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Leamington Chess Club was founded in 1851 in Royal Leamington Spa, [1] the year of the first international chess tournament in London.
The club currently competes in the Leamington and District Chess League with neighbouring clubs including Solihull, Stratford, Banbury, Kenilworth, Solihull and Nuneaton. The club is based at the Guys Cliffe Avenue Tennis & Squash Club, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32 6LZ, and meets every Tuesday, year round, starting at 7.30pm.
The first president of the club was the Rev. John Henry Smith, the Vicar of Milverton, The secretary was the Rev W S Temple.
In 1858, the "Chess Association" as it now styled itself, held a meeting at Queen's College, Birmingham. On 27 August, Paul Morphy gave a blindfold simultaneous display against eight opponents, chosen apparently more for their official positions than their chess ability. One board was taken by the new secretary of the Leamington Chess Club, Jabez Carr, who tried to confuse the blindfolded Morphy with an irregular flank opening and was duly trounced in 23 moves.
In 1885, the Rev William Grundy, headmaster of King's School in Warwick and a member of the Leamington Chess Club, organised a small invitation Chess Congress at the school from 5 to 10 January. Again there were two tournaments. The First Class ended in a tie between Grundy and Rev John Coker of Buckinghamshire. The Second Class was won by Rev. Arthur Percy Dodd, at the time curate of Weston under Wetherley and secretary of the Leamington Chess Club. There were also three consultation games, one of which contributed to the theory of the Steinitz Gambit in the Vienna Game. It was published in the British Chess Magazine and the white king was chased right across the board, where the tables were turned and it helped to mate black in only twenty moves. Rosario Aspa, a Sicilian-born member of the Leamington Club, was one of the victorious consultees.
In December 1890, the great J H Blackburne gave two simultaneous displays at the Royal Pump Rooms against the members of the Leamington Club, winning all 22 games on 22 December and the next day taking on six players blindfolded, winning four games and drawing two. A document from 1896 lists Blackburne as an honorary member of the club and at that time the club possessed a framed list of past members which also included Howard Staunton and Herr Lowenthal from the 1850s.
In the earliest document still in the club archive (existing only in photocopied form) dated February 1891, with the address "Pump Room", Signor Aspa, Rev. A.P. Dodd, W. Hannay Esq. and Dr. Haynes are named as vice-presidents and the club president as Right Hon. Arthur Wellesley Peel. The earliest known evidence of the latter comes from an article (reprinted from the Hereford Times ) on the popularity of chess in the smoke-room of the House of Commons, in the December 1890 British Chess Magazine. "The Speaker, we presume, is a chessplayer, since he is the president of the Leamington Chess Club." [2] It is not known when A W Peel (youngest son of Sir Robert Peel) became club president but from 1865 he had been one of the two MPs representing rural Warwickshire and, having been elected Speaker of the House of Commons in 1884 following franchise reform, in 1885 he was returned unopposed by the new single-member constituency of Warwick and Leamington. According to the Dictionary of National Biography , "Peel proved to be a formidable Speaker.... his moral effect was famously seen on the night of 27 July 1893 when during the committee stage of the second [Irish] Home Rule Bill a serious fight broke out on the floor of the House. The chairman of committees summoned the speaker whose arrival in the house, like that of 'a parent wise as well as fond' at once restored order." [3] Presumably keeping Leamington Chess Club in order was a doddle in comparison. He retired as Speaker for reasons of ill-health and was raised to the peerage; Rt. Hon. Viscount Peel remained president until at least 1896.
David Hodgkins 1969-2015 was an Olympian in both physical and mental arts, competing in judo at the Paralympic Games of both Seoul (winning a bronze medal to go with his European silver) and Barcelona. He was a talented chess player who represented his country in Blind Chess Olympiads in Laguna (1996) and Chennai (2012). One of his wins from the latter tournament is given below, a quick win which helped Great Britain finish 7th out of 25 in the final group. [4]
Daniel Kim achieved third place in his first ever adult chess tournament aged 8 and second place in Warwickshire's under-10 championship [5]
Arthur Wellesley Peel (the son of Sir Robert Peel) was a British Liberal politician who represented Warwick and, after subsequent boundary changes, Leamington and Warwick, and was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1884 to 1895. [1] Peel was the Speaker of the House of Commons and the president of Leamington Chess Club.
The Opera Game was an 1858 chess game, played at an opera house in Paris. The American master Paul Morphy played against two strong amateurs: the German noble Karl II, Duke of Brunswick, and the French aristocrat Comte Isouard de Vauvenargues. It was played as a consultation game, with Duke Karl and Count Isouard jointly deciding each move for the black pieces, while Morphy controlled the white pieces by himself. The game was played in a box while an opera was performed on stage. Morphy quickly checkmated his opponents following rapid development of material, involving a queen sacrifice.
Warwickshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon and Victorian novelist George Eliot,, at Nuneaton. Other significant towns include Rugby, Leamington Spa, Bedworth, Kenilworth and Atherstone. The county offers a mix of historic towns and large rural areas. It is a popular destination for international and domestic tourists to explore both medieval and more recent history.
Harry Nelson Pillsbury was a leading American chess player. At the age of 22, he won the Hastings 1895 chess tournament, one of the strongest tournaments of the time, but his illness and early death prevented him from challenging for the World Chess Championship.
Daniel Harrwitz was a German chess master.
Joseph Henry Blackburne was a British chess player. Nicknamed "The Black Death", he dominated the British scene during the latter part of the 19th century. Blackburne learned the game at the relatively late age of 17 or 18, but he quickly became a strong player and went on to develop a professional chess career that spanned over 50 years. At one point he was one of the world's leading players, with a string of tournament victories behind him, and popularised chess by giving simultaneous and blindfold displays around the country. Blackburne also published a collection of his own games.
Siegbert Tarrasch was a German chess player, considered to have been among the strongest players and most influential theoreticians of the late 19th and early 20th century.
The Hastings 1895 chess tournament was a round-robin tournament of chess conducted at the Brassey Institute in Hastings, England from 5 August to 2 September 1895.
Amos Burn (1848–1925) was an English chess player, one of the world's leading players at the end of the 19th century, and a chess writer.
Anderssen's Opening is a chess opening defined by the opening move:
The Danish Gambit, known as the Nordisches Gambit in German and the Noords Gambiet in Dutch, is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
Handicaps in chess are handicapping variants which enable a weaker player to have a chance of winning against a stronger one. There are a variety of such handicaps, such as material odds, extra moves, extra time on the chess clock, and special conditions. Various permutations of these, such as "pawn and two moves", are also possible.
A simultaneous exhibition or simultaneous display is a board game exhibition in which one player plays multiple games at a time with a number of other players. Such an exhibition is often referred to simply as a "simul".
The Oxford University Chess Club (OUCC) was founded at the University of Oxford in 1869. It is the oldest university chess club in the United Kingdom. The Club meets each Wednesday evening during University term time. They field two teams in the Oxfordshire Chess League.
George Henry Mackenzie was a Scottish-born American chess master.
The London System is an opening system in chess where White opens with 1.d4 and develops the dark-squared bishop to f4, then supports the d4-pawn with pawns on e3 and c3. The other bishop is developed to d3 and the knights typically to f3 and d2. This set-up often results in a closed game. The London System can be used against virtually any Black defence and thus comprises a smaller body of opening theory than many other openings. Although it has a reputation as a solid opening, the London System has faced criticism for its tedious nature and lack of dynamic play.
William Henry Krause Pollock was an English chess master, and a surgeon.
Charles Edward Ranken was a Church of England clergyman and a minor British chess master. He co-founded and was the first president of the Oxford University Chess Club. He was also the editor of the Chess Player's Chronicle and a writer for the British Chess Magazine. Ranken is best known today as the co-author of Chess Openings Ancient and Modern (1889), one of the first important opening treatises in the English language.
James A. Leonard was a young American chess master, who grew up as a son of poor Irish immigrants in New York City. He learned to play chess at age 16 or 17. Before his 20th birthday, he was already famous for his fierce attacking play and prowess at blindfold chess, at which he played as many as ten games simultaneously.
William Norwood Potter was an English chess master and writer. He is primarily remembered for the quality of his chess journalism, and for his association with Wilhelm Steinitz, the first winner of a world chess championship match.