Yorkshire Chess History

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Narrative: 10) West Yorkshire Chess Association 1856 to 1896

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The preliminary meeting of 17^th May had clearly intended that its resolutions be formally adopted at the meeting on 21^st June.  For things to be done properly, that would require all four clubs involved to be represented by at least one suitably mandated delegate.  However, it was not until the next meeting, in 1857, that those initial resolutions were formally approved and implemented as Halifax were not represented on 21^st June 1856.  In the list, by club, of those in attendance, the minutes say: “Halifax:    Messrs. Nobody” The inference must be that this meeting, possibly after indignant mumblings and recriminations which have been tactfully omitted from the minutes, decided to postpone formal consideration of the proposals, which were eventually formally agreed at the 1857 meeting.  The West Yorkshire Chess Association was thus born and went on to hold annual one-day meetings in Yorkshire for at least 36 consecutive years, while larger organisations in the wider world came in being, evolved, floundered, and finally died. As time went by, WYCA assumed responsibility for representing Yorkshire chess as a whole, in organising chess matches against Lancashire.  In 1885 a Yorkshire County Chess Club came into operation to oversee county-wide operations such as county matches and a Yorkshire Individual Championship.  Meanwhile, WYCA was running the Woodhouse Cup competition, which after its first year had been thrown open to the whole of Yorkshire.  In 1896 WYCA and YCCC were merged to form the present Yorkshire Chess Association, which, via WYCA, is the direct descendant in spirit of the original Yorkshire Chess Association founded in 1840 and first meeting in 1841. The organisation run by Arthur Bolland Skipworth, which was for a short while called the “Yorkshire Chess Association” has no connection with the original YCA or the current YCA. Dates and venues of successive annual WYCA meetings were as follows (details of later meeting not to hand): 1856, Leeds 1857, Wakefield 1858, Halifax 1859, Huddersfield 1860, Bradford 1861, Leeds 1862, Wakefield 1863, Sheffield 1864, Huddersfield 1865, Bradford 1866, Leeds 1867, Wakefield 1868, Sheffield 1869, Huddersfield 1870, Halifax 1871, Bradford 1872, Leeds 1873, Wakefield 1874, Huddersfield 1875, Sheffield 1876, Halifax 1877, Bradford 1878, Leeds 1879, Wakefield 1880, Sheffield 1881, Huddersfield 1882, Dewsbury 1883, Bradford 1884, Leeds 1885, Wakefield 1886, Huddersfield 1887, Dewsbury 1888, Bradford 1889, Leeds 1890, Dewsbury 1891, Farsley 1892, ? 1893, ? 1894, ? 1895, ?

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Created 25/04/2012

Copyright © 2012 Stephen John Mann

Last Updated 25/04/2012