Was an English chessplayer capable of murder?
: Created:09 Feb 2008 , byIn 1931 William Herbert Wallace's prospects of being found innocent were adversely affected by the jury's knowledge that he played chess.
Edward Winter's Chess Notes can be accused of pedantry but in their endless striving for historical accuracy, they are to be congratulated for their unique chess perspective. Many politicians would not survive under their grinding scrutiny.
Recently they looked at the case of W.H. Wallace who was tried for the murder of his wife. At the trial much was made of the alleged cold and calculating nature of the accused based upon the surmise that chessplayers were ultra-intelligent and capable of deviousness of which Conan Doyle's Professor Moriarty could only dream.
Wallace was a member of Central Chess Club, Liverpool and on 19th January 1931 he went to the club to play an "important" second class championship match. Wallace was an insurance agent and on arrival at the club, a message from a person called "Qualtrough" invited Wallace to visit him for insurance business. While Wallace hunted for the false address given by the phone caller, his wife was bludgeoned to death on her parlour floor.
The prosecution were transfixed by the image of an imaginative super-killer whose chess skills enabled him outwit the police with ease but I invite you, the Ealing club members to acquit him. Could such a pariah be within your ranks? Not in my view because it's tough enough as players is to place thirty-two pieces on sixty-four squares and after that we are too exhausted to murder anyone for real.
So Mr Wallace, my verdict is that you are innocent. At least eight books have been penned on the crime but I, on behalf of your fellow chess enthusiasts in Ealing, give you the benefit of the doubt because we know that when there is mean move to be considered, murder of the missus' is not on your mind.