Thomas George Alan Sir (14.06.1881 – 23.07.1972)

English Chess International Master (1950) and International Arbiter (1952). His first chess trainer was his mother – the winner of the first Women’s Chess tournament held in Hastings in 1895. In 1907, he won the First Class Tournament in the Kent Annual Congress in Deal and also   again in succeeding years. By 1910, he had appeared in international chess events, winning his games in the last two Anglo-American cable matches. Apart from the period of the First World War, when he was a lieutenant in the sixth Hampshire Regiment and served in Mesopotamia, he remained in the international chess arena right up to the outbreak of the Second World War, competing in many Master Tournaments on the continent, where he often finished in the prize list, and in most events of importance in Great Britain. He was one of the leading English players in the period of the 1920s-40s, being the champion of the country in 1923 and 1934. Was the London Champion in 1946. He showed his brilliant play in the international tournaments where he was the first or equal first: in Spa 1926, Tanbridge Wales 1927, Hastings 1934-35 together with Flohr and Euwe, ahead of Capablanca and Botvinnik, Plymouth 1938. He played in seven Olympiads as a member of the National Team in the period 1927-39 and showed the best result in 1927, being the first at board 3. He was a member of the British Team in the 1947 match of USSR vs Great Britain. During his career, he has beaten Botvinnik, Flohr and Tartakower and drawn with Nimzowitsch, Rubinstein and Capablanca. He played enthusiastically ice hockey and did well at international lawn tennis events and won about 90 titles in badminton in the period 1920-23.