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< 1867: 3rd North
Yorkshire & Durham CA Meeting < : > 1869: 2nd Yorkshire Chess Association
Meeting >
Yorkshire Chess
Association
Annual Meeting
De Grey Rooms,
St. Leonard’s Place, York
Week Commencing
Monday 3rd August 1868
New Name
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 30th, 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 >
|