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Old Chess Photographs
August 14, 2015
A couple of years ago a photo of a Paul Keres simul at Hart House in 1975 was posted in ChessTalk.
http://www.chesstalk.info/forum/show...ht=keres+simul
It brought forth a lot of comment and a wave of nostalgia – you know - 40 years ago, university life, players of the past..
I think it is good to recall chess in simpler times.
______
Recently, a photo was posted
http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/r...step=1&itemx=1
which brought a lot of comment in the English Chess Forum:
http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7657
It is of a London League Match from 1931. I thought it was an interesting old photo but had to go back and re-examine it when I read all the reaction to it.
Michael Basman describes what St. Brides was in an article entitled “Confessions of a Crooked Chess Master”:
“In the early 1960s I used to pay for a club called Southgate. In fact, Southgate boasted two of the leading junior players of the time on its top two boards, Hartston and myself. Hartston, I remember once, scored a spectacular draw against the British Champion, Jonathan Penrose, which was a sign of things to come. The matches were played at St Bride’s Institute near Blackfriars. One would arrive by train around about 6.30 p.m. and play until about 9.30 in a fabulously dingy room at the top of the building. Then the caretaker would come up and throw us all out as quickly as possible.”
_____
I first heard of St. Bride’s on the back page of A. J. Roycroft’s new magazine on the endgame study, EG:
“Next Meeting: Friday 1st October 1965, 6.30 p.m. at St. Bride's Institute, London, E.C.4.
Item 1: The Cheron, Lommer and Peckover Letters – AJR”
On an English vacation later, I passed by St. Bride’s, which was between Fleet Street and the Thames, but of course, did not try to go in.
________
The thing I will remember most about the photograph is the back wall thickly hung with hats and coats!
Here are some of the observations on ECForum:
John Saunders - The page where I found it indicates that the photo was taken in 1931, but it could just as easily have been 1981 since the room looked much the same then. I think the bookcase housed the book collection of a chess problem society (the TR Dawson collection?).
County matches and London League games were played there so it was in constant use. The room (a windowless attic space) was permanently set up for chess. It was grimy and dingy but, perversely, I always enjoyed playing there. I suppose it was the sense of history. Or possibly the narcotic effect of all the cigarette smoke.
Roger de Coverly - One or two of the chess clocks look suspiciously like BH Wood's converted alarm clock design, which might date it to rather later. I'm trying to picture the clocks in the 1970s, I have an idea they were Gardes, but I could be wrong. As well as London League, St Brides was used as a neutral venue for county matches.
One period detail which dates it as not the 1970s is the vast number of hats, along with coats on the far wall.
Barry Sandercock - I was interested to see the photo, as it was in that room I played my first county match for Middlesex in Sept. 1946. On another occasion I still remember my surprise at stalemating an opponent when I had a winning position and his king was in the centre of the board, in that same room. I also remember the rickety staircase to get up to that room. My Middlesex opponent was a mister H.J.Stedman. Doubt if he is around now ! I still have the score sheet. (It was board 44 and I won the game.)
Yes, nice find, John.
Gordon Cadden - Like many old players, I climbed the staircase to the dark and gloomy room. The bookcase housed the collection of the British Chess Problem Society, which held their meetings at St. Brides. That 1931 photograph is fascinating. My eyes focused on the vast array of Trilby Hats. Then we have a wonderful display of chess clocks; not a BH Wood tin clock in sight. Chess boards and pieces made of wood. At least half of the Middlesex Team were members of the Hampstead Club, with the doyen of the club, Richard Clewin Griffiths, on top board.
Fascinating to see A.J. Bernfield as a healthy schoolboy. A stalwart member of the Metropolitan club, I remember him with a cigarette permanently attached to his lips, coughing his lungs out. Surprisingly, he played a reasonable game.
August 14, 2015
A couple of years ago a photo of a Paul Keres simul at Hart House in 1975 was posted in ChessTalk.
http://www.chesstalk.info/forum/show...ht=keres+simul
It brought forth a lot of comment and a wave of nostalgia – you know - 40 years ago, university life, players of the past..
I think it is good to recall chess in simpler times.
______
Recently, a photo was posted
http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/r...step=1&itemx=1
which brought a lot of comment in the English Chess Forum:
http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7657
It is of a London League Match from 1931. I thought it was an interesting old photo but had to go back and re-examine it when I read all the reaction to it.
Michael Basman describes what St. Brides was in an article entitled “Confessions of a Crooked Chess Master”:
“In the early 1960s I used to pay for a club called Southgate. In fact, Southgate boasted two of the leading junior players of the time on its top two boards, Hartston and myself. Hartston, I remember once, scored a spectacular draw against the British Champion, Jonathan Penrose, which was a sign of things to come. The matches were played at St Bride’s Institute near Blackfriars. One would arrive by train around about 6.30 p.m. and play until about 9.30 in a fabulously dingy room at the top of the building. Then the caretaker would come up and throw us all out as quickly as possible.”
_____
I first heard of St. Bride’s on the back page of A. J. Roycroft’s new magazine on the endgame study, EG:
“Next Meeting: Friday 1st October 1965, 6.30 p.m. at St. Bride's Institute, London, E.C.4.
Item 1: The Cheron, Lommer and Peckover Letters – AJR”
On an English vacation later, I passed by St. Bride’s, which was between Fleet Street and the Thames, but of course, did not try to go in.
________
The thing I will remember most about the photograph is the back wall thickly hung with hats and coats!
Here are some of the observations on ECForum:
John Saunders - The page where I found it indicates that the photo was taken in 1931, but it could just as easily have been 1981 since the room looked much the same then. I think the bookcase housed the book collection of a chess problem society (the TR Dawson collection?).
County matches and London League games were played there so it was in constant use. The room (a windowless attic space) was permanently set up for chess. It was grimy and dingy but, perversely, I always enjoyed playing there. I suppose it was the sense of history. Or possibly the narcotic effect of all the cigarette smoke.
Roger de Coverly - One or two of the chess clocks look suspiciously like BH Wood's converted alarm clock design, which might date it to rather later. I'm trying to picture the clocks in the 1970s, I have an idea they were Gardes, but I could be wrong. As well as London League, St Brides was used as a neutral venue for county matches.
One period detail which dates it as not the 1970s is the vast number of hats, along with coats on the far wall.
Barry Sandercock - I was interested to see the photo, as it was in that room I played my first county match for Middlesex in Sept. 1946. On another occasion I still remember my surprise at stalemating an opponent when I had a winning position and his king was in the centre of the board, in that same room. I also remember the rickety staircase to get up to that room. My Middlesex opponent was a mister H.J.Stedman. Doubt if he is around now ! I still have the score sheet. (It was board 44 and I won the game.)
Yes, nice find, John.
Gordon Cadden - Like many old players, I climbed the staircase to the dark and gloomy room. The bookcase housed the collection of the British Chess Problem Society, which held their meetings at St. Brides. That 1931 photograph is fascinating. My eyes focused on the vast array of Trilby Hats. Then we have a wonderful display of chess clocks; not a BH Wood tin clock in sight. Chess boards and pieces made of wood. At least half of the Middlesex Team were members of the Hampstead Club, with the doyen of the club, Richard Clewin Griffiths, on top board.
Fascinating to see A.J. Bernfield as a healthy schoolboy. A stalwart member of the Metropolitan club, I remember him with a cigarette permanently attached to his lips, coughing his lungs out. Surprisingly, he played a reasonable game.
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