My first Minor Piece featured the Reverend Samuel Walter Earnshaw, the missing link between Paul Morphy and my great grandmother Jane Houghton. I promised another article at some point demonstrating some more of his games. It’s more than time I wrote it, so here it is. Let me take you back first of all to 9… Continue reading

Ralph Jackson won the Sydney Junior Championship back in 1976 and was at the time of my first writing this article, ranked 7th among players in Australia born before 1960. He is also intrigued by family history, and his interest was piqued in 2015 when a cousin showed him transcripts of letters his great grandfather’s… Continue reading

Jack Redon was one of the elder statesmen at Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club for the first 20 years or so of my membership. On completing my studies in 1972 I joined the committee and got to know him well. Jack was a pretty strong player who was known for his artistic interests. He was… Continue reading

Last time I told you about Charles Dealtry Locock’s pioneering work in promoting chess for girls in the 1930s, and, in particular about his private pupil Elaine Saunders, the first genuine girl chess playing prodigy. She wasn’t the first girl chess prodigy, though. Back in 1891 9-year-old Lilian Baird was making headlines round the world with her… Continue reading

You’ve already read about Charles Dealtry Locock’s career as a chess player and problemist. In the final part of this trilogy you’ll learn more about his life, and about what might be seen as his most lasting and significant contribution to chess. You’ll recall that he married his first cousin, Ida Gertrude Locock, and that they had two… Continue reading

Last time I considered Charles Dealtry Locock’s tournament and match play in the 1880s and 1890s, at which point he gave up competitive chess. But it was far from the end of his chess career. Alongside his chess playing he had a parallel career as a chess problemist. In The Chess Bouquet (1897) he was given the opportunity to… Continue reading

Sir Charles Locock (1799-1875) was an interesting chap. Queen Victoria’s obstretician, he also pioneered potassium bromide as a treatment for epilepsy and conducted the autopsy in the notorious Eastbourne Manslaughter Case, establishing that an unfortunate 15-year-old boy had died as a result of corporal punishment. Locock had five sons, four of whom had distinguished careers. Charles… Continue reading

The Surrey County Chess Association runs a bewildering number of competitions of various types, one reason being that they’ve chosen to commemorate some of their long-serving administrators through trophies in their memory. The main league itself currently has five divisions. The first division is the Surrey Trophy, which dates all the way back to the… Continue reading

Last time, I introduced you to Edward Wallis, a Quaker chess player, problemist, writer and organiser from the Yorkshire seaside resort of Scarborough. I gave you the chance to read his book 777 Chess Miniatures in Three, for which A Neave Brayshaw BA LLB provided hints for solvers. Who, I wondered, was A Neave Brayshaw? It… Continue reading

Last time we visited the Yorkshire seaside resort of Scarborough in the company of Francis Joseph Lee, just a few weeks before his untimely death. Congresses like the British Championships only take place if there’s someone there to organise them, and, as it happened the prime mover of this one was someone who was mentioned in a different… Continue reading