{{Short description|British chess player}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}} {{Use British English|date=May 2018}} {{Infobox chess player | image = File:Brian_Eley.jpg | caption = Eley (r) competing against Ludek Pachman, London, 1972<ref>Edward Winter's Chess Notes [http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter94.html#7663._London_1972_C.N.s_6081 item 7663]</ref> | country = | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1946|07|06}} | birth_place = Don Valley, England | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2022|04|06|1946|07|06}} | death_place = Noord-Holland, Netherlands | title = | worldchampion = | rating = | peakrating = 2350 (1974) | ranking = | peakranking = | FideID = }} '''Brian Ratcliffe Eley'''<ref name=cg>Edward Winter's Chess Notes [http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter126.html#CN_9034 item 9034], citing Brian Eley interview conducted for {{cite book |last=Gaige |first=Jeremy |author-link=Jeremy Gaige |title=Chess Personalia |publisher=McFarland. |date=2005|orig-date=1987 |isbn=978-0786423538}}</ref> (6 July 1946 – 6 April 2022) was a British Chess Champion. He was wanted by the British police on suspicion of sexual offences against underage boys, and was a fugitive from 1991 until his death.<ref name=st>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Fugitive chessman stays one move ahead of police |work=The Sunday Telegraph |date=24 November 1996 }}</ref>
==Chess== Brian Eley belonged to the wave of talented chess masters who came to the fore in Britain in the 1970s, after the dominance of Jonathan Penrose ended—a group that included Raymond Keene, William Hartston, George Botterill, Robert Bellin and others.<ref>[http://www.impalapublications.com/blog/index.php?/archives/4466-Keene-versus-Bilek,-Teesside,-1972-Part-2,-by-James-OFee.html "Keene versus Bilek, Teesside, 1972"] by James O'Fee, 6 April 2010</ref>
He took part in domestic chess tournaments, was a chess coach and gave simultaneous exhibitions.<ref>[http://www.jaxchess.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=55 History] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008114746/http://www.jaxchess.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=55 |date=8 October 2011}} of the Jacksonville Chess Club, 18 October 2010</ref> For a period around 1971, he wrote an infrequent chess column in the weekly ''Morning Telegraph'' of Sheffield.<ref>E.g.: Monday 5 July 1971; Monday 15 November 1971</ref> He ran his own chess retail business, supplying books, chess sets, scorebooks and similar items.
In a major upset,<ref>{{cite book |last=Harding |first=Tim |author-link=Tim Harding (chess player) |title=Why You Lose at Chess |publisher=Courier Corporation |date=2012 |page=65 |chapter=Chapter 2: The History of the Bloggs Family |isbn=978-0-48-614950-9}}</ref> Eley won the 1972 British Chess Championship, held in Brighton. Eley's peak FIDE rating of 2350<ref>[http://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/player/Eley,%20Brian.html Brian Eley rating history] at OlimpBase</ref> in 1974 would qualify him for the title of FIDE Master (FM); however, the FM title had not yet been introduced and he never applied for the title.
==Arrest and disappearance== In 1979, James Plaskett, who went on to become a grandmaster and British champion, reported to David Anderton, the then president of the British Chess Federation (BCF), incidents of "misconduct" by Eley. The following year, Eley was dismissed from the position of England Team Manager after an unrelated incident. As a BCF-registered coach, Eley continued to teach juniors into the late 1980s.<ref>{{cite journal |date=1997 |title=Skewer |journal=Kingpin |issue=27 |page=33 }}</ref>
In July 1991, Eley was arrested at his South Yorkshire home on suspicion of sexually abusing an underage male he had once coached. He was released on bail. Although not charged at the time, Eley jumped bail approximately one month after his arrest, and disappeared. He was subsequently charged with more than 30 offences of a similar nature and remained a fugitive, wanted by the British police and Interpol.<ref name="st"/>
Former British Chess Champion GM John Nunn relates in his autobiography that "Brian Eley achieved notoriety by absconding while on police bail relating to an investigation into paedophile activities."<ref name=nunn>{{cite book |last=Nunn |first=John |author-link=John Nunn |title=Secrets Of Grandmaster Chess |publisher=Batsford |date=1997 |isbn=978-0-7134-8089-4}}</ref> Nunn remarked that Eley "became the only British Chess Champion...to appear on the television programme ''Crimewatch''."<ref name=nunn />
==Life as a wanted person== There were over the years numerous unconfirmed reports of sightings of Eley in various places, mostly in Amsterdam.<ref name=st /> According to reportage by Plaskett's wife, Fiona Pitt-Kethley, which was published some months after his death, Eley had a "miserable time" as a fugitive from British justice. After running out of the money he received from selling his house in the UK, he earned a living playing chess for small bets in cafés and doing computer work for a religious organization's ''ashram''. In 1992, he was identified in Amsterdam by Grandmaster Stuart Conquest and a Dutch chess player, who notified the Dutch police, but Eley, for unknown reasons, was not apprehended. He had reportedly established a small circle of friends in the city to whom he claimed everything was about a "disagreement with the BCF."<ref name=death/>
==Death== Eley died in April 2022 from a respiratory infection at the age of 75, while still residing in Amsterdam.<ref name=death>{{cite news |last= Pitt-Kethley|first=Fiona|author-link=Fiona Pitt-Kethley |date=28 November 2022 |title=Brian Eley: the Jimmy Savile of chess |url=https://www.thearticle.com/brian-eley-the-jimmy-savile-of-chess |work=The Article |access-date=6 April 2023|ref=none}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{Fide}} *[http://www.interpol.int/ Interpol] official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eley, Brian}} Category:1946 births Category:2022 deaths Category:English chess players Category:Fugitives wanted by the United Kingdom Category:Fugitives wanted on sex crime charges Category:People from South Yorkshire