Victorian and Edwardian chess in the UK

[JustinHorton]

White top, dark hair, playing bloke with hands on his cheeks.

[Gerard Killoran]

I thought it was a bloke, but too at first but if you zoom in on the picture, you will see it is a woman in a dark dress with her hair pinned up. There was a women's championship going on in parallel with the winner being Grace Curling (née Ellis).

[Gerard Killoran]

Check out the photos here

http://chesshistory.com/winter/winter25.html

4500. Mrs Houlding

It looks like Grace Curing (in white) herself

[Gerard Killoran]

Another Edwardian Chess mystery solved

http://ilkleychess.blogspot.co.uk/2012/ ... ouble.html

[Martin Smith]

For a series on Rosenbaum's chess picture of 1880 see http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.c ... art-1.html

[John Hickman]

As for Edwardian Chess...
There's a small mystery from the round of your photo, involving Atkins winning on time early on in an apparently harmless position.

I thought what actually happened was that his opponent had this on him when it rang

[stevencarr]

I got the biography of Blackburne by Harding today.

At first glance, it seems a great book.

[Tim Harding]

I got the biography of Blackburne by Harding today.

At first glance, it seems a great book.

Thank you for the kind words. I hope you enjoy it.

For anyone interested, I have put up some information about the book at
http://www.chessmail.com/research/blackburne.html (and two linked pages).

[raycollett]

There was also, probably up to about the late 60s, a 'Second Class' tournament below that.

My copy of the 1963 BCF 50th Annual Congress held at the Assembly Rooms, Bath (price 2s 6d) Shows there was a First Class 11-round Swiss tournament (22 entrants, one of whom did not play; first prize £5) and a Second Class 12-round American tournament (12 entrants first prize £3)

[Roger de Coverly]

Shows there was a First Class 11-round Swiss tournament (22 entrants, one of whom did not play; first prize £5) and a Second Class 12-round American tournament (12 entrants first prize £3)

There have been various hierarchies over the years. The BCF favoured Championship, Major (Open), First Class, Second Class. The Hastings approach would have Premier, Challengers, Reserves/ Main. Some tournaments copied Hastings with perhaps Championship or Masters at the top of the Pyramid. Most current tournaments would use the Open, Major, Minor structure with additional labels such as Challengers, Intermediate or Foundation thrown in if more than three sections were run.

[Martin Smith]

A series on Louisa Matilda Fagan begins here http://lostontime.blogspot.co.uk/2016/0 ... tilda.html

[Hans Renette]

It may interest a few readers of this forum that my book on Henry Edward Bird has been published a few days ago. You can have a look at it, here (http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.ph ... 864-7578-0) and at Amazon.

Hans

[David Shepherd]

I noticed some is selling an old chess cup on ebay 1899 - 1939 FEDERATION OF LONDON WORKING BOYS CLUBS CHESS PRIZE CUP

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1899-FEDERATI ... SwZJBX~TqC

Given it is currently listed at 99p though it might be of interest to someone

[JustinHorton]

It may interest a few readers of this forum that my book on Henry Edward Bird has been published a few days ago. You can have a look at it, here (http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.ph ... 864-7578-0) and at Amazon.

Hans

Martin talks about Bird, and Hans' book, in today's piece.

[Martin Smith]

Following Gerard's post on Cheltenham 1913 you may be interested in my effort to recover the full story of Herbert Jacobs (1863-1950), beginning here: http://lostontime.blogspot.co.uk/2017/0 ... oydon.html