William Fairhurst

[1] Born in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, Fairhurst was thirteen when he taught himself to play chess from a collection of books at the family home.

As an amateur, he had little opportunity to play in international tournaments, but he did compete at Scarborough in 1927, finishing second, tied with Frederick Yates, ahead of several recognised masters including Efim Bogoljubov, Sir George Thomas and Victor Buerger.

In 1931, he went to live in Scotland and laid the foundations for a chess boom north of the border, winning the Scottish championship a record eleven times between 1932 and 1962.

A year later, he drew a six-game match with the then Austrian master Erich Eliskases, a player of noted strength and very much a rising star in world chess.

Playing board one, he spearheaded the Scottish Chess Olympiad team on six occasions between 1933 and 1968; his victims included the Danish champion and future world championship contender Bent Larsen, who was close to his peak.

In 1947, he played in a radio match with Australia and at the end of the year, achieved a creditable fifth place at the Hastings International Chess Congress of 1947/48.

In 1950, chess organisers took advantage of the fact that the leading players of England, Scotland, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa were all gathered in Britain at the same time.

Later however, his influence became overbearing and following a controversy about team selection for the Lugano 1968 Olympiad, where he tried to block the inclusion of a player, he was deposed and asked to appoint a successor.