BCN remembers David Hooper who passed away in a Taunton (Somerset) nursing home on Sunday, May 3rd 1998. Probate (#9851310520) was granted in Brighton on June 24th 1998.

Prior to the nursing home David had been living at 33, Mansfield Road, Taunton, TA1 3NJ and before that at 5, Haimes Lane, Shaftesbury, Dorset, SP7 8AJ.

For most of the time between Reigate and Shaftesbury David lived in Whitchurch, Hampshire.

David Vincent Hooper was born on Tuesday, August 31st 1915 in Reigate, Surrey to Vincent Hooper and Edith Marjorie Winter who married in Reigate, Surrey in 1909. On this day the first French ace, Adolphe Pégoud, was killed in combat. He had scored six victories.

David was one of six children: Roger Garth (1910-?), Edwin Morris (1911-1942), Isobel Mary (12/01/1917-2009), Helene Edith (1916-1982) and Elizabeth Anne Oliver (1923-2000) were his siblings.

Recorded in the September 1939 register David was aged 24 and living at 94, High Street, Reigate, Surrey:

In 2021 this property appears to be a flat (rather than bridge) over the River Kwai Restaurant:

Living with David was his sister Isobel who was listed a “potential nurse”. David’s occupation at this time was listed as Architectural Assistant and he was single. We think that three others lived at this address at the time but they are not listed under the “100 year rule”. We know that David was also a surveyor and went on to attain professional membership of the Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA).

In the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette May 27th 1944 there appeared this report of a simultaneous display on Empire Day (May 24th) at Dr. Marsh’s house:

and from The Western Morning News, 9th April 1947 we have:

and then from The Nottingham Evening Post, 16th August 1949 we have:

In 1950 aged 35 David married Joan M Higley (or Rose!) in the district of South Eastern Surrey.

Ken Whyld wrote an obituary which appeared in British Chess Magazine, Volume 118 (1998), Number 6, page 326 as follows :

DAVID VINCENT HOOPER died on 3rd May this year in a nursing home in Taunton. He had been in declining health for some months. Born in Reigate, 31st August 1915, his early chess years were with the Battersea CC and Surrey.

He won the (ed. Somerset) County Championship three times, and the London Championship in 1948. His generation was at its chess peak in the years when war curtailed opportunities, but he won the British Correspondence Championship in 1944.

[pgn]
[Event “ENG-ch corr”]
[Site “England”]
[Date “1943.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Bonham, Reginald”]
[Black “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “D04”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “80”]
[EventDate “1943.??.??”]
[EventType “tourn (corr)”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “Corr 2000”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2000.04.19”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2000.04.19”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,80,19,31,14,30,28,18,12,2,25,23,23,33,22,16,10,13,11,14,10,8,9,12,15,
-5,-2,-3,1,-3,-9,-12,-8,-15,-16,-121,-138,-107,-84,-125,-79,-114,-135,-140,
-120,-122,-108,-72,-116,-109,-115,-105,-113,-94,-92,-121,-143,-133,-141,-191,
-64,-101,-81,-64,0,-83,-91,-141,-141,-57,-57,-90,-53,-47,-50,-48,-45,-533,-534,
-29989,-534,-544,-544]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. e3 Bf5 4. Bd3 e6 5. Bxf5 exf5 6.
Qd3 Qc8 7. c4 dxc4 8. Qxc4 Bd6 9. b3 Nbd7 10. Bb2 O-O 11. O-O c6 12. Nc3 Nb6
13. Qe2 Nbd5 14. Nxd5 Nxd5 15. Ne5 Re8 16. Qf3 Qe6 17. g4 fxg4 18. Nxg4 f6 19.
h3 a5 20. Rfe1 Nb4 21. Re2 a4 22. e4 axb3 23. axb3 Rxa1+ 24. Bxa1 f5 25. Ne5
fxe4 26. Rxe4 Nd5 27. Rg4 Rf8 28. Qg3 Qh6 29. Bb2 Rf5 30. Qd3 Rh5 31. h4 Nf6
32. Qc4+ Nd5 33. Qa4 Qd2 34. Qa8+ Bf8 35. Qc8 Rh6 36. Nd7 Qd1+ 37. Kh2 Qf3 38.
Ba3 Qxf2+ 39. Kh3 Qf3+ 40. Kh2 Qe2+ 0-1
[/pgn]

His games from that event are to be found in Chess for Rank and File by Roche and Battersby.

Also at that time, he won the 1944 tournament at Blackpool, defeating veteran Grandmaster Jacques Mieses.

[pgn]
[Event “Blackpool Premier”]
[Site “Blackpool”]
[Date “1944.07.20”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Mieses, Jacques”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “A52”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “65”]
[EventDate “1944.07.17”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “5”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2019”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2018.10.10”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2018.10.10”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,65,19,31,14,-14,23,5,17,11,29,14,21,12,19,23,23,13,5,16,36,-19,-19,
-43,6,4,16,8,1,2,22,17,37,31,66,69,43,46,33,43,101,46,142,175,186,210,221,237,
265,210,261,244,277,271,285,183,172,257,254,268,265,267,281,235,615,644,648,
646]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 {Mieses style was characterised by high levels of
optimism.} 3. dxe5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Nc6 5. Nf3 Bb4+ 6. Nc3 ({In 2021 the mainline is
} 6. Nbd2 Qe7 7. e3 Ngxe5 8. Nxe5 Nxe5 9. Be2 O-O 10. O-O Bxd2 11. Qxd2 d6 12.
b4 b6 13. c5 Bb7 14. cxd6 cxd6 15. Rfd1 Rfd8) 6… Qe7 7. Qd5 {Echoes of the
less reputable Englund Gambit} f6 8. exf6 Nxf6 9. Qd3 Ne4 10. e3 d6 11. Nd2 Bf5
12. Ndxe4 Bxe4 13. Qd2 {[#]} O-O $146 (13… g5 14. Bg3 h5 15. h3 Bg6) 14.
O-O-O Qf6 15. f3 Bg6 16. Bg3 {[#]} Qxc3+ $1 {Utilising the Boden’s mate theme.}
17. bxc3 (17. Qxc3 Bxc3 18. bxc3 $16) 17… Ba3+ 18. Qb2 Bxb2+ 19. Kxb2 Rae8
20. e4 $16 Ne5 $6 21. c5 $1 dxc5 22. Rd5 Nf7 23. Bxc7 $18 (23. Rxc5) 23… b6
24. Bc4 h6 25. Rd7 Kh7 26. Rhd1 a5 27. Bd6 Ne5 28. Bxe5 Rxe5 29. Rb7 Rg5 30.
Rd2 Rf6 $2 (30… h5) 31. Rb8 Re5 (31… Bf7) 32. Bg8+ Kh8 33. Rdd8 {and Black
resigned.} 1-0
[/pgn]

David was most active in the decade that followed, playing five times in the British Championship.

[pgn]
[Event “British CF-36 Championship”]
[Site “Felixstowe/ Suffolk”]
[Date “1949.08.15”]
[Round “7.1”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Golombek, Harry”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B13”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “83”]
[EventDate “1949.08.08”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “11”]
[EventCountry “GBR”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2018”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2017.10.13”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2017.10.13”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,83,19,31,68,48,60,46,46,22,31,23,34,34,45,56,35,42,40,35,20,18,18,9,8,
0,-3,0,58,30,44,14,3,-6,9,24,28,27,27,26,27,27,64,52,67,53,62,74,57,49,68,53,
90,67,93,79,76,82,91,76,91,93,102,75,92,84,105,86,112,40,71,72,103,64,86,72,92,
66,133,135,341,350,356,301,293,306]} 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 Nc6
5. c3 Nf6 6. Bf4 g6 (6… Bg4 7. Qb3 Qd7 8. Nd2 e6 9. Ngf3 Bxf3 10. Nxf3 Bd6
11. Bxd6 Qxd6 12. O-O O-O 13. Rae1) 7. Nf3 Bg7 8. h3 O-O 9. O-O Nh5 (9… Bf5
10. Bxf5 gxf5 11. Ne5 e6 12. Nd2 Nxe5 13. Bxe5) 10. Bh2 Bh6 11. Re1 Nf4 12. Bf1
Qd6 $146 13. Nbd2 Qf6 14. Nb3 $16 Rd8 15. Ne5 (15. Bb5) 15… Nxe5 16. Rxe5 Ne6
17. Nc1 Bf4 18. Bxf4 Nxf4 19. Nd3 Nxd3 20. Bxd3 Be6 21. Qe2 Rac8 22. Rf1 Qf4
23. Re1 Rc6 24. g3 Qf6 25. h4 Kh8 26. Qe3 Rg8 27. Bf1 $18 Rd6 28. Bg2 b5 29.
Bf1 Rb6 30. a3 a6 31. Bd3 a5 32. Bf1 Rb7 33. Bg2 Rd7 34. Rg5 $6 (34. h5) 34…
Kg7 35. Re5 Kh8 36. f4 Qg7 37. Kf2 h5 38. Bf3 {[#]} Qh6 $2 39. Qe2 (39. Rxe6 $1
fxe6 40. Qxe6 Rgd8 41. Qb6) 39… Bg4 $2 40. Bxg4 hxg4 41. Rxe7 Rxe7 42. Qxe7 {
Sources: Western Morning News, 26 November 1949; Hooper’s notebook.
Contributor: Kevin Thurlow} 1-0
[/pgn]

His highest place there was at Nottingham 1954, when, after leading in the early stages, he finished half a point behind the joint champions, Leonard Barden and Alan Phillips.

David was in the British Olympic team at Helsinki 1952, and in the same year accidentally played top board for England in one of the then traditional weekend matches against the Netherlands. British Champion Klein took offence at a Sunday Times report of his draw with former World Champion Dr. Euwe on the Saturday and refused to play on Sunday. Thus David was drafted in to meet Euwe, and acquitted himself admirably. Even though he lost, the game took pride of place in that month’s
BCM.

[pgn]
[Event “Match/Nation ENG-NED”]
[Site “London”]
[Date “1952.06.01”]
[Round “2.1”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Euwe, Max”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “E29”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “58”]
[EventDate “1952.05.31”]
[EventType “team-match”]
[EventRounds “2”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 1999”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
[WhiteTeam “England”]
[BlackTeam “Netherlands”]
[WhiteTeamCountry “ENG”]
[BlackTeamCountry “NED”]

{[%evp 0,58,19,31,25,-16,-12,2,30,29,36,-15,-2,-1,-1,-29,-26,-12,-12,-12,-12,6,
3,-12,-21,-21,18,-86,-58,-78,-78,-147,-58,-50,-49,-49,17,19,29,-36,21,-31,37,
21,23,23,23,0,30,83,56,74,-75,-61,0,-154,-173,-197,0,-224,-209]} 1. d4 Nf6 2.
c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 b6 7. Ne2 Bb7 8. Ng3 c5 9. Bd3
Nc6 10. O-O d6 11. f4 g6 $146 (11… Ba6) 12. Ra2 Qd7 13. f5 exf5 14. Nxf5 gxf5
15. Bxf5 Qe7 16. e4 $11 Ne8 17. Bh6 f6 18. Bxf8 Kxf8 19. g4 $6 (19. Raf2) 19…
Bc8 20. Bxc8 Rxc8 21. g5 Qxe4 22. gxf6 $16 {[#]} cxd4 23. Re2 (23. Rg2) 23…
Qh4 24. Rg2 Rc7 25. Qf3 (25. Rg4) 25… Ne5 $17 26. Qa8 Rf7 27. cxd4 Qxd4+ 28.
Kh1 Ng4 $11 {[#]} 29. h3 $2 (29. Re2) 29… Ngxf6 0-1
[/pgn]

In the following game, played in the Hastings Premier l95l-2, he found an improvement on Botvinnik’s play against Bronstein in game 17 of their 1951 match, when 7.Ng3 was played because it was thought that after 7.Nf4 d5 it was necessary to play 8 Qb3.

[pgn]
[Event “Christmas Congress 1951/52-27 Premier”]
[Site “Hastings”]
[Date “1951.12.28”]
[Round “2”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Donner, Jan Hein”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “E45”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “53”]
[EventDate “1951.12.27”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 1999”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,53,19,31,14,-14,-11,4,33,33,34,38,29,17,28,26,60,44,35,-17,-17,-17,
-17,37,0,-56,52,63,517,499,865,887,887,665,945,447,574,443,433,261,271,244,275,
308,359,373,376,346,347,327,394,387,623,768,1010,945]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3.
Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 b6 5. Nge2 Ba6 6. a3 Be7 7. Nf4 d5 8. cxd5 Bxf1 9. dxe6 Ba6 10.
exf7+ Kxf7 11. Qb3+ (11. e4 c5 12. e5 Qxd4 13. e6+) 11… Ke8 12. Ne6 $15 {[#]}
Qd6 $6 $146 (12… Qd7 13. Nxg7+ Kd8 14. Ne6+ Kc8 15. d5) 13. e4 $16 Bc8 $2 14.
Nb5 $18 Qc6 15. Nbxc7+ Kd7 16. d5 Qb7 {[#]} 17. Nxa8 (17. Qb5+ Nc6 18. Bf4)
17… Bd6 18. Nac7 (18. O-O) 18… Bxc7 19. O-O Ke7 20. Nxc7 Qxc7 21. Bg5 Qe5
22. f4 Qd4+ 23. Kh1 Kf7 24. Rad1 Qxe4 25. Rfe1 Bg4 26. Rxe4 Bxd1 27. Qb4 1-0
[/pgn]

In his profession as architect David worked in the Middle East for some years from the mid-1950s, and when he returned to England he made his mark as a writer. His Practical Chess Endgames

has an enduring appeal. Two of his books appeared in the Wildhagen biographical games series on Steinitz, and Capablanca. The last was written jointly with Gilchrist.

With Euwe he wrote A Guide to Chess Endings;

with Cafferty, A Complete Defence to 1.e4;

A Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames;

A Complete Defence to 1.d4;

and Play for Mate;

with Brandreth The Unknown Capablanca,

and with Ken Whyld, The Oxford Companion to Chess.

Ken Whyld

From The Encyclopaedia of Chess by Harry Golombek :

British amateur (an architect by profession) whose best result was =5 in the British Championship at Felixstowe 1949 along with, amongst others, Broadbent and Fairhurst.

Hooper abandoned playing for writing about chess and has become a specialist in two distinct areas. He is an expert on the endings and has a close knowledge of the history of chess in the nineteenth century.

His principal works : Steinitz (in German), Hamburg, 1968; A Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames, London 1970.

Here is an interesting article from Edward Winter

Here is his brief Wikipedia entry.

 Save as PDF

BCN remembers David Hooper who passed away in a Taunton (Somerset) nursing home on Sunday, May 3rd 1998. Probate (#9851310520) was granted in Brighton on June 24th 1998.

Prior to the nursing home David had been living at 33, Mansfield Road, Taunton, TA1 3NJ and before that at 5, Haimes Lane, Shaftesbury, Dorset, SP7 8AJ.

For most of the time between Reigate and Shaftesbury David lived in Whitchurch, Hampshire.

David Vincent Hooper was born on Tuesday, August 31st 1915 in Reigate, Surrey to Vincent Hooper and Edith Marjorie Winter who married in Reigate, Surrey in 1909. On this day the first French ace, Adolphe Pégoud, was killed in combat. He had scored six victories.

David was one of six children: Roger Garth (1910-?), Edwin Morris (1911-1942), Isobel Mary (12/01/1917-2009), Helene Edith (1916-1982) and Elizabeth Anne Oliver (1923-2000) were his siblings.

Recorded in the September 1939 register David was aged 24 and living at 94, High Street, Reigate, Surrey:

In 2021 this property appears to be a flat (rather than bridge) over the River Kwai Restaurant:

Living with David was his sister Isobel who was listed a “potential nurse”. David’s occupation at this time was listed as Architectural Assistant and he was single. We think that three others lived at this address at the time but they are not listed under the “100 year rule”. We know that David was also a surveyor and went on to attain professional membership of the Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA).

In the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette May 27th 1944 there appeared this report of a simultaneous display on Empire Day (May 24th) at Dr. Marsh’s house:

and from The Western Morning News, 9th April 1947 we have:

and then from The Nottingham Evening Post, 16th August 1949 we have:

In 1950 aged 35 David married Joan M Higley (or Rose!) in the district of South Eastern Surrey.

Ken Whyld wrote an obituary which appeared in British Chess Magazine, Volume 118 (1998), Number 6, page 326 as follows :

DAVID VINCENT HOOPER died on 3rd May this year in a nursing home in Taunton. He had been in declining health for some months. Born in Reigate, 31st August 1915, his early chess years were with the Battersea CC and Surrey.

He won the (ed. Somerset) County Championship three times, and the London Championship in 1948. His generation was at its chess peak in the years when war curtailed opportunities, but he won the British Correspondence Championship in 1944.

[pgn]
[Event “ENG-ch corr”]
[Site “England”]
[Date “1943.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Bonham, Reginald”]
[Black “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “D04”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “80”]
[EventDate “1943.??.??”]
[EventType “tourn (corr)”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “Corr 2000”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2000.04.19”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2000.04.19”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,80,19,31,14,30,28,18,12,2,25,23,23,33,22,16,10,13,11,14,10,8,9,12,15,
-5,-2,-3,1,-3,-9,-12,-8,-15,-16,-121,-138,-107,-84,-125,-79,-114,-135,-140,
-120,-122,-108,-72,-116,-109,-115,-105,-113,-94,-92,-121,-143,-133,-141,-191,
-64,-101,-81,-64,0,-83,-91,-141,-141,-57,-57,-90,-53,-47,-50,-48,-45,-533,-534,
-29989,-534,-544,-544]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. e3 Bf5 4. Bd3 e6 5. Bxf5 exf5 6.
Qd3 Qc8 7. c4 dxc4 8. Qxc4 Bd6 9. b3 Nbd7 10. Bb2 O-O 11. O-O c6 12. Nc3 Nb6
13. Qe2 Nbd5 14. Nxd5 Nxd5 15. Ne5 Re8 16. Qf3 Qe6 17. g4 fxg4 18. Nxg4 f6 19.
h3 a5 20. Rfe1 Nb4 21. Re2 a4 22. e4 axb3 23. axb3 Rxa1+ 24. Bxa1 f5 25. Ne5
fxe4 26. Rxe4 Nd5 27. Rg4 Rf8 28. Qg3 Qh6 29. Bb2 Rf5 30. Qd3 Rh5 31. h4 Nf6
32. Qc4+ Nd5 33. Qa4 Qd2 34. Qa8+ Bf8 35. Qc8 Rh6 36. Nd7 Qd1+ 37. Kh2 Qf3 38.
Ba3 Qxf2+ 39. Kh3 Qf3+ 40. Kh2 Qe2+ 0-1
[/pgn]

His games from that event are to be found in Chess for Rank and File by Roche and Battersby.

Also at that time, he won the 1944 tournament at Blackpool, defeating veteran Grandmaster Jacques Mieses.

[pgn]
[Event “Blackpool Premier”]
[Site “Blackpool”]
[Date “1944.07.20”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Mieses, Jacques”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “A52”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “65”]
[EventDate “1944.07.17”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “5”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2019”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2018.10.10”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2018.10.10”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,65,19,31,14,-14,23,5,17,11,29,14,21,12,19,23,23,13,5,16,36,-19,-19,
-43,6,4,16,8,1,2,22,17,37,31,66,69,43,46,33,43,101,46,142,175,186,210,221,237,
265,210,261,244,277,271,285,183,172,257,254,268,265,267,281,235,615,644,648,
646]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 {Mieses style was characterised by high levels of
optimism.} 3. dxe5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Nc6 5. Nf3 Bb4+ 6. Nc3 ({In 2021 the mainline is
} 6. Nbd2 Qe7 7. e3 Ngxe5 8. Nxe5 Nxe5 9. Be2 O-O 10. O-O Bxd2 11. Qxd2 d6 12.
b4 b6 13. c5 Bb7 14. cxd6 cxd6 15. Rfd1 Rfd8) 6… Qe7 7. Qd5 {Echoes of the
less reputable Englund Gambit} f6 8. exf6 Nxf6 9. Qd3 Ne4 10. e3 d6 11. Nd2 Bf5
12. Ndxe4 Bxe4 13. Qd2 {[#]} O-O $146 (13… g5 14. Bg3 h5 15. h3 Bg6) 14.
O-O-O Qf6 15. f3 Bg6 16. Bg3 {[#]} Qxc3+ $1 {Utilising the Boden’s mate theme.}
17. bxc3 (17. Qxc3 Bxc3 18. bxc3 $16) 17… Ba3+ 18. Qb2 Bxb2+ 19. Kxb2 Rae8
20. e4 $16 Ne5 $6 21. c5 $1 dxc5 22. Rd5 Nf7 23. Bxc7 $18 (23. Rxc5) 23… b6
24. Bc4 h6 25. Rd7 Kh7 26. Rhd1 a5 27. Bd6 Ne5 28. Bxe5 Rxe5 29. Rb7 Rg5 30.
Rd2 Rf6 $2 (30… h5) 31. Rb8 Re5 (31… Bf7) 32. Bg8+ Kh8 33. Rdd8 {and Black
resigned.} 1-0
[/pgn]

David was most active in the decade that followed, playing five times in the British Championship.

[pgn]
[Event “British CF-36 Championship”]
[Site “Felixstowe/ Suffolk”]
[Date “1949.08.15”]
[Round “7.1”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Golombek, Harry”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B13”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “83”]
[EventDate “1949.08.08”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “11”]
[EventCountry “GBR”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2018”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2017.10.13”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2017.10.13”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,83,19,31,68,48,60,46,46,22,31,23,34,34,45,56,35,42,40,35,20,18,18,9,8,
0,-3,0,58,30,44,14,3,-6,9,24,28,27,27,26,27,27,64,52,67,53,62,74,57,49,68,53,
90,67,93,79,76,82,91,76,91,93,102,75,92,84,105,86,112,40,71,72,103,64,86,72,92,
66,133,135,341,350,356,301,293,306]} 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 Nc6
5. c3 Nf6 6. Bf4 g6 (6… Bg4 7. Qb3 Qd7 8. Nd2 e6 9. Ngf3 Bxf3 10. Nxf3 Bd6
11. Bxd6 Qxd6 12. O-O O-O 13. Rae1) 7. Nf3 Bg7 8. h3 O-O 9. O-O Nh5 (9… Bf5
10. Bxf5 gxf5 11. Ne5 e6 12. Nd2 Nxe5 13. Bxe5) 10. Bh2 Bh6 11. Re1 Nf4 12. Bf1
Qd6 $146 13. Nbd2 Qf6 14. Nb3 $16 Rd8 15. Ne5 (15. Bb5) 15… Nxe5 16. Rxe5 Ne6
17. Nc1 Bf4 18. Bxf4 Nxf4 19. Nd3 Nxd3 20. Bxd3 Be6 21. Qe2 Rac8 22. Rf1 Qf4
23. Re1 Rc6 24. g3 Qf6 25. h4 Kh8 26. Qe3 Rg8 27. Bf1 $18 Rd6 28. Bg2 b5 29.
Bf1 Rb6 30. a3 a6 31. Bd3 a5 32. Bf1 Rb7 33. Bg2 Rd7 34. Rg5 $6 (34. h5) 34…
Kg7 35. Re5 Kh8 36. f4 Qg7 37. Kf2 h5 38. Bf3 {[#]} Qh6 $2 39. Qe2 (39. Rxe6 $1
fxe6 40. Qxe6 Rgd8 41. Qb6) 39… Bg4 $2 40. Bxg4 hxg4 41. Rxe7 Rxe7 42. Qxe7 {
Sources: Western Morning News, 26 November 1949; Hooper’s notebook.
Contributor: Kevin Thurlow} 1-0
[/pgn]

His highest place there was at Nottingham 1954, when, after leading in the early stages, he finished half a point behind the joint champions, Leonard Barden and Alan Phillips.

David was in the British Olympic team at Helsinki 1952, and in the same year accidentally played top board for England in one of the then traditional weekend matches against the Netherlands. British Champion Klein took offence at a Sunday Times report of his draw with former World Champion Dr. Euwe on the Saturday and refused to play on Sunday. Thus David was drafted in to meet Euwe, and acquitted himself admirably. Even though he lost, the game took pride of place in that month’s
BCM.

[pgn]
[Event “Match/Nation ENG-NED”]
[Site “London”]
[Date “1952.06.01”]
[Round “2.1”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Euwe, Max”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “E29”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “58”]
[EventDate “1952.05.31”]
[EventType “team-match”]
[EventRounds “2”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 1999”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
[WhiteTeam “England”]
[BlackTeam “Netherlands”]
[WhiteTeamCountry “ENG”]
[BlackTeamCountry “NED”]

{[%evp 0,58,19,31,25,-16,-12,2,30,29,36,-15,-2,-1,-1,-29,-26,-12,-12,-12,-12,6,
3,-12,-21,-21,18,-86,-58,-78,-78,-147,-58,-50,-49,-49,17,19,29,-36,21,-31,37,
21,23,23,23,0,30,83,56,74,-75,-61,0,-154,-173,-197,0,-224,-209]} 1. d4 Nf6 2.
c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 b6 7. Ne2 Bb7 8. Ng3 c5 9. Bd3
Nc6 10. O-O d6 11. f4 g6 $146 (11… Ba6) 12. Ra2 Qd7 13. f5 exf5 14. Nxf5 gxf5
15. Bxf5 Qe7 16. e4 $11 Ne8 17. Bh6 f6 18. Bxf8 Kxf8 19. g4 $6 (19. Raf2) 19…
Bc8 20. Bxc8 Rxc8 21. g5 Qxe4 22. gxf6 $16 {[#]} cxd4 23. Re2 (23. Rg2) 23…
Qh4 24. Rg2 Rc7 25. Qf3 (25. Rg4) 25… Ne5 $17 26. Qa8 Rf7 27. cxd4 Qxd4+ 28.
Kh1 Ng4 $11 {[#]} 29. h3 $2 (29. Re2) 29… Ngxf6 0-1
[/pgn]

In the following game, played in the Hastings Premier l95l-2, he found an improvement on Botvinnik’s play against Bronstein in game 17 of their 1951 match, when 7.Ng3 was played because it was thought that after 7.Nf4 d5 it was necessary to play 8 Qb3.

[pgn]
[Event “Christmas Congress 1951/52-27 Premier”]
[Site “Hastings”]
[Date “1951.12.28”]
[Round “2”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Donner, Jan Hein”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “E45”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “53”]
[EventDate “1951.12.27”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 1999”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,53,19,31,14,-14,-11,4,33,33,34,38,29,17,28,26,60,44,35,-17,-17,-17,
-17,37,0,-56,52,63,517,499,865,887,887,665,945,447,574,443,433,261,271,244,275,
308,359,373,376,346,347,327,394,387,623,768,1010,945]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3.
Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 b6 5. Nge2 Ba6 6. a3 Be7 7. Nf4 d5 8. cxd5 Bxf1 9. dxe6 Ba6 10.
exf7+ Kxf7 11. Qb3+ (11. e4 c5 12. e5 Qxd4 13. e6+) 11… Ke8 12. Ne6 $15 {[#]}
Qd6 $6 $146 (12… Qd7 13. Nxg7+ Kd8 14. Ne6+ Kc8 15. d5) 13. e4 $16 Bc8 $2 14.
Nb5 $18 Qc6 15. Nbxc7+ Kd7 16. d5 Qb7 {[#]} 17. Nxa8 (17. Qb5+ Nc6 18. Bf4)
17… Bd6 18. Nac7 (18. O-O) 18… Bxc7 19. O-O Ke7 20. Nxc7 Qxc7 21. Bg5 Qe5
22. f4 Qd4+ 23. Kh1 Kf7 24. Rad1 Qxe4 25. Rfe1 Bg4 26. Rxe4 Bxd1 27. Qb4 1-0
[/pgn]

In his profession as architect David worked in the Middle East for some years from the mid-1950s, and when he returned to England he made his mark as a writer. His Practical Chess Endgames

has an enduring appeal. Two of his books appeared in the Wildhagen biographical games series on Steinitz, and Capablanca. The last was written jointly with Gilchrist.

With Euwe he wrote A Guide to Chess Endings;

with Cafferty, A Complete Defence to 1.e4;

A Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames;

A Complete Defence to 1.d4;

and Play for Mate;

with Brandreth The Unknown Capablanca,

and with Ken Whyld, The Oxford Companion to Chess.

Ken Whyld

From The Encyclopaedia of Chess by Harry Golombek :

British amateur (an architect by profession) whose best result was =5 in the British Championship at Felixstowe 1949 along with, amongst others, Broadbent and Fairhurst.

Hooper abandoned playing for writing about chess and has become a specialist in two distinct areas. He is an expert on the endings and has a close knowledge of the history of chess in the nineteenth century.

His principal works : Steinitz (in German), Hamburg, 1968; A Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames, London 1970.

Here is an interesting article from Edward Winter

Here is his brief Wikipedia entry.

 Save as PDF

BCN remembers David Hooper who passed away in a Taunton (Somerset) nursing home on Sunday, May 3rd 1998. Probate (#9851310520) was granted in Brighton on June 24th 1998.

Prior to the nursing home David had been living at 33, Mansfield Road, Taunton, TA1 3NJ and before that at 5, Haimes Lane, Shaftesbury, Dorset, SP7 8AJ.

For most of the time between Reigate and Shaftesbury David lived in Whitchurch, Hampshire.

David Vincent Hooper was born on Tuesday, August 31st 1915 in Reigate, Surrey to Vincent Hooper and Edith Marjorie Winter who married in Reigate, Surrey in 1909. On this day the first French ace, Adolphe Pégoud, was killed in combat. He had scored six victories.

David was one of six children: Roger Garth (1910-?), Edwin Morris (1911-1942), Isobel Mary (12/01/1917-2009), Helene Edith (1916-1982) and Elizabeth Anne Oliver (1923-2000) were his siblings.

Recorded in the September 1939 register David was aged 24 and living at 94, High Street, Reigate, Surrey:

In 2021 this property appears to be a flat (rather than bridge) over the River Kwai Restaurant:

Living with David was his sister Isobel who was listed a “potential nurse”. David’s occupation at this time was listed as Architectural Assistant and he was single. We think that three others lived at this address at the time but they are not listed under the “100 year rule”. We know that David was also a surveyor and went on to attain professional membership of the Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA).

In the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette May 27th 1944 there appeared this report of a simultaneous display on Empire Day (May 24th) at Dr. Marsh’s house:

and from The Western Morning News, 9th April 1947 we have:

and then from The Nottingham Evening Post, 16th August 1949 we have:

In 1950 aged 35 David married Joan M Higley (or Rose!) in the district of South Eastern Surrey.

Ken Whyld wrote an obituary which appeared in British Chess Magazine, Volume 118 (1998), Number 6, page 326 as follows :

DAVID VINCENT HOOPER died on 3rd May this year in a nursing home in Taunton. He had been in declining health for some months. Born in Reigate, 31st August 1915, his early chess years were with the Battersea CC and Surrey.

He won the (ed. Somerset) County Championship three times, and the London Championship in 1948. His generation was at its chess peak in the years when war curtailed opportunities, but he won the British Correspondence Championship in 1944.

[pgn]
[Event “ENG-ch corr”]
[Site “England”]
[Date “1943.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Bonham, Reginald”]
[Black “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “D04”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “80”]
[EventDate “1943.??.??”]
[EventType “tourn (corr)”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “Corr 2000”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2000.04.19”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2000.04.19”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,80,19,31,14,30,28,18,12,2,25,23,23,33,22,16,10,13,11,14,10,8,9,12,15,
-5,-2,-3,1,-3,-9,-12,-8,-15,-16,-121,-138,-107,-84,-125,-79,-114,-135,-140,
-120,-122,-108,-72,-116,-109,-115,-105,-113,-94,-92,-121,-143,-133,-141,-191,
-64,-101,-81,-64,0,-83,-91,-141,-141,-57,-57,-90,-53,-47,-50,-48,-45,-533,-534,
-29989,-534,-544,-544]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. e3 Bf5 4. Bd3 e6 5. Bxf5 exf5 6.
Qd3 Qc8 7. c4 dxc4 8. Qxc4 Bd6 9. b3 Nbd7 10. Bb2 O-O 11. O-O c6 12. Nc3 Nb6
13. Qe2 Nbd5 14. Nxd5 Nxd5 15. Ne5 Re8 16. Qf3 Qe6 17. g4 fxg4 18. Nxg4 f6 19.
h3 a5 20. Rfe1 Nb4 21. Re2 a4 22. e4 axb3 23. axb3 Rxa1+ 24. Bxa1 f5 25. Ne5
fxe4 26. Rxe4 Nd5 27. Rg4 Rf8 28. Qg3 Qh6 29. Bb2 Rf5 30. Qd3 Rh5 31. h4 Nf6
32. Qc4+ Nd5 33. Qa4 Qd2 34. Qa8+ Bf8 35. Qc8 Rh6 36. Nd7 Qd1+ 37. Kh2 Qf3 38.
Ba3 Qxf2+ 39. Kh3 Qf3+ 40. Kh2 Qe2+ 0-1
[/pgn]

His games from that event are to be found in Chess for Rank and File by Roche and Battersby.

Also at that time, he won the 1944 tournament at Blackpool, defeating veteran Grandmaster Jacques Mieses.

[pgn]
[Event “Blackpool Premier”]
[Site “Blackpool”]
[Date “1944.07.20”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Mieses, Jacques”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “A52”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “65”]
[EventDate “1944.07.17”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “5”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2019”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2018.10.10”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2018.10.10”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,65,19,31,14,-14,23,5,17,11,29,14,21,12,19,23,23,13,5,16,36,-19,-19,
-43,6,4,16,8,1,2,22,17,37,31,66,69,43,46,33,43,101,46,142,175,186,210,221,237,
265,210,261,244,277,271,285,183,172,257,254,268,265,267,281,235,615,644,648,
646]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 {Mieses style was characterised by high levels of
optimism.} 3. dxe5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Nc6 5. Nf3 Bb4+ 6. Nc3 ({In 2021 the mainline is
} 6. Nbd2 Qe7 7. e3 Ngxe5 8. Nxe5 Nxe5 9. Be2 O-O 10. O-O Bxd2 11. Qxd2 d6 12.
b4 b6 13. c5 Bb7 14. cxd6 cxd6 15. Rfd1 Rfd8) 6… Qe7 7. Qd5 {Echoes of the
less reputable Englund Gambit} f6 8. exf6 Nxf6 9. Qd3 Ne4 10. e3 d6 11. Nd2 Bf5
12. Ndxe4 Bxe4 13. Qd2 {[#]} O-O $146 (13… g5 14. Bg3 h5 15. h3 Bg6) 14.
O-O-O Qf6 15. f3 Bg6 16. Bg3 {[#]} Qxc3+ $1 {Utilising the Boden’s mate theme.}
17. bxc3 (17. Qxc3 Bxc3 18. bxc3 $16) 17… Ba3+ 18. Qb2 Bxb2+ 19. Kxb2 Rae8
20. e4 $16 Ne5 $6 21. c5 $1 dxc5 22. Rd5 Nf7 23. Bxc7 $18 (23. Rxc5) 23… b6
24. Bc4 h6 25. Rd7 Kh7 26. Rhd1 a5 27. Bd6 Ne5 28. Bxe5 Rxe5 29. Rb7 Rg5 30.
Rd2 Rf6 $2 (30… h5) 31. Rb8 Re5 (31… Bf7) 32. Bg8+ Kh8 33. Rdd8 {and Black
resigned.} 1-0
[/pgn]

David was most active in the decade that followed, playing five times in the British Championship.

[pgn]
[Event “British CF-36 Championship”]
[Site “Felixstowe/ Suffolk”]
[Date “1949.08.15”]
[Round “7.1”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Golombek, Harry”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B13”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “83”]
[EventDate “1949.08.08”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “11”]
[EventCountry “GBR”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2018”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2017.10.13”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2017.10.13”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,83,19,31,68,48,60,46,46,22,31,23,34,34,45,56,35,42,40,35,20,18,18,9,8,
0,-3,0,58,30,44,14,3,-6,9,24,28,27,27,26,27,27,64,52,67,53,62,74,57,49,68,53,
90,67,93,79,76,82,91,76,91,93,102,75,92,84,105,86,112,40,71,72,103,64,86,72,92,
66,133,135,341,350,356,301,293,306]} 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 Nc6
5. c3 Nf6 6. Bf4 g6 (6… Bg4 7. Qb3 Qd7 8. Nd2 e6 9. Ngf3 Bxf3 10. Nxf3 Bd6
11. Bxd6 Qxd6 12. O-O O-O 13. Rae1) 7. Nf3 Bg7 8. h3 O-O 9. O-O Nh5 (9… Bf5
10. Bxf5 gxf5 11. Ne5 e6 12. Nd2 Nxe5 13. Bxe5) 10. Bh2 Bh6 11. Re1 Nf4 12. Bf1
Qd6 $146 13. Nbd2 Qf6 14. Nb3 $16 Rd8 15. Ne5 (15. Bb5) 15… Nxe5 16. Rxe5 Ne6
17. Nc1 Bf4 18. Bxf4 Nxf4 19. Nd3 Nxd3 20. Bxd3 Be6 21. Qe2 Rac8 22. Rf1 Qf4
23. Re1 Rc6 24. g3 Qf6 25. h4 Kh8 26. Qe3 Rg8 27. Bf1 $18 Rd6 28. Bg2 b5 29.
Bf1 Rb6 30. a3 a6 31. Bd3 a5 32. Bf1 Rb7 33. Bg2 Rd7 34. Rg5 $6 (34. h5) 34…
Kg7 35. Re5 Kh8 36. f4 Qg7 37. Kf2 h5 38. Bf3 {[#]} Qh6 $2 39. Qe2 (39. Rxe6 $1
fxe6 40. Qxe6 Rgd8 41. Qb6) 39… Bg4 $2 40. Bxg4 hxg4 41. Rxe7 Rxe7 42. Qxe7 {
Sources: Western Morning News, 26 November 1949; Hooper’s notebook.
Contributor: Kevin Thurlow} 1-0
[/pgn]

His highest place there was at Nottingham 1954, when, after leading in the early stages, he finished half a point behind the joint champions, Leonard Barden and Alan Phillips.

David was in the British Olympic team at Helsinki 1952, and in the same year accidentally played top board for England in one of the then traditional weekend matches against the Netherlands. British Champion Klein took offence at a Sunday Times report of his draw with former World Champion Dr. Euwe on the Saturday and refused to play on Sunday. Thus David was drafted in to meet Euwe, and acquitted himself admirably. Even though he lost, the game took pride of place in that month’s
BCM.

[pgn]
[Event “Match/Nation ENG-NED”]
[Site “London”]
[Date “1952.06.01”]
[Round “2.1”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Euwe, Max”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “E29”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “58”]
[EventDate “1952.05.31”]
[EventType “team-match”]
[EventRounds “2”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 1999”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
[WhiteTeam “England”]
[BlackTeam “Netherlands”]
[WhiteTeamCountry “ENG”]
[BlackTeamCountry “NED”]

{[%evp 0,58,19,31,25,-16,-12,2,30,29,36,-15,-2,-1,-1,-29,-26,-12,-12,-12,-12,6,
3,-12,-21,-21,18,-86,-58,-78,-78,-147,-58,-50,-49,-49,17,19,29,-36,21,-31,37,
21,23,23,23,0,30,83,56,74,-75,-61,0,-154,-173,-197,0,-224,-209]} 1. d4 Nf6 2.
c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 b6 7. Ne2 Bb7 8. Ng3 c5 9. Bd3
Nc6 10. O-O d6 11. f4 g6 $146 (11… Ba6) 12. Ra2 Qd7 13. f5 exf5 14. Nxf5 gxf5
15. Bxf5 Qe7 16. e4 $11 Ne8 17. Bh6 f6 18. Bxf8 Kxf8 19. g4 $6 (19. Raf2) 19…
Bc8 20. Bxc8 Rxc8 21. g5 Qxe4 22. gxf6 $16 {[#]} cxd4 23. Re2 (23. Rg2) 23…
Qh4 24. Rg2 Rc7 25. Qf3 (25. Rg4) 25… Ne5 $17 26. Qa8 Rf7 27. cxd4 Qxd4+ 28.
Kh1 Ng4 $11 {[#]} 29. h3 $2 (29. Re2) 29… Ngxf6 0-1
[/pgn]

In the following game, played in the Hastings Premier l95l-2, he found an improvement on Botvinnik’s play against Bronstein in game 17 of their 1951 match, when 7.Ng3 was played because it was thought that after 7.Nf4 d5 it was necessary to play 8 Qb3.

[pgn]
[Event “Christmas Congress 1951/52-27 Premier”]
[Site “Hastings”]
[Date “1951.12.28”]
[Round “2”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Donner, Jan Hein”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “E45”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “53”]
[EventDate “1951.12.27”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 1999”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,53,19,31,14,-14,-11,4,33,33,34,38,29,17,28,26,60,44,35,-17,-17,-17,
-17,37,0,-56,52,63,517,499,865,887,887,665,945,447,574,443,433,261,271,244,275,
308,359,373,376,346,347,327,394,387,623,768,1010,945]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3.
Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 b6 5. Nge2 Ba6 6. a3 Be7 7. Nf4 d5 8. cxd5 Bxf1 9. dxe6 Ba6 10.
exf7+ Kxf7 11. Qb3+ (11. e4 c5 12. e5 Qxd4 13. e6+) 11… Ke8 12. Ne6 $15 {[#]}
Qd6 $6 $146 (12… Qd7 13. Nxg7+ Kd8 14. Ne6+ Kc8 15. d5) 13. e4 $16 Bc8 $2 14.
Nb5 $18 Qc6 15. Nbxc7+ Kd7 16. d5 Qb7 {[#]} 17. Nxa8 (17. Qb5+ Nc6 18. Bf4)
17… Bd6 18. Nac7 (18. O-O) 18… Bxc7 19. O-O Ke7 20. Nxc7 Qxc7 21. Bg5 Qe5
22. f4 Qd4+ 23. Kh1 Kf7 24. Rad1 Qxe4 25. Rfe1 Bg4 26. Rxe4 Bxd1 27. Qb4 1-0
[/pgn]

In his profession as architect David worked in the Middle East for some years from the mid-1950s, and when he returned to England he made his mark as a writer. His Practical Chess Endgames

has an enduring appeal. Two of his books appeared in the Wildhagen biographical games series on Steinitz, and Capablanca. The last was written jointly with Gilchrist.

With Euwe he wrote A Guide to Chess Endings;

with Cafferty, A Complete Defence to 1.e4;

A Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames;

A Complete Defence to 1.d4;

and Play for Mate;

with Brandreth The Unknown Capablanca,

and with Ken Whyld, The Oxford Companion to Chess.

Ken Whyld

From The Encyclopaedia of Chess by Harry Golombek :

British amateur (an architect by profession) whose best result was =5 in the British Championship at Felixstowe 1949 along with, amongst others, Broadbent and Fairhurst.

Hooper abandoned playing for writing about chess and has become a specialist in two distinct areas. He is an expert on the endings and has a close knowledge of the history of chess in the nineteenth century.

His principal works : Steinitz (in German), Hamburg, 1968; A Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames, London 1970.

Here is an interesting article from Edward Winter

Here is his brief Wikipedia entry.

 Save as PDF

BCN remembers David Hooper who passed away in a Taunton (Somerset) nursing home on Sunday, May 3rd 1998. Probate (#9851310520) was granted in Brighton on June 24th 1998.

Prior to the nursing home David had been living at 33, Mansfield Road, Taunton, TA1 3NJ and before that at 5, Haimes Lane, Shaftesbury, Dorset, SP7 8AJ.

For most of the time between Reigate and Shaftesbury David lived in Whitchurch, Hampshire.

David Vincent Hooper was born on Tuesday, August 31st 1915 in Reigate, Surrey to Vincent Hooper and Edith Marjorie Winter who married in Reigate, Surrey in 1909. On this day the first French ace, Adolphe Pégoud, was killed in combat. He had scored six victories.

David was one of six children: Roger Garth (1910-?), Edwin Morris (1911-1942), Isobel Mary (12/01/1917-2009), Helene Edith (1916-1982) and Elizabeth Anne Oliver (1923-2000) were his siblings.

Recorded in the September 1939 register David was aged 24 and living at 94, High Street, Reigate, Surrey:

In 2021 this property appears to be a flat (rather than bridge) over the River Kwai Restaurant:

Living with David was his sister Isobel who was listed a “potential nurse”. David’s occupation at this time was listed as Architectural Assistant and he was single. We think that three others lived at this address at the time but they are not listed under the “100 year rule”. We know that David was also a surveyor and went on to attain professional membership of the Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA).

In the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette May 27th 1944 there appeared this report of a simultaneous display on Empire Day (May 24th) at Dr. Marsh’s house:

and from The Western Morning News, 9th April 1947 we have:

and then from The Nottingham Evening Post, 16th August 1949 we have:

In 1950 aged 35 David married Joan M Higley (or Rose!) in the district of South Eastern Surrey.

Ken Whyld wrote an obituary which appeared in British Chess Magazine, Volume 118 (1998), Number 6, page 326 as follows :

DAVID VINCENT HOOPER died on 3rd May this year in a nursing home in Taunton. He had been in declining health for some months. Born in Reigate, 31st August 1915, his early chess years were with the Battersea CC and Surrey.

He won the (ed. Somerset) County Championship three times, and the London Championship in 1948. His generation was at its chess peak in the years when war curtailed opportunities, but he won the British Correspondence Championship in 1944.

[pgn]
[Event “ENG-ch corr”]
[Site “England”]
[Date “1943.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Bonham, Reginald”]
[Black “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “D04”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “80”]
[EventDate “1943.??.??”]
[EventType “tourn (corr)”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “Corr 2000”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2000.04.19”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2000.04.19”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,80,19,31,14,30,28,18,12,2,25,23,23,33,22,16,10,13,11,14,10,8,9,12,15,
-5,-2,-3,1,-3,-9,-12,-8,-15,-16,-121,-138,-107,-84,-125,-79,-114,-135,-140,
-120,-122,-108,-72,-116,-109,-115,-105,-113,-94,-92,-121,-143,-133,-141,-191,
-64,-101,-81,-64,0,-83,-91,-141,-141,-57,-57,-90,-53,-47,-50,-48,-45,-533,-534,
-29989,-534,-544,-544]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. e3 Bf5 4. Bd3 e6 5. Bxf5 exf5 6.
Qd3 Qc8 7. c4 dxc4 8. Qxc4 Bd6 9. b3 Nbd7 10. Bb2 O-O 11. O-O c6 12. Nc3 Nb6
13. Qe2 Nbd5 14. Nxd5 Nxd5 15. Ne5 Re8 16. Qf3 Qe6 17. g4 fxg4 18. Nxg4 f6 19.
h3 a5 20. Rfe1 Nb4 21. Re2 a4 22. e4 axb3 23. axb3 Rxa1+ 24. Bxa1 f5 25. Ne5
fxe4 26. Rxe4 Nd5 27. Rg4 Rf8 28. Qg3 Qh6 29. Bb2 Rf5 30. Qd3 Rh5 31. h4 Nf6
32. Qc4+ Nd5 33. Qa4 Qd2 34. Qa8+ Bf8 35. Qc8 Rh6 36. Nd7 Qd1+ 37. Kh2 Qf3 38.
Ba3 Qxf2+ 39. Kh3 Qf3+ 40. Kh2 Qe2+ 0-1
[/pgn]

His games from that event are to be found in Chess for Rank and File by Roche and Battersby.

Also at that time, he won the 1944 tournament at Blackpool, defeating veteran Grandmaster Jacques Mieses.

[pgn]
[Event “Blackpool Premier”]
[Site “Blackpool”]
[Date “1944.07.20”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Mieses, Jacques”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “A52”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “65”]
[EventDate “1944.07.17”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “5”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2019”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2018.10.10”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2018.10.10”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,65,19,31,14,-14,23,5,17,11,29,14,21,12,19,23,23,13,5,16,36,-19,-19,
-43,6,4,16,8,1,2,22,17,37,31,66,69,43,46,33,43,101,46,142,175,186,210,221,237,
265,210,261,244,277,271,285,183,172,257,254,268,265,267,281,235,615,644,648,
646]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 {Mieses style was characterised by high levels of
optimism.} 3. dxe5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Nc6 5. Nf3 Bb4+ 6. Nc3 ({In 2021 the mainline is
} 6. Nbd2 Qe7 7. e3 Ngxe5 8. Nxe5 Nxe5 9. Be2 O-O 10. O-O Bxd2 11. Qxd2 d6 12.
b4 b6 13. c5 Bb7 14. cxd6 cxd6 15. Rfd1 Rfd8) 6… Qe7 7. Qd5 {Echoes of the
less reputable Englund Gambit} f6 8. exf6 Nxf6 9. Qd3 Ne4 10. e3 d6 11. Nd2 Bf5
12. Ndxe4 Bxe4 13. Qd2 {[#]} O-O $146 (13… g5 14. Bg3 h5 15. h3 Bg6) 14.
O-O-O Qf6 15. f3 Bg6 16. Bg3 {[#]} Qxc3+ $1 {Utilising the Boden’s mate theme.}
17. bxc3 (17. Qxc3 Bxc3 18. bxc3 $16) 17… Ba3+ 18. Qb2 Bxb2+ 19. Kxb2 Rae8
20. e4 $16 Ne5 $6 21. c5 $1 dxc5 22. Rd5 Nf7 23. Bxc7 $18 (23. Rxc5) 23… b6
24. Bc4 h6 25. Rd7 Kh7 26. Rhd1 a5 27. Bd6 Ne5 28. Bxe5 Rxe5 29. Rb7 Rg5 30.
Rd2 Rf6 $2 (30… h5) 31. Rb8 Re5 (31… Bf7) 32. Bg8+ Kh8 33. Rdd8 {and Black
resigned.} 1-0
[/pgn]

David was most active in the decade that followed, playing five times in the British Championship.

[pgn]
[Event “British CF-36 Championship”]
[Site “Felixstowe/ Suffolk”]
[Date “1949.08.15”]
[Round “7.1”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Golombek, Harry”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B13”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “83”]
[EventDate “1949.08.08”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “11”]
[EventCountry “GBR”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2018”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2017.10.13”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2017.10.13”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,83,19,31,68,48,60,46,46,22,31,23,34,34,45,56,35,42,40,35,20,18,18,9,8,
0,-3,0,58,30,44,14,3,-6,9,24,28,27,27,26,27,27,64,52,67,53,62,74,57,49,68,53,
90,67,93,79,76,82,91,76,91,93,102,75,92,84,105,86,112,40,71,72,103,64,86,72,92,
66,133,135,341,350,356,301,293,306]} 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 Nc6
5. c3 Nf6 6. Bf4 g6 (6… Bg4 7. Qb3 Qd7 8. Nd2 e6 9. Ngf3 Bxf3 10. Nxf3 Bd6
11. Bxd6 Qxd6 12. O-O O-O 13. Rae1) 7. Nf3 Bg7 8. h3 O-O 9. O-O Nh5 (9… Bf5
10. Bxf5 gxf5 11. Ne5 e6 12. Nd2 Nxe5 13. Bxe5) 10. Bh2 Bh6 11. Re1 Nf4 12. Bf1
Qd6 $146 13. Nbd2 Qf6 14. Nb3 $16 Rd8 15. Ne5 (15. Bb5) 15… Nxe5 16. Rxe5 Ne6
17. Nc1 Bf4 18. Bxf4 Nxf4 19. Nd3 Nxd3 20. Bxd3 Be6 21. Qe2 Rac8 22. Rf1 Qf4
23. Re1 Rc6 24. g3 Qf6 25. h4 Kh8 26. Qe3 Rg8 27. Bf1 $18 Rd6 28. Bg2 b5 29.
Bf1 Rb6 30. a3 a6 31. Bd3 a5 32. Bf1 Rb7 33. Bg2 Rd7 34. Rg5 $6 (34. h5) 34…
Kg7 35. Re5 Kh8 36. f4 Qg7 37. Kf2 h5 38. Bf3 {[#]} Qh6 $2 39. Qe2 (39. Rxe6 $1
fxe6 40. Qxe6 Rgd8 41. Qb6) 39… Bg4 $2 40. Bxg4 hxg4 41. Rxe7 Rxe7 42. Qxe7 {
Sources: Western Morning News, 26 November 1949; Hooper’s notebook.
Contributor: Kevin Thurlow} 1-0
[/pgn]

His highest place there was at Nottingham 1954, when, after leading in the early stages, he finished half a point behind the joint champions, Leonard Barden and Alan Phillips.

David was in the British Olympic team at Helsinki 1952, and in the same year accidentally played top board for England in one of the then traditional weekend matches against the Netherlands. British Champion Klein took offence at a Sunday Times report of his draw with former World Champion Dr. Euwe on the Saturday and refused to play on Sunday. Thus David was drafted in to meet Euwe, and acquitted himself admirably. Even though he lost, the game took pride of place in that month’s
BCM.

[pgn]
[Event “Match/Nation ENG-NED”]
[Site “London”]
[Date “1952.06.01”]
[Round “2.1”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Euwe, Max”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “E29”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “58”]
[EventDate “1952.05.31”]
[EventType “team-match”]
[EventRounds “2”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 1999”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
[WhiteTeam “England”]
[BlackTeam “Netherlands”]
[WhiteTeamCountry “ENG”]
[BlackTeamCountry “NED”]

{[%evp 0,58,19,31,25,-16,-12,2,30,29,36,-15,-2,-1,-1,-29,-26,-12,-12,-12,-12,6,
3,-12,-21,-21,18,-86,-58,-78,-78,-147,-58,-50,-49,-49,17,19,29,-36,21,-31,37,
21,23,23,23,0,30,83,56,74,-75,-61,0,-154,-173,-197,0,-224,-209]} 1. d4 Nf6 2.
c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 b6 7. Ne2 Bb7 8. Ng3 c5 9. Bd3
Nc6 10. O-O d6 11. f4 g6 $146 (11… Ba6) 12. Ra2 Qd7 13. f5 exf5 14. Nxf5 gxf5
15. Bxf5 Qe7 16. e4 $11 Ne8 17. Bh6 f6 18. Bxf8 Kxf8 19. g4 $6 (19. Raf2) 19…
Bc8 20. Bxc8 Rxc8 21. g5 Qxe4 22. gxf6 $16 {[#]} cxd4 23. Re2 (23. Rg2) 23…
Qh4 24. Rg2 Rc7 25. Qf3 (25. Rg4) 25… Ne5 $17 26. Qa8 Rf7 27. cxd4 Qxd4+ 28.
Kh1 Ng4 $11 {[#]} 29. h3 $2 (29. Re2) 29… Ngxf6 0-1
[/pgn]

In the following game, played in the Hastings Premier l95l-2, he found an improvement on Botvinnik’s play against Bronstein in game 17 of their 1951 match, when 7.Ng3 was played because it was thought that after 7.Nf4 d5 it was necessary to play 8 Qb3.

[pgn]
[Event “Christmas Congress 1951/52-27 Premier”]
[Site “Hastings”]
[Date “1951.12.28”]
[Round “2”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Donner, Jan Hein”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “E45”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “53”]
[EventDate “1951.12.27”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 1999”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,53,19,31,14,-14,-11,4,33,33,34,38,29,17,28,26,60,44,35,-17,-17,-17,
-17,37,0,-56,52,63,517,499,865,887,887,665,945,447,574,443,433,261,271,244,275,
308,359,373,376,346,347,327,394,387,623,768,1010,945]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3.
Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 b6 5. Nge2 Ba6 6. a3 Be7 7. Nf4 d5 8. cxd5 Bxf1 9. dxe6 Ba6 10.
exf7+ Kxf7 11. Qb3+ (11. e4 c5 12. e5 Qxd4 13. e6+) 11… Ke8 12. Ne6 $15 {[#]}
Qd6 $6 $146 (12… Qd7 13. Nxg7+ Kd8 14. Ne6+ Kc8 15. d5) 13. e4 $16 Bc8 $2 14.
Nb5 $18 Qc6 15. Nbxc7+ Kd7 16. d5 Qb7 {[#]} 17. Nxa8 (17. Qb5+ Nc6 18. Bf4)
17… Bd6 18. Nac7 (18. O-O) 18… Bxc7 19. O-O Ke7 20. Nxc7 Qxc7 21. Bg5 Qe5
22. f4 Qd4+ 23. Kh1 Kf7 24. Rad1 Qxe4 25. Rfe1 Bg4 26. Rxe4 Bxd1 27. Qb4 1-0
[/pgn]

In his profession as architect David worked in the Middle East for some years from the mid-1950s, and when he returned to England he made his mark as a writer. His Practical Chess Endgames

has an enduring appeal. Two of his books appeared in the Wildhagen biographical games series on Steinitz, and Capablanca. The last was written jointly with Gilchrist.

With Euwe he wrote A Guide to Chess Endings;

with Cafferty, A Complete Defence to 1.e4;

A Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames;

A Complete Defence to 1.d4;

and Play for Mate;

with Brandreth The Unknown Capablanca,

and with Ken Whyld, The Oxford Companion to Chess.

Ken Whyld

From The Encyclopaedia of Chess by Harry Golombek :

British amateur (an architect by profession) whose best result was =5 in the British Championship at Felixstowe 1949 along with, amongst others, Broadbent and Fairhurst.

Hooper abandoned playing for writing about chess and has become a specialist in two distinct areas. He is an expert on the endings and has a close knowledge of the history of chess in the nineteenth century.

His principal works : Steinitz (in German), Hamburg, 1968; A Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames, London 1970.

Here is an interesting article from Edward Winter

Here is his brief Wikipedia entry.

 Save as PDF

BCN remembers David Hooper who passed away in a Taunton (Somerset) nursing home on Sunday, May 3rd 1998. Probate (#9851310520) was granted in Brighton on June 24th 1998.

Prior to the nursing home David had been living at 33, Mansfield Road, Taunton, TA1 3NJ and before that at 5, Haimes Lane, Shaftesbury, Dorset, SP7 8AJ.

For most of the time between Reigate and Shaftesbury David lived in Whitchurch, Hampshire.

David Vincent Hooper was born on Tuesday, August 31st 1915 in Reigate, Surrey to Vincent Hooper and Edith Marjorie Winter who married in Reigate, Surrey in 1909. On this day the first French ace, Adolphe Pégoud, was killed in combat. He had scored six victories.

David was one of six children: Roger Garth (1910-?), Edwin Morris (1911-1942), Isobel Mary (12/01/1917-2009), Helene Edith (1916-1982) and Elizabeth Anne Oliver (1923-2000) were his siblings.

Recorded in the September 1939 register David was aged 24 and living at 94, High Street, Reigate, Surrey:

In 2021 this property appears to be a flat (rather than bridge) over the River Kwai Restaurant:

Living with David was his sister Isobel who was listed a “potential nurse”. David’s occupation at this time was listed as Architectural Assistant and he was single. We think that three others lived at this address at the time but they are not listed under the “100 year rule”. We know that David was also a surveyor and went on to attain professional membership of the Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA).

In the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette May 27th 1944 there appeared this report of a simultaneous display on Empire Day (May 24th) at Dr. Marsh’s house:

and from The Western Morning News, 9th April 1947 we have:

and then from The Nottingham Evening Post, 16th August 1949 we have:

In 1950 aged 35 David married Joan M Higley (or Rose!) in the district of South Eastern Surrey.

Ken Whyld wrote an obituary which appeared in British Chess Magazine, Volume 118 (1998), Number 6, page 326 as follows :

DAVID VINCENT HOOPER died on 3rd May this year in a nursing home in Taunton. He had been in declining health for some months. Born in Reigate, 31st August 1915, his early chess years were with the Battersea CC and Surrey.

He won the (ed. Somerset) County Championship three times, and the London Championship in 1948. His generation was at its chess peak in the years when war curtailed opportunities, but he won the British Correspondence Championship in 1944.

[pgn]
[Event “ENG-ch corr”]
[Site “England”]
[Date “1943.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Bonham, Reginald”]
[Black “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “D04”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “80”]
[EventDate “1943.??.??”]
[EventType “tourn (corr)”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “Corr 2000”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2000.04.19”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2000.04.19”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,80,19,31,14,30,28,18,12,2,25,23,23,33,22,16,10,13,11,14,10,8,9,12,15,
-5,-2,-3,1,-3,-9,-12,-8,-15,-16,-121,-138,-107,-84,-125,-79,-114,-135,-140,
-120,-122,-108,-72,-116,-109,-115,-105,-113,-94,-92,-121,-143,-133,-141,-191,
-64,-101,-81,-64,0,-83,-91,-141,-141,-57,-57,-90,-53,-47,-50,-48,-45,-533,-534,
-29989,-534,-544,-544]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. e3 Bf5 4. Bd3 e6 5. Bxf5 exf5 6.
Qd3 Qc8 7. c4 dxc4 8. Qxc4 Bd6 9. b3 Nbd7 10. Bb2 O-O 11. O-O c6 12. Nc3 Nb6
13. Qe2 Nbd5 14. Nxd5 Nxd5 15. Ne5 Re8 16. Qf3 Qe6 17. g4 fxg4 18. Nxg4 f6 19.
h3 a5 20. Rfe1 Nb4 21. Re2 a4 22. e4 axb3 23. axb3 Rxa1+ 24. Bxa1 f5 25. Ne5
fxe4 26. Rxe4 Nd5 27. Rg4 Rf8 28. Qg3 Qh6 29. Bb2 Rf5 30. Qd3 Rh5 31. h4 Nf6
32. Qc4+ Nd5 33. Qa4 Qd2 34. Qa8+ Bf8 35. Qc8 Rh6 36. Nd7 Qd1+ 37. Kh2 Qf3 38.
Ba3 Qxf2+ 39. Kh3 Qf3+ 40. Kh2 Qe2+ 0-1
[/pgn]

His games from that event are to be found in Chess for Rank and File by Roche and Battersby.

Also at that time, he won the 1944 tournament at Blackpool, defeating veteran Grandmaster Jacques Mieses.

[pgn]
[Event “Blackpool Premier”]
[Site “Blackpool”]
[Date “1944.07.20”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Mieses, Jacques”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “A52”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “65”]
[EventDate “1944.07.17”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “5”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2019”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2018.10.10”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2018.10.10”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,65,19,31,14,-14,23,5,17,11,29,14,21,12,19,23,23,13,5,16,36,-19,-19,
-43,6,4,16,8,1,2,22,17,37,31,66,69,43,46,33,43,101,46,142,175,186,210,221,237,
265,210,261,244,277,271,285,183,172,257,254,268,265,267,281,235,615,644,648,
646]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 {Mieses style was characterised by high levels of
optimism.} 3. dxe5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Nc6 5. Nf3 Bb4+ 6. Nc3 ({In 2021 the mainline is
} 6. Nbd2 Qe7 7. e3 Ngxe5 8. Nxe5 Nxe5 9. Be2 O-O 10. O-O Bxd2 11. Qxd2 d6 12.
b4 b6 13. c5 Bb7 14. cxd6 cxd6 15. Rfd1 Rfd8) 6… Qe7 7. Qd5 {Echoes of the
less reputable Englund Gambit} f6 8. exf6 Nxf6 9. Qd3 Ne4 10. e3 d6 11. Nd2 Bf5
12. Ndxe4 Bxe4 13. Qd2 {[#]} O-O $146 (13… g5 14. Bg3 h5 15. h3 Bg6) 14.
O-O-O Qf6 15. f3 Bg6 16. Bg3 {[#]} Qxc3+ $1 {Utilising the Boden’s mate theme.}
17. bxc3 (17. Qxc3 Bxc3 18. bxc3 $16) 17… Ba3+ 18. Qb2 Bxb2+ 19. Kxb2 Rae8
20. e4 $16 Ne5 $6 21. c5 $1 dxc5 22. Rd5 Nf7 23. Bxc7 $18 (23. Rxc5) 23… b6
24. Bc4 h6 25. Rd7 Kh7 26. Rhd1 a5 27. Bd6 Ne5 28. Bxe5 Rxe5 29. Rb7 Rg5 30.
Rd2 Rf6 $2 (30… h5) 31. Rb8 Re5 (31… Bf7) 32. Bg8+ Kh8 33. Rdd8 {and Black
resigned.} 1-0
[/pgn]

David was most active in the decade that followed, playing five times in the British Championship.

[pgn]
[Event “British CF-36 Championship”]
[Site “Felixstowe/ Suffolk”]
[Date “1949.08.15”]
[Round “7.1”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Golombek, Harry”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B13”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “83”]
[EventDate “1949.08.08”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “11”]
[EventCountry “GBR”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2018”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2017.10.13”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2017.10.13”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,83,19,31,68,48,60,46,46,22,31,23,34,34,45,56,35,42,40,35,20,18,18,9,8,
0,-3,0,58,30,44,14,3,-6,9,24,28,27,27,26,27,27,64,52,67,53,62,74,57,49,68,53,
90,67,93,79,76,82,91,76,91,93,102,75,92,84,105,86,112,40,71,72,103,64,86,72,92,
66,133,135,341,350,356,301,293,306]} 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 Nc6
5. c3 Nf6 6. Bf4 g6 (6… Bg4 7. Qb3 Qd7 8. Nd2 e6 9. Ngf3 Bxf3 10. Nxf3 Bd6
11. Bxd6 Qxd6 12. O-O O-O 13. Rae1) 7. Nf3 Bg7 8. h3 O-O 9. O-O Nh5 (9… Bf5
10. Bxf5 gxf5 11. Ne5 e6 12. Nd2 Nxe5 13. Bxe5) 10. Bh2 Bh6 11. Re1 Nf4 12. Bf1
Qd6 $146 13. Nbd2 Qf6 14. Nb3 $16 Rd8 15. Ne5 (15. Bb5) 15… Nxe5 16. Rxe5 Ne6
17. Nc1 Bf4 18. Bxf4 Nxf4 19. Nd3 Nxd3 20. Bxd3 Be6 21. Qe2 Rac8 22. Rf1 Qf4
23. Re1 Rc6 24. g3 Qf6 25. h4 Kh8 26. Qe3 Rg8 27. Bf1 $18 Rd6 28. Bg2 b5 29.
Bf1 Rb6 30. a3 a6 31. Bd3 a5 32. Bf1 Rb7 33. Bg2 Rd7 34. Rg5 $6 (34. h5) 34…
Kg7 35. Re5 Kh8 36. f4 Qg7 37. Kf2 h5 38. Bf3 {[#]} Qh6 $2 39. Qe2 (39. Rxe6 $1
fxe6 40. Qxe6 Rgd8 41. Qb6) 39… Bg4 $2 40. Bxg4 hxg4 41. Rxe7 Rxe7 42. Qxe7 {
Sources: Western Morning News, 26 November 1949; Hooper’s notebook.
Contributor: Kevin Thurlow} 1-0
[/pgn]

His highest place there was at Nottingham 1954, when, after leading in the early stages, he finished half a point behind the joint champions, Leonard Barden and Alan Phillips.

David was in the British Olympic team at Helsinki 1952, and in the same year accidentally played top board for England in one of the then traditional weekend matches against the Netherlands. British Champion Klein took offence at a Sunday Times report of his draw with former World Champion Dr. Euwe on the Saturday and refused to play on Sunday. Thus David was drafted in to meet Euwe, and acquitted himself admirably. Even though he lost, the game took pride of place in that month’s
BCM.

[pgn]
[Event “Match/Nation ENG-NED”]
[Site “London”]
[Date “1952.06.01”]
[Round “2.1”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Euwe, Max”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “E29”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “58”]
[EventDate “1952.05.31”]
[EventType “team-match”]
[EventRounds “2”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 1999”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
[WhiteTeam “England”]
[BlackTeam “Netherlands”]
[WhiteTeamCountry “ENG”]
[BlackTeamCountry “NED”]

{[%evp 0,58,19,31,25,-16,-12,2,30,29,36,-15,-2,-1,-1,-29,-26,-12,-12,-12,-12,6,
3,-12,-21,-21,18,-86,-58,-78,-78,-147,-58,-50,-49,-49,17,19,29,-36,21,-31,37,
21,23,23,23,0,30,83,56,74,-75,-61,0,-154,-173,-197,0,-224,-209]} 1. d4 Nf6 2.
c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 b6 7. Ne2 Bb7 8. Ng3 c5 9. Bd3
Nc6 10. O-O d6 11. f4 g6 $146 (11… Ba6) 12. Ra2 Qd7 13. f5 exf5 14. Nxf5 gxf5
15. Bxf5 Qe7 16. e4 $11 Ne8 17. Bh6 f6 18. Bxf8 Kxf8 19. g4 $6 (19. Raf2) 19…
Bc8 20. Bxc8 Rxc8 21. g5 Qxe4 22. gxf6 $16 {[#]} cxd4 23. Re2 (23. Rg2) 23…
Qh4 24. Rg2 Rc7 25. Qf3 (25. Rg4) 25… Ne5 $17 26. Qa8 Rf7 27. cxd4 Qxd4+ 28.
Kh1 Ng4 $11 {[#]} 29. h3 $2 (29. Re2) 29… Ngxf6 0-1
[/pgn]

In the following game, played in the Hastings Premier l95l-2, he found an improvement on Botvinnik’s play against Bronstein in game 17 of their 1951 match, when 7.Ng3 was played because it was thought that after 7.Nf4 d5 it was necessary to play 8 Qb3.

[pgn]
[Event “Christmas Congress 1951/52-27 Premier”]
[Site “Hastings”]
[Date “1951.12.28”]
[Round “2”]
[White “Hooper, David Vincent”]
[Black “Donner, Jan Hein”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “E45”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “53”]
[EventDate “1951.12.27”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 1999”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,53,19,31,14,-14,-11,4,33,33,34,38,29,17,28,26,60,44,35,-17,-17,-17,
-17,37,0,-56,52,63,517,499,865,887,887,665,945,447,574,443,433,261,271,244,275,
308,359,373,376,346,347,327,394,387,623,768,1010,945]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3.
Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 b6 5. Nge2 Ba6 6. a3 Be7 7. Nf4 d5 8. cxd5 Bxf1 9. dxe6 Ba6 10.
exf7+ Kxf7 11. Qb3+ (11. e4 c5 12. e5 Qxd4 13. e6+) 11… Ke8 12. Ne6 $15 {[#]}
Qd6 $6 $146 (12… Qd7 13. Nxg7+ Kd8 14. Ne6+ Kc8 15. d5) 13. e4 $16 Bc8 $2 14.
Nb5 $18 Qc6 15. Nbxc7+ Kd7 16. d5 Qb7 {[#]} 17. Nxa8 (17. Qb5+ Nc6 18. Bf4)
17… Bd6 18. Nac7 (18. O-O) 18… Bxc7 19. O-O Ke7 20. Nxc7 Qxc7 21. Bg5 Qe5
22. f4 Qd4+ 23. Kh1 Kf7 24. Rad1 Qxe4 25. Rfe1 Bg4 26. Rxe4 Bxd1 27. Qb4 1-0
[/pgn]

In his profession as architect David worked in the Middle East for some years from the mid-1950s, and when he returned to England he made his mark as a writer. His Practical Chess Endgames

has an enduring appeal. Two of his books appeared in the Wildhagen biographical games series on Steinitz, and Capablanca. The last was written jointly with Gilchrist.

With Euwe he wrote A Guide to Chess Endings;

with Cafferty, A Complete Defence to 1.e4;

A Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames;

A Complete Defence to 1.d4;

and Play for Mate;

with Brandreth The Unknown Capablanca,

and with Ken Whyld, The Oxford Companion to Chess.

Ken Whyld

From The Encyclopaedia of Chess by Harry Golombek :

British amateur (an architect by profession) whose best result was =5 in the British Championship at Felixstowe 1949 along with, amongst others, Broadbent and Fairhurst.

Hooper abandoned playing for writing about chess and has become a specialist in two distinct areas. He is an expert on the endings and has a close knowledge of the history of chess in the nineteenth century.

His principal works : Steinitz (in German), Hamburg, 1968; A Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames, London 1970.

Here is an interesting article from Edward Winter

Here is his brief Wikipedia entry.

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