Oxford v Cambridge is the oldest fixture in chess, played annually since 1873 apart from war years. The two universities are evenly matched, and Cambridge lead by just 60-59 with 23 draws in the overall series after Oxford’s 5-3 victory in Saturday’s 2024 renewal at the RAC Club in Pall Mall, London.
Oxford’s top board and captain, Tom O’Gorman, equalled the individual match record by winning for the fourth year in a row. O’Gorman uniquely won all his four games on top board with the white pieces. It is the first time that 4/4 has been achieved in the 21st century, after twice in the 20th and three times in the 19th.
In past decades the top boards would sometimes be future England players showcasing their talents, though not always successfully: in both 1929 and 1930 the Cambridge top board hung his queen in the opening, once to a knight fork and the other to a bishop pin.
Matches in the 21st century have often had an international character, with around a third of the 16 players non-British. Seven of Saturday’s teams were mathematicians, with economics (two) next. Grandmasters have played in the match, the latest being the all-time No2 woman Hou Yifan, a Rhodes Scholar in 2018.
The RAC’s excellently produced brochure shows that chess is experiencing a popularity wave at universities due to Magnus Carlsen, Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, and the easy accessibility of online speed chess.
Hundreds of new members joined the Oxford and Cambridge clubs in freshers week last autumn, while in February 40 teams competed in the British Universities team championship, In Division 1, Oxford won on tiebreak from Cambridge, with Warwick third and Imperial fourth.
Former players in the varsity match have often had distinguished careers, as can be seen from the section in John Saunders’s encyclopedic and highly informative Britbase, which contains alphabetical mini-biographies of all who have played in the match since its inception.
The profession which stands out is cryptanalyst. Hugh Alexander, the FT chess correspondent for more than a decade, was a leading figure at Bletchley Park, and after the war continued as head of cryptanalysis at GCHQ until his retirement in 1971. In the film The Imitation Game, the actor Matthew Goode played Alexander.
What is less well-known is that several other Oxford v Cambridge players were also codebreakers, and that Alexander recruited the man who would some years later take the same position as head of cryptanalysis at GCHQ, Denis Mardle, after getting to know him during one of the matches. Mardle was my opponent in the 1952 Varsity match, although he also played in 1950 and 1951.
Puzzle 2562
White mates in four moves (by Fritz Giegold, Bayreuther Tageblatt 1933). Just a single line of play.
Click here for solution
