Hugh Francis Blandford (24 January 1917 – 20 September 1981) was a

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

endgame Endgame, Endgames, End Game, End Games, or similar variations may refer to: Film * ''The End of the Game'' (1919 film) * ''The End of the Game'' (1975 film), short documentary U.S. film * ''Endgame'' (1983 film), 1983 Italian post-apocalyptic f ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

born in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, England.

Biography

He spent several years of his childhood in Jamaica with his father, the Reverend Albert Francis (Frank) Blandford, a Minister in the

Congregational church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

, his mother and two younger brothers, Evan Arthur and Philip Thomas Blandford. All three brothers then returned to England and attended

Eltham College Eltham College is an independent day school situated in Mottingham, southeast London. Eltham and Mottingham once formed part of the same parish, hence its name. It is a member of The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC). Early his ...

(the School for the Sons of Missionaries) in South-east London, while their parents remained in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

. He married Marjorie Cox, whom he had worked with during the Second World War. He played chess from his schooldays and as well as playing, also started to compose original chess endings. He became known in the field of chess

endgame studies In the game of chess, an endgame study, or just study, is a composed position—that is, one that has been made up rather than played in an actual game—presented as a sort of puzzle, in which the aim of the solver is to find the essentially uniqu ...

for a small but elegant body of compositions, expertly edited and published after Hugh's death by his long-standing chess endings colleague,

John Roycroft Arthur John Roycroft (born 25 July 1929, London) is an English chess endgame study composer and author. Chess career In 1959 he was awarded the title International Judge of Chess Compositions. In 1965 he founded '' EG'', the first long-running j ...

. Hugh Blandford was co-inventor with Richard Guy – and, later, with John Roycroft – of the Guy–Blandford–Roycroft code for classifying studies. In July 1951 he began as the endgame study editor for the '' British Chess Magazine''. He was made an

International Judge for Chess Composition International Judge of Chess Compositions is a title award by FIDE via the World Federation for Chess Composition (WFCC; until 2010 ''Permanent Commission of the FIDE for Chess Compositions'', PCCC) to individuals who have judged several chess pro ...

in 1961.WFCC International Judges of Chess Compositions
/ref> A

metallurgist Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

, he continued to compose chess endgame studies until the end of his life, dying of a heart attack in early retirement in Hatfield, England, on 20 September 1981.

Sample composition

This example of the excelsior theme might be his best-known composition. Solution: 6.Kxc6?

stalemate Stalemate is a situation in the game of chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check and has no legal move. Stalemate results in a draw. During the endgame, stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the inferior ...

; 6.c8=Q+? Nb8+ 7.K-any stalemate. Winning.

References

Bibliography *

Biography

Sample composition

References

Further reading