Minor Pieces

It’s a good day for any chess club when a player strong enough to play on top board turns up at your door. When he brings his three strong chess playing sons with him as well it must be something rather special. That’s what happened at Twickenham Chess Club in 1891 when the Humphreys family Continue reading

There was good news for Twickenham Chess Club in January 1889. A victory against Acton gave them an impressive 100% record for the season. We note a new name among the winners: as well as a Bull (here and here) we now have a Fox to add to the menagerie. Eighteen months later, and Mr A M Continue reading

Last time we left Twickenham’s finest chess problemist, Cecil Alfred Lucas Bull, as he was about to emigrate to Durban in 1892. Unfortunately, South African online records, both births, marriages and deaths, and newspaper archives, are few and far between, but we are able to provide a fairly comprehensive record of his chess career in Continue reading

Surrey Comet 5 March 1887 If you’ve been paying attention you’ll have seen this before. I’d like to draw your attention to Twickenham’s Board 3, Mr. C. A. L. Bull. In the world of over the board chess he was a Minor Piece, but in the rarefied world of chess problems he was undoubtedly a Continue reading

You’ve seen this match result before. On board 5 we have Mr R Ganthony, a man with an unusual surname. It should be possible to find out more about him. Unlike the other players we’ve seen, he was from Richmond, not Twickenham or Teddington, but there were three Mr R Ganthonys (Ganthonies?) of chess playing Continue reading

You’ve seen this before: (You might also have spotted a much later game between the Twickenham Board 5 and the Isleworth Board 1 in my previous Minor Piece.) You’ll notice Twickenham fielded two military men in this match. We need to find out more about them. The rank of Lieutenant-General is the third highest in Continue reading

You saw this result in my recent article about the Coward family. There are some other names of interest in this Twickenham team. On board 5 for Twickenham was Sydney Meymott. Many players, like Arthur and Randulph Coward, only play competitive chess for a few years before moving on to another stage in their lives. There are Continue reading

Working Mens’ Clubs in Twickenham and surrounding areas had been meeting each other for friendly competitions since the early 1870s. These would typically involve some combination of activities such as chess, draughts, whist, cribbage, dominoes and bagatelle. Twickenham Chess Club, for its first few years, seemed to content itself with internal handicap tournaments along with Continue reading

On 8 April 1882, Edward Griffith Brewer posted an advertisement in the Surrey Comet. The great Joseph Henry Blackburne was going to give a blindfold simultaneous display at Twickenham Chess Club. The following week, they published a report: As local papers usually did, and still do, they got it wrong, quite apart from calling a simul a tournament. George Edward Norwood Continue reading

Last time I wrote about Oliver Harcourt Labone. Further research has revealed more information about his mother and both his (probable) biological and step-fathers, along with further coincidences. No chess, this time, I’m afraid, but some great stories. Let’s start with Richard Austwick Westbrook. He was a solicitor, born in 1815: his father, also Richard, would, Continue reading