Tony Miles

Anthony John Miles (April 23, 1955 – November 12, 2001) was an English chess player.

Career Highlights

In 1976, Miles became the first ever Grandmaster born in the United Kingdom, narrowly beating Raymond Keene to the accolade. (William Hartston came close to beating them both to it in the early 1970s, and naturalised German Jacques Mieses was awarded the GM title in 1950; the correspondence player, Keith Richardson, was also awarded the GM title earlier in the 1970s.) In so doing, he won a £5,000 prize.

Related Topics:
Grandmaster - United Kingdom - Raymond Keene - William Hartston - Jacques Mieses

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Miles had a string of good results in the late 1970s and 1980s, and his success is considered to be one of the most important factors in the explosion in the number of strong British players around that time—shortly after Miles became a GM, Keene, John Nunn, Jon Speelman and a number of others followed him. Miles won games against a number of former World Chess Champions, including Vassily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal and Boris Spassky.

Related Topics:
John Nunn - Jon Speelman - World Chess Champion - Vassily Smyslov - Mikhail Tal - Boris Spassky

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Most famously, in 1980 at the European Team Championship in Skara, he beat reigning world champion Anatoly Karpov with black using the extremely unusual opening 1. e4 a6!? (see algebraic notation), the St. George Defence. (It is often said that Miles learnt this line from weird-openings enthusiast Michael Basman, though in his book Play the St. George, Basman asserts there is no truth to this). Miles beat Karpov again three years later in Bath in a game that was part of the BBC's Mastergame series, but it was never shown on television due to a technicians strike.

Related Topics:
Skara - Anatoly Karpov - Opening - Algebraic notation - St. George Defence - Michael Basman - Bath - BBC

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Miles won the British Championship just once, in 1982 when the event was held in Torquay. One of his best results was his win at the Tilburg tournament in 1984. The following year, he tied for first there with Robert Hübner and Viktor Korchnoi, playing several of his games while lying face-down on a table, having injured his back.

Related Topics:
British Championship - Torquay - Tilburg - Robert Hübner - Viktor Korchnoi

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Against Garry Kasparov, on the other hand, Miles had little success, not winning a game against him, and losing a 1986 match in Basel against him by the overwhelming score of 5.5–0.5. Following this encounter, Miles described Kasparov as a "monster with a thousand eyes who sees all" (some sources alternatively quote Miles as having the opinion that Kasparov had 22 or 27 eyes).

Related Topics:
Garry Kasparov - Basel

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Miles was in many ways a controversial figure. Once, in the last round of a tournament (Luton, UK, 1975), with Miles needing a draw for first place, and his opponent, Stewart Reuben wanting a draw for a high placing, he agreed a draw without playing any moves. The arbiter decided to give both players no points for this non-game; the protagonists claimed this "game" had been played often, when players pre-arranged a draw - this was the only time it had been scored correctly, rather than playing out some anodyne non-moves. This sparked a hefty amount of correspondence in British chess journals.

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Miles also had his disagreements with chess authorities and with his fellow English players, particularly Keene. Miles made accusations regarding payments that Keene had received from the British Chess Federation for acting as his second (assistant) in the 1985 Interzonal tournament in Turin. Miles became rather obsessed with the affair, eventually suffering a mental breakdown over it. He was arrested in September 1987 in Downing Street, apparently under the belief that he had to speak to then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher about the matter. He was subsequently hospitalised for two months.

Related Topics:
British Chess Federation - Interzonal - Turin - Mental breakdown - Downing Street - Prime Minister - Margaret Thatcher

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After this, Miles refused to complete in the British Championship or to play on the English team in the World Chess Olympiad. He claimed that he had moved to the United States, although he never had more than a PO box there. He demanded the right to play in the U.S. Chess Championship. There was a lot of opposition to this but finally he was allowed to play due to the intervention of James Sherwin, President of the American Chess Foundation, which had financed the event. Miles finished last in the 1988 U.S. Championship, but he tied for fifth in the 1989 U.S. Championship and finished ahead of Joel Benjamin on tie-breaking points. As a result, Miles rather than Benjamin got to represent the U.S. in the Interzonal Tournament, and therefore a promising young player was deprived of the opportunity to compete for the world title. This caused great controversy within the USCF and led to changes in the rules so as to keep foreigners out of the USCF championship. This has led to many cases where legitimate immigrants have been required to wait unreasonably long periods of time before being allowed to play. One case of this is Rusudan Goletiani who was required to sit out the World Championship Cycle for four years because of this.

Related Topics:
Chess Olympiad - United States - U.S. Chess Championship - James Sherwin - American Chess Foundation - Joel Benjamin - Interzonal - Rusudan Goletiani

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Shifting nationalities again, in 1991 Miles played in the Championship of Australia, but he eventually moved back to England, and began to represent his home country again.

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Miles tied for first in the 1999 Continental Open in Los Angeles with Alexander Beliavsky, Lubomir Ftacnik, and Suat Atalik. Another good result later in his career was at the knock-out PCA Intel Rapid Chess Grand Prix in London in 1995, where he knocked out Vladimir Kramnik in the first round and Loek van Wely in the second. (He was eventually knocked out in the semi-final by another English player, Michael Adams.) He also won the Capablanca Memorial in Cuba three times (1995, 1996, and 1999).

Related Topics:
Los Angeles - Alexander Beliavsky - Lubomir Ftacnik - Suat Atalik - London - Vladimir Kramnik - Loek van Wely - Michael Adams - Capablanca - Cuba

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Miles played in the 2001 British Championship, but withdrew before the final round, apparently because of ill-health. His final two games before his death were short draws in the Four Nations Chess League.

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Miles suffered from diabetes, and a post mortem found that this contributed to his death by heart failure in 2001. His body was found at his home in Harborne, Birmingham after a friend called on him to take him to a bridge club. There was a minute's silence before the seventh round of the European Team Championships in León in Spain in his memory.

Related Topics:
Diabetes - Heart failure - Harborne - Birmingham - Bridge - León

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