View source for Jonathan Penrose

{{Short description|English chess grandmaster (1933–2021)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Infobox chess player
| name = Jonathan Penrose
| image = Jonathan Penrose, Schacholympiade Leipzig, 1960.jpg
| caption = Penrose at the [[14th Chess Olympiad|1960 Chess Olympiad]]
| country = [[England]]
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1933|10|7|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Colchester]], England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2021|11|30|1933|10|7|df=y}}
| death_place = 
| title = {{Unbulleted list|class=nowrap
  | [[FIDE]] [[Grandmaster (chess)|Grandmaster]] (1993)
  | [[ICCF Grandmaster]] (1983)
  }}
| peakrating = 2450 (July 1971)
| ICCF_peakrating = 2724 (July 1993)
}}

'''Jonathan Penrose''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|OBE}} (7 October 1933 – 30 November 2021) was an English chess player, who held the titles [[Grandmaster (chess)|Grandmaster]] (1993) and [[International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster]] (1983). He won the [[British Chess Championship]] ten times between 1958 and 1969.

== Early years ==
Penrose was born in [[Colchester]]. Learning the game at age four, he was a member of [[Hampstead]] Chess Club at twelve and British Boys (Under 18) Champion at just fourteen years of age. Chess was played by the entire Penrose family. His father was a composer of endgame studies and a strong player, as was his older brother Oliver.

By the age of seventeen, he was already acknowledged as a top prospect for British chess. Playing [[Hastings International Chess Congress|Hastings]] for the first time in 1950/51, he beat the French champion [[Nicolas Rossolimo]] and at [[Southsea]] in 1950, defeated both [[Efim Bogoljubov]] and [[Savielly Tartakower]]. In 1952/1953 he shared the first place at Hastings with [[Harry Golombek]], [[Antonio Medina García]] and [[Daniel Yanofsky]].

== Playing career ==
{{algebraic notation|pos=section}}
Penrose earned the [[International Master]] title in 1961 and was the leading British player for several years in the 1960s and early 1970s, surpassing the achievement of [[Henry Ernest Atkins]] by winning the British Championship a record number of times. He was widely considered to be of [[Grandmaster (chess)|grandmaster]] strength, but did not achieve the grandmaster title during his active playing career, despite some notable victories. This was mainly due to his choosing to remain amateur and placing his lecturing as a first priority. As a consequence, he played few international tournaments and frequently turned down invitations to prestigious tournaments such as Hastings. Nevertheless, [[FIDE]] made him a [[Grandmaster (chess)|grandmaster]] in 1993.<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 October 2020 |title=The Penrose Family: Scientists and Chess Players |url=https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-penrose-family-scientists-and-chess-players |access-date=11 July 2021 |website=Chess News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://ratings.fide.com/profile/400360 |title=Penrose, Jonathan |website=[[FIDE.com]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019223636/https://ratings.fide.com/profile/400360 |archive-date=19 October 2021}}</ref>

He competed in eight [[Chess Olympiad]]s between 1952 and 1962, then at the Olympiads of 1968 and 1970, frequently posting excellent scores, including +9−1=7 in 1962 ([[Varna, Bulgaria|Varna]]), and +10−0=5 in 1968 ([[Lugano]]). On both of these occasions, he won an individual silver medal on first board; in 1968, his score was bettered only by the [[World Chess Championship|World Champion]], [[Tigran Petrosian]].

{{Chess diagram
 |tright
 |Penrose vs. Tal, Leipzig 1960
 |  |  |rl|rd|  |  |  |kd
 |  |  |  |pl|  |  |  |
 |  |nl|  |  |  |  |pd|pd
 |  |  |bl|  |pd|  |  |
 |pd|  |  |  |nl|  |  |bd
 |  |bd|  |  |  |  |pl|pl
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |kl|
 |Final position
}}

At the [[14th Chess Olympiad|Leipzig 1960 Olympiad]], he defeated then-World Champion [[Mikhail Tal]] with the white pieces in a [[Modern Benoni]]:{{blockquote|text=1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.Bd3 Bg7 8.Nge2 O-O 9.O-O a6 10.a4 Qc7 11.h3 Nbd7 12.f4 Re8 13.Ng3 c4 14.Bc2 Nc5 15.Qf3 Nfd7 16.Be3 b5 17.axb5 Rb8 18.Qf2 axb5 19.e5 dxe5 20.f5 Bb7 21.Rad1 Ba8 22.Nce4 Na4 23.Bxa4 bxa4 24.fxg6 fxg6 25.Qf7+ Kh8 26.Nc5 Qa7 27.Qxd7 Qxd7 28.Nxd7 Rxb2 29.Nb6 Rb3 30.Nxc4 Rd8 31.d6 Rc3 32.Rc1 Rxc1 33.Rxc1 Bd5 34.Nb6 Bb3 35.Ne4 h6 36.d7 Bf8 37.Rc8 Be7 38.Bc5 Bh4 39.g3 1–0.<ref>{{cite chessgames game|gid=1105990|title=Jonathan Penrose vs Mikhail Tal}}</ref>}}This victory made Penrose the first British player to beat a reigning world champion since [[Joseph Henry Blackburne]] defeated [[Emanuel Lasker]] in 1899.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/apr/26/chess-michael-adams-vishy-anand |title=Michael Adams beats world champion Vishy Anand for second time |last=Barden |first=Leonard |date=26 April 2013 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=12 September 2018}}</ref>

== Correspondence chess ==
Penrose's over the board performance started to decline in the 1970s and he fainted at the [[19th Chess Olympiad|1970 Olympiad]] during a tense game. Consequently, he moved on to [[correspondence chess]], where he was successful, earning the International Master (IMC) title in 1980 and the grandmaster (GMC) title in 1983. He led his country to victory in the 9th [[Correspondence Olympiad]] (1982–1987).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tables.iccf.com/world/olymp/ol-09f.htm |title=9th CC Olympiad Final |website=[[International Correspondence Chess Federation]] |access-date=25 April 2018}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Penrose was the son of Margaret Leathes and [[Lionel Penrose]], a professor of genetics, the grandson of the [[physiologist]] [[John Beresford Leathes]], and brother of [[Roger Penrose]], [[Oliver Penrose]], and [[Shirley Hodgson]]. He was a [[psychologist]] and university lecturer by profession, with a PhD. He had two daughters from his marriage to Margaret Wood.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}} 

Penrose was awarded the [[Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire|OBE]] in 1971.

He died on 30 November 2021, at the age of 88.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Barden |first1=Leonard |title=Jonathan Penrose obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/dec/02/jonathan-penrose-obituary |access-date=2 December 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=2 December 2021}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{Cite book |editor-last=Golombek |editor-first=Harry |editor-link=Harry Golombek |year=1981 |title=The Penguin Encyclopedia of Chess |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-046452-8}}
*{{cite book |author=Sunnucks, Anne |author-link=Anne Sunnucks |title=The Encyclopaedia of Chess |publisher=Hale |year=1970 |isbn=0-7091-1030-8}}
*{{cite book |author=Gizycki, Jerzy |title=A History Of Chess |publisher=Abbey Library |page=60 |year=1977 |edition=revised |isbn=0-7196-0086-3}}

==External links==
* {{FIDE|400360}}
* {{ICCF|210060}}
* {{OlimpBase FIDE ratings|Penrose,%20Jonathan}}
* {{OlimpBase player|7d1x5p5h}}
* {{Chessgames player|17945}}
* {{365Chess.com player|Jonathan_Penrose}}
{{English GMs}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Penrose, Jonathan}}
[[Category:1933 births]]
[[Category:2021 deaths]]
[[Category:Chess Grandmasters]]
[[Category:Correspondence chess grandmasters]]
[[Category:Chess double grandmasters]]
[[Category:Chess Olympiad competitors]]
[[Category:English chess players]]
[[Category:English people of Russian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Sportspeople from Colchester]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]