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Chesterfield Chess Club

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The History Of Chesterfield Chess Club

The first traces of chess in Chesterfield were recorded as early as 1902, by the late life member Mr Mearns. In 1906, Mr F Betts then a local Surveyer of Taxes, formed a club which first met in Mr Gilberthorp's hair dresser's shop in the Market Hall and now demolished West Park Hotel.
    Chess again flourished in Chesterfield after the first world war and the first inaugural meeting of Chesterfield and District Chess Club was held on the 22nd of September 1924.
    The first club night was held on the Monday the 6th of October 1924, at the Station Hotel.
In 1924, Mr A E Raynes became the first ever Chesterfield Chess Club Champion, winning the Robinson Trophy which was presented to the club by the late Colonel Victor Robinson, in the year 1925.
   The first Annual General meeting was called on the 25th of September 1925. In the same year Major Alderman Wakerly J.P. was voted in as the first President of Chesterfield & District Chess Club.
   On Monday the 14th of December 1925, the Chess Club visited the Gambit Cafe at Sheffield and experienced the first ever defeat by the chess players of Sheffield Chess & Draught Club. The score was 2.5 to 9.5 against.
    The first chess column in the Derbyshire Times was in the issue of November the 7th of 1925, and it was edited by J Bunting Esq.
    A simultaneous display at the club was first held on the Monday the 7th of December 1925, by professor Robert Robinson, of Manchester University. The professor managed to win fifteen games, drew one and lost three.
    On the Monday the 1st of October 1928, at the fourth Annual General Meeting, with Major V O Robinson Chairman, the Treasurer announced a slight reduction in the balance in hand on the last season. The entrance fee which was 2/6d was abolished and the annual subscription remained at 5/-.
   The sixteenth Annual General Meeting was held at the Falcon Restaurant Monday the 16th of December 1940, with C F Simmonds esq in the chair, a discussion started about the election of officers for the coming year, when the 'air raid sirens' sounded and the meeting was abandoned.
   Owing to the war of 1939-45 there were not many Annual General Meetings on chess. After the barren years of 1942-45 the chess club was recalled on the 30th of October 1945, to stage the Annual General Meeting for the coming year
   Chesterfield chess Club were the first winners of the 'High Peak Vase' it was presented to the Derbyshire Chess Association by the 'High Peak News' Buxton Advertiser in 1947. In the same year the chess club applied to join the Sheffield Chess Association and for the first time won the treble; The Sheffield Weston 'B' League Trophy - the Sheffield Richardson Knockout Cup - the Derbyshire League Trophy. Then Chesterfield Chess Club retained the Richardson Cup in three consecutive years from 1947 to 1949. The Constitution of Rules for the club were passed at the 1949 Annual General Meeting.
   School League chess was formed in the year 1950, organised by the then Secretary Mr J H Stockton. The Trophy was presented by the late club President Colonel V O Robinson, the first winners being Chesterfield School.
    Chesterfield Chess club won the 'Derbyshire League Vase' and the first division 'Sheffield Davy League Trophy' in the years of 1952/1953/1954. Thus achieving the consecutive double treble.
    Apart from our former President R J Hooton, the Vice President John T Salt, who passed away on the 7th of November 1982 was the longest serving member of the chess club. He joined in the year of 1934, as a young player and is best remembered, along with Mr D Saunderson for organising the 1950/1 British Chess Federation Buxton Chess congress.
    Mr John Littlewood commenced judging the 'Best Game Award' in the year of 1959 till 1995 spanning 36 years.
   The 'E Green Trophy presented by Douglas Saunderson in the year 1951, who was secretary for nineteen years and a club champion 13 times: Ted Green was a wery keen member at that period.
   The L Senior Trophy for the best game award was presented by Mrs L Senior in memory of her late husband who had been Club Treasurer for 20 years.
     First issue of the Annual Bulletin was edited and produced by the secretary, Douglas Sanderson in the year of 1953. The following year R,J,Hooton took over the task and produced 35 bulletins to the year of 1990. His worthy successor was Mr I A Potter, and Mr D Latham.
   During the barren years of the sixties and seventies the Chesterfield Chess Club did managed to win the odd trophy in 1976 and 1978 the 1st team clinched the Derbyshire League Trophy. For the first time in the history of Chesterfield Chess Club experienced religation from the Sheffield Davy league ('A' Division) to the Weston League ('B' Division). The Following year they bounced back to win the Weston League to regain their place in the Sheffield Davy League. By gaining promotion from the 'B' Division after twenty years the Club finally won a trophy in the Sheffield Chess Association.
In the 1980's The Chess Club won the Sheffield Richardson Knockout Cup three times 1981/82/86, The Derbyshire League Trophy twice 1982/83.
    In the year 1990 the club enjoyed an outstanding success in achieving the treble, winning the Sheffield Davy League, Sheffield Weston league and the Derbyshire League. It took 42 years for history to repeat itself.
   Finally, Joe Hooton who, in 1991, completed 60 years as a member of the Chesterfield Chess club. To commemorate his service, Joe was made a life member. Sadly Joe passed away in the year of 1994.
(G.P.)

JOE HOOTON
PRESIDENT 1973-1994

There have been six Honorable Presidents in the history of the Chesterfield Chess Club. First was Major Alderman Wakerly J.P. from 1925-1945, second was Colonel V.O. Robinson from 1945-1973, third was Mr Richard.J.Hooton from 1973-1994, the fourth was Mr.L.A.Potter from 1994-2000, the fifth was Mr T.H.Hand from 2000-2003, and the sixth is the current President. Mr M.Johnson. To date Mr J.Hooton has been the longest serving life long member of the Chess Club since 1925 until his death in March 1994. To most Club members he was Known as 'Joe'.
    Long before the time of being President of Chesterfield Chess Club in the early pioneering days of 1950's, played a large role as the President and the League Captain of the Derbyshire County Chess Associatiation. During home Club matches, Joe use to take along his own chess set, board and clock, placing chess in Derbyshire on the map. Joe first captained the Derbyshire County Chess Team in the year 1952 at the 'Pierpoint Restaurant' on Midland Road, Derby. The site now been demolished and is part of the Post-Office block. Since retiring as Captain of the County Chess team in the year 1975, Joe suffered a mild heart attack. He fortunately recovered from his set back and kept himself busy by being the Secretary and Treasurer of the County Chess League.
    Apart from the County matches, Joe had an incredible record for the Chesterfield 'A' Team. His first recorded game was played on Monday the 25th, of November 1935, when he beat Mr H.Golding of Derby Chess Club. Thirteen years later, he progressed to board one position in the 1948 Sheffield Richardson Knockout final, when he drew against Mr Siddall from Southey Chess Club, dated 1948. That victory gave Chesterfield 'A' Team the Richardson Trophy for the second year in succession. In the same year Joe became the Club Captain of Chesterfield 'A' Team and remained so until 1972, a span of 24 year.
   After 22 years of intensive competition, in the Chesterfield Chess Club Championship, during which Joe often came second, he finally beat his rival, Mr D.Saunderson, to clinch 1955 Chess Club Championship.
   In the 1951 Annual Chess Bulletin, Joe was described as 'an enthusiastic, zealous, strong, distinctive styled player, who is at his best with close positional games where, with his insight into positional motives, he is not afraid to sacrifice to gain the overwhelming position'. This was demonsrtated in the game which won the 1971 annual Best Game Award in the Chesterfield Chess Club.
   Joe Hooton's contribution to the game of chess and, more specifically, to Derbyshire County Chess and Chesterfield Chess Club was and is much appreciated. Joe Hooton's 1971 imortal game can be obtained from Mr G. Peters.
(G.P.)

Continued from page1.....

1962/3

The guys kicked off 4.5-3.5 at YMCA Fargate, Chesterfield's winners being Doug on top board, and new on 8, Stephen Tatlow, who scared me a few years ago with a Latvian Gambit in one of his last games, for Doncaster against Sheffield. Sadly Steve died recently, a lovely man and a formidable player - his career with us began with seven straight wins. Second and fourth of these were against Hillsborough, otherwise a bogey team: wins by Allen, North and our old friend Ray Trigg saw them draw twice with Chesterfield in the League and eliminate them from the Richardson in the first round.

Battling on in the League, Chesterfield finished fourth, the University winning and their B team (!!) second. The great thing about the League now is its competitive nature - back then they must have felt like hobbits against cave trolls. If it was hard for Chesterfield, spare a thought for Thorncliffe, who went down 7.5-0.5 to Joe's men, and vanish from these annals. The thought occurs that - if they lost like that to us - they probably set out for Sheffield University and were never seen alive again. Never mind the A Team, Harry Lamb headed University B, and I recall him being graded 200 just a few years later. Still, unlike Paul Blackman (1-0 v Jack Enion 28/03/63) he did at least lose to the Chesterfield man, in this case Doug Saunderson.

In Derbyshire things were a bit easier, the team beating Buxton, British Celanese (Rob Sutcliffe & Ray Gamble again), Bemrose and Derby. They probably finished second, the score against Rolls Royce being known to me and hereby hushed up. Last sight of the season was Leslie Calvert, stood by the side of the road in Ripley vainly asking an ambulance man the way to Derby's venue. It'll be on the internet, Les!

1963/4

John Fryer is still making a huge contribution, teaching youngsters with SASCA. Back then he was one himself, welcome aboard the Chesterfield history, John, and a winning start v Steve Tatlow in the season's opener. 4 each Chesterfield - YMCA Fargate. The Y had another incarnation as YMCA Central, and this too is a team packed with familiar names: MP Littlewood, Roger Hoole, Pete Swanson.

And a retrospective roll out of the red carpet for a key member of the current Chesterfield outfit, and the first of our present day players to appear: board 5 for the YMCA was Martin Howard. 4.5-3.5 to the oppo, Martin a winner v Cecil Lewis.

The long night of University domination brightened a little in Sheffield this year. 3-5 defeat was at least honourable, and the third place finish an improvement. University B were crushed, our side including D Skibinski, sole winner of a Junior league team which went down 11.5-3.5 to the club grown ups this year. And in the Richardson, wins over Kimberworth and Woodseats saw Chesterfield in the final. That win over Kimberworth was especially impressive, as Blackman and co mounted a real challenge to the University this year. It went all the way to a play off, where sadly for neutrals, Kimberworth came unstuck. The University won the double, 4-2 v Chesterfield in the Richardson Final at Woodseats. Aylwin Hobson got our win; Joe claimed draws on all three adjudicated boards...and got zilch.

Victory at last in Derbyshire. The chaps squeezed out their nemesis Rolls Royce 3.5-2.5, thrashed Buxton and Rolls Royce B 5-1 apiece, and cleaned up with wins over Derby and Bemrose School. Ray Gamble beat Doug to lead Celanese to a draw and eventual second, but the only other points lost were in a surprise home defeat by Burton Grammar School. So Botvinnik succumbed to Petrosian, and Rolls Royce yielded their throne to Chesterfield. How long could Sheffield University hold out?

1965-6

A lacuna, as we used to say in Latin studies. The notebook for 64/5 is being hunted by trained archaeologists.

The next season opened at Pitsmoor (5.5-2.5) and the personnel were much the same. Princep, Wheeldon, Saunderson, Hooton seems the preferred order; last year being the only one of the decade when Saunderson didn't win the championship. Second match was a loss to Rotherham, where young Paul Blackman had already risen from eighth to second board. And so proceded a brief season of seven matches, all for double points; three wins, four losses for 6th place in a league of 8. The club had the distinction of being the only winners against University B, who won the league well ahead of their "A" team, joint 4th - go figure, as they say across the pond. The team lost on board count to the YMCA (Gurnhill, Hoole, Fryer and Swanson) and were out of the Richardson in the first round.

So the glory years were far behind them in Sheffiekl; but in Derbyshire a different tale. Six teams competed, and a narrow loss to Rolls Royce meant little, as the guys beat everyone else to win the League again.

1968/9

And so we come to the last of our precious notebooks. The season kicked off with 6-2 v Barnsley and - over to Derbyshire - 4.5-1.5 v Bemrose School. The first big test was expected to be Hillsborough, played at the Brown Cow (anyone know it?) on 18th December. Norman Littlewood didn't make it on time to be the opposition board one, which was fortunate for Joe's crowd because CR Gurnhill and MP Littlewood were there. Doug Saunderson's win v Gurnhill set up a win by 4.5-3.5. So a good start, but not followed up. Barnsley got revenge on board count in the Richardson, and three defeats followed in the Davy, all by 3-5. But at last - cause for fanfare!!

We have a game! and here it is! from a score sheet book of Joe Hooton's, lovingly preserved by George Peters in memory of his old club captain. And it's well worth a look, not least because Joe's young opponent remains one of the brightest ornaments of Yorkshire chess:

Davy League, 25.2.69; Chesterfield v University A. White: David Adams. Black: Joe Hooton.

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Qc7 7. Nf3 Nc6 8. a4 ("?" comments Joe, but it's a well known and enterprising line) cxd4 9. cxd4 Nb4 10. Bb5+ Bd7 11. Bxd7+ Kxd7 12. 0-0 Nxc2 13. Rb1 a5 14. Rb5 b6 15 Ng5 Ke8 16. f4 g6 17. g4 (young Adams plays this attack with such energy IMHO) h6 18. Nf3 (how he must have wanted to play 18. Nxf7!? Kxf7 19.f5) ... Ne7 19. Rf2 Rac8 20. Bb2 Ne3! 21. Qb3?? Nc4?? - oh Joe! Qc1+ was a queen sac with inevitable mate - why does David Adams never give me these chances? - 22. Nd2 Nxb2 23. Qxb2 Rb8 24. Nf3 Kd7 25. Rc2 Nc6 26. Qb3 Rhc8 27. Qa3 Rb7 28. f5! gxf5 29. gxf5 Rg8 + 30. Kf2 Qb8. And here this exciting game was, disappointingly enough, adjudicated. Joe claimed a win, based on his extra pawn, but the adjudicator was having none of it, and modern computer analysis backs that up. My silicon chum gives White a small advantage, and I must say I wouldn't fancy playing Black from here against an aggressive youngster.

Thereafter, Chesterfield hammered Rotherham and Southey, to finish a respectable 4th out of 8, behind University, YMCA and Hillsborough. They carried almost all before them in Derbyshire, conceding just one draw in winning that League.

And a final look to the future: there was a 13 board match against a team of Chesterfield juniors; handily won by the grown ups, but D Barnes, A Tatlow, S Ellis, M Sharman, Miss J Adlington and G Smith are recorded as scoring against the club stars.

2008/9

Of course, we could always start from about here and go backwards 'til we meet in the middle!
The year began with four very welcome comebacks: Mike Alcock was back from a year out with illness and people from Barnsley to Rolls Royce will have been glad to see that; Hubert Mossong was going to be living nearby for almost the whole season, to scare almost as many. Emma and David Bentley were back. Emma was to play many a fine game for both teams, and made the Times with a splendid victory against none other than Otto Hardy, our club champion of the 50s and still playing for Leicestershire. Her dad's impact was even more immediate: putting an end to years of fumbling and footling he set up this website on the day he arrived!

So some very strong sides could be fielded: we occasionally turned out four boards averaging over 180 in Derbyshire. The rest of the league went down fighting and some of them fought very hard, but the League was regained, the cup was won for the first time; the jamboree was retained, and Mike Alcock won the county championship. The sort of results them of 1950 would have recognised.
In Sheffield it didn't go quite so well; our eventual fourth was no better than we'd managed the year before with a weaker team. It might have been a bit higher had earlier results persuaded us to pull out all the stops, but Nomads cleaned up yet again, testament to the strength of that club. Sheffield A retained the Woodhouse and our people played a decent part in that.
Steve Bracey's B team played some good stuff, and were rewarded by hanging on in the third division after a bit of a relegation dogfight.

And we moved venues. The Spital ran into difficulties and closed, reopened, closed. We're now at The Three Merry Lads, of course, and apart from it being a bit far out for folk from the East of town, it goes well enough; certainly the sort of place I'd enjoy even without the chess, the gods forfend.

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