On Tuesday August 20, resourceful English chess columnist Leonard Barden turned 95. He writes a weekly column for the UK Guardian newspaper, which started in September 1955 and continued with few breaks for close to 69 years. His most recent column was posted last week. The Guardian is the proud recipient of the Pulitzer Prize.
Additionally, Barden wrote a daily column for the Evening Standard which began in June 1956 and continued until January 31, 2020 amounting to a total of 11,599 columns. This chess column is believed to be the longest ever running daily column by a single journalist in any field of journalism. “Sixty-three years, 7 months and 27 days,” is how long Barden notes he has been writing for the Evening Standard. While the daily column has ended, the weekly column in the Guardian continues.
Barden was born in Croydon, London, on August 20, 1929 and was one of the finest English players of the 1950s and early 1960s. He competed in four Chess Olympiads: 1952, 1954, 1960 and 1962. In 1954 he was split first at the British Championships and he was second four years later in 1958 to grandmaster Jonathan Penrose.
Barden studied modern history at Oxford but made a name for himself primarily as a chess organiser, promoter, author and journalist. He organised tournaments, wrote popular books, commented on chess for the BBC and covered the historic match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in 1972 in Reykjavik for British television.
Barden’s finest period was in the 1970s when his column played a significant role in England’s rise to Number 2 behind the Soviet Union.
In other news, former world champion Magnus Carlsen is scheduled to face Hans Niemann on September 6 in Paris when the semi-finals and final of the Chess.com Speed Championships will be played live.
