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Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander

Full name	Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander
Country	England
Born	April 19, 1909(1909-04-19) Cork, Ireland
Died	February 15, 1974
Title	International Master(1950)

Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander, CMG, CBE (19 April 1909 – 15 February 1974) was a British cryptanalyst, chess player, and chess writer. He worked on the German Enigma machine at Bletchley Park during World War II, and was later the head of the cryptanalysis division at GCHQ for over 20 years. In chess, he was twice British chess champion and earned the title of International Master. He was usually referred to as C. H. O'D. Alexander in print and Hugh in person.

Hugh Alexander was born on 19 April 1909 in Cork, Ireland, the eldest child of Conel William Long Alexander, an engineering professor at University College, Cork, and Hilda Barbara Bennett.^[1] His father died in 1920, and the family moved to Birmingham in England where he attended King Edward's School.^[1] He won a scholarship to study mathematics at King's College, Cambridge in 1928, graduating with a first in 1931.^[1]

From 1932, he taught mathematics in Winchester, and married Enid Constance Crichton on 22 December 1934.^[1] In 1938 he left teaching and became head of research at the John Lewis Partnership.^[1]

In February 1940 Alexander arrived at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking centre during World War II. He joined Hut 6, the section tasked with breaking German Army and Air Force Enigma messages. In 1941, he transferred to Hut 8, the corresponding hut working on Naval Enigma. He became deputy head of Hut 8 under Alan Turing. Alexander was more involved with the day-to-day operations of the hut than Turing, and, while Turing was visiting the United States, Alexander formally became the head of Hut 8 around November 1942.

In October 1944, Alexander was transferred to work on the Japanese JN-25 code.

In mid-1946, Alexander joined GCHQ, which was the post-war successor organisation to the Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS) at Bletchley Park. By 1949, he had been promoted to the head of "Section H" (cryptanalysis), a post he retained until his retirement in 1971.

• Represented Cambridge University in the Varsity chess matches of 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1932 (was at King's College, Cambridge).
• Won the British Chess Championship in 1938 and 1956.
• Represented England in the Chess Olympiad six times: 1933, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1954, 1958.
• Non-playing captain of England 1964-70
• Awarded the International Master title (1950).
• Awarded the International Master for Correspondence Chess title (1970).
• Best tournament result: first equal (with David Bronstein), Hastings Premier 1953/54, defeating Soviet grandmasters David Bronstein and Alexander Tolush in individual games.
• Chess columnist, The Sunday Times, 1960s & 1970s.
• So great was the fear that the Russians might try to kidnap him that his chess appearances overseas were limited (e.g. he did not participate in the 1956 Chess Olympiad in Moscow)^{[citation needed]}.

• C. H. O'D. Alexander (1972). Fischer v. Spassky. Vintage. ISBN 0-394-71830-5.
• C. H. O'D. Alexander (1972). Fischer v. Spassky - Reykjavik 1972. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-140-03573-7.
• C. H. O'D. Alexander (1973). The Penguin Book of Chess Positions. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-140-46199-2.
• C. H. O'D. Alexander, Derek Birdsall (Editor) (1973). A Book of Chess. Hutchinson. ISBN 978-0-091-17480-4.
• C. H. O'D. Alexander (1974). Alexander on Chess. Pittman. ISBN 978-0-273-00315-1.

• Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander at ChessGames.com

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Harry Golombek, revised by Ralph Erskine, "Alexander, (Conel) Hugh O'Donel (1909-1974), chess player and cryptanalyst" in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004

• Harry Golombek and William Hartston, The Best Games of C. H. O'D. Alexander (1976).
• Sir Stuart Milner-Barry, "A Tribute to Hugh Alexander", in Harry Golombek and William Hartston, The Best Games of C H O'D Alexander (1976), pp. 1–9 [1](PDF).
• O'Connor, John J; Edmund F. Robertson "Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.  
• British Chess Magazine, April 1974, p117 & June 1974, p202 (obituary and tribute)
• Ken Whyld, Chess: The Records (Guinness Books, 1986)
• Obituary in The Times