WELCOME TO THE LEEDS CHESS CLUB HISTORY SITE
This website focuses exclusively on the club's history. Our general workaday website can be found at:
The club currently meets every Wednesday, 7.00 pm to 10.oo pm at the West Riding Hotel on Wellington Street (a minute's walk from Leeds City Station). |
Our first constitution was written in 1834, but it is clear the club was in operation well before this date.
The first proto-chess club was formed by officers and gentlemen returning from the Napoleonic wars - a trial-run at a world war - in the early-1800s. They wouldn't really have taken chess seriously before the McDonnell v La Bourdonnais match of 1834, their equivalent of the "Fischer moment" which popularised the game. Before that, it might never have occurred to them to declare themselves a chess club. Find out more on the EARLY DAYS pages.
2024 is the 200th anniversary of our first recorded match, a game with Liverpool Chess Club in 1824. Members of each club decided on their move in consultation and sent it off by Penny Post. (There were no railways or cars back then so an over-the-board match would have been difficult, if not impossible.) We won. 200 years is a lot to cover so if you're sitting comfortably, we'll begin.
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