Oh, What a Lovely War!

[Gerard Killoran]

With the anniversary of the outbreak of WW1 being commemorated almost everywhere, it is strange that chess historians haven't been publishing anything about the role of chess and chess players during the conflict.

Here's a less than glorious contribution to the war on the home front by the chess equivalent of the MCC. However I wouldn't feel too sorry for the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, he went on to become a Nazi.

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 18 1915.

LONDON CLUB DISOWNS GERMAN CHESS PLAYERS

Further illustration of the intense feeling in England against Germany and everything German was furnished at the last annual meeting of the City of London Chess Club, when a resolution was passed to strike the names of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, Dr. Emanuel Lasker, the world's champion, and Dr. S. Tarrasch, the champion of Germany, from its list of honorary members. Not satisfied with this expression of their displeasure. the directors sent a request to all members of German and Austrian birth, whether naturalized British subjects or not, not to frequent the club during the war.

Ten per cent of the members of the club are on active service, including G. A. Thomas, the club champion, who succeeded Eduard Lasker, now champion of the Metropolitan Chess League of New York, as title holder. Others are T. F. Lawrence, the international player; Major Rawlins, Captain A. Beamish, H. J. Snowden. E. MacDonald, H. S. Ward and E. M. Amphlett. Owing to the war the club lost thirty-eight members, and in the Murton Cup handicap tournament there was only one section, where formerly there have been as many as twelve.

Among the great names which are helping to make history on the battlefields of Europe and who are also excellent chess players are General Joffre, General von Hindenburg and Count Zeppelin.

Sharp-eyed readers will notice the name of Captain A. Beamish who was the subject of a previous post. I now believe that the chess player whose name appears variously as A. , A. E. , E. A. or Capt. Beamish was Edmund Arthur Beamish and not his tennis-playing brother, Alfred Ernest. The BCM of 1935 refers to a Capt. A. E. Beamish of the City of London and Hampstead clubs returning to chess after a twenty year gap. Elsewhere in BCM 1935 he is named as Capt. E. A. Beamish of the Hampstead team, so it is clear that the initials were interchangeable. My guess is that he preferred to be called Arthur.

Here he misses several chances (25. gxh6!) to take out a stronger opponent and walks into a nice mate.

[Event "City of London Chess Club Championship"] [Site "London"] [Date "1912.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Beamish, A. E."] [Black "Saunders, Harold"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C27"] [Opening "Vienna: Frankenstein-Dracula variation"] [PlyCount "68"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bc4 Nxe4 4. Qh5 Nd6 5. Bb3 Nc6 6. Nb5 g6 7. Qf3 f5 8. Qd5 Qe7 9. Nxc7+ Kd8 10. Nxa8 b6 11. Qf3 Bb7 12. h4 h6 13. Qh3 Bxa8 14. Ne2 Nd4 15. Nc3 Bg7 16. d3 Qf6 17. Bd2 g5 18. O-O-O e4 19. Kb1 f4 20. Bc1 f3 21. dxe4 Nxe4 22. Nxe4 Bxe4 23. gxf3 Bf5 24. hxg5 Qc6 25. Qg3 Nxb3 26. Qb8+ Ke7 27. Rde1+ Kf7 28. g6+ Bxg6 29. Qf4+ Bf6 30. axb3 Qxc2+ 31. Ka2 Qb1+ 32. Ka3 Qa1+ 33. Kb4 Qa5+ 34. Kc4 Qc5# {New York Sun, Sunday, December 29, 1912} 0-1

[JustinHorton]

War Game
War Game 2
War Game 3

[Gordon Cadden]

Harold Saunders was also a member of the Hampstead Club, winning the Championship Trophy three years in a row, 1910-11-12.
The top players did not give club loyalty as a priority. Sir George Thomas was the leading Nomad, playing at Metropolitan, City of London, West London, and the Hampstead Clubs, but not at the same time !
Baruch Wood was never one to let WW11 interfere with his chess reporting. In his 1941 volume, he reported on Cracow, and Munich.

[Gerard Killoran]

Harold Saunders was also a member of the Hampstead Club, winning the Championship Trophy three years in a row, 1910-11-12.
The top players did not give club loyalty as a priority. Sir George Thomas was the leading Nomad, playing at Metropolitan, City of London, West London, and the Hampstead Clubs, but not at the same time !
Baruch Wood was never one to let WW11 interfere with his chess reporting. In his 1941 volume, he reported on Cracow, and Munich.

It wasn't really disloyalty as the City of London saw it as beneath them to play other clubs, with the exception of the more ancient and even snobbier St. George's. The Metropolitan was set up by City players who were disgruntled with this attitude and wanted to play competitively in the London League. The British Chess Club was another short-lived alternative which launched international team chess with the Anglo-American Cable matches. I'm sure all of this is in A Century of British Chess by P. W. Sergeant, a book I confess I have yet to read.

ps Justin's links are more than worth a look. Another confession, I've seen them before and they slipped my mind when I wrote the above post. They have a shorter version of the news story without the list of the City members who were in the trenches.

[John Saunders]

Also relevant to the subject of the City of London Chess Club during WW1 is this interesting article by Edward Winter on the club's hon.sec. at the time, Joseph Walter Russell, whom William Winter in his 1960s memoir accused of xenophobia, and in particular hounding out the 80-year-old German-born club president who had settled in England some 50 years before the war and, incidentally, whose English-born daughter had played in the 1897 Ladies' International in London.

[Andy Stoker]

The Streatham and Brixton articles are excellent - informative and attractive. Thank you for posting the links.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The Streatham and Brixton articles are excellent - informative and attractive. Thank you for posting the links.

Agreed. Here's hoping that there is more on chess and WWI to be written over the next couple of years. It would be an ideal time for an attempt to publish a thematic history going into detail on the subject.

[Gordon Cadden]

Harold Saunders was also a member of the Hampstead Club, winning the Championship Trophy three years in a row, 1910-11-12.
The top players did not give club loyalty as a priority. Sir George Thomas was the leading Nomad, playing at Metropolitan, City of London, West London, and the Hampstead Clubs, but not at the same time !
Baruch Wood was never one to let WW11 interfere with his chess reporting. In his 1941 volume, he reported on Cracow, and Munich.

It wasn't really disloyalty as the City of London saw it as beneath them to play other clubs, with the exception of the more ancient and even snobbier St. George's. The Metropolitan was set up by City players who were disgruntled with this attitude and wanted to play competitively in the London League. The British Chess Club was another short-lived alternative which launched international team chess with the Anglo-American Cable matches. I'm sure all of this is in A Century of British Chess by P. W. Sergeant, a book I confess I have yet to read.

ps Justin's links are more than worth a look. Another confession, I've seen them before and they slipped my mind when I wrote the above post. They have a shorter version of the news story without the list of the City members who were in the trenches.

PW Sergeant does not mention a British Club. You may be thinking of the Empire Club, which was established at Whiteleys Department Store, in Queensway.
Yes, The City of London Club was responsible for some dreadful snobbery. They felt it beneath their dignity, to play against Suburban Clubs. Sadly, Sir George Thomas only played in Club Championships. Cannot recall Sir George ever playing in a League match.

[Gordon Cadden]

Harold Saunders was also a member of the Hampstead Club, winning the Championship Trophy three years in a row, 1910-11-12.
The top players did not give club loyalty as a priority. Sir George Thomas was the leading Nomad, playing at Metropolitan, City of London, West London, and the Hampstead Clubs, but not at the same time !
Baruch Wood was never one to let WW11 interfere with his chess reporting. In his 1941 volume, he reported on Cracow, and Munich.

It wasn't really disloyalty as the City of London saw it as beneath them to play other clubs, with the exception of the more ancient and even snobbier St. George's. The Metropolitan was set up by City players who were disgruntled with this attitude and wanted to play competitively in the London League. The British Chess Club was another short-lived alternative which launched international team chess with the Anglo-American Cable matches. I'm sure all of this is in A Century of British Chess by P. W. Sergeant, a book I confess I have yet to read.

ps Justin's links are more than worth a look. Another confession, I've seen them before and they slipped my mind when I wrote the above post. They have a shorter version of the news story without the list of the City members who were in the trenches.

Yes, The City of London Club was responsible for some dreadful snobbery. They felt it beneath their dignity, to play against Suburban Clubs. Sadly, Sir George Thomas only played in Club Championships. Cannot recall Sir George ever playing in a League match.

[Gordon Cadden]

The British Chess Club was formed in 1886. They met daily at 37 King Street, Covent Garden. President George Newnes, M.P. Secretary Leopold Hoffer.
Believe that this was another club that declined to play in the London League, and despite a large membership, had a relatively short life.

[Leonard Barden]

In my longago youth I played Harold Saunders in one of my first adult congresses, Plymouth 1948. At his peak he was the London Stock Exchange champion as well as the Hampstead champion, a British championship competitor, winner of a miniature against Tartakover, and a sharp tactician. His rook sacrifice against William Winter is well-known and must have given him special pleasure given they were probably at opposite ends of the political system. He was 75 and down to the Premier Reserves B when he played me. I recall him as a short, small man, well dressed and a bit formal and fussy. I think our game was a first prize decider and luckily for me he played a passive opening and never recovered.
I also played in a club match for Croydon in the 1940s against Hampstead where Captain EA Beamish, referred to in this thread, was on the opposing team.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Talking of Tartakover, I'm currently reading Moral victories: the story of Savielly Tartakower by David Lovejoy (a semi-fictionalised biography). I've not finished it yet, but would be interested to know if anyone here has read it (or indeed whether anyone here ever met Tartakover).

[Leonard Barden]

Talking of Tartakover, I'm currently reading Moral victories: the story of Savielly Tartakower by David Lovejoy (a semi-fictionalised biography). I've not finished it yet, but would be interested to know if anyone here has read it (or indeed whether anyone here ever met Tartakover).

From Edward Winter's Chess Notes 5226:

Tartakower played me in his Free French uniform and, a decade later, we met in the Cercle Caïssa in Montmartre.

The first occasion was in early 1945 when I visited Julius du Mont’s house and found the doctor there discussing 500 Master Games of Chess. I was already helping du Mont with checking proofs for the BCM and his columns and books, so he gave me some work while they finished their talk and then persuaded Tartakower to play me. He was the first world-class grandmaster I ever met, an imposing figure in the uniform. There were no clocks. He was Black in a Dutch Defence. He sortied his queen to a5, then blocked its retreat, allowing me to trap it in elementary fashion by b4. He resigned promptly, and suggested a second game. I had been reading My System so tried the Nimzowitsch Sicilian with an early d5, but was swiftly outplayed. I did not take a game-score.

In July 1955 I visited Paris, was told of the Caïssa café so went to the Boulevard Montmartre hoping to play for stakes and help finance my trip. There were around a dozen to 20 patrons each afternoon, presided over by a charming elderly lady, Madame Le Bey Taillis. My hopes of unsuspecting victims were soon dashed as Madame found out that I was British champion and introduced me gushingly as such to prospective opponents. So most days I ended up playing five-minute games with the café professional Sherbakov, who competed in one or two minor international tournaments of the time. We were evenly matched, and after several hours there were only a few centimes in it.

Tartakower used to visit daily and play almost exclusively with an old gentleman to whom he gave odds (I forget whether a knight or substantial time-odds). The amateur was accommodating, lost virtually every game, and paid up after two or three hours. One afternoon the doctor was late and the old gentleman was en prise, so I took the opportunity to become his opponent and to collect from him. After an hour or so Tartakower arrived and looked aghast at what was probably his rent and roulette money being usurped. He sat down on the same side of the table as the amateur and fixed me with a cold stare. I soon took the hint and gave way.

We left the café together later that evening and it seemed that Tartakower had not fully forgiven me. He was too polite to reproach me directly, but began a gentle probe. My French was poor, but he rarely uttered English words. “You have been an undergraduate. What did you study?” “History, doctor.” “Ah good, can you help me with a historical question?” “I’ll try.” “In what year was the Battle of Hastings?” “1066.” “Bravo, felicitations!” It was well-known that the doctor liked to use this last phrase sarcastically to people he thought had overstepped the mark. We said our farewells, I left for London the next day, and seven months later wrote a sympathetic obituary for the Guardian.’

To add to the above, Tartakower also crushed me in our only tournament game (Southsea 1950).

[Jonathan Bryant]

The Streatham and Brixton articles are excellent - informative and attractive. Thank you for posting the links.

Blogger doesn’t really make it easy for us to clearly credit authors of posts, but regular visitors probably detected the hand of Martin Smith (who some may also know as a captain of the S&BCC London League 1st team).

[John Townsend]

I now believe that the chess player whose name appears variously as A. , A. E. , E. A. or Capt. Beamish was Edmund Arthur Beamish and not his tennis-playing brother, Alfred Ernest.

That seems more probable. However, it is Alfred Ernest Beamish who can be more readily associated with Hampstead. He appears in Hampstead electoral registers, including in 1915, 1922, and 1923. The address used in correspondence about his medals, 4 November 1923, was 10 Dene Mansions, Dennington Park Road, West Hampstead, NW6.

In 1914 and 1915 Edmund Arthur Beamish was in West Kensington electoral registers (8 Gwendwr Road).

This may not be important. Edmund Arthur Beamish may have lived near Hampstead at other times, and in other ways he seems much more likely. It is also possible that they both played some chess.