South Shields Chess Club Est 1866

[Eddie Czestochowski]

In what I can only describe to be a series of fortuitous events and a simple desire to encourage a few more people to play Chess for South Shields Chess Club I set up a website for the club just over 2 years ago. In order to create content I thought it might be interesting to research into the history of the club. By delving into the Newspaper Archives, something very easy to do these days, I found out that the club was first established October 3rd 1866. A simple story in our local South Shields Gazette informed the people of South Shields that a Chess Club was to be formed , and would meet at the Mechanics Institute on Ocean Road . It stated that it should be a place where “Lovers and Learners of the game shall meet " and so they have, I would guess for much of this time, cannot yet claim that the club has played every one of those years. I certainly know there was a break during the World War years. Other members of the club have helped with the research and have fed in some great memories.

This year we are holding a numbers of events, the highlight of which will be a one day Rapid Play Tournament to be held on the 3rd of July at the very prestigious Customs House on the bank of the River Tyne. Details of this are on our website, for those that are interested. We have also persuaded the Northumberland Association to integrate their Annual Rapid Play Championships into the event . All are welcome.

The reason for my post is that I am still trying to collect snippets of information about the club, memories of members that have moved on to other parts of the country.

I recently discovered that "probably" the oldest living former member of the club, (joined in 1963), still plays regular chess at the age of 80, the wonderful Bill Noble. He moved out of the area and now still plays for another local team. I would love to find more players with stories to tell.

Note that the aims of our events this year are purely to raise profile of Chess in general , for both our club and chess in the north east in general, and if this little story can inspire other clubs/people to find excuses to create good news stories then that is even better.