Norman Alasdair Macleod

Norman Alasdair Macleod (* 6 December 1927 in Glasgow; † 2 October 1991 in Ross-on-Wye) was a famous Scottish chess composer.

 In the 1980s, he was one of the most versatile and renowned problem chess composers in the world. In addition to his chess problems, Norman was also widely known as an amiable person, regularly attending international meetings such as those of the PCCC and Andernach. Volume 7 of the Editions feenschach-phenix is dedicated to his work. 

Chess

In 1983, Norman Macleod claimed to have learnt chess from the Children's Encyclopaedia at the age of twelve. When he taught his brother Iain to play chess, Macleod was already inventing new rules. In high school, Macleod won every tournament. In his senior year in 1944, Macleod was the school's chess club president.

Macleod regularly visited the Glasgow Chess Club, which was close to the school. There he played with D. M. MacIsaac, the chess columnist of the Glasgow Herald, and William Fairhurst. Here Macleod also met Comins Mansfield, who was also a member of the club. Macleod went on to become club champion several times and twice came second in the Scottish Championship. Playing on the third board behind Fairhurst and James Macrae Aitken, Macleod took part in the 1958 Chess Olympiad in Munich, where he scored 7 out of 16. During a trip to the United States in 1964, Macleod won the Maryland Championship. Nevertheless, chess games remained merely a pastime for Macleod, who favoured composition.

During a trip to Paris, Macleod met Nicolas Rossolimo (French-US-American chess player).

In 1980, Macleod was appointed International Arbiter for two-move, three-move and multiple-move chess by FIDE. This was followed in 1984 by the title of International Master of Chess Composition. With the FIDE album published in 1992, Macleod, now deceased, met the criteria for the title of Grand Master of Chess Composition. This was awarded to him posthumously on 3 September 1993 and PCCC President Klaus Wenda personally took care of the actual awarding of the title.

From 1979 to 1981 Macleod was President of the Committee of the British Chess Problem Society (BCPS).

From the early 1980s, Macleod used the Forsyth notation to manage chess problems sent to him as a clerk in a computer database. He developed a chess solving programme, which he later compiled into two versions for the Sinclair QL. However, due to the complexity of the problem and technical limitations, the software was unsuitable for longer problems. Macleod was also the first programme developer to compose chess problems. His programme used the trial and error method to generate all the positions of the given material and then determined move sequences that led to mate or stalemate. Hardware limitations and complexity allowed Macleod to only work on positions with three pieces. The programme was a forerunner of modern endgame database generators.

In the late 1980s, Macleod was a member of the BCPS committee that founded the journal The Problemist. C. G. Rains, a former member, helped to realise this idea. With the support of Paul Valois, Brian Stephenson later took over the journal to the present day.

The last months of his life

In the last months of his life, Norman Macleod was no longer able to move well due to illness. Nevertheless, he continued to work in chess composition for The Problemist magazine until the end. At the meeting of the Permanent Commission for Chess Composition (PCCC) in Benidorm in the summer of 1990, Macleod led the British team of solvers. At the BCPS meeting in March 1991, Macleod was already seriously ill, but again took part in all events. He played the solving tournament from his bed.

In total, Norman Macleod has created more than 1000 chess compositions. 

Selection of his endgame studies: On the Dutch Website arves.org are 6 engame studies selected and can be replayed.

Professional and private life

Norman Macleod was the son of Murdoch and Mary Macleod. He had a brother named Iain, three years his junior, who supported him in his activities until the end.

Macleod attended the High School of Glasgow, where his phenomenal memory meant that he had no difficulty with the subject matter. In the fifth grade (roughly equivalent to the German 12th grade), Macleod passed seven of the highest final exams. During his time at school, he achieved a high level of competence in many occupations. However, in addition to a phenomenal memory, Macleod later also stood out for his absent-mindedness.

Norman Macleod was friends with conjurer and business owner Tam Shepherd and joined The Magic Circle before he even left school. Magic held Macleod's interest until his death, alongside his other interests and pastimes at the time.

After school, Macleod studied science at Glasgow University, where he almost failed due to a lack of motivation. Macleod then joined the Army Education Corps of National Service and rose to the rank of sergeant. Macleod worked briefly in the Ministry of National Insurance at his father's suggestion. Eventually, Macleod found a job at the Foreign Office, arranged by C.H.O.D. Alexander, who at the time was a veteran of GCHQ's cryptographic military espionage branch at Bletchley. Macleod was eventually positioned for GCHQ[3] in Cheltenham. Little is known about Macleod's activities in the secret service, but evidence points to research in the field of computer technology, research and development. Macleod left the secret service in 1983. He later developed training software in C for a commercial organisation.

Daphne Maines worked at the British Embassy in Washington in 1954. Norman Macleod met her there when he was arrested by the police for drunkenness. The two got together and married, which led to Macleod moving to Timperley, near Daphne's family. The couple had a daughter named Fiona in 1957 and another daughter named Heather in 1961. Fiona is now married to David Ion and they have three daughters. Heather and John Parrott have one daughter and two sons.

Macleod was operated on in November 1990 after being diagnosed with cancer. He was visited in hospital by many chess friends. However, the cancer returned and affected other parts of his body. When Macleod could no longer move, radiotherapy was carried out at Cheltenham Hospital. He was then transferred to Dilke Memorial Hospital in the Forest of Dean. After three weeks, Macleod was discharged and subsequently had to be moved between bed and wheelchair by hoist. Nevertheless, Macleod tried to make the most of his life.

Norman Macleod died on 2 October 1991 in the presence of his entire family.

Other interests

Macleod's other interests included birdwatching, colour photography - Macleod developed the pictures at home - bookbinding, beer making, wine making, fishing, bridge, music, the Bible and theology - Daphne's brother Noel suspected that Macleod was particularly interested in ceremonies - cookery and predictable gambling (such as horse racing).

Macleod knew about the lives and works of many musicians, attended many concerts with his wife and joined the Bach Choir of Cheltenham with her. He had a large collection of recordings and acquired specialised knowledge of many pieces of music. For example, Macleod had six versions of The Magic Flute, which he compared and analysed. In the last months of Macleod's life, his brother and he spent a lot of money won in horse betting on expanding the CD collection.

In the early 1970s, Macleod became a member of Cheltenham Masonic Lodge and was promoted to Worshipful Master.

Source: wikipedia.de