The Irish and British citizen Conel Hugh O’Donel Alexander was born in Cork, on 19th April, in 1909. His highest world ranking is 24th (December 1932.) Highest Elo-rating is 2610. He did not make it to the world’s top 10 chess players.

Alexander participated six times in chess Olympiads. He was awarded individual bronze at his first Olympiad in 1933 Folkestone.

Fun facts:

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 the movie “Imitation Game” (2014), which was about the code breakers of Enigma, his character was played by Matthew Goode.

Many chess experts claim that he would have been a Grandmaster if he had developed his skills more.

He died on 15th February in 1974, in Cheltenham. He was 64 years old.