‘Battle at long range’: correspondence chess in Britain and Ireland, 1824-1914, a social and cultural history Timothy Harding Submitted to the Department of History, Trinity College, Dublin, For the degree of Doctor in Philosophy 2009 Declaration This thesis is entirely my own work and it has not previously been submitted to this or any other university. Timothy David Harding I agree that the Library may lend or copy this thesis upon request. Timothy David Harding Summary THIS thesis is a history of the development of chess as a pastime and cultural activity in the United Kingdom, principally between 1824 and 1914, concentrating on the ‘grass roots’ rather than professional chess. It examines the game’s growth from various perspectives and relates the findings to areas of academic debate in the history of sports and leisure. Historians up to now have paid little attention to indoor and mental games, although the need for such a study has been noted. Chess’s high cultural status led it to its downward diffusion in Victorian society. Sober and utterly divorced from gambling, unlike cards, chess was respectable and gradually developed into a sport, and later a ‘hobby’, during this period. The thesis uses qualitative evidence since there is little data on which to make a statistical analysis. The evidence is derived mostly from archival research into printed primary sources, but wherever possible it also draws on manuscript sources. These include correspondence relating to the Edinburgh match, records of some chess early clubs, the correspondence of Scottish champion G. B. Fraser, and the extensive papers of chess historian Harold Murray in the Bodleian Library. Correspondence chess and club chess (also examined in some detail) developed in parallel during the mid-nineteenth century. It is argued here that, following a noticeable increase in middle-class chess activity and the beginnings of regular publicity for the game in 1835, the first major influx of ‘new blood’ into the chess world came in the 1840s. Previous writers have recognised that this was an important period in the development of the game but were unable to explain why. Hitherto the impact of the ‘rational recreation’ movement had chiefly influenced middle-class participation, but now the ‘problem of working class leisure’ was coming into focus. Alongside the growth of print and communications, the crucial extra factor was the promotion of chess in mechanics’ institutes and other urban institutions of a similar nature, which usually included informal chess and often ran chess classes or chess clubs. This involved a strong element of patronage in the early stages, but ideological explanations along the lines of ‘social control’ are rejected. Chess had traditionally been played among professionals, merchants, the Summary clergy and the military but now artisans and lower middle-classes, especially clerks, took up the game. As the lower-middle classes grew, so did the chess clubs and competitions catering to them. From the 1830s onwards, an extensive chess literature developed, the most important aspect from an historical point of view being the chess columns in a wide variety of periodicals. These not only supply information about what was happening in the game and the society where it was played, but provide an insight into the mentalities of chess-players. An early chapter in the thesis examines the role of the editors and the publishing environment in which they worked. Several editors organised competitions, including correspondence chess matches and tournaments, which then provided copy for their articles. Before regional and national chess associations became established, these chess editors were among the most important organisers of competitions for amateurs. Correspondence chess is the main focus of the thesis. The first major British chess contest, indeed almost the first competitive chess event of any kind, was the 1824-8 Edinburgh v. London postal match, which attracted considerable interest at the time and has been the subject of controversy long after. Correspondence chess involves playing the game with distant opponents over time. That usually meant by post although the telegraph and telephone were also pressed into service at the earliest opportunity. Two crucial watersheds for postal chess were 1840, when the universal penny post began, and 1870, when the halfpenny postcard was introduced. Both led to marked increases in the playing of postal chess, and particularly tournaments, which had begun in the 1850s. The text of the thesis concentrates on early and important contests, including international competition, but appendices document the sporting side of the game in detail as the tournaments, in particular, have never been previously researched. The thesis also includes an extensive argument about women’s chess, placed in a context of gender theory, demonstrating that correspondence chess and chess problem tourneys provided a ‘semi-public’ sphere where women could compete from their homes. It also includes new evidence about early Irish chess clubs and the growth of chess activity in Ireland, which largely paralleled that of Scotland. Contents Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations xiii Glossary of Chess Terms xiv Note on Chess Notation xvi Note on References and Reference Works xviii List of Scanned Images xix 1 Introduction and Historiography 1 1 Problems with the ‘standard model’ in leisure history 1 2 The historiography of sport 15 3 Introduction to the history of chess 24 4 The cultural status of chess 28 5 The historiography of chess 35 6 Pre-history of correspondence chess 47 7 Looking forward 51 2 The London-Edinburgh Match, 1824-8 53 1 The cancelled Paris match, and Edinburgh’s challenge 53 2 The clubs and their members 57 3 The start of the match, and publicity 62 4 The mystery of the fifth game 65 Table 1: Edinburgh-London match results 68 5 The controversy and its aftermath 71 6 Conclusion 77 3 Chess and Print Culture 78 1 Chess books as sources and resources 78 2 Magazines: heroic failures and gritty survivors 82 2a) The strange saga of the Chess Player’s Chronicle 85 2b) Development of chess magazines from the 1860s 90 2c) Manuscript magazines 92 3 Chess columns in periodicals 93 3a) The definition and role of a chess column 94 3b) Early columns and the identification problem 97 i Table of Contents 3c) Bell’s Life in London: the pioneering column 101 3d) The I.L.N. and Staunton’s feud with Walker 103 3e) The ‘family paper’ decades 110 3f) A major column: The Field 114 3g) Different types of publication with chess columns 116 4 Case study: The Home Circle and the first postal chess tourney 119 5 Concluding points 129 4 Chess Clubs and Associations 131 1 The growth of the chess club 131 1a) Counting the chess clubs 133 1b) Handicaps and stake money 138 1c) Categorising the clubs 141 1d) Two early small-town clubs in Ireland 145 2 Chess in Mechanics’ Institutes and the like 148 3 Case study: Lord Lyttelton and the educative role of chess 155 4 From the club to the association 166 5 Case study: the B.C.C.A. and its precursors 172 6 Conclusions 182 5 Inter-club and Team Matches 184 1 How consultation matches worked 184 2 Early matches before the postal reform 186 3 Matches between individuals and clubs 192 4 Postal reform and over the board play 194 5 International club matches 196 5a) The Paris-Westminster match of 1834-6 196 5b) The matches with Amsterdam 198 5c) The London-Vienna match 200 5d) Later international consultation matches 203 6 The change to team matches 206 7 Case study: Battle at long range, U.K. v U.S.A ., 1877-81 210 8 Games by telephone and radio 219 9 Later postal team matches, official and unofficial 221 9a) Official matches between associations 221 9b) Later Irish matches and unofficial matches 223 9c) The matches with Bohemia and post-war developments 225 10 Conclusion 228 ii Table of Contents 6 Correspondence Competitions for Individuals 228 1 The private match 228 2 Case study: the Blackmore v. Fedden match 232 3 The knock-out tourney 236 3a) The Birmingham and Cassell’s tournaments 236 3b) Abortive tournaments and the debut of Blackburne 240 3c) Knock-out tournaments of later years 242 4 Transition to a new tournament format 250 5 Correspondence chess as a life-style choice 257 6 Principal all-play -all tourneys up to 1914 262 7 Conclusion: from the collective to the individual 269 7 Women and Chess 270 1 The fight against prejudice 271 2 Some early female chess-players 275 3 Women start to compete at chess 283 4 Gender differences and the life-cycle 294 5 Case study: Frideswide Rowland and the development of Irish chess 298 8 Four Countries, One Kingdom 309 1 Differences and similarities 309 1 a) Chess in the Jewish community 310 1 b) Exceptionalism of chess in Wales 311 1 c) More on early Irish chess clubs 315 2 ‘Celtic chess’: comparing three countries 319 3 Case study: G. B. Fraser and the Scottish experience 322 4 Conclusions 332 9 Connections and Conclusions 334 1 Review of the chapters and the main discoveries 334 2 Why chess grew 337 3 What is new here about the history of the game 342 4 Self-critique and recommendations 346 5 Some final points 349 iii Table of Contents Bibliography 353 Primary Sources 1: Manuscripts 353 1.1 MSS in private hands 353 1.2 Manuscripts and records in publicly available archives 354 Primary Sources 2: Official Publications 357 2.1 House of Commons Sessional Papers 357 2.2 Principal Acts of Westminster Parliament re the Post Office 357 2.3 Principal Act of Dublin Parliament re the Post Office 358 2.4 Other official publications 358 2.5 Law reports 358 Primary Sources 3: Contemporary Works: Periodical Publications 358 3.1 Directories and Annuals 358 3.2 Articles relating to chess in contemporary periodicals 359 3.3 Specialist U.