Chess clubs named after individuals

[John Cox]

Back in the Midlands scene of the 1970s there were (and I hope there still are) two clubs called Wolverhampton Kipping and Walsall Kipping.

I suppose (possibly I'm wrong) that these are both named after the famous problemist Cyril Kipping, who I assume (also perhaps wrongly) was a player too. Is this true?

And, supposing it is, are there any other chess clubs named after people? And how come there were two - one senses some long-forgotten spat on the Committee?!

[Gordon Cadden]

Not many clubs named after famous chessplayers. Frank Marshall, Mikhail Tal, Jose Raul Capablanca, and Paul Morphy come to mind. Vera Menchik probably had the most famous private club. To become a member, you simply had to lose a game to Vera. Illustrious members included, Samuel Reshevsky, Mir Sultan Khan, Sir George Thomas, Harry Golombek, C. H. O'D. Alexander, Jacque Mieses, Karel Opocensky, Max Euwe, and Albert Becker.

[Stewart Reuben]

Walsall Kipping still exists and has a good website. It was formed in 1942.
Googling Wolverhampton Kipping yields no information. There is a Wolverhampton Chess Club.

[Richard James]

Yes, the clubs were indeed named after CS Kipping.

There's some interesting information on Kipping and his family here. There were close family connections with the artist (and chess player) Charles Allen Du Val. CSK was an interesting man - a pioneer of chess education on the curriculum in schools and (something I didn't know until reading this) also a juggler. His grandfather James Stanley Kipping was one of the leading lights of chess in Manchester in the mid 19th century whose opponents included Morphy and Anderssen. There are nine Kipping-Anderssen games from 1857 extant, with JSK winning 5 and losing 4. Sonas gives his highest rating as 2412 and his best world rank as #19.

This is also interesting - memories from his former pupils of CSK, who seems to have been, like all the best headmasters, rather eccentric.

Not so many chess clubs named after individuals in the UK perhaps, but many elsewhere. Marshall springs immediately to mind (cross-posted with Gordon Cadden) and I suspect there are many others.

Two prominent chess teachers (and members of this forum) name their coaching businesses after themselves. There were also those who thought RJCC stood for Richard James Chess Club!

[Alex Holowczak]

I can confirm that Wolverhampton Kipping no longer exists, but that Walsall Kipping does. Probably Walsall Kipping's most well-known current members (nationally) are David Anderton and Jana Bellin.

[Reg Clucas]

I can confirm that Wolverhampton Kipping no longer exists

Maybe they all fell asleep at the board?!

I'll get my coat.

[Michael Jones]

It merged with another club a few years ago and changed its name in the process, but there used to be a club in Coventry named after two manufacturers of farm machinery - Daniel Massey and Harry Ferguson.

[Paul Bielby]

Curious that this topic should come up today. I was looking at the list of entries for the Malta Open in November and was a bit surprised to find the Blackburne Club in Nickelsdorf, Austria.

[Colin Patterson]

I believe there is also a Staunton Club in the Netherlands.

[John Philpott]

A Capablanca Chess Club played in the London League between 2002/3 (and quite possibly earlier) and 2007/8 in Division 4 and latterly Division 3.

[John Cox]

Yes, the Marshall I suppose (though didn't it close?). But clubs named after famous players who don't have anything to do with the club are a bit of a different category - my impression is that Kipping was actually involved with the Midlands clubs. Perhaps that's wrong.

[Richard James]

Yes, the Marshall I suppose (though didn't it close?).

No - you might be thinking of the Manhattan Chess Club, which closed in 2002.

[AustinElliott]

Yes, the clubs were indeed named after CS Kipping.

There's some interesting information on Kipping and his family here. There were close family connections with the artist (and chess player) Charles Allen Du Val. CSK was an interesting man - a pioneer of chess education on the curriculum in schools and (something I didn't know until reading this) also a juggler. His grandfather James Stanley Kipping was one of the leading lights of chess in Manchester in the mid 19th century whose opponents included Morphy and Anderssen. There are nine Kipping-Anderssen games from 1857 extant, with JSK winning 5 and losing 4. Sonas gives his highest rating as 2412 and his best world rank as #19.

Anyone who studied organic chemistry might well be familiar with the Kipping name through Frederic Stanley Kipping (son of James Stanley and father of Cyril) who co-authored with WH Perkin a famous and much reprinted late C19th - mid C20th textbook, Perkin and Kipping's Organic Chemistry.

Charles Allen du Val is another interesting character, and of course is also connected by time, place, and chess interests (esp the Manchester Chess Club) to another famous chessplayer of the C19th who has been mentioned on this thread, JH Blackburne.

...there used to be a club in Coventry named after two manufacturers of farm machinery - Daniel Massey and Harry Ferguson

Massey-Ferguson tractors are still around (a big favourite with our small son due to their traditional bright red colour), though I'm pretty sure the marque is no longer UK-owned. Like the idea of a chess club named after them.

Presumably works clubs, with names to match, must once have been extremely common. I remember in Oxford in the 70s playing matches against teams from the Morris Motors club.

[Stewart Reuben]

When I was a youngster there used to be a National Works Team Championship. There is still a London Commercial League.

[John Clarke]

Back in the 60s and 70s one of the clubs in my local league (the North Circular) was the Ferguson Thorn Chess Club, often also known Thorn Electrics. Thorn was Julius Thorn, who founded his eponymous firm in the 1920s, but I haven't yet been able to trace Mr Ferguson, whose company appears to have been of American origin. Its UK arm was taken over by Thorn in the 1950s.

There were two other works teams in the league at that time - Standard Telephones and ERDE (later known as Powdermill, after it severed connections with its parent organisation). All three clubs are now defunct, Powdermill having folded a few years ago.