Jessica "Jessie" Laura Cory Gilbert (30 January 1987 – 26 July 2006) was a British

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 dist ...

player. She was women's world amateur champion in 1999.

Biography

Jessica was the daughter of Angela and Ian Gilbert and was raised in

Woldingham Woldingham is a village and civil parish high on the North Downs between Oxted and Warlingham in Surrey, England, within the M25, southeast of London. The village has 2,141 inhabitants, many of whom commute to London, making Woldingham part o ...

, Surrey. She attended Croydon High School. Her father was a career manager with the Royal Bank of Scotland. Gilbert's parents had separated in 2003, and Jessica was living in

Reigate Reigate ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earliest archaeological evidence for huma ...

with her mother and siblings, while her father had remarried to a lawyer named Sally, and lived in Hackney, east London. Jessica Gilbert had represented England in every major chess competition from the age of 12, and came to prominence when she won the Women's World Amateur Chess Championship in January 1999 at

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

. She was mentioned in a

parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

debate by the then sports minister, Tony Banks, who said: "We are extremely proud of what Jessie Gilbert has achieved for chess and for this country." Thanks to this victory, she also gained the title of Woman FIDE Master (WFM) from the game's governing body, FIDE. In recognition of her achievement, the

Brain Trust Brain trust was a term that originally described a group of close advisers to a political candidate or incumbent; these were often academics who were prized for their expertise in particular fields. The term is most associated with the group of ad ...

charity and Swedish health care company Bure provided Gilbert with a bursary of £4000 so that she could travel to U.S. to study with grandmaster

Edmar Mednis Edmar John Mednis ( lv, Edmārs Džons Mednis; March 22, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was a Latvian-American chess player and writer of Latvian people, Latvian origin. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster by FIDE in 198 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Gilbert had won a place at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

to study

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

from September 2005, but decided to take a

gap year A gap year, also known as a sabbatical year, is typically a year-long break before or after college/university during which students engage in various educational and developmental activities, such as travel or some type of regular work. Gap yea ...

in order to spend time focused solely on chess. In the space of only a few months in early 2006, Gilbert achieved three "

norm Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the envi ...

s" in major chess tournaments.

Death

On the night of 26 July 2006, she fell from the eighth floor of the Hotel Labe, in Pardubice,

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, where she was playing at the Czech Open. On the evening of her death, it was reported she had consumed

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

and

vodka Vodka ( pl, wódka , russian: водка , sv, vodka ) is a clear distilled alcoholic beverage. Different varieties originated in Poland, Russia, and Sweden. Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impuriti ...

from the room's

minibar A minibar is a small refrigerator, typically an absorption refrigerator, in a hotel room or cruise ship stateroom. The hotel staff fill it with drinks and snacks for the guest to purchase during their stay. It is stocked with a precise invento ...

. Jessica had been sharing the room with a 14-year-old friend and fellow chess player. Her friend got up to visit the bathroom sometime in the early morning. When she returned, Jessica was missing, and the friend assumed that she had gone for a walk. Some of her acquaintances came forward to claim that Jessica was a sleepwalker, and that she could have fallen to her death through the window, which would have been left open due to the hot weather in Europe at the time. But the authorities and the Czech Open organizer Jiri Petruzalek pointed to suicide as the cause. Jessica was said to be taking

anti-depressants Antidepressants are a class of medication used to treat major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, chronic pain conditions, and to help manage addictions. Common side-effects of antidepressants include dry mouth, weight gain, dizziness, hea ...

, and it was later revealed that she had a history of self-harm and had tried suicide previously using paracetamol tablets. On 27 September 2007, the inquest into Jessica's death recorded an

open verdict The open verdict is an option open to a coroner's jury at an inquest in the legal system of England and Wales. The verdict means the jury confirms the death is suspicious, but is unable to reach any other verdicts open to them. Mortality studies c ...

Trial of Ian Gilbert

Two days following her death, it emerged that her father, Ian Gilbert, had previously been charged with seven counts of

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

and two counts of

indecent assault Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in some common law-based jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime and has significant overlap with offences referred to as sexual assault. England and Wales Indecent assault was a broa ...

. The charges were said to relate to more than one victim. British police would not name the alleged victims, but confirmed that one of them was dead. On 29 July 2006, the British press began to name Jessica Gilbert as one of the victims. At the time of Jessica's death, Mr Gilbert had not yet entered a plea to the charges. If she had lived, and he had pleaded not guilty, that would have raised the prospect of Jessica having to give evidence against her father, and being

cross-examine In law, cross-examination is the interrogation of a witness called by one's opponent. It is preceded by direct examination (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, South Africa, India and Pakistan known as examination-in-chief) and ...

d by his barrister. Mr Gilbert was released on

bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countrie ...

, pending his case starting at Guildford Crown Court on 21 August 2006. On 31 July 2006, the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal advi ...

said that they would be reviewing the case in the light of the media coverage of Jessica Gilbert's death. On 14 December 2006, Mr Gilbert was found not guilty of all charges against him. He speculated that Jessie had accused him as the means of revenge after some arguments they had. Two days later it was reported that Angela Gilbert had been arrested on suspicion of threatening to kill her ex-husband, although she was later released and the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to proceed with the case.

Biography

Death

Trial of Ian Gilbert

References

External links