How members of England’s 1939 Chess Olympiad team became wartime codebreakers

 As World War II erupted in 1939, England’s chess team withdrew from the Buenos Aires Olympiad. In Grandmaster Aarav Dengla’s fourth column for TOI, he explores how three players, Hugh Alexander, Stuart Milner-Barry, and Harry Golombek, returned home to join Bletchley Park. Harnessing chessboard skills like pattern recognition and strategic elimination, they played pivotal roles in cracking Germany’s Enigma code, helping secure Allied victory while keeping their wartime contributions secret for decades. As World War II erupted in 1939, England’s chess team withdrew from the Buenos Aires Olympiad. In Grandmaster Aarav Dengla’s fourth column for TOI, he explores how three players, Hugh Alexander, Stuart Milner-Barry, and Harry Golombek, returned home to join Bletchley Park. Harnessing chessboard skills like pattern recognition and strategic elimination, they played pivotal roles in cracking Germany’s Enigma code, helping secure Allied victory while keeping their wartime contributions secret for decades.