BCN wishes Happy Birthday to Dinah Norman on August 21st
Dinah Margaret Dobson was born on Wednesday, August 21st 1946 in Exeter, Devon. Her parents were Leslie and Barbara Dobson (née Hayward).
She was taught to play Chess by her late father at the age of 9. Started playing seriously when she attended Rickmansworth Grammar School and Watford Chess Club. Her first tournament was the London Girls Championship which she won in 1962. Dinah was coached by Leonard Barden and Bob Wade.
Dinah’s tournament successes were as follows :
1962 London Girls’ Champion
1963 Southern Counties (SCCU) Girls Champion
1963 Southern Counties (SCCU) Ladies’ Champion
1964 Joint British Girls Champion (three way tie with Gillian Moore and Marcia Syme)
Dinah played as 1st reserve for England in the third FIDE Women’s Olympiad in Oberhausen, Germany in 1966 and in 1969 she played board 1 in Lublin, Poland.
1967 and 1969 Joint British Lady Champion shared with Rowena Bruce after a 4 game playoff
1968 British Lady Champion
1970 American Open Ladies Champion
1975 Winner of first ever Female Grand Prix (as Dinah Wright)
1976 Winner of second Female Grand Prix
Dinah became a WCM in 2002.
She was 9th in the World Over 65 Ladies Championship held in Bled in November 2018.
She is current holder of the Gibraltar Cup.
According to chessgames.com : “Dinah Margaret Norman Dobson is a WCM. She was British champion (w) in 1967 (=Rowena Mary Bruce, Oxford), 1968 (Bristol) and 1969 (=Rowena Mary Bruce, Rhyl).”
English Chess Champion Dinah Dobson Playing Against Two German Boys During Lunch-break At Chess Competition In Hastings. Mandatory Credit: Photo by ANL/Shutterstock
She played in the 1968 Anglo-Dutch match on the Ladies board, which, at that time, did not count in the overall match result.
Now (1971) living in Northwood, Middlesex, she married Danny Wright in Westminster and in 1983 she married Ken Norman in Richmond.
Dinah has been a member of Crowthorne Chess Club and has played in the Berkshire League. She has represented 4NCL Iceni and Guildford in other competitions.
According to Megabase 2020 her highest FIDE rating was 2085 in July 1990 at the age of 44. However, it would have been higher than this in the late 1960s and 1970s had ratings been established then.
With the white pieces she has essayed the Colle-Koltanowki Opening for many years and as the second player she has played the Caro-Kann, Smyslov Variation and the Semi-Slav Defence.
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In 1970 she was the “U.S. Open”, not “American Open”, Ladies’ Champion. The distinction is because the U.S. Open and American Open are two separate tournaments.
Her score of 7.5 out of 12 in that tournament put her in the company of strong masters. It was decades before another woman scored so well in the U.S. Open.