At a Liverpool-Manchester match on 17/11/1883, the Rev. John Owen had apparently broached the idea of a northern chess association. If a major objective of such an association were to organise inter-county team chess, then it would require each northern county to have its own county chess organisation.

Of the original constituent counties of the NCCU, only Lincolnshire (!) had its own county chess association in place in 1883, that having been formed in 1877, though Cleveland in a sense existed then in that the Cleveland CA’s earlier incarnation, the Tess Side CA, was formed in 1883. Yorkshire had the West Yorkshire Chess Association (formed 1856, to succeed the original Yorkshire Chess Association formed in 1841) which acted in such matters for the county as a whole, but the other northern counties had no such County or Riding Association. Other counties were slower off the mark.

Cumberland CA appeared in 1884. The oddly-named Yorkshire County Chess Club appeared in 1886 to act for the county as a whole more formally than had the West Yorkshire Chess Association. Cheshire CA came along in 1888. A merger in 1896 of the West Yorkshire Chess Association and the Yorkshire County Chess Club produced the modern Yorkshire Chess Association (returning the status quo to that of the days of the original Yorkshire Chess Association formed in 1841). Lancashire CA came into being in 1897. The modern Durham and Northumberland Chess Associations were not formed until 1925 and 1930 respectively, and though they did not participate in earlier years in the NCCU over-the-board-county team championship those counties nominated players to participate in the NCCU individual championship from its start in 1901. Prior to 1938, the Cumberland Chess Association seems sometimes to have served as a joint Cumberland and Westmoreland association, then in 1938, Cumberland CA formally became the Cumberland & Westmoreland Chess Association, Furness being added much later to finally give Cumbria.

The idea of the northern counties working in concert first became a reality when “North” versus “South” matches were held in 1893 and 1894. Even then, the North had to wait until 1899 for the Northern Counties Chess Union to come into being.

The inaugural meeting of the Northern Counties Chess Union took place at the rooms of the North Manchester Chess Club on January 28th 1899. Mr. A. E. Moore (North Manchester) was appointed Chairman and Mr. I. M. Brown (Leeds) was appointed Secretary.

These were the counties represented:

Cheshire	now part of Cheshire & North Wales CA
Cumberland	now part of Cumbria CA
Durham
Lancashire
Lincolnshire	now in MCCU
Northumberland
Westmoreland	now part of Cumbria CA
Yorkshire

Written by Steve Mann