Draft:C W Warburton

SOURCES - 'My Chess adventures' by Charles W Warburton, Thinker's press 1984 'Chess Moves' Newsletter October 1994

REFERENCES - 'My Chess Adventures' by Charles W Warburton, Thinker's press 1984 'Chess Moves' Newsletter October 1994

CHARLES WARBURTON

Charles William Warburton (December 4th 1908 - September 30th 1994 ) was a well known and highly regarded chess player whose wide knowledge of the game was gleaned from his extensive study of some of the greatest players. He was a prolific writer for the British Correspondence Chess Association journal, 'Chess' magazine, 'British Chess' magazine and several others.

PERSONAL AND EARLY LIFE

Warburton was born and raised in Warrington, Cheshire, England, and lived there his entire life. His ancestors had always lived around the region and he was a proud Warringtonian. He told the story of playing with his father William's chess pieces on the hearth during the Great War, pretending that they were British and German soldiers, with no chess board involved. This changed fairly quickly. His father and uncle were very strong players on the local circuit and he was tutored to a high standard.

Charles spent his working life as a railway clerk. He married Kathleen Higgins on September 3rd 1939. They adopted or were foster carers to several children, and were grandparents to 5. It was a musical household, with Kathleen working as a piano teacher, and Charles being an avid collector of classical music. He was a talented calligrapher, and student of history who would retire to bed early and rise with the birds, habits helped by his clean living, no drinking or smoking for him. He had a wonderful large garden which he poured time into, and was a very practical man who would put up his own fencing and lay his own paving, as well as make his own furniture - and chess boards. He was an extremely active and cerebral man who built himself a world where he had no time for any dull moments.

ACCIDENT

Warburton became a celebrated correspondence chess player literally by accident - he was nearly killed when he was knocked off his bicycle in April 1963. The accident took many months to recover from and he was left with some permanent injuries.

CAREER

He was precocious and became involved with local chess clubs from the age of 12. He went on to play for Lancashire and Cheshire over the board, and later began to specialise in correspondence chess, believing it to be the arena where players have more time to develop and produce their best game. Although online records of his games, and those compiled in his 1984 book 'My Chess Adventures', are not exhaustive, it seems that he had an astounding unbeaten record for many years.

As well as his prolific article writing, he undertook several administrative positions, including President of the Cheshire Chess Association, Secretary of the Northern Counties Chess Union, and he was founder of the Warrington Chess League. The ICCF (International Correspondence Chess Federation) organised a memorial tournament in 2009. This was won by Finnish IM (International Master) Panu Laine.

BOOK

Warburton's book 'My Chess Adventures' was published by Thinkers' Press in 1984. It contains dozens of his best games as well as some of his favourites involving other players. As well as this, there is plenty of biographical detail. A search of online forums underlines how highly rated his reflections and style of play are among chess scholars who have had the chance to read or own a copy of this now out of print book.

GAMES

CW was a firm fan of the Ruy Lopez opening but he also played and wrote extensively about many other options, including the Catalan opening, King's Indian defence, Ponziani opening and dozens of others.

By the time he was 20 in 1928 he had drawn against one of the game's greatest players, Capablanca, in a simultaneous (Simul ) event in Manchester. ( A simul is an event where a stronger player takes on several other players in the same room at the same time ). Later in his career he drew with Karpov in a simul.