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

Last time we left London chess professional Francis Joseph Lee as the calendar turned from 1899 into 1900. He was finally selected for the Anglo-American Cable Match that year, being assigned to Board 2 where he took the white pieces against one of his London 1899 opponents, Jackson Whipps Showalter. Standing worse much of the way… Continue reading

If you read anything about chess from the late 1880s through to 1909 you’ll often come across the name of FJ (Francis Joseph) Lee, a regular competitor in both national and international events during that period. He played pretty consistently at about 2350 strength, finishing below the genuine masters, but above the amateurs. Yet he… Continue reading

Let me take you back more than 125 years, to the great London International Chess Tournament of 1899. Most of the world’s strongest players were there: the first two World Champions, Steinitz and Lasker, Pillsbury and Chigorin, Maroczy and Schlechter, Janowski and Blackburne. Here’s the cross-table. There was also a second section, won by Marshall,… Continue reading

One of the fun things family historians like to do is the One Name Study. You take an unusual surname and find out everything you can about all the bearers of that name. I have an interest (I’ll explain more later) in the very rare, and now, I believe extinct, at least in that form,… Continue reading

We left Reginald Charles Noel-Johnson last time, having just married Jane Ann Richards and joined the RAF on war service. Before I move on, my thanks to Brian Denman, who has sent me a whole pile of Noel-Johnson’s games. I’ll add a few earlier scores here: as always, click here and paste the pgn to… Continue reading

Here’s another game played by Alfred Lenton (see here and here), from the 1936 British Championship in Bournemouth against Reginald Charles Noel-Johnson, the subject of this Minor Piece. Noel-Johnson seemed ill at ease against Lenton’s favourite Réti Opening. (Click here and paste the pgn to play through any game in this article.) [Event “British Championship: Bournemouth R5”][Date “1936.06.12”][White… Continue reading

Last time we left Alfred Lenton in 1939, at the outbreak of World War 2. Although Alfred didn’t serve in the war, there were fewer opportunities for him to play chess. The county championship continued to take place, with Lenton retaining his title in 1940, and there was also a wartime county chess league, along with… Continue reading