Richmond Chess History

Chess Clubs have met in Richmond and Twickenham since about 1840, with chess clubs as we know them today starting in the 1880s. You can find a timeline of clubs in this area here.

The first Twickenham Chess Club was founded in 1880. It moved to Teddington and changed its name to the Thames Valley Chess Club in 1896, meeting for a few years from 1901 in the Adelaide, and merging after WW1 with Kingston Chess Club.

The second Richmond Chess Club was founded in 1893, and the second Twickenham Chess Club at some point after WW1. This Twickenham Chess Club closed at some point in the 1930s while Richmond Chess Club amalgamated with Kew Chess Club and continued as Richmond & Kew Chess Club until the outbreak of the Second World War.

Chess Clubs in both Richmond and Twickenham started up again in 1945. You can read about Jack Redon, who was responsible for the foundation of (at least) Richmond here. The two clubs both proved very successful, and merged in 1958 to form the current Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club.

Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club President Richard James, also a writer on chess history, is writing a series of articles about members of chess clubs in the area over the years, which are being published by British Chess News as part of the Minor Pieces series.