Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander (19 April 1909 – 15 February 1974), known as Hugh Alexander and C. H. O'D. Alexander, was an Irish-born British cryptanalyst, chess player, and chess writer. He worked on the German

Enigma machine The Enigma machine is a cipher device developed and used in the early- to mid-20th century to protect commercial, diplomatic, and military communication. It was employed extensively by Nazi Germany during World War II, in all branches of the W ...

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and was later the head of the

cryptanalysis Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic se ...

division at

GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the United Kingdom. Primar ...

for 25 years. He was twice British chess champion and earned the title of International Master.

Early life

Hugh Alexander was born into an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...

family on 19 April 1909 in Cork,

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, the eldest child of Conel William Long Alexander, an

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

professor at University College, Cork (UCC), and Hilda Barbara Bennett.Harry Golombek, revised by Ralph Erskine, "Alexander, (Conel) Hugh O'Donel (1909–1974), chess player and cryptanalyst" in the

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

, 2004 His father died in 1920 (during the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence (), also known as the Anglo-Irish War, was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (1919–1922), Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and Unite ...

), and the family moved to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, where he attended King Edward's School. Alexander won a scholarship to study

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

, in 1928, graduating with a first in 1931. He represented

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

in chess. From 1932, Alexander taught mathematics at

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

, and married Enid Constance Crichton Neate (1900–1982) on 22 December 1934. Their elder son was Sir Michael O'Donel Bjarne Alexander (1936–2002), a diplomat. The Alexanders' other son was Patrick Macgillicuddy Alexander (20 March 1940 – 21 September 2005), a poet who settled in Australia in 1960. In 1938, Hugh Alexander left teaching and became head of research at the

John Lewis Partnership John Lewis Partnership plc (JLP) is a British company that operates John Lewis & Partners department stores, Waitrose supermarkets, financial services and a build to rent operation. The public limited company is owned by a trust on behalf o ...

. World War II began while Alexander was competing in the 8th Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, prompting him and the rest of the English team to abandon the competition and return to the UK.

Bletchley Park and GCHQ

In February 1940, Alexander arrived at

, the British codebreaking centre during the

. He joined Hut 6, the section tasked with breaking German

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

and

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

Enigma messages. In 1941, Alexander transferred to Hut 8, the corresponding hut working on Naval Enigma. He became deputy head of Hut 8 under

Alan Turing Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and theoretical biologist. He was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer ...

. Alexander was more involved with the day-to-day operations of the hut than Turing, and, while Turing was visiting the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, Alexander formally became the head of Hut 8 ''circa'' November 1942. Other senior colleagues included Stuart Milner-Barry,

Gordon Welchman William Gordon Welchman OBE (15 June 1906 – 8 October 1985) was an English mathematician. During World War II, he worked at Britain's secret decryption centre at Bletchley Park, where he was one of the most important contributors. In 1948, a ...

, and

Harry Golombek Harold "Harry" Golombek OBE (1 March 1911 – 7 January 1995) was a British chess player, chess author, and wartime codebreaker. He was three times British chess champion, in 1947, 1949, and 1955 and finished second in 1948. Biography He was ...

. In October 1944, Alexander was transferred to work on the

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese JN-25 code. In mid-1946, Alexander joined

(under the control of the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

), which was the post-war successor organisation to the

Government Code and Cypher School The Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) was a British signals intelligence agency set up in 1919. During the First World War, the British Army and Royal Navy had separate signals intelligence agencies, MI1b and NID25 (initially known as R ...

at Bletchley Park. By 1949, he had been promoted to the head of "Section H" (

), a post he retained until his retirement in 1971. He was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in the 1946 New Year Honours,

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in the 1955 New Year Honours and

Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George I ...

in the 1970 New Year Honours.

MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...

's Peter Wright, in his 1987 best-selling book '' Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer'', wrote about Alexander's assistance to MI5 in the ongoing Venona project, as well as other important mutual cooperation between the two organizations, which broke down previous barriers to progress. "Any help is gratefully received in this department", Alexander told Wright, and that proved the case from then on. Wright also lauded Alexander's professionalism, and opined that the exceptional mental demands of his cryptanalytical career and chess hobby likely contributed to Alexander's early death at age 64, despite his healthy lifestyle.

Chess career

Alexander represented

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in the Varsity chess matches of 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1932 (he studied at

). He was twice a winner of 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 ha ...

, in 1938 and 1956. Alexander represented England in the

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...

six times, in 1933, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1954 and 1958. At the 1939 Olympiad in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, Alexander had to leave part-way through the event, along with the rest of the English team, because of the declaration of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, since he was required at home for codebreaking duties. He was also the non-playing captain of England from 1964 to 1970. Alexander was awarded the International Master title in 1950 and the International Master for

Correspondence Chess Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, traditionally through the postal system. Today it is usually played through a correspondence chess server, a public internet chess forum, or email. Less commo ...

title in 1970. He won

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

1946/47 with the score 7½/9, a point ahead of

Savielly Tartakower Savielly Tartakower (also known as ''Xavier'' or ''Ksawery'' ''Tartakower'', less often ''Tartacover'' or ''Tartakover''; 21 February 1887 – 4 February 1956) was a Polish chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster (chess), Internatio ...

. Alexander's best tournament result may have been first equal (with

David Bronstein David Ionovich Bronstein (; February 19, 1924 – December 5, 2006) was a Soviet chess player. Awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE in 1950, he narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in World Chess Championship 195 ...

) at Hastings 1953/54, where he went undefeated and beat Soviet grandmasters

and Alexander Tolush in individual games. Alexander's opportunities to appear abroad were limited as he was not allowed to play chess in the

Soviet bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

because of his secret work in cryptography. He was also the chess columnist of ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' in the 1960s and 1970s. Many knowledgeable chess people believe that Alexander had Grandmaster potential, had he been able to develop his chess abilities further. Many top players peak in their late twenties and early thirties, but for Alexander this stretch coincided with World War II, when high-level competitive opportunities were unavailable. After this, his professional responsibilities as a senior cryptanalyst limited his top-class appearances. He defeated

Mikhail Botvinnik Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik (; ; – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster who held five world titles in three different reigns. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer sci ...

in one game of a team radio match against the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in 1946, at a time when Botvinnik was probably the world's top player. Alexander made important theoretical contributions to the

Dutch Defence The Dutch Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: : 1. d4 f5 Black's 1...f5 stakes a claim to the e4-square and envisions an attack in the middlegame on White's ; however, it also weakens Black's kingside to some extent, espec ...

and Petroff Defence.

In popular culture

Alexander is portrayed by actor Matthew Goode in the 2014 film ''

The Imitation Game ''The Imitation Game'' is a 2014 American biographical film, biographical thriller film directed by Morten Tyldum and written by Graham Moore (writer), Graham Moore, based on the 1983 biography ''Alan Turing: The Enigma'' by Andrew Hodges. The ...

'', which depicts the British attempts to crack the Enigma machine at Bletchley Park.

Books

* C. H. O'D. Alexander (1972). ''Fischer v. Spassky''. Vintage. . * C. H. O'D. Alexander (1972). ''Fischer v. Spassky - Reykjavik 1972''. Penguin. . * C. H. O'D. Alexander (1973). ''The Penguin Book of Chess Positions''. Penguin. . * C. H. O'D. Alexander, Derek Birdsall (Editor) (1973). ''A Book of Chess''. Hutchinson. . * C. H. O'D. Alexander (1974). ''Alexander on Chess''. Pittman. . * Learn Chess: A New Way For All. Volume One: First Principles by C. H. O'D. Alexander and T. J. Beach. (RNIB, 1963). In One Volume. * Learn Chess: A New Way For All. Volume Two: Winning Methods by C. H. O'D. Alexander and T. J. Beach. (RNIB, 1973). In One Volume. * Alekhine's Best Games of Chess : 1938–1945 by Alexander, Conel Hugh O'Donel London: G. Bell and Sons, 1966 *''Learn chess : a new way for all'' by Alexander, C. H. O'D. (Conel Hugh O'Donel) Oxford : Pergamon Press, 1963– * A Book of Chess , Harper & Row

References

External links

Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander at ChessGames.com

Documents written by Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander while working as a cryptanalyst at Bletchley Park.

Sources

and

William Hartston William Roland Hartston (born 12 August 1947) is an English journalist who has written the Beachcomber column in the ''Daily Express'' since 1998. He is also a chess player who played competitively from 1962 to 1987 and earned a highest Elo ra ...

, ''The Best Games of C. H. O'D. Alexander'' (1976). * Sir Stuart Milner-Barry,
A Tribute to Hugh Alexander
, in Harry Golombek and William Hartston, ''The Best Games of C H O'D Alexander'' (1976), pp. 1–9 * * '' British Chess Magazine'', April 1974, p. 117 & June 1974, p. 202 (obituary and tribute) * Ken Whyld, ''Chess: The Records'' (Guinness Books, 1986) * Obituary in

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

, 16 February 1974
In Memoriam: Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander
NSA.gov {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Conel Hugh Odonel 1909 births People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham 1974 deaths Bletchley Park people GCHQ cryptographers Scholars and academics from County Cork Teachers at Winchester College 20th-century Irish mathematicians Irish chess players Chess International Masters Chess Olympiad competitors 20th-century British mathematicians Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Commanders of the Order of the British Empire British chess writers Foreign Office personnel of World War II 20th-century British chess players Sportspeople from Cork (city)