PRESS RELEASE, Sept 2023
The West Riding Hotel by the city station in Leeds is well known to thirsty travellers, hungry office workers, noisy revellers, and boisterous sports fans who gather there in large numbers, especially if Leeds United or Leeds Rhinos are live on the telly. On Wednesday evenings, however, sports fans wishing to cheer on their team often find it’s standing room only as the tables are taken up by a plethora of chess players doggedly pursuing their art, oblivious to the noise and clatter emanating from the over-big screens and overexcited fans.
Leeds Chess Club, a little-known but ancient and venerable Leeds institution, currently uses the West Riding as its venue. Leeds United formed in 1919 after Leeds City was wound up by the FA, Leeds Rhinos formed in 1870 initially as Leeds St John’s, and the recent England v Scotland match celebrated the 150th anniversary of the first international football match in 1873.
Leeds Chess Club is so old its members can’t exactly remember when it was formed. It was among the strongest chess clubs in England when Victoria began her reign in 1837 and it’s still going strong after Elizabeth has finished hers, with a quartet of Georges and Edwards thrown in for good measure. Next year, the club celebrates the 200th anniversary of its first ever recorded match, a tie with Liverpool Chess Club in 1824. The format of the tie was the only one available to them at the time, a correspondence game. The members of each club collaborated to decide their move, popped it in an envelope and sent it off by penny post. The game lasted a whole year. The railways didn’t arrive in Leeds until the 1840s, so an over-the-board match would have involved a gruelling trip by coach and horses lasting four or five days with several costly hostelry stops along the way. No matter what the game or sport, it’s always nice to beat Liverpool. They were dispatched in 47 moves with a kind of Reverse Slav Defence (Bongcloud Variation). For those interested in such matters, the game went: White: Liverpool, Black: Leeds 1. d4 d5 2. e3 c5 3. dxc5 e5 4. b4 a5 5. c3 b6 6. Bb5+ Ke7 7. c6 axb4 8. a4 f5 9. cxb4 Nf6 10. Nf3 Ke6 11. Ng5+ Ke7 12. Qc2 Qc7 13. Bd2 Ke8 14. O-O Bd6 15. g3 h6 16. a5 bxa5 17. Nf3 Kf7 18. bxa5 g5 19. a6 Qb6 20. Qb2 Bxa6 21. Rc1 Nxc6 22. Rxc6 Qxb5 23. Qc1 Rc8 24. Rxc8 Rxc8 25. Nc3 Qc6 26. Qa3 Ra8 27. Nb5 Ke6 28. Qb2 Bxb5 29. Rxa8 Be2 30. Rh8 Bxf3 31. Rxh6 Qa4 32. Qc1 Qd1+ 33. Qxd1 Bxd1 34. e4 fxe4 35. Bxg5 Be7 36. Kf1 Kf7 37. Bd2 d4 38. h3 Bc5 39. g4 e3 40. fxe3 dxe3 41. Bxe3 Bxe3 42. Rh8 Bf3 43. Rc8 e4 44. Rc3 Nd5 45. Rb3 Ke6 46. g5 Bd1 47. Rb1 Bc2 White gives up the game, 0-1 Liverpudlians aren’t known as good losers and their chess team was no exception. They demanded a rematch, which Leeds rather snootily refused, thereby causing consternation on the Mersey. An angry letter in the Liverpool Kaleidoscope of 11th October 1825 expressed their disgust: |
LIVERPOOL LEEDS MATCH.
<> TO THE EDITOR. SIR,-Being one of the numerous readers of your Tuesday’s publication, and having derived much pleasure from studying the beautiful positions which you weekly favour us with on the chess board, I have taken the liberty of enclosing you all the moves that have been made by the amateur chess players of Leeds and Liverpool, in a game that has been for some time playing between the respective parties, and which has been determined in favour of the former. It was expected that the rubber, and not the game, would have decided which of the parties were the most skilful players; but, on the Liverpool amateurs challenging their opponents for a second game, they received an [illegible]ing letter, declining the challenge, assigning, as their reason, that, “unless a game is well contested there is no pleasure in playing; and we think another would be uninteresting to us”. The modesty of the Leeds amateurs is not less conspicuous in this instance than it was when they ventured to praise themselves in the London Courier of the 9th Sept. last; and the “laurels of victory” that they seemed to be preparing themselves to wear they are now by no means inclined to risk on the decision of a second game. No doubt they act wisely; perhaps they may call it honourable, too. In conclusion, having seen the letter in which the Leeds amateurs decline accepting the challenge, I should advise, that, whenever they have occasion again to hold a correspondence, they would appoint a gentleman to conduct it. I am yours &c
Two hundred years later - better late than never - Leeds Chess Club have agreed to right the wrongs of history and in 2024 will meet Liverpool Chess Club again in a long-awaited rematch. The format is still under discussion, but one idea is to play twenty boards, ten in Leeds, ten in Liverpool, simultaneously. Times have changed, we now have cars, and there’s nothing like a face-to-face game. Both clubs are enormously proud of their histories and are looking forward to the encounter. Leeds Chess Club wrote its first formal constitution in 1834, Liverpool in 1837, but the 1824 match proves that chess players were active in northern cities long before that. The true founding dates are shrouded in the mists of time, but the pattern is repeated in towns and cities across the country. The first proto-chess clubs were formed by officers and gentlemen returning from the Napoleonic Wars (a trial-run at a world war) in the early-1800s. They found themselves living in a time of peace and prosperity - for us in the UK, if not for the rest of the world - when Britain was spreading outwards and building its empire. Peace and prosperity means only one thing to a chess player, of course. Time to get the equipment out. |
In the early days, chess was a game only for the well-to-do. Annual subscriptions cost about the same as keeping a horse or a servant for a year so the game was practised in gentlemen’s clubs and coffee houses. Smoky leisure establishments were opening all over the country in the eary-1800s, Simpson's Cigar Divan on the Strand in London being the most famous. For a membership fee of a guinea a year, or 1/6d a day, gentlemen could sit in comfort, drink a coffee, with perhaps a bracer to follow, read the paper, and pass the time with their friends. You and I, like them, are aware of the very best way to pass time with a friend. "Fancy a game, old bean?"
Today, chess is no longer a game for the privileged few but a game for the many. What was once a game exclusively for men played in smoky back rooms is now a game for all. All races, philosophies and creeds are represented at the club and there are a half a dozen women members battling away with the men, the strongest among them being WFM Liza Kisteneva who recently finished runner up in the English Women’s Online Blitz Championship. Lots of children and young people are keen on the game too, but as the club plays on licensed premises, young people are referred to the Leeds Junior Chess Club, which has suitable facilities and adequate safeguarding measures in place. “Chess is thriving at the moment,” said club manager Rupert Jones who recently won the 2024 English Chess Federation President’s Award for Services to Chess. He has spent a lifetime fostering the game around the world. FIDE (chess’s world governing body) Development Commissioner from 2006 to 2018, he was instrumental in enabling entire nations to play chess, especially in Africa. He puts the game’s current popularity down to two things. The Covid Effect, when people started playing chess online during lockdown; and the Queen’s Gambit Effect, where Anya Taylor-Joy showed us that chess has a fascinating story to tell. “We’ve had dozens of new members this year, mostly younger people, with lots of women among them, and we’re getting twenty or thirty turning up every club night.” Chess, it seems, is booming in Leeds and the game has shaken off its “boring” reputation. If you live or work in the city centre and are looking for something to do on Wednesday evening, there is now another option. If you live in the suburbs, there are chess clubs in Alwoodley, Boston Spa, Roundhay, West Leeds and at the University. Any one of them will be happy to train you up if you’re new to the game, or make sure you get the right level of competition if you’re an experienced player new to the city. Happy pawn pushing to all. The club is looking for local sponsors to help them put on a show in 2024 to celebrate 200 years of chess in Leeds.
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