chess Association Congress in Malvern with 12 of 14 possible points, ahead of Revs.

[4][7][18] He had another excellent performance in 1881, when he won the 16th British Counties Chess Association Congress in Leamington, scoring 8 of 9 possible points, ahead of Revs.

[26] Ranken and Wayte assisted Skipworth, the chief editor, in writing The Chess Players' Quarterly Chronicle, which was published in York from February 1868 to December 1871.

[31] Ranken next became a member of the staff of the British Chess Magazine (BCM), which began publication in January 1881 under the editorship of John Watkinson.

[33] In 1897, the BCM published his article Chess Reminiscences in the Victorian Era, in which he wrote, "With great defects he had great virtues; there was nothing mean, cringing, or small in his nature, and, taking him all in all, England never had a more worthy chess representative than Howard Staunton.

[35][36] It was one of the first opening books written in columnar form: columns of move-sequences thought to constitute best play, presented in chess notation and concluding with a symbol indicating the analyst's assessment of the final position (such as "equal", "White wins", or "advantage to Black").

"[43] Likewise Fischer, in his famous book My 60 Memorable Games, annotating an Evans Gambit that he had won against Reuben Fine, cited analysis from the 1893 edition of Chess Openings Ancient and Modern as an improvement on Fine's ninth move.

MCO-15 and Tartakower and du Mont agree that in that event 8.Qa4 f5 9.Nbd2 leaves Black with inadequate compensation for the sacrificed piece.

It again featured speculative sacrificial play by Ranken, this time including a double rook sacrifice.