Some very exciting news yesterday. The Richmond Herald up to 1950 is now available online (via subscription sites). This will enable me to put together the history of Richmond Chess Club up to that date.

I’ll be posting a lot more here, but this, from 75 years ago, 14 June 1947, is topical

Coincidentally, next Monday, 5 September, Richmond are again travelling to Kingston for a megamatch, but this time only over 16 boards. As we now have 70 members, we could perhaps have got close to 36 had we wanted.

The match takes place at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston from 7:30 and I hope to be there to watch. We’re using the match mostly as the chance to give some of our newer members a taste of competitive chess, and believe Kingston are doing very much the same.

There’s a lot more to be said about this article. I’ll post more later.

You might want to know who won this match. I haven’t, as yet, been able to find out. I’ve looked at the Herald for the two subsequent weeks, but there’s no further mention.

If you’re interested in the history of chess in this area, and, occasionally, beyond, check out my Minor Pieces on British Chess News.

Richard James