William Fairhurst

William Albert Fairhurst CBE (21 August 1903, Alderley Edge, England – 13 March 1982, Howick, New Zealand) was an English-born bridge designer and international chess master. He was highly accomplished in both disciplines and for many years successfully divided his time between two careers. He was awarded the CBE for his services to engineering, and in chess he was several times champion of Scotland, gaining the title of International Master in 1951.

Born in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, Fairhurst was thirteen when he taught himself to play chess from a collection of books at the family home. During this developmental stage, he was inspired by the teachings of Siegbert Tarrasch and consequently his playing style was based, for the most part, on dogmatic strategic concepts. By eighteen, he was Cheshire County Champion and a little later, moved to Lancashire, where he established a reputation as one of the leading players in the North of England. 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. Notably, he defeated not only the hugely experienced Bogoljubov, but also the first-prize winner, Edgard Colle. It was around this time, in his twenties, that he edited a well-respected games section in the magazine Chess Amateur.

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 gifted blindfold player, he held a twelve-board simultaneous blindfold exhibition in 1932 at the Glasgow Polytechnic Club, winning nine games and drawing three. 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. In 1937, Fairhurst won a fiercely contested British Championship in Blackpool.

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