© Thomas family collection

This is the earliest known photograph of George Thomas (later Sir George). It was taken in Southsea in September 1895 when George was 14 years old. A few weeks earlier he had been a spectator at the great Hastings tournament where he met the leading lights of nineteenth-century chess and played skittles with Pillsbury.

The studio portrait shows George holding a tennis racket side-on in his right hand and what appears to be a cap in his left.

The following game appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette of 11 January 1897: “Mr G.A. Thomas secured his second victory for the St. George’s Chess Club, this promising young player winning in good style against the Athenaeum representative Mr A.R. Ropes.”

We think that this is his first published over-the-board game and welcome earlier examples.

This material is part of a forthcoming biographical games collection that will also cover Thomas’s career in badminton and tennis. If you have any information about Thomas that you would like to contribute, please contact Kingpin.

For more information about Thomas’s family and sporting career see Edward Winter’s wide-ranging collection of notes.

GM Matthew Sadler provides an excellent overview of Thomas’s chess career and games.