Yorkshire Chess History

Contents:

Yorkshire British Chess Champions

Home

Narrative

A small number of British Chess Champions have been connected with Yorkshire either by birth or residence.

Name	When British Champion
Henry Ernest Atkins	1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1924 1925
Fred Dewhirst Yates	1913 1914 1921 1926 1928 1931
Michael John Haygarth	1964
Brian Ratcliffe Eley	1972
George Steven Botterill	1974 1977
Gawain Christopher Bernard Jones	2012 2017

Leicester-born Huddersfield-resident Atkins’s tally of 9 wins has been exceeded only by Jonathan Penrose who achieved 10 wins.

Yorkshire-born Yates (popularly misnamed “Frederick Dewhurst Yates”), with his tally of 6 wins, lies third in the all-time list of numbers of wins. (Michael Adams is perhaps the person most likely to overtake him, with Nigel Short the next most likely.)

The above listed are winners of the British Championship at over-the-board chess, unrestricted by age or gender. There are, of course, age-limited and gender-limited championships, rapid-play championships, and correspondence championships.

The present writer is not qualified to spot relevant parties in lists of winners of the various age brackets of British Junior Championships, though I seem to remember A. (Andrew) C. L. Dyson popping up quite a lot.

When it comes to British (open) Correspondence Chess Champions, we find (at least) the following:

Name	When Champion	Note (as at 25/04/2012)
B H Wood	1944‑45	“Barry” (Baruch) H. Wood (deceased) was born in Sheffield
M A Walker	1972-73	Mike Walker, long of Leeds Chess Club, now plays over the board for Undercliffe
C C W Shephard	1977‑78 1978‑79 (jointly)	Chris Shephard has long been resident in Sheffield, having been raised in Birmingham.
C C Williams	1984‑85 (jointly)	Chris Williams has long been resident in Rotherham
P J R Millican	1989‑90	Peter Millican was born and long-resident in Yorkshire
A Barnsley	1993‑95 (jointly)	Tony Barnsley was resident in Sheffield (since moved)
R V M Hall	1995‑97	Richard Hall was a Bradford lad
S Tatlow	1999‑01	Steve Tatlow (deceased) was long resident in Doncaster
W F Lumley	2006‑07 (jointly) 2011-12	Bill Lumley plays over-the-board for Netherton

Recognising past winners in terms of place of birth or residence is not easy, so some other winners from the past may have been Yorkshire players.

As British Ladies’ Correspondence Chess Champions we have Valerie Craven of Leeds (some-time Leeds Woodhouse Cup captain, and formerly coached by Hull’s Roelof Westra) and Toni Halliwell (who was Miss T. Loftus of Keighley last time I played her in the Woodhouse Cup or I. M. Brown Shield, whichever it was, forty years ago, or more):

Name

When Champion

Valerie Craven

earlier wins ?

2001‑02

2002‑03

2003‑04

2005‑06

2007‑08 (jointly)

Toni Halliwell

1980‑81

2010‑11

2011‑12

Created

25/04/2012

Last Updated

06/03/2021