Minor Pieces

If you’ve been following these articles you’ll have met quite a lot of Twickenham Chess Club members from the 1880s and 1890s. You might have noticed they all had several things in common. They were all male, and, although they followed a wide variety of occupations, they were all from well-off upper middle class backgrounds.… Continue reading

Last time we left George Edward Wainwright at the time of the 1921 census, when, approaching the age of 60, he’d recently retired from his senior post with the now defunct Local Government Board and moved to his wife’s home village of Box, not far from Bath. Chess in London for him was now over: no… Continue reading

This is the third post in my series about George Edward Wainwright, sometime member of Twickenham, Guildford and Surbiton Chess Clubs, and one of the strongest English amateurs of his day. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. We left George in Surbiton in 1911, happily married, with four children and an important job in… Continue reading

It’s now time to return to George Edward Wainwright. Here he is again. You might recall that, in my previous article, we left him in 1901, an  English international player, previously a member of Twickenham Chess Club, but now living and playing chess in Guildford. The chess world would change a lot over the next decade,… Continue reading

Here’s a match from 1892 between Twickenham Chess Club and the National Liberal Club Chess Club (sounds a bit like Battersea Power Station Station, doesn’t it?). There are some familiar names among Twickenham’s successful players, but you’ll also see that their strongest player Mr G E Wainwright, an amateur champion of the British Chess Association,… Continue reading

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