Kenneth Whyld (6 March 1926 – 11 July 2003) 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 ...

author and researcher, best known as the co-author (with David Hooper) of ''

The Oxford Companion to Chess ''The Oxford Companion to Chess'' is a reference book on the game of chess written by David Vincent Hooper and Kenneth Whyld. The book is written in an encyclopedia format. The book belongs to the Oxford Companions series. Details The first e ...

'', a single-volume chess reference work in English. Whyld was a strong amateur chess player, taking part in the

British Chess Championship The British Chess Championships are organised by the English Chess Federation. The main tournament incorporates the British Championship, the English Chess Championships and the British Women's Chess Championship so it is possible, although it has ...

in 1956 and winning the county championship of

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

. He subsequently made his living in

information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology syste ...

while writing books on chess and researching its history. As well as ''

'', Whyld was the author of other reference works such as ''Chess: The Records'' (1986), an adjunct to the ''

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing worl ...

'' and the comprehensive ''The Collected Games of

Emanuel Lasker Emanuel Lasker (; December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially recognised World Chess Cham ...

'' (1998). He also researched more esoteric subjects, resulting in works such as ''Alekhine Nazi Articles'' (2002) on articles in favour of the Nazi Party supposedly written by world chess champion

Alexander Alekhine Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine, ''Aleksándr Aleksándrovich Alékhin''; (March 24, 1946) was a Russian and French chess player and the fourth World Chess Champion, a title he held for two reigns. By the age of 22, Alekhine was already a ...

, and the bibliographies ''Fake Automata in Chess'' (1994) and ''Chess Columns: A List'' (2002). From 1978 until his death in 2003, Whyld wrote the "Quotes and Queries" column in the ''

British Chess Magazine ''British Chess Magazine'' is the world's oldest chess journal in continuous publication. First published in January 1881, it has appeared at monthly intervals ever since. It is frequently known in the chess world as ''BCM''. The founder an ...

''. A number of chess historians, including Dale Brandreth, Frank Skoff and Edward Winter, all of whom had close contact with Whyld, came to question his reliability and bona fides on certain issues."Edge, Morphy and Staunton" by Edward Winter
/ref> Shortly after Whyld's death, the Ken Whyld Association was established with the aim of compiling a comprehensive chess bibliography in database form and promoting chess history. Whyld's library was later sold to the

Musée Suisse du Jeu Located on the shore of Lake Geneva between the cities of Vevey Vevey (; frp, Vevê; german: label=former German, Vivis) is a town in Switzerland in the canton of Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne. The German name Vivi ...

, located on the shores of

Lake Geneva , image = Lake Geneva by Sentinel-2.jpg , caption = Satellite image , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = Switzerland, France , coords = , lake_type = Glacial lak ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

(as reported i
number 152
of '' EG'').

References

External links

Tributes from the British Chess Magazine websiteReview of ''The Collected Games of Emanuel Lasker''Review of ''Alekhine Nazi Articles''The Ken Whyld Association
1926 births 2003 deaths British chess players British chess writers Chess historians 20th-century chess players {{England-chess-bio-stub