Rachel Reeves left red-faced as truth behind her ‘British chess champion’ claims revealed
In 2023, Rachel Reeves revealed: “I am – I was – a geek. I played chess. I was the British girls’ under-14 champion”.
Rachel Reeves is a keen chess player (Image: @RachelReevesMP/X)
Rachel Reeves is at the centre of yet more controversy after she was accused of erroneously claiming to have been a British junior chess champion. The Chancellor has made much of her prowess at the game over the years, and earlier this year announced that the Government was investing £1.5m in a quest to identify chess prodigies and turn them into future grandmasters.
In 2023, she told The Guardian: “I am — I was — a geek. I played chess. I was the British girls’ under-14 champion”. She also posed with a chessboard in pictures taken prior the Budget – but it now appears she may have overstated the case. Alex Edmans, a professor of finance at the London Business School, himself a talented junior player, accused the Chancellor of misrepresenting her credentials.
Alex Edmans suggested Rachel Reeves had overstated her case (Image: Getty)
He told The Times while Ms Reeves, did win the under-14 title for the British Women’s Chess Association (BWCA) Girls Championship in 1993, there was an important distinction.
Mr Edmans explained: “That is not the British girls’ championship, it is clearly defined as the girl who does best in the British championship. “She may well have won titles, but the title of British girls’ champion is a specific event. The BWCA has its own championship and then you are the BWCA champion.”
The “British girls’ under-14 champion” in 1993 was the composer Emily Howard, according to an archive of British Chess games and tournaments. Mr Edmans claimed Ms Reeves actually finished 24th out of 36 that year.
Ms Reeves did win the under-14 title for the British Women’s Chess Association (BWCA) Girls Championship that year. But Mr Edmans continued: “She may well have won titles, but the title of British girls’ champion is a specific event. The BWCA has its own championship and then you are the BWCA champion.”
Ms Reeves competed in several consecutive junior British championships, finishing 29th in the under-13s in 1992, and 19th in the under-12s in 1991.
Malcolm Pein, International Master, Executive Editor Chess Magazine, founder of the London Chess Centre and Director of International Chess for the English Chess Federation, was nevertheless supportive, saying: “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 faced previous accusations of embellishments, including claiming to have worked at the Bank of England for 10 years when she had worked there for just five and a half years.
She also claimed on LinkedIn to have been an economist at Halifax Bank of Scotland, when she in fact worked in a managerial role.
In addition, the Financial Times highlighted what it said were more than 20 examples of plagiarism in her book, The Women who Made Modern Economics.
Ms Reeves admitted she “should have done better” and that some sentences “were not properly referenced”.
More recently, she has faced accusations that she misrepresented the Office of Budget Responsibility’s forecast in briefings to the cabinet by saying there was a hole in the public finances to justify tax rises.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Monday denied there had been “no misleading” from Ms Reeves.
On Tuesday Professor David Miles of the OBR said Ms Reeves’s comments before the budget were “not inconsistent” with the situation she faced.
The Chancellor has been contacted for comment.
