Set 2. Chess prodigy child’s death

Article 1. THE GUARDIAN

Young champion's mystery death fall shocks chess world

By Sandra Laville Friday July 28, 2006

Police in the Czech Republic are investigating the death of a young British chess champion who fell from her hotel room window during one of the world's leading tournaments.

Jessica Gilbert, 19, from Woldingham, Surrey, was found dead on Wednesday morning outside the Hotel Labe, in Pardubice. A winner of the world amateur championship at the age of 11, she was in Pardubice for the Czech Open, which features 4,000 players from 50 countries.

Although detectives initially suspected that she may have taken her own life, it emerged she might have been sleep walking when she fell.

John Saunders, editor of British Chess Magazine, said yesterday: "I have had a couple of people come to me independently saying: 'Did you know that she had this sleep walking problem?'

"These are people who are well known in chess – women chess players who are likely to know Jess better than anybody. I completely trust what they say."

Mr Saunders added that the chess community was stunned by the death. "I think they are just appalled really, because she was just so nice and so pleasant; people are just shocked," he said. Miss Gilbert regularly represented England in international events and had risen to the title of Women's World Chess Federation Master.

A Czech police spokeswoman said the death was being investigated and a postmortem was being carried out. However, a spokesman for the tournament organisers, the Ave Kontakt agency, said: "There are no signs of anyone else being involved."

Fellow Britons in the tournament abandoned their matches as a mark of respect after news of Miss Gilbert's death.

Her parents, Ian and Angela, released a statement yesterday asking to be left to grieve for their daughter, adding that she had been "much loved and was an exceptionally talented chess player".

Leonard Barden, the Guardian's chess correspondent, said Miss Gilbert had been working towards attaining a women's international master (WIM) title, and was due to start a degree in medicine at Oxford this autumn: "She always wanted to do medicine, from the age of 11. I find the whole thing very mysterious. It is such a shock."

The Reverend Howard Curtis, the president of the Coulsdon Chess club in Surrey, where Miss Gilbert was a member for 12 years, said: "She was very competitive but she was also positive, she played the game in a good spirit although she was obviously better than most of us."

He added: "She had everything to live for, she was going to university, she was going to get her WIM, she was beginning to blossom ... everything was at her feet."

Article 2. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Chess champion may have been sleepwalking when she fell to her death from hotel balcony

By Stephanie Condron and Hannah Cleaver

Last Updated: 2:17am BST 28/07/2006

A British teenage chess champion has fallen to her death from an eighth-floor hotel room in what police believe may have been a sleepwalking accident.

Jessie Gilbert, 19, who was competing in the Czech Open, was found dead outside her hotel on Wednesday morning.

Although detectives initially suspected suicide, they are now investigating the theory that the doctor's daughter from Reigate, Surrey, who was about to begin studying at Oxford University, may have fallen by accident after her friends revealed that she had suffered from sleepwalking since childhood.

"When I first heard what had happened that was my immediate line of thought, that she was sleepwalking," said a family friend.

Miss Gilbert, who had played chess for England, was planning to take her place at Oxford in October to study medicine and was enjoying a gap year competing in tournaments.

Described as "quiet with a ready smile", the former Croydon High School pupil had beaten grandmaster Danny Gormally, one of Britain's leading chess players, in a tournament last December.

She had travelled to the Czech Republic with a 14-year-old friend, the girl's mother and three other youngsters and was staying at the Labe Hotel in Pardubice near the tournament arena when she fell. Police were called at around 4.30am.

"She and her 14-year-old friend were sharing a room when the older girl died," said a spokesman for Pardubice police. "Her friends told us that Jessica was a sleep-walker.

"The younger girl was in the bathroom when it happened. We therefore do not have an eyewitness. At the moment we do not think that anyone else was involved. Either it was an accident or a suicide."

Miss Gilbert's mother, Angela, and her three other daughters - Sam, Annie and Josie - are waiting for her body to be flown home after a post mortem examination. Initial reports suggested there had been no foul play.

Mrs Gilbert, who is separated from her husband, was described as "distraught".

Brian Smith, of Wood Green chess club, where Miss Gilbert played, had captained her on the victorious all-women England team in Turin, Italy, at the Olympiad in June.

"There's not anybody in the chess world who hasn't heard of her," he said. "This is a girl with a lust for life; it's crazy to say that she committed suicide. It comes back to her childhood - it was sleepwalking."

In a web page dedicated to Miss Gilbert, the teenage champion wrote: "I started playing chess at the age of eight and quickly became hooked on the game. Since then I have always played as much as I can alongside school studies.

"I have played in a wide variety of events including having been given many opportunities to represent the country abroad. I have also always enjoyed coaching chess, both in group and individual contexts.

"I am currently taking a year out to play and study chess and am particularly working towards attaining a Women's International Master title. I will be starting medical school at Oxford in October but plan to continue actively participating in the chess world."

Andrew Martin, who mentored Miss Gilbert, said: "I watched her grow into an intelligent, friendly and vivacious young lady. It is a tragedy we have lost her."

Miss Gilbert had taken the Women's World Amateur Championship title - regarded as a minor tournament despite its name - by the age of 11.

Despite being ranked 21,138th in the world, she was deemed a serious contender after beating Mr Gormally at a tournament in Surrey.

John Saunders, editor of British Chess Magazine, said: "If people took her for granted she was dangerous.

"She would have reached her peak in her twenties or early thirties. Her behaviour was always absolutely impeccable, even when she lost. There was no ego.

"She was quiet and not like those teenage girls who dress up to the nines. She was a serious girl with a ready smile and very cheerful."

A spokesman for the British embassy in Prague said: "We have been told by the Czech police that they are not regarding the death as suspicious."

Article 3. THE DAILY MAIL