The Oldest Chess Club

[Wayne Komer]

The Oldest Chess Club

July 11, 2017

There has been some discussion on this forum about the Toronto Chess Club and others in the nineteenth century:

http://forum.chesstalk.com/showthrea...lubs#post60052

http://forum.chesstalk.com/showthrea...lubs#post33776
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Today I received a copy of New In Chess 2017#4, which has a letter from Erik Olaof of The Netherlands giving a list of the world’s oldest chess clubs. The criteria are that the club must have existed without interruption and that it is not the result of a merger.

I am not sure if it means the club must be still going today but logically it would seem so. Anyway, here is the list:

1. Zurich 1809
2. Edinburgh 1822
3. Hamburger Schachklub 1830
4. Munchener SC 1836
5/6 Dundee/Philidor Leeuwarden 1847
7. Strijdt met Beleid, Nijmegen 1848
8. Oefening & Ontspanning, Kampen, 1849
9. Pallas, Deventer, 1849
10. Elberfelder Schachgesellschaft, 1851
11. Discendo Discimus, 1852
12. Karlsruher Schachfreunde, 1853
13. San Francisco Mechanics Institute Chess Club, 1854
14. Dusseldorfer Schachverein, 1854
15. Schachclub Ansbach, 1855
16. Aachener Schachverein, 1856
17. SK 1858 Giessen
18. Kolner Schachclub, 1861
19/20 SK Lasker Mannheim/Wurtzburger Schachverein 1865
21. Stockholm Chess Society, 1866
22/23 Bamberg/Aljechin Solingen 1868

He mentions the Manhattan Chess Club in New York but says that it closed its doors years ago and that the Mechanics Institute Club is the oldest in the USA now.

I am assuming that older clubs added the names of Lasker and Aljechin to their title as an honor much later than their founding.

I see no Russian clubs on the list or those of Commonwealth Nations, so it is perhaps a work in progress.

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: The Oldest Chess Club

The Montreal Chess club dates back to 1844...in continuous. existence until the mid 60s. The name continued to be held by Jack Gersho (I think) who tried several times to revive it. The MCC now runs tournaments at Chess and Math in Montreall.