We wish Peter Lee all the best on his birthday.

Peter Nicholas Charles Lee was born on Sunday, November 21st in 1943 in Lambeth, London. His mother’s maiden name was Paganucci.

Peter attended Exeter College, Oxford from 1962-1966 to read mathematics followed by postgraduate statistics gaining an MA in 1969.

In 1963 Peter represented Oxford in the 81st Varsity Match played at the University of London Union in Malet Street on Korchnoi’s birthday (March 23rd). Peter had black on board 5 and drew with Frederick Michael Akeroyd in a King’s Gambit Declined.

Here is the winning Oxford (4-3) Team :

Peter moved to top board in 1964 and had white against the son of BH Wood, FM Christopher Baruch Wood and won. The match was drawn.

1965 saw a 5.5 – 1.5 Oxford victory with Peter beating Graham Arthur Winbow.

During this period Peter found time to win the British Championship at Hastings in 1965. Peter Clarke reported in the October 1965 British Chess Magazine:

“Seventy years on from the great international tournament of 1895, which sowed the seeds of the Christmas congresses. the fifty-second in the British Chess Federation’s annual series-and this too began at Hastings, 1904 – saw victory and the national title go to the youngest player ever. Peter N. Lee, of London, a twenty-one-year-old Oxford University graduate in mathematics, made light of playing in the Championship for the first time and led from start to finish. Jonathan Penrose and Norman Littlewood vied with him all the way but in the last round had to be content with draws sharing second place 1/2 point behind with 8. ”

Peter played at Hastings in 1965 and we can see him here in this silent movie at 1’40” in :

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuXignAhNpw[/embedyt]

Peter’s final Varsity appearance as British Champion in 1966 saw another drawn match but Peter’s best Varsity result when he beat Bill Hartston with the white pieces in a King’s Indian Attack.

[pgn]
[Event “Varsity Oxford-Cambridge”]
[Site “Atlantic House, Holborn”]
[Date “1966.03.19”]
[Round “1”]
[White “Lee, Peter NC”]
[Black “Hartston, William Roland”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “C00”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “75”]
[EventDate “1966.03.19”]
[EventType “team”]
[EventRounds “1”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “The Times”]
[WhiteTeam “Oxford University”]
[BlackTeam “Cambridge University”]
[WhiteTeamCountry “ENG”]
[BlackTeamCountry “ENG”]

{[%evp 0,75,19,38,30,3,11,3,12,31,5,3,-5,9,9,-2,-6,-9,31,-19,20,-15,-10,-12,-8,
-56,13,-51,-19,-11,16,-22,-16,-34,-18,-35,-64,0,-3,7,7,-43,-29,-68,-78,-67,-69,
-113,-42,-134,-123,-113,-144,-172,-90,-137,-117,-138,-114,-122,-71,-84,-119,
-167,-172,-95,0,0,0,0,0,0,62,511,29991,29992,29995,29996]} 1. e4 e6 2. d3 d5 3.
Nd2 c5 4. Ngf3 Nc6 5. g3 Nf6 6. Bg2 Be7 7. O-O O-O 8. Re1 b5 9. e5 Ne8 {
the rarer alternative} (9… Nd7 10. Nf1 a5 11. h4 b4 12. Bf4 Ba6 13. N1h2 a4
14. a3 {has been seen numerous times.}) 10. Nf1 a5 11. h4 a4 (11… b4) 12. h5
$146 (12. a3 b4) 12… Nc7 13. N1h2 {A thematic KIA idea : heading for f6.} Bb7
14. h6 g6 15. Bf4 {Is this required?} (15. Ng4 {seems fine.}) 15… a3 16. b3
d4 17. Qd2 Nd5 18. Bg5 Ncb4 19. Bxe7 Qxe7 20. Ng4 (20. Ng5 Nc3 21. Bxb7 Qxb7
22. Ng4 Qe7 23. Nf6+ Kh8 24. Nfxh7 Rfd8 25. Nf6 Nbxa2 {Nice symmetry !}) 20…
Kh8 $15 21. Ng5 Nxc2 {[#]} 22. Nxf7+ $6 Qxf7 23. Qxc2 Nb4 $2 (23… Qf5 $1 $17)
24. Qe2 Bxg2 $19 (24… Bf3 $19 {Flank Openings (Raymond Keene, 1st ed, p115)})
25. Kxg2 Qf5 $19 {Black is winning} 26. Red1 Nd5 $2 (26… c4 $1 $19 {“was
also very strong” (Peter Clarke, BCM)}) 27. Qe4 Qxe4+ 28. dxe4 Nc3 29. Rd3 Nxe4
30. f3 Nc3 31. b4 cxb4 (31… Rfd8) 32. Rxd4 Nxa2 $2 (32… Nd5 {keeps an edge
for black.}) 33. Rd7 $11 Nc3 34. Nf6 Rxf6 $11 35. exf6 {[#]} Nd5 $2 {The
losing blunder} (35… Kg8 $11) 36. Rxd5 $1 (36. f7 {is also crushing} Ne3+ 37.
Kf2 Nf5 38. Rad1 Rf8 39. Rd8) 36… exd5 37. f7 a2 38. Re1 {Source: The Times,
21 Mar 1966} 1-0
[/pgn]

In world cup year Peter was selected by the BCF to represent England at the Havana Olympiad on board two below Peter Clarke in Group 4 and then Final B scoring a creditable +4=7-1.

Lugano 1968 saw Peter playing as first reserve and scoring an excellent +7=4-2 (Penrose on top board scored a wonderful 83.3% for the silver medal.

In another world cup year (1970) in his final Olympiad appearance Peter played on board four and recorded +4=9-2

Peter played in the British Championships again in 1967, 1968, 1971 and finally in 1972 withdrawing after five rounds following a loss to David Pritchard. This is Peter’s last game recorded in Megabase2020.

With the white pieces Peter was a committed 1.e4 fan playing 8.c3 in the Lopez and open sicilians.

As the second player he played the Sicilian Najdorf and the Dragon along with the King’s Indian.

According to Wikipedia : “Later, he turned to contract bridge, at which he has also been highly successful. He has won the English Bridge Union’s National Pairs title four times, the first time in 2003, and has also been a member of the team that won the Gold Cup, the premier teams event in Britain, in 2003 and 2011. This makes him the only person who has won British championships in both chess and bridge.”

Until 1979 he worked as a statistician to the Tobacco Research Council, in Harrogate and then in London. From 1979 to 1984 he was an independent consultant in statistics and advisor in epidemiology and toxicology to a number of tobacco, pharmaceutical and chemical companies.

He formed P N Lee Statistics and Computing Ltd in 1984 to widen these activities. Peter is a Chartered Statistician who has published over 200 papers, letters and articles, and several books.
Peter is currently a director of PNLSC based in Palmers Green, London, N13.

As a consultant in medical statistics and epidemiology, he has also published over 200 papers, many on the effects of tobacco on health.[2]

Peter reached a peak Elo rating of 2390 aged 47 in July 1990 according to MegaBase 2020. However, his peak playing strength was probably in or around 1971.

Peter has returned to playing for the Athenaeum in the Hamilton-Russell Cup. For those not aware : “The Hamilton-­Russell Chess Tournament is a chess competition competed in by social, political, military and sports Clubs in Great Britain.”

[pgn]
[Event “WchT Students 12th Group2”]
[Site “Sinaia”]
[Date “1965.07.28”]
[Round “3”]
[White “Lee, Peter N”]
[Black “Radulov, Ivan”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “C00”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “79”]
[EventDate “1965.07.26”]
[EventType “team-tourn”]
[EventRounds “5”]
[EventCountry “ROU”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2020”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2019.10.17”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2019.10.17”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
[WhiteTeam “England”]
[BlackTeam “Bulgaria”]
[WhiteTeamCountry “ENG”]
[BlackTeamCountry “BUL”]

{[%evp 0,79,16,16,26,9,1,-40,34,27,17,5,5,10,8,8,-2,-16,-23,-25,-19,-43,-19,
-54,-56,-67,-1,-7,-3,-27,-20,-17,-15,-47,-20,-23,-12,-16,-13,-29,-7,-27,7,10,8,
4,4,122,251,251,275,275,275,292,289,303,314,344,362,384,383,392,401,307,415,
421,422,428,426,450,523,488,498,463,463,336,346,445,445,421,481,471]} 1. e4 e6
2. d3 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. Ngf3 Nc6 5. g3 Nf6 6. Bg2 Be7 7. O-O O-O 8. e5 Nd7 9. Re1
b5 10. h4 a5 11. Nf1 a4 12. h5 b4 13. h6 g6 14. Bf4 a3 15. b3 Ba6 $146 (15…
Bb7) 16. Qd2 $14 Rc8 17. N1h2 Na7 18. Bg5 Nb5 19. Qf4 Rc7 20. Ng4 Nd4 $6 (20…
Bxg5 21. Nxg5) 21. Bxe7 Nxf3+ 22. Bxf3 Qxe7 23. Bxd5 $1 $18 exd5 (23… Bb7 24.
Bxb7 Rxb7 25. Rad1 $18) 24. e6 $18 Nb6 25. Qxc7 $3 Qxc7 26. Nf6+ Kh8 27. e7 Qb8
28. exf8=Q+ Qxf8 29. Re8 Qxe8 30. Nxe8 Bc8 31. Nf6 Be6 32. Re1 Nc8 33. Nxd5 Nd6
34. Nf4 Nb5 35. Re5 Nc3 36. Rxc5 Kg8 37. Rxc3 bxc3 38. Nxe6 fxe6 39. Kg2 Kf7
40. Kf3 1-0
[/pgn]

According to Paul Littlewood currently Peter “plays Bridge for Surrey and chess for the Athenaeum in London”.