Yorkshire Chess History

After the 3rd annual chess meeting organised by the Rev. Arthur Bolland Skipworth in Yorkshire, under the name of the North Yorkshire and Durham Chess Association, it was decided, by Skipworth presumably, to expand the declared scope to the whole of Yorkshire, adopting the name Yorkshire Chess Association. This was the second organisation to use that name, and was, of course, nothing to do with the original Yorkshire Chess Association, which had evolved first into the Northern & Midland Counties Chess Association and ultimately into the British Chess Association, and whose spirit in Yorkshire was revived in the form of the West Yorkshire Chess Association. Nor was it anything to do with the current Yorkshire Chess Association, which resulted from the merger of the West Yorkshire Chess Association with the later-formed Yorkshire County Chess Club.

See below for the preparatory build-up to the event, or click here for details of meeting itself, on page two.

Preparatory Build-up

Skipworth’s own newly-started publication, the Chess Players’ Quarterly Chronicle, kept readers informed, largely obviating the need for support from other publications. There were articles advertising the event beforehand, and describing progress, then there followed details of the event itself. Whilst the Chess Players’ Quarterly Chronicle was a welcome provincial chess magazine, it was also very much a advertising medium for what might be termed “Skipworth Chess Enterprises”.

After listing the 1867 results, the Chess Players’ Quarterly Chronicle Vol.1, 1868, p.24 & 25 announced:

In accordance with the suggestion of several leading Chess players of the West Riding, this Association is hereafter to be called

THE YORKSHIRE CHESS ASSOCIATION

as combining the strength and representing the interests of the three Ridings, and holding its Meetings in the county town. The next Meeting of this Association is to be held in York during the latter part of August during the present year.

Further down page 25, the Chess Players’ Quarterly Chronicle Vol.1, 1868, p.24 & 25 announced:

TWO CHALLENGE CUPS OF THE VALUE OF £50 & £30

RESPECTIVELY.

To increase the success which has hitherto attended the Yorkshire Chess Association in futhering the interests of Chess in the Northern Provinces, it is proposed to offer two Challenge Cups of the above value, to be played for by Provincial Amateurs on becoming Members of the Yorkshire Chess Association –

The county of York proposing to subscribe thirty guineas, on condition that a like sum be raised from other parts of the United Kingdom.

The scheme is placed in the hands of the Editors of the Quarterly Chronicle, and we appeal with confidence to the Chess players throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland, asking

Thirty gentlemen to subscribe or collect £1 1s. each, to meet the thirty guineas from Yorkshire.

The Yorkshire Association has hitherto been self-supporting, and the Committee consider that the sum required for the cups over and above the sixty guineas to be subscribed, will readily be made up by subscriptions from additional Members.

The subscriptions or collections to be paid, subject to the following conditions:-

The Cups to be twice before being claimed.

The play to take place at the Annual Meeting of the Yorkshire Association, in the central town of York,in the month of August in each year.

All gentlemen subscribing or collecting £1 1s. to be Members of a General Committee. The names of the members to be published in Chess Player’s Quarterly Chronicle. [Collecting cards forwarded on application to the Secretary or Treasurer.]

A General Committee Meeting to be held at the West Riding Chess Association’s Meeting in May each year, when a Working Committee is to be selected from the Members of the General Committee. Members may vote by proxy.

Competitors to be placed in Classes I. and II. at the discretion of the Working Committee.

The Working Committee to have power to admit into a Class at their discretion a limited number of Metropolitan Amateurs, who are desirous of forwarding this scheme.

We are informed that at the Society’s Meetings the usual prizes of the value of £10, £5, &c., will still be offered irrespective of the cups.

Gentlemen intending to forward this scheme will greatly oblige by sending in their names as early as possible, accompanied by the subscriptions, to A. BALL, Esq., (Hon. Sec.) York – P. O. Orders made payable to him at the York office; or Rev. A. B. SKIPWORTH (Treasurer) Bilsdale, Northallerton, Yorkshire – P. O. Orders made payable to him at the Stokesley office.

(The Chess Players’ Quarterly Chronicle got its own name wrong, putting Chess Player’s Quarterly Chronicle in the above!)

The phrase “We are informed” is amusing as it effectively means “Mr. Skipworth has told himself”, the point being that the “Yorkshire Chess Association” and the Chess Players’ Quarterly Chronicle were both parts of “Skipworth Chess Enterprises”.

There seems no evidence that the West Yorkshire Chess Association had in any way agreed to host the General Committee Meeting described above. Indeed, whilst the West Yorkshire Chess Association was not opposed to Skipworth’s Yorkshire Chess Association, there were nevertheless a number of its members who didn’t like Skipworth adopting the name Yorkshire Chess Association.

The next notice in the Chess Players’ Quarterly Chronicle of 1868-69, page 59, read as follows:

THE YORKSHIRE CHESS ASSOCIATION

Will hold its Annual Meeting in the de Grey Rooms, York, during the week commencing Monday, August 3rd, 1868.

The Challenge Cups of £50 and £30. – The scheme proposed in the last number of the Chess Players’ Quarterly Chronicle has found most favourable support, and there is every prospect of its being carried out in full.

Independently of the Challenge Cups (which will have to be won twice before being claimed), the Association offers its usual annual prizes – value £10 in class I, value £5 in class II, besides a prize in class III, and second and third prizes in the various classes, according to the number of entries.

PROBLEM PRIZE, VALUE £10, open to all British Amateurs, is offered by the Association. Entrance fee, five shillings. If less than twenty competitors, the prize will be diminished to the value of £7; if less than ten competitors, to the value of £5.

Each competitor must send in three Problems (more convenient if generally sent separately) on or before September 30^th, 1868, to the Treasurer of the Association.

The Problems must be bona fide the composition of the person or persons sending them – ordinary mates in two, three, or four moves – nowhere previously published – printed or neatly drawn upon diagrams, with the solutions and full address.

The Problems will be published before the award is made.

The entrance fee must be paid when the first problem or problems are sent in.

The ordinary Annual Subscription to this Association is 10s. 6d.
All persons hereafter becoming members, and at the same time competitors for the challenge cups, must pay an entrance fee, or collect for the Association (1s. collecting cards forwarded on application) the sum –

Of at least £1. 1s., if competitor for cup in class I.

Of at least £10s 6d., if competitor for cup in class II.

A. BALL, (Hon. Sec.) St. Leonards, York.

A. B. SKIPWORTH, (Treasurer,) Bilsdale, Northallerton, Yorkshire.

Chess World, Vol. IV, page 188, summarised matters more succinctly as follows:

GREAT CHESS MEETING AT YORK. – A gathering of the Yorkshire Chess Amateurs and their friends is appointed for the week beginning Monday, August 3rd, to be held at the De Grey Rooms, York. On this occasion, in addition to a number of prizes to be competed for by players of the first, second, and third class of strength, there will be a challenge cup or prize, probable value £50, guaranteed value £40, to become the property of the person who first twice wins the society’s £10 prize. Competitors must pay an entrance fee of £1 1s. in addition to their subscription of 10s. 6d. as members. There will also be offered a challenge cup or prize, probable value from £25 to £30, to become the property of the person who first twice wins the Society’s £5 prize. Finally, a problem prize, value £10, but subject to diminution in case of there being less than twenty entries, the entrance fee being 5s. A programme with full particulars of the proposed assembly may be had on application to A. Ball, Esq., the Hon. Secretary, St. Leonard’s, York.

The Chess Players’ Quarterly Chronicle, 1868-69, on page 85 continued to promote the forthcoming meeting as follows:

THE YORK MEETING promises to be one of the best ever held in the provinces. Numerous amateurs from various parts of England have already signified their intention of being present – Lord Benholme (Edinburgh), A. Mongredien, Esq. (London), Rev. W. Wayte (Eton), E. Thorold, Esq. (Bath), Rev. Jno. Owen (Cheshire), Rev. W. Beckett (Heighington), Jas. Freeman, Esq. (Birmingham), G. O. Cutler, Esq. (Sheffield), C. Doughty, Esq. (Lincoln), E. Walker, Esq. (Cheltenham), - Schull, Esq. (Liverpool), Rev. F. R. Drew (Malvern), and many of the leading amateurs from the West Riding of Yorkshire.

The Chess Players’ Quarterly Chronicle, 1868-69, on page 89, carried a list of donors to the prize fund, so far:

THE MEETING OF THE YORKSHIRE CHESS ASSOCIATION, In the DE GREY ROOMS, YORK, commencing MONDAY, AUG. 3rd, 1868. ------------------------------------ SUBSCRIPTIONS IN AID OF THE PRIZE SCHEME. (These do not include the Annual Subscriptions of the Association.)
		£.	s.	d.
	E. Thorold, Bath	1	1	0
	Ditto, by Collecting Cards among Members of Bristol and Bath Clubs	2	2	0
	H. E. Kidson, Liverpool	1	1	0
	Rev. W. Wayte, Eton	1	1	0
	Thomas Bourn, Whitby	1	1	0
	Miss Felgate, York, by Collecting Card	1	1	0
	Joshua Oldfield, York	1	1	0
	The Lord Mayor of York [Alfred Ely Hargrove]	1	1	0
	The Liverpool Chess Club	2	2	0
	Rev. Jno. Owen, Hootan [sic, means Hooton]	1	1	0
	Alfred Ball, York	1	1	0
	John Newton, York	1	1	0
	James Meek, President	2	2	0
	J. W. Rimington Wilson	2	0	0
	Jas. Walker, Hull, by Collecting Card	1	1	0
	The Proprietors of the Yorkshire Gazette	1	1	0
	M. E. Werner, Halifax	1	1	0
	A. Mongredien, London	1	1	0
	Members of the Dublin Chess Club, per Thomas Long	1	1	0
	W. Grimshaw, Whitby	1	1	0
	Rev. A. B. Skipworth	1	1	0
	Ditto, by Collecting Cards	3	3	0
	John Rhodes, Leeds	1	1	0
Collecting Cards for £1 1s. have also kindly been undertaken by Mrs. Fitch, York; Miss Chaddock, Cheshire; W. Park, West Hartlepool; Thos. Semple, Stockton; E. Walker, Cheltenham; Rev. F. R. Drew, Malvern; John Newton, York; J. W. Hampton, St. George’s Chess Club, London; Jas. Freeman, Birmingham; Dr. Bennett, Redcar. Among several new Members are G. S. Taylor, President of the Sheffield Chess Club, and G. O. Cutler, Sheffield, who have been elected Vice-Presidents of the Association; H. Hammelburgh [sic, meant H. Ammelburgh], Bradford, T. G. Shuttleworth, Sheffield, J. W. Young, Wakefield, and W. C. Myers, Leeds, who are Members of the Committee. Further Donations and Subscriptions are solicited. A. BALL, Hon. sec., St.Leonard’s, York. A. B. SKIPWORTH, Treasurer, Bilsdale, Northallerton. N.B. – The society’s first programme is now ready, and copies may be had on application to the Secretary or Treasurer. Among the several prizes offered are two Challenge Cups – probable value £50 and £30 respectively; Problem Prize, value £10; a £10 prize in Class I.; a £5 prize in Class II.

Click here for details of meeting itself, on page two.

< 1867: 3rd North Yorkshire & Durham CA Meeting < : > 1869: 2nd Yorkshire Chess Association Meeting >

Created

12/01/2013

Last Updated

12/01/2013