Death of a teenage chess prodigy ... antid's found in her room

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Death of a teenage chess prodigy

By Ben Hoyle and Grainger Laffan

Jessie Gilbert, 19, fell from her eighth-floor hotel window at Czech

championships

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2289160_1,00.html

Jessie Gilbert was due to study at Oxford this year (MARK HUBA)

A BRILLIANT teenage chess player who was competing in the Czech

Republic has fallen eight floors to her death from a hotel room

window.

Jessie Gilbert, 19, was an occasional sleepwalker but police believe

that she was also suffering from depression. Although she left no

note, medication for depression was found in her room.

Family friends last night described her as a kind high-achiever who

had had a very bright future.

Many chess experts believed that she had the potential to be one of

the best female players in the world.

Miss Gilbert, who lived with her parents in Woldingham, Surrey, was

coming to the end of a gap year devoted to playing and studying

chess and was due to start a medical degree at Oxford University in

October.

She was competing in the Czech Open in Pardubice, the biggest chess

tournament in Europe, and closing in on the ranking points that

would have enabled her to realise a long-cherished ambition:

becoming a Women's International Master.

Miss Gilbert's body was found outside the Hotel Labe by a hotel

worker at about 4.30am on Wednesday. Captain Kakrda, an

investigating detective, told The Times that there was no suggestion

of any criminal wrongdoing and that her death appeared to be either

an accident or suicide.

" Nobody else was involved, " he said. " We were told by her friends

that she was a sleepwalker, but there are certain leads that could

lead to another conclusion. We have information that there had been

an attempt or two [at suicide] before. We found medication in her

room. "

Her room-mate, a 14-year-old girl who had been a close friend for

many years, woke in the middle of the night and noticed that Miss

Gilbert was not in her bed.

A minute's silence was held in Miss Gilbert's memory at the

tournament. Some British players flew home yesterday.

Miss Gilbert, who studied at Croydon High School, began playing

chess when she was 8. She won the Women's World Amateur Championship

when 11, beating adult players to became the youngest British

winner. Against opposition from 13 countries, she also won the

Women's World Chess Federation Master title.

Since she was 12, Miss Gilbert had represented England every year at

World or European Girls' Championships and, in 2001, won the bronze

medal in the European Girls' Under-14 Championship.

This year she represented England at the World Chess Olympiad in

Turin and was the eighth ranked English female player. A statement

issued through a solicitor on behalf of her family said: " Miss

Gilbert was much loved and an exceptionally talented chess player. "

A close friend of the family, who was with Miss Gilbert in

Pardubice, said: " It's tragic for the family and for those of us who

are their friends. It is a huge loss. She was a lovely girl and the

kindest person. "

Another friend said: " It's every parent's worst nightmare and the

family are devastated. "

The Rev Curtis, president of the Coulsdon Chess Club in

Surrey, which Miss Gilbert had helped to win the county league and

cup double this season, said: " She was a lovely girl who had

everything but never lorded it over anyone. She is going to be very

much missed.

" I think she could have achieved anything she took up but she chose

chess and we were delighted. She was very competitive but always

played in a good spirit. "

Margaret Bamforth, a psychiatrist, said that people of Miss

Gilbert's age were vulnerable to mental health problems when away

from home. " Suicide is a problem for university students and this is

a similar situation.

" When they are away from their usual supports and in stressful

situations, being asked to perform at a high level, some young

people find it difficult to cope, " she said.

YOUNG MASTERS OF THE BOARD

Sammy Reshevsky

Born in Poland in 1912, he toured Europe and the United States

giving chess displays at the age of 8, and beat a world title

contender aged 11. However, he did not attend school until the age

of 12. Despite being constantly on public display Reshevsky managed

to cope with the pressure and became a US chess champion

José Capablanca

A Cuban child who learnt to play chess at the age of four by

watching his father, and who beat several leading players a year

later at the Havana Chess Club. Born in 1888, he went on to become

the world champion from 1921 to 1927 and is referred to by many

chess historians as the Mozart of the game

Murugan Thiruchelvam

A British boy of Sri-Lankan descent who learnt to play chess at the

age of three and had broken six world records by the age of ten.

Less than a week after his tenth birthday he played against Garry

Kasparov in an exhibition match; Kasparov said that the game was his

best of the day

Morphy

The first chess prodigy since the creation of the modern rules of

chess. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1837, he is considered by

some grandmasters to have been the greatest player ever