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204 pages

English

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'The Southern Counties Chess Union - a retrospective' is an important book that makes a significant contribution to English chess history. It is informative and compelling; an engaging piece of work that sometimes evokes a frontier spirit, where those seeking to advance their plans of a chess union are caught between known and unknown worlds.This book is a comprehensive, authoritative account of major episodes in the first 125 years of the Southern Counties Chess Union (SCCU) in England. Each page resonates with the author's knowledge of chess history and his research. In the book you will discover: an overview of English chess in the mid- to late-nineteenth century why counties in the south of England formed the first chess union steps undertaken to realise and strengthen the union essential facts and statistics pertaining to the SCCU's primary over-the-board competitions.

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Chess

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Publié par	Distributed by eBookpartnership
Date de parution	01 juin 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781839784835
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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The Southern Counties Chess Union - a retrospective
ANTHONY FULTON

The Southern Counties Chess Union - a retrospective
Published by The Conrad Press in the United Kingdom 2022
Tel: +44(0)1227 472 874 www.theconradpress.com info@theconradpress.com
ISBN 978-1-914913-62-4
Copyright © Anthony Fulton, 2022
The moral right of Anthony Fulton to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved.
Typesetting and Cover Design by: Charlotte Mouncey, www.bookstyle.co.uk
The Conrad Press logo was designed by Maria Priestley.
Images of Isaac MacIntyre Brown, Leopold Hoffer and Samuel Tinsley (all from Chess Bouquet 1897) Leonard Rees ( BCM 1904) and extract taken from History of Chess (1913) by H.J.R. Murray have been reprinted and used with the kind permission of British Library.
Image of the article ‘Chess Match at Yeovil’ taken from Western Gazette 1st December 1893 © The British Library Board. All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk).
Photographic images relating to John Lewis, Cavendish Street, London which can be seen on the cited John Lewis and Partners Memory Store websites have been reprinted with the kind permission of John Lewis Partnership Archive.
Extracts taken from BCF Year Books (1945-70) have been used with the kind permission of English Chess Federation.
Extracts taken from Middlesex Counties Chess Union Minute Books and Newsletter have been used with the kind permission of Middlesex County Chess Association.
Extracts taken from Southern Counties Chess Union Chess Bulletins , SCCU Combined Year Books (1931-45) SCCU Minute Books and SCCU website have been used with the kind permission of Southern Counties Chess Union.
Extracts taken from newspapers comply with copyright permissions as stipulated by British Newspaper Archive.
The map of the historic counties of England and Wales and Monmouthshire is adapted from the base map provided by the Association of British Counties.
Positions of selected games from the 1893 and 1894 Northern Counties vs. Southern Counties matches were generated using www.chessvideos.tv/chess-diagram-generator.php
The author has made every effort to trace and contact all copyright holders. The author will be pleased to make good any omissions or rectify any mistakes brought to his attention at the earliest opportunity.
The author has used his best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for websites referred to in this work are correct and active at time of publication. The author has no responsibility for the content on cited websites and makes no guarantee that if the reader attempts to access the site that it remains live or that the content remains relevant, decent, or appropriate. Where necessary use internet archive websites such as, Time Travel or Wayback Machine to check digital archives to validate information obtained from websites cited.

Imagine a contest where individuals engage in personal combat, both trying to outdo the other; however, the outcome of the trial of strength is not determined by one personal battle, but say 12, 16, or 20. Now that is a contest with a difference!

Preface
On 16 th September 2017, the Southern Counties Chess Union (SCCU) re-enacted the 1921 North vs. South of Thames match to celebrate its quasquicentennial (125 th ) year thereby cement its status as the oldest English Chess Union after its ‘birth’ on 3 rd September 1892. This along with the centenary match are the only two landmarks the Union have celebrated, their Silver (1917) and Golden (1942) Jubilees were foregone due to the World Wars. Allowing for its longevity and two formats outlining current activity – SCCU Bulletin (formally known as Union Chess Fayre ) and two websites – the SCCU Executive has yet to produce a formal document covering its history, achievements or even persons of interest, ‘As It Was!’ so to say. The lack of one evokes Samuel Tinsley’s summary on the state of chess in 1892:
‘But this glance at chess in 1892 would be incomplete if it merely noticed great events and the doings of these leading men […]. The game is before all things an amateur’s game, and how are their records to be obtained? Who shall chronicle the many events of less public interest which constitute the life and soul of chess in England, and mark its onward progress? What about the largely increasing number of growing clubs, whose members engage in more or less serious contests for trophies or other honours, matches public as well as friendly or individual, club handicaps and other engagements calculated to promote improved play?’
Tinsley in essence asks, ‘What should the focus of chess be?’ He intimates those with an interest in chess should keep records of all its forms, amateur, elite, past and present rather than focus exclusively on elite level of play whether past or present, and current activities of clubs, leagues, and associations. The Union took note by chronicling and continuing to chronicle its present ( Combined Year Book ; SCCU Bulletin and Website) but what of its past? Former Honorary Secretary, SCCU Bulletin Editor and Webmaster Richard Haddrell began to ‘chronicle’ it but he stated:
‘… not very complete but we’ll come back to it one day.’
Despite his achievements for Kent County Chess Association, SCCU, and the English Chess Federation he never did get around to providing a comprehensive history so it would seem the Union’s story would remain untold. The SCCU’s ongoing failure to produce such a document means current or future generations associated with it would be unable to have a rationale of how the Union came into being and why the extant competitions were created in first place. It would also incidentally provide a commentary on chess in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Notwithstanding leaving a legacy of the SCCU, if a document existed it would help fill a neglected gap in literature of chess history: parochial chess, as Tinsley alluded, that which the amateur player is primarily involved in, i.e., Club, League and County chess (see Afterword).

Picture 1: National Chess Centre, Cavendish Street, London
The absence of such a document can be explained by a variety of reasons. The primary one being the destruction by fire of John Lewis’ Cavendish site on 23 rd September 1940 due to the ‘Blitz’. In September 1939 the store became the new home of the City of London Chess Club and the British National Chess Centre. The SCCU planned to play 50 and 100 board matches there but this was prevented firstly by outbreak of War, then bomb fire which destroyed the Chess Centre, the entire property of the SCCU, the best half of the British Chess Federation (BCF) library and all the finer old four-handed equipment. Fortunately, the Shannon Trophy, its premier trophy was recovered and repaired sometime later. The bombing proved even more disastrous for Kent; the Association lost, its best-known trophies (Individual Championship Cup and W.W. White Memorial Trophy), ten volumes of archives and all the records of Margate Congresses. The Lowënthal Trophy, which had been the preserve of the SCCU since 1908 as they were frequently National Champions, luckily escaped disaster. The 1939 contest was abandoned so Lancashire held it over from 1938. In short, this event was catastrophic for the SCCU as its early history to at least 1930 was wiped out in a single stroke.

Picture 2: 1940 Post-Blitz remains of John Lewis
The Union’s activities from 1930 were recorded in new minute books along with SCCU Combined Year Book (1930) followed by Bulletin (1958) and finally internet (1998) when Bulletin transferred but the early years were permanently lost. With new records, if desired, it should have been possible to produce a document to cover the SCCU’s post-1930 history certainly in time for Union’s centenary, but for anyone wishing to produce a comprehensive historical account of the SCCU which included inception to 1930 it would of course be problematic. Circumstance then rather than design seemed to prevent the would-be SCCU historian from attempting the task. 1
There are other compelling reasons for failing to produce a written if incomplete account of the SCCU one includes apathy; another and equally apt one is, as Aesop would say, ‘Whom is to bell the cat?’ It is a great idea to write a document about the SCCU’s history but who will do it? But probably and more pertinently the longer the history the greater the task as whomsoever undertakes the venture must naturally ask, ‘Where do I start?’ This is a pertinent question when there are few if any original documents to peruse. That is where this works comes in: an individual has stood up and volunteered to ‘bell the cat’, has taken a stab at a reasonable starting point and has patiently and painstakingly perused numerous articles, journals, Yearbooks and so on to ensure the task completed. If it is imperfect, it is hoped the imperfections are minimal. Future editions, should there be ones, can at least improve on the acknowledged gaps.
This document, excluding Correspondence, Individual, Jamboree, Knock-out, Junior, and internal events, provides statistics of all the over-the-board inter-county matches played in competitions overseen by the Southern Counties Chess Union since the inaugural Championship of Southern Counties (1893-94) (Part 3: End – Union Competition Stats). This record of inter-county chess is testament to the outcome of the actions of both the delegates attending said meeting on 3 rd September 1892 to discuss the feasibility of establishing a Union amongst the chess organisations of the South AND the Match Committee whom, after the 1893 Northern Counties vs. Southern Counties encounter, formulate a plan for the proposed