Norman van Lennep

Who was Norman van Lennep?

Norman Willem van Lennep was a Dutch chess master.

Born into a wealthy family in Amsterdam, he dropped out of education early, and in 1893, at the age of 20 became a secretary of the Dutch Chess Federation and an editor of its magazine. In 1893 he drew two matches with Rudolf Loman and won a match against Arnold van Foreest. He won at Leipzig 1894, and took 5th at Rotterdam 1894.

Mr. van Lennep’s fame had preceded him when he came to England, in August 1895, as the selected reserve of the chess masters who had entered for the Hastings 1895 chess tournament. He stayed on as a journalist, filing reports on the tournament for his magazine. Suddenly, an announcement was made that Van Lennep has decided to stay in England. The letters he wrote to his parents from England have survived. It seems that he was exiled by his father, who, unhappy with his involvement with chess, wanted him to settle down, find a steady job and get married. But the idea of office life did not appeal to young Norman, nor did he feel any attraction towards the opposite sex.

Finally, he returned to the Netherlands, won followed by L.D. Tresling, D. Bleijkmans and A. van Foreest at Amsterdam 1897, and killed himself, jumping into the North Sea, at the age of 25.