He was a FIDE official, and served as arbiter for several important events, including the Candidates' Tournament of 1959 in Yugoslavia, and the 1963 World Chess Championship match between Mikhail Botvinnik and Tigran Petrosian.

On the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Golombek was in Buenos Aires, Argentina, competing in the Chess Olympiad for Britain alongside C. H. O'D.

[8] They immediately returned to the UK, and were soon recruited into Bletchley Park, the wartime codebreaking centre.

He was unusual among public figures in replying with care to letters from unknown people, such as young schoolboys, from this address.

Golombek studied philology at King's College London,[14] having been a pupil at Wilson's Grammar School, Camberwell.