Was Rachel Reeves really an under-14 chess champion?
Chancellor's achievement at game is questioned by professor
Rachel Reeves loves chess. The chancellor was pictured writing her Autumn Budget speech next to a board and has led efforts to get schools more involved with the game.
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Chess has been a constant in the life of the 46-year-old as she transitioned from a Labour campaigner at university to a role in the Bank of England, becoming Leeds West MP in 2010.
“Strategic thinking is essential in both politics and chess,” Ms Reeves said in 2022, while campaigning for Labour towards the 2024 general election.
“So I definitely feel like continuing to play chess when I can help keep me nimble in the Labour campaign to be our next government. Always thinking two moves ahead.”
Not only does she champion chess, calling on the old government for a set in her constituency’s park, she is also a chess champion.
“I am — I was — a geek. I played chess. I was the British girls’ under-14 champion,” she told The Guardian in July 2023, when she challenged then prime minister Rishi Sunak to a game.
But was she really the British girls’ under-14 champion?
The claim, which has appeared in her social media profiles since 2011, has been queried this week after a contemporary said that the champion in 1993, the year in question, was another girl called Emily Howard.
“In reality, she was joint 26th out of 34,” Professor Alex Edmans, who competed a year below Ms Reeves told The Times on Wednesday.
That year, Ms Reeves won a separate, girls-only tournament, the British Women's Chess Association (BWCA) Girls Championship.
“She did share the title of a quite different championship, the British Women's Chess Association Championship,” Professor Edmans told LBC.
“I could run a marathon in London… but I did not run the London Marathon.”
In The Times, he added: “It is clearly defined as the girl who does best in the (mixed gender) British Championship.
“She may well have won titles, but the title of British girls' champion is a specific event.”
However, Malcolm Pein, International Master, Executive Editor Chess Magazine, has said that Ms Reeves is right to claim the title. The competition she did win was open to only girls, whereas the one Professor Edmans refers to was for both boys and girls - the winning female being the highest ranked in the mixed fare.
He said: "The BWCA competition was in my view the only credible girls championship, as it was for girls only, as opposed to being subsumed into the Open British U14 Championships where 90% or so of the players were boys, as was the rather discriminatory practice of the British Chess Federation 30 years ago."
Ms Reeves has not commented, but Wes Streeting has gone into bat for his party colleague, telling the Nick Ferrari Breakfast Show on LBC that ruthlessness is the mark of a chancellor.
The health secretary said: “As a friend of Rachel’s, I am glad she has been caught out on this chess thing… If you look at her Instagram, let me tell you, she only plays against kids, and she’s ruthless as well.
“She doesn’t go in and think, oh there’s this little eight-year-old - I'll let them win, she is ruthless and that is the tough discipline you need from a chancellor. That is the sort of person you need to sort out public finances.”