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Sheffield Chess Congress
History Though annual chess congresses of one sort or another have been taking place in England for roughly 150 years, the competitions were initially either run as knockouts which meant many players got few games, possibly only one, or else they were run as all-play-all events which meant the pragmatic need to keep duration limited meant the number of players was necessarily significantly restricted. Thus, a congress catering for 200 players over a weekend was inconceivable until relatively recently.
However, the introduction of the Swiss Pairing System meant much larger numbers of players could be squeezed into an event of relatively limited duration, as compared with the previous systems.
Weekend congress run on the Swiss system became increasingly numerous in England in the 1960s. In the mid-60s, the Sheffield chess-player had within relatively easy reach the annual Hull congress started by the late John Lawson, the Scunthorpe congress run (and presumably started) by the late George W Simmons, and the peripatetic Easter Congress of the Yorkshire Chess Association which in time stopped moving round and settled in Harrogate. From there, other Yorkshire cities and towns started their annual congresses. First Congress in Sheffield (?)
As far as Sheffield is concerned, the first weekend congress of this type to be run here was a YCA Easter Congress of the mid-to-late 1960s the responsibility for whose running had fallen that year to the Sheffield & District Chess Association. This was held at a church hall on Burngreave Road, on the left going uphill, perhaps Burngreave Methodist Church though perhaps an earlier building than the present one. The chief organiser of this event was Herbert W Groobey, a member of Sheffield YMCA Chess Club, who had presented to him by the YCA a chess clock as an expression of gratitude for him doing the job. False Start
At a later date, perhaps the late 1970s, the then general secretary of the S&DCA engineered the setting up of an S&DCA subcommittee to investigate the organisation of a Sheffield Congress. Whilst a small group stepped forward to sit on this subcommittee, it became evident that they were assuming back-seat roles, telling the secretary how he should do things, and not suggesting ways in which they might contribute to actually doing things. So, that secretary (the present writer) decided it was not going to happen. Second and Third Congresses in Sheffield
At the start of the 1980s, Brian England, who then played for Barnsley, and his wife Christine, who was not a chess-player herself, decided to set about organising a Sheffield Chess Congress. They ran one in two successive years, 1981 and 1982 (or possibly 1982 and 1983), one at least held at Sheffield University’s Ranmoor Hall, but then they called it a day. At the S&DCA AGM prior to the first event, Brian expressed concern that things were not going well in terms of numbers of entries received to date, and that a significant private financial loss might result. One individual offered to share any such loss, but these concerns proved unfounded, and the congress was arguably the most successful ever run in Sheffield! First Sustained Series of Annual Sheffield Congresses
After a while, another S&DSCA general secretary, Steve Bessell, decided to re-boot the Sheffield Chess Congress. Gerry Walsh of Cleveland was roped in as chief controller and controller of the Open section, while Steve Mann and Geoff Brown served as controllers of the Major and Intermediate sections respectively. Steve B controlled the Minor. Brian Stephenson was also involved (entries secretary?). Another person involved was Adrian Millward, was acted as a sort of Organiser without Portfolio, helping as, when and how necessary.
This series was built up so that there were annually two weekend standard-play congresses, roughly in autumn and spring respectively, and two one-day rapidplay events - 4 events in total each year.
That series fizzled out after about 1999 when Surrey-born Steve Bessell found it necessary to move south to Kingston-upon-Thames to look after his aged father. Nobody else stepped in to take over the pivotal role of congress secretary.
Three or so One-Offs
In November 2007, Spectrum Chess, consisting of Les Day and Norman Went, ran a congress in Sheffield. (Where there two Spectrum events?)
Shortly after that probably, a one-off congress was run in Sheffield by David Bentley of Chesterfield.
During the same period, somebody from outside the area came to work as headmaster of a school in Sheffield. He had at some stage been in charge of junior chess for the BCF/ECF. He decided to run a grandmaster tournament in Sheffield, arranging sponsorship from a local business with one of its two partners. However, at the last minute, the sponsorship fell through as the second partner in the business needed to agree to the sponsorship but would not do so. That left certain well-known grandmasters wanting to know after the event when they would be getting their prize money! How that was all resolved is unclear, but the organiser receded from the local chess scene.
Second Sustained Series of Annual Sheffield Congresses
The British Championships for 2011 had been arranged to be held in Sheffield, taking place 24th July to 6th August, at Ponds Forge. As was then the practice, the local chess organisation had the option of a “British” qualifying place being incorporated into a congress run by them before the championship event. In 2010, people occasionally sent round e-mails asking if anything was being done about organising such a congress (but not offering to do it!).
Later in 2010, the S&DCA needed to appoint a new Chair of the Executive (who then carried out most functions now performed by the President except chairing the AGM, the two posts now being re-combined). The post had to be filled by a Vice-President, and of the theoretical candidates only the present writer was daft enough to take on the job.
The new Chair of the Executive did not want to be seen to miss out on the option of a qualifying tournament for the British Championship, and set up another subcommittee which led to a second series of annual congresses, though limited to only one per annum.
The first congress secretary was Paul Bailey. The chief controller was the then ECF Chief Arbiter, the now-late David Welch, who continued as chief controller for the rest of the series. Paul was entries secretary and Steve Mann the treasurer. Others on the committee were Andrew Hards, Dave Latham and Brian Stephenson who from 2012 was congress secretary and entries secretary. Local people involved in controlling sections included Jim Burnett, Nigel Carpino, Steve Mann and Phil Beckett. The venue in 2011 was Firth Park Community Arts College, Fircroft Avenue, Sheffield, but from 2012 to 2017 the venue was King Edward VII Upper School, Glossop Road, Sheffield.
However, the present writer, who was effectively congress secretary with Brian as entries secretary, got to the stage where he wanted to stop, and Brian was similarly getting to the same stage, so we both stepped down, and there was no rush of people willing to take over. Brian expressed this on his congress website as follows:
Five Years On
Members of Woodseats Chess Club who were playing in the Doncaster Congress in February 2023 wondered why there was no congress in Sheffield, and resolved to try to re-resurrect the Sheffield Chess Congress. So, with Connor Fairfield as the primary mover, and Bill Ward trying to stir up engagement from others (looks like they’ve got a website manager at least), we have got to here - (at 10/03/2023) initial planning for a Sheffield Chess Congress in 2023.
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