[Manchester Guardian, 29 April 1929, p10 - Court & Personal] A CHESS PLAYER FROM INDIA.
"Mr. Sultan, a chess prodigy, has arrived in England from India. On Saturday night [27 April 1929] he was introduced by Sir John Simon, also a chess enthusiast, at the National Liberal Club, and played four friendly games with Mr. Seigheim [sic], captain of the N.L.C. Chess team and a well-known champion of South Africa. Mr. Sultan won the first game, drew two, and in the fourth Mr. Seigheim resigned. Mr. Sultan has been brought over by Sir Umar Hayat Khan Tiwana, K.C., who is in England to voice the views of the martial races of India."

[Manchester Guardian, 13 August 1929, page 4, under the heading "Games and Players"] The New Chess Champion.
"Hafiz Mian [sic] Sultan Khan, the new British chess champion and first Indian to win the distinction, is the son of Mir Nizamuddin, the religious leader of Mitha Tiwana, in the Shahpur district of the Punjab. He is 24 years of age, and has spent the greater part of his youth in learning the Koran by heart, so effectively that he has earned the title of "Hafiz" accorded to one able to repeat from memory the whole of the Koran. He has nine brothers, all of whom are advanced players of chess.

"Colonel Malik Nawab Sir Umar Hayat Khan Tiwana, who belongs to the same district as Sultan Khan, took a great interest in him because of the remarkable aptitude he showed whenever he played a game with the Nawab. The Nawab therefore organised a special all-India tournament, which Sultan Khan won. The new cnampion does not speak English, and consequently he cannot read any book written on the subject of chess. There are no chess books in the vernacular of his country. Sir Umar therefore engaged an English tutor to teach him the English moves of the game, as the Indian moves differ from the English. During the tournament at Ramsgate Sultan Khan, who contracted malaria In India, developed such a high temperature that it was considered necessary to scratch him, but he refused to submit to the ruling and persisted in continuing to play."

---

Sultan Khan's final one-to-one chess fixture before leaving the UK in December 1933...

	Imperial Chess Club	2½-7½	Cambridge University
1b	Sultan Khan	0-1	James Marston Craddock (Magdalene)
2w	Dr. Vickerman Henzell Rutherford	0-1	Ian Murray Ainslie (St Catharine's)
3b	A Rosengren	1-0	Kenneth Beaumont (St John's)
4w	Miss Ghulam Fatima	1-0	Francis Ernest Appleyard Kitto (King's)
5b	Miss Alice Elizabeth Hooke	0-1	Louis Bernard Zapoleon (Fitzwilliam)
6w	J F Chance	0-1	John Edge (Pembroke)
7b	J G Woods	0-1	Ronald Grubb Stansfield (Clare)
8w	Walter Imboden	½-½	Albert Frederick Devonshire (Trinity Hall)
9b	Harry Blandford Womersley	0-1	D M Belmont (Non-Collegiate)
10w	General Sir George Barrow	0-1	Leonard Arculus (Trinity)
	Date: 25 November 1933	2½-7½	Venue: Imperial CC, Brook St, London

 

---

File Updated

Date Updated	Notes
2015	204 games, plus 32 part-games and stubs, by the legendary Indian/Pakistani player Sultan Khan (c1905-66), who played most of his chess whilst residing in the UK between 1929 and 1933. This is probably the most comprehensive collection of Sultan Khan's games currently online, though there are gaps that still need to be filled.
6 February 2016	Full score of the 1931 Whitaker game (cable match) now available, thanks to Andy Ansel.
26 February 2016	One 1929 simul game v E Irving, thanks to Roger Watson.
25 March 2016	Added the missing game from the 1932 Flohr match in London (game 5), from the Gillam booklet.
27 March 2016	County match v Vera Menchik, played 14 Nov 1931, contributed by Brian Denman.
17 April 2016	British Championship, Rd 11 (26 Aug 1932) vs Fairhurst, complete game added, contributed by Alan McGowan.
10 September 2017	The Aitken simul game is now a complete score, thanks to Geoff Chandler and Dave Archibald who looked it up in Aitken's scorebook, held by Edinburgh Chess Club. Credit also to members of the English Chess Forum who had previously worked hard to interpret an almost entirely illegible score found in an online newspaper and reconstruct the score..
29 September 2017	Added game versus Harold George Felce, 1930 (contributed by Gerard Killoran)
30 September 2017	Added part-game from a simul against James Macrae Aitken (Oxford), played 23 Nov 1933.
27 April 2018	Added Eva-Sultan Khan, British Championship 1929 (Rd 11) - thanks to Gerard Killoran
5 May 2019	Added two stubs from the 1935 match vs Khadilkar. More importantly, I've added a complete score of a game won by CHO'D Alexander in a club match vs Sultan Khan played on 16 January 1932, contributed by Alan Smith, for which many thanks. This game was collected from the Times Literary Supplement but it looks like there is an error in the score in the last three moves given there which Alan and I have not so far been able to resolve. It would be good if another source for this game could be found which might help to resolve this.
25 May 2019	Added another game between CHO'D Alexander and Sultan Khan, played in a match between Cambridge University and Imperial Chess Club on 15 November 1930. Sultan Khan won with Black. Alan Smith found this in the Times Literary Supplement for 27 November 1930 - many thanks, Alan.
6 June 2020	Updated with extra moves/games from Big Base 2020 and Daniel King's book on Sultan Khan (NiC, 2020). (1) The game Gilfer-Sultan Khan, Hamburg Olympiad 1930 has many more moves which have been added (sourced from Big Base 2020); (2) Sultan Khan-Kashdan, Hamburg Olympiad 1930, had previously been blank, now has 65 moves (Big Base 2020); (3) Golmayo-Sultan Khan, Hamburg Olympiad 1930 now has 18 moves of the 49 known to have been played. (thread on the English Chess Forum, 2020); (4) the following games added from "Sultan Khan" by Daniel King: from the 1928 All-India Championship - SK vs Gurubaksh Rai (Rd 1), Ramsukh Kaka vs SK (Rd 2), SK vs Mehendale (Rd 4), SK vs Joshi (Rd 8), SK vs Bodas (Rd 9); other games - NN vs SK, Empire Social Chess Club 1930, Spencer & Abrahams vs SK & Yates, Liverpool consultation game, Feb 1931; SK vs Gould, Hampstead simul, Nov 1931; Michell vs SK, Surrey vs Middlesex, Jan 1932; SK vs Sir G Thomas, Middlesex vs Hampshire, May 1932; SK vs G.Hodgson, Hampstead simul, Oct 1932; (part-game) SK vs Khadilkar, Match, Feb 1934.
2 November 2020	A by-product of the Dr JM Aitken scorebook project is an additional simul game he played against Sultan Khan on 8 March 1932 when the Indian player took his revenge for his earlier loss.
12 January 2022	I have updated the stub of the game Yates-Sultan Khan, Hastings 1930/31 to include the last few moves of the game, found in a Dutch newspaper.
27 November 2022	Two stubs from the 1933 British Championship have been replaced by complete scores, found and contributed by Gerard Killoran: (1) Golombek 0-1 Sultan Khan (rd 1); (2) Tylor ½-½ Sultan Khan (rd 9). Many thanks to Gerard.
17 December 2022	Correction applied to Sultan Khan vs Menchik, rd 6, Hastings 1930/31 (1931.01.03). Black's 17th move was 17...a6, not 17...c6.
11 February 2023	Added two games: (1) Sultan Khan 1-0 V.Menchik, London, a friendly/practice game played in London on 29.05.1929. My thanks to Tony Gillam, who found the game, and Brian Denman, who sent it to me; (2) Sultan Khan 1-0 R.N.Coles, Simul, 18.10.1929 (though I've a sneaking feeling that date may be wrong - see notes to game).
10 September 2023	Added a game won in a simul: Sultan Khan 1-0 R T Bruce, Imperial CC simul, 28.09.1929. Many thanks to Gerard Killoran (EC Forum, 9 September).

 

Tweet