Hall Of Fame - Chess Profile ... Ron Thomas

Ron Thomas

Ron Thomas is considered by some people, who are in a position to judge, to be perhaps the strongest player to have been born in the Cleveland area. Ron has not played competitive chess for at least 2 decades but he pops into the Middlesbrough chess club occasionally to look at games and chat about his chess playing career.
Ron choose to prepare his own notes covering his chess career and it’s from those notes I took great pleasure in preparing the following biography of Ron’s chess playing career; a player of immense talent. During my research I came across the results table from the 1973 chess festival held at Thornaby Pavillion; Ron's results at that congress have perhaps not been equalled by any other player from our region.

Ernie Lazenby. November 2009

Ron is a native of Middlesbrough and was born in 1939. He first visited Middlesbrough chess club in 1955 at a time when local star Tom Wise was the pre eminent player. He quickly demonstrated a god given talent for the game of chess and there can be little doubt he was destined to climb the gradings.

I first came across Ron Thomas at the 1973 Chess festival a tournament organised by B. H. Wood owner of Chess limited; the tournament attracted players from all over the world and the open section had 77 players. The leading player was Hungarian grandmaster Andre Adorjan born 1950 who has become one of the most famous chess players of all time achieving the highest FIDE rating of 2565.In 1979 Andre qualified as a world championship candidate but he lost in the quarter finals to Robert Hubner.
The field was full of quality players and the following is Ron’s progress round by round;

1. Beat S.Whitehead from Burnley – no further details available on this player
2. Beat Czech IM Ladislave Alster born 1927 died 1991.
3. Beat I. L.G. Baart , Netherlands- no further details available of this player
4. Beat Andre Lombard Swiss IM Highest rating 2420. A well known international player who has beaten GM’s; 23yrs old when Ron beat him. This game was featured in national chess publications.
5. DRAW with Adorjan. After the game Adorjan said he was most impressed with Ron's knowledge of classical chess.
6. Beat Bozidar Gasic , Yugoslavia who had a highest rating of 2297 in 1974. He became an IM.
7. Draw with Craig W Pritchett. Became an IM and Scottish champion
8. Beat Helmut Kaulfuss, Germany highest rating 2350.
9. Draw with R A Beach Stoke-on Trent at the time a 200 plus player who even today as a senior still plays at 190 level.
10. Lost to Carlos Enrique Cuartas, Columbia. Highest rating achieved was 2435. Carlos has recorded wins/draws against the world’s best players including Spassky in his prime.
11. Lost to D. Parr, Reading a 220 plus player

Ron finished on 7/11 and had played all 8 who had finished above him.
Adorjan finished first equal with Cuartas. The other 6 were Pritchard, Beach, Lombard, Gasic, Alster and Parr.

Norman Stephenson and Brian Smith also finished on 7 points, perhaps achieved through less of a minefield than Ron but equally credible.

Ron played over 500 games in a 30 year period.
He won 14 tournaments and in his words the best performance was winning the major open at the 1966 BCF congress at Sunderland. This gained him a place at the 1967 National championships.
He has played 24 games against 15 ex national champions representing 8 countries with a plus core of 8 wins 6 loss’s 10 draws.

He represented the Army and combined services winning on both occasions. Famous female player Ann Sunnucks was team captain.

Against notable UK players he has a score of 2.5 – 1.5. The se are Penrose, Golembek, Clarke and Wade; these 4 made up the English team at the 1954 Olympiad and when Ron played them were very strong players.

Playing against the strongest local players; played 2 games against David Smith winning both but losing the single game he played against David’s brother Brian. Against the best known chess playing father and son team in Cleveland (Tom & David Wise) he scored 5.5- 5.5 against Tom and 1.5 - .5 against David.

Ron also excelled at speed chess once winning an informal 5 minute double round tournament against Tom Wise, Norman Stephenson and Mike Donnelly. Played 6 won 6!

Playing against grandmaster in simultaneous displays his score is;
Played 8 won3 lost 1 D4

Finally we come to his achievement at the 1977 British Championships and an incident that cost him dearly;

He finished 4th with 7 points and may have finished higher but for falling foul of the rules governing sealed moved. At the adjournment he was 2 pawns up in a queen ending and according to Ron it was a simple win. He sealed his move but found out later he had placed the carbon paper in upside down and thus his move was not recorded. He was awarded a loss.
Ron believes this incident robbed him of the chance of finishing 1st == with Botterill.

In 1986 Ron was able to regain his form and flair. In May he played in the Halifax Open Tournament. In one round he played Keith Arkell then an International Master (now a GM). The complex and tactical game ended in a draw. Ron believes the allegro finish cost him a win in this game; readers can make their own judgement from the score of that game published here. Keith accepts Ron had very good chances in this game and perhaps on move 50 he had a clear opportunity beginning with Bb8.

In July 1986 Ron had one of his best tournaments, playing in the Middlesbrough open he scored 4/5 finishing runner up to David Mooney (235) with whom he drew in the final round. One of Ron's wins was against International Master Colin Crouch. Sadly neither player has a record of the game but Colin remembers it well.

Ron stopped playing chess in the late 1980's but has visited Middlesbrough Chess club on a number of occasions. He recently joined the club as a non playing social member being happy to look at any games being played and chatting to old friends.

Recently I had a chance to chat with Ron about chess and he made it very clear he considers Lasker to be the greatest player of all time and his inspiration.

No information is available about Ron's life outside of chess but I think the reader will recognise that Ron Thomas has to be considered one of the very best players, arguably the best, to have been born in the Cleveland area. It is perhaps sad that he felt unable to grace the chess board with his talent for a much longer period.

I think there can be no greater accolade than that given by my friend Norman Stephenson who believes Ron Thomas had the talent to go on to become a professional player possibly even to be a grandmaster if he had been afforded the opportunities.