Playing Strength
In 1950, FIDE, in its first award of international titles, awarded Atkins the International Master title in recognition of his past achievements. By Arpad Elo's calculation, Atkins' strength during his five-year peak was equivalent to an Elo rating of 2540.
World Champion Emanuel Lasker believed that if Atkins had devoted more time to chess, he would have become one of the world's leading players. Sir George Thomas, one of Britain's leading players in the first half of the 20th century, observed, "H. E. Atkins ranks, indisputably, as the greatest figure in English chess since Amos Burn, and only lack of opportunity prevented him, in my opinion, from definitely establishing his position in the world championship class." Anne Sunnucks writes that, "His devotion to teaching and his insistence on treating chess as merely a game was all that prevented him from becoming one of the leading players of the world."
Read more about this topic: Henry Ernest Atkins
Famous quotes containing the words playing and/or strength:
“All those who dwell in the depths find their happiness in being like flying fish for once and playing on the uppermost crests of the waves. What they value most in things is that they have a surface, their “epidermality”Msit venia verbo.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short in all management of human affairs.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)