The Inscrutable R.N. Coles

    Richard Nevil Coles (1907-1982) was a British amateur player, an outstanding chess historian and author. And yet I could locate no photographs of him and only a few of his games. Also, I could not locate much on his personal life. Coles died on April 2, 1982, at the age of 74 in what was only reported as being the result of a “domestic accident.” 

    He was born in Kingston-on-Thames, a town in southwest London. He was educated at Trinity College Cambridge, where he obtained a B.A. in Classics. After graduating he was employed by Sun Life of Canada as an actuary, and played for the company’s chess club. 

    In 1940, he enlisted in Army and was later commissioned. He served until the end of the war and then returned to the insurance company. In 1944, he started a column in the British Chess Magazine titled One Hundred Years Ago which ran for thirty-seven years. During that period he also authored a number of outstamding chess books.