David Vincent Hooper, from The Encyclopedia of Chess, Harry Golombek
BCN Remembers David Vincent Hooper (31-viii-1915 03-v-1998)
David Hooper (seated right) in play at the West of England Championships in Bristol, Easter, 1947. His opponent , ARB Thomas , was that year’s champion. Among the spectators is Mrs. Rowena Bruce, the 1946 British Ladies’ Champion. BCM, Volume 118, #6, p.327. The others in the photo are L – R: H. V. Trevenen; H. Wilson-Osborne (WECU President); R. A. (Ron) Slade; Rowena Bruce; Ron Bruce; H. V. (Harry) Mallison; Chris Sullivan; C. Welch (Controller); F. E. A. (Frank) Kitto.
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.
David Hooper (left) in conversation with Alan Phillips. Location and photographer unknown.
He won the 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. His games from that event are to be found in Chess for Rank and File by Roche and Battersby.
Chess for the Rank and File
Also at that time, he won the 1944 tournament at Blackpool, defeating veteran Grandmaster Jacques Mieses.
David was most active in the decade that followed, playing five times in the British Championship. His highest place there was at Nottingham 1954, when, after leading in the early stages, he finished half a point behind the joint champions. 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.
Alan Phillips plays David Hooper on August 20th 1954 in round five of the British Championships in Nottingham, photographer unknown
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.
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 Caffefty, A Complete Defence to 1.e4, A Complete Defence to 1.d4, and Play for Mate; with Brandreth The Unknown Capablanca, and with me The Oxford Companion to Chess. Ken Whyld
From The Encyclopedia 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.
William Steinitz : Selected Chess GamesA Guide to Chess Endings, Dover (1976 reprint), ISBN 0-486-23332-4Practical Chess Endgames (Chess Handbooks), Law Book Co of Australasia, ISBN 0-7100-5226-XA Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames, Bell & Hyman, ISBN 0-7135-1761-1The Unknown Capablanca, B.T. Batsford, ISBN 978-0-486-27614-4A Complete Defence to 1P-K4: A Study of Petroff’s Defence (2nd ed.), Pergammon Press, ISBN 0-08-024088-7A Complete Defence to 1d4: A Study of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, Pergammon Press, ISBN 0-08-024102-6Play for Mate (1990), DV Hooper and Bernard Cafferty, ISBN-13: 978-0713464740The Oxford Companion to Chess (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-280049-3
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3 thoughts on “Remembering David Vincent Hooper (31-viii-1915 03-v-1998)”