A Tribute To The Legendary First British Grandmaster\Tony Miles

Anthony John Miles (born 23 April 1955 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England; died 12 November 2001 in Harborne, Birmingham) was an English chess Grandmaster.Miles was born in Edgbaston, a suburb of Birmingham. He learned the game of chess early in life and made good progress nationally, taking the titles of British under-14 Champion and under-21 Champion in 1968 and 1971, respectively.

In 1973, Miles won the silver medal at the World Junior Chess Championship at Teesside, his first important event against international competition. Both he and compatriot Michael Stean defeated the tournament winner Alexander Beliavsky, but were unable to match the Soviet player's ruthlessness in dispatching lesser opponents. Miles went on to win this prestigious title the following year in Manila, while an undergraduate of the University of Sheffield.
Taking the decision to pursue the game professionally, Miles did not complete his studies, but in 1975, was awarded an MA by the University for his chess achievements.In 1976, Miles became the first UK-born, 'over-the-board' chess Grandmaster, narrowly beating Raymond Keene to the accolade.Miles had meanwhile matured into a world class player and he won games against high calibre opponents, such as former World Chess Champions Vasily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, and Boris Spassky.

In 1980 at the European Team Championship in Skara, he beat reigning World Champion Anatoly Karpov with black, using the extremely unorthodox opening 1. e4 a6!?, the St. George Defence. (It is often said that Miles learned this line from offbeat openings enthusiast Michael Basman, though in his book Play the St. George, Basman asserts there is no truth to this.) Miles beat Karpov again three years later in Bath in a game that was part of the BBC's Mastergame series, but it was only shown by the (co-producing) German television network, due to a BBC technicians' strike at the time of broadcast..(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Miles)

Source of the photo : http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/miles3.jpg
Source of the video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU_0sbG_Jbc by Sirb0b1