Yorkshire Chess History

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1939-45: War Period

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The build up to World War II developed while the 1939 Chess Olympiad was in progress in Buenos Aires. This led to the necessity of avoiding politically sensitive pairings. Some nations’ teams were recalled. Some individuals elected to stay in South America to avoid the trouble in Europe; in particular, top Polish player Miguel Najdorf stayed in Argentina, with great long-term benefit to chess in Argentina.

The final entry in the Leeds Chess Club’s result book of the time read,

(Image supplied by Rupert Jones.)

British Chess Federation

On the home front, the British Chess Federation suspended over-the-boards operations. The BCF congress of 1939 went ahead at Bournemouth, but lacked a British Championship event, and there was no British Championship again until 1946, at Nottingham. Some of the country’s top chess-players’ attention was, of course, diverted towards code-breaking at Bletchley Park, though chess remained a popular activity while they were not actually at work. Despite the war, however, the BCF’s Correspondence Match Conductor, J. T Boyd, of Nether Kellet, near Carnforth, Lancs., continued the County & District Correspondence Championship, which ran uninterrupted through the war years. (For Yorkshire’s performances, see below.) The BCF problem-Composing Tourneys similarly continued to be conducted on behalf of the BCF by the British Chess Problem Society, under the management of F. F. L. Alexander.

In 1940, the BCF sent five hundred pocket chess sets to the Army Sports Fund.

In 1941, a match between British Forces and Allied Forces was played at Nottingham, with the British Forces winning by 6½ to 5½.

In 1942, a similar match was played at Leicester, with the Allied Forces winning this time, by 7 to 6.

In 1943, a British Army Championship was organised by J. du Mont, the winner being Captain R. H. Newman (latterly of Devon?).

In 1944, a Royal Air Force Championship was organised by J. du Mont, the winner being Flight Officer E. Brown.

In 1945, an Annual General Meeting was held, normal activity was re-launched, the next BCF Congress being fixed for 1946, at Nottingham.

Northern Counties Chess Union

The Northern Counties Chess Union’s county championship of 1938-39 was completed, but the winners, Lancashire, could not go on to compete in the normal way in the English Counties’ Championship, due to the war. As the constituent county associations ground almost to a halt, the activities of the Northern Counties Chess Union were suspended. Its officers remained in post, ready to resume activities after the end of hostilities.

Yorkshire Chess Association

For the Yorkshire Chess Association, the 1938-39 season’s activities were almost completed before war intervened. The final of the individual championship, however, was not played, and the finalists were counted as joint winners. Formal competitions were suspended, not to be resumed until the 1945-46 season. Thus the Woodhouse Cup, I. M. Brown Shield and Yorkshire Championship were not contested in the six seasons from 1939-40 to 1944-45.

Though formal over-the-board-chess inter-county chess ceased in the Northern Counties, the County & District Correspondence Championship continued unabated, as described above. Yorkshire’s performances during this war period, in summary form, were as follows:

	1939-40			1940-41			1941-42
1	Berkshire	13½	1*	Lancashire	14	1	Lancashire	15½
2	Surrey	13	2*	Cheshire	14	2	Surrey	15
3	Yorkshire	13	3*	Kent	14	3	Kent	13
4	Kent	13	4*	Worcestershire	14	4	Warwickshire	12
			5	Essex	12	5*	Somerset	11½
			6	Yorkshire	11½	6*	Middlesex	11½
						7*	Leicestershire	11½
						8*	Berkshire	11½
						9	Essex	11
						10	Yorkshire	10½
	(26 teams competed)			(20 teams competed)			(23 teams competed)

	1942-43			1943-44			1944-45
1	Yorkshire	16½	1	Surrey	16	1	Warwickshire	14
2	Surrey	16½	2*	Oxfordshire	13½	2	Middlesex	12½
3	Lancashire	16	3*	Somerset	13½	3	Surrey	12½
4	Kent	12½	4*	Hampshire	13	4	Somerset	12½
			5*	Leicestershire	13	5	Lancashire	11½
			6	Berkshire	12½	6	Leicestershire	11
			7	Warwickshire	12½	7	Oxfordshire	11
			8	Staffordshire	11½	8	Yorkshire	11
			9	Worcestershire	11½	9	Essex	11
			10	Kent	11	10	Kent	11
			11	Lancashire	11	11	Cumb’d & Westm’d	10½
			12	Durham	11	12	Cambridgeshire	10½
			13	Essex	10	13	Durham	10½
			14	Monmouthshire	10	14	Yorkshire	10
			15	Devonshire	9½	15	Hampshire	10
			16	Middlesex	9	16	Staffordshire	10
			17	Suffolk	9	17
			18	Cambridgeshire	8½	18
			19	Yorkshire	8½	19
	(23 teams competed)			(27 teams competed)			(26 teams competed)

Yorkshire is listed twice for 1944-45, in the results listed in the BCF Year Book 1938-1945; this is presumably a mistake, or else Yorkshire entered two teams. Final placings of teams with the same score were determined by applying the board elimination rule.

The Yorkshire Chess Association secretary’s report at the end of 1945-46 included the following:

Many clubs ceased activities during the War; but the majority carried on in spite of the difficulties, and special mention should be made of the courage of the Hull Club.

In many cases the Club Tournaments were carried on, and old associations were maintained by means of friendly matches where distances were not sufficiently great to cause undue difficulty.

Although not all the clubs which closed down have revived, it is pleasing to observe that new clubs have been formed, and all report a steady influx of new members as well as the return of old ones. The increase is expected to continue as more men are released from the Forces, where many have found the fascination of chess.

The war did of course lead to a number of people from continental Europe settling in this country after the war. This resulted in various Polish, Latvian or Estonian social or ex-servicemen’s clubs being formed in this country. Many of these provide meeting places for chess clubs, and led to teams such as Bradford Latvians participating in local and county association team competitions.

Created

18/08/2013

Last Updated

18/08/2013