Yorkshire Chess History |
Contents: |
1869: Yorkshire Chess Association (2), 2nd Annual Meeting, York |
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< 1868: 1st North Yorkshire & Durham CA Meeting < : > 1870: 1st Counties Chess Association Meeting >
Yorkshire Chess Association Annual Meeting De Grey Rooms, York Week Commencing Monday 2nd August 1869
Details of the Event Itself (Click here for details of the preparatory build-up, on page one.)
The event was reported in Skipworth’s Chess Players’ Quarterly Chronicle of 1868-69, pages 283 & 284, the text being fairly evidently written by Skipworth himself.
Noted as being among the visitors present were the following:
The Lord Mayor of York was Alfred Ely Hargrove, who held that office just the once, in 1868-69. He and his son, William Wallace Hargrove, were proprietors and publishers of the York Herald, at 34 Pavement, York. Hackness is about 5 miles inland from Scarborough. Brough, in this case, is on the north bank of the River Humber, about 10 miles west of Hull. Hawnby is 6 miles NW of Helmsley, North Yorkshire. Henwick is a district in the west of Worcester.
The number of participating chess-players was seemingly less than Skipworth had hoped for, yet the entrants in the Class 1 were strong by “provincial” standards, though the tournament looked rather like the 1869 Church of England Clerics’ Chess Championship, as the participating clerics were among the strongest in that category, if not the strongest.
Class I
The following were the results in Class I:
w & b denote colours
Skipworth thus won the first prize, worth £10. There was no reference to a second or third prize being awarded.
All six games were given in the Chess players’ Quarterly Chronicle, 1868-69, on pages 257 et. seq.
The report in the Chess players’ Quarterly Chronicle included the following comment which sounds rather like Skipworth making excuses for losing a game:
Class II
The Class II tournament was contested by eight players. A number of players failed, for whatever reason, to play all their games, and it appears only 19 of the 28 games due to be played were actually played.
The totals credited to the players, presumably scored from games actually played, were as follows:
There would have been a play-off, but Semple had to leave before the end, and could not return to contest the play-off, so Fisher was deemed the winner of the £5 prize and a trophy of value £10.
Class III
The prospectus for the event advertised a Class III tournament, essentially a “novices” section, but this seems not to have taken place.
Lady Contestants
Skipworth seems to have liked to have ladies at his events. The prospectus advertised that ladies would compete alongside men in the different tournaments. In the event, it seems, there were no lady contestants, not even Edmund Thorold’s sister, Eliza Mary Thorold.
Handicap Tournament
Though it was not mentioned in the prospectus, there was a knock-out handicap tournament. The competitors seem all to be one also competing in Class I or Class II. Results were given in the Chess players’ Quarterly Chronicle in the form X “won of” Y, without saying if there were any draws along the way, though one would expect some draws. Round-by-round results, excluding any draws were as follows:
* Ranken, Wayte and Thorold, as Class I players, gave odds of pawn and 2 moves to Class II players.
Ball had been winning the final game, but blundered away a rook, allowing Finlinson to walk off with the first prize of value £4, while Ball had be satisfied with a second prize of value £1.
Problem-Setting Tournament
There was a problem-setting tournament for which entries had had to be submitted in advance. Entries had been received from J. W. Abbott (presumably Joseph William Abbott, London), W. Bolt (presumably William Bolt), G. O. Cutler (Sheffield), J. H. S. Finlinson (Huddersfield) and A. B. Skipworth (Bilsdale). The judges were Rev. W. Wayte and Rev. C. E. Ranken, who awarded the prize, worth £4, to W. Bolt.
Conclusion
A luncheon was given at the end of the event, on Friday 06/08/1869, at which the Lord Mayor of York, Alfred Ely Hargrove, presided.
It was decided to hold the next meeting at Scarborough rather than York, perhaps in the belief that Scarborough would be a more attractive venue and so increase numbers, but it was subsequently decided to convert this “Yorkshire Chess Association” into a national organisation called the “Counties Chess Association”, and a venue outside Yorkshire was therefore chosen.
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Created 26/12/2013 |
Copyright © 2013 Stephen John Mann |
Last Updated 2612/2013 |