A HISTORY OF

WALSALL KIPPING CHESS CLUB

 

     In 1942, a local newspaper carried these reports:-

 

‘Walsall’s New Chess Club.-The new chess club, members of which will meet in the evenings for play and social intercourse, already promises to be very successful.  The organiser, Mr.A.E.Parsons, of England & Sons, The Bridge (where meetings will be held for the time being) is acting as secretary pro tem, and he has secured as the first president Mr.C.S.Kipping, Headmaster of the Wednesbury High School for Boys, well known as an expert and for the innovation of chess in the curriculum of his school.  Mr.Kipping has given valued assistance by the initial provision of boards and pieces.  Members will meet on Monday evenings at 6.30 and the club will rely, in the first place, on voluntary subscriptions’.  [5.9.42]

 

and

 

‘Walsall Chess Club.-Members of the recently formed Chess Club in Walsall had their first meeting on Monday [7th Sept 1942].  They decided to call the club “The Kipping [Chess] Club,” after their president, Mr.C.S.Kipping.  Mr. F.D.Fox was appointed chairman, Mr.Gordon Farrell treasurer, and Mr.A.E.Parsons honorary secretary.  Mrs.Wright and Miss Powell provided refreshments and were warmly thanked for their contribution to the success of the launching of the club.  Mr.H.Lee was subsequently appointed vice-president after occupying the chair for the evening.’  [12.9.42]

The newly formed club met regularly at first at Mr.Parsons’ shoe shop on Monday evenings, but soon it moved to Pattison's Tea Rooms and later to the Walsall Picture House.  Branch meetings also began to be held in Wednesbury, at the High School, and at Wolverhampton, in the Municipal Secondary School, Newhampton Rd. 

Exciting events were soon taking place, including a 50-a-side match at the High School, and more importantly a visit by no less a person than Vera Menchik, the 'Lady World Champion'!  On May 22nd 1943 she gave a simultaneous display in Walsall against 21 players, including some from The London Chess Club,  in the presence of the Mayor, Mrs. McShane.  She won most of her games but lost or drew to several Kipping players.  Later that year, in November, a team  travelled 90 miles to Charfield in Gloucester for a match, the first of many annual excursions there.  They were rewarded with ‘delightful opponents and bewildering hospitality’.

These activities were among many which brought the club national attention, as exemplified by the reference in CHESS, March,1944, to ‘...the phenomenally successful “Kipping  Chess Club” of Walsall.’  Mr Parsons himself was referred to as one of the ‘most successful chess organisers of recent years’ in the same issue.  Apparently he even arranged for ‘...the cheery telegram from him that reaches the club’s first team neatly in the middle of each away match...’.  No surprise then that he had been invited to pen an article on ‘How To Start A Chess Club’!

Gradually it became clear that separate branch meetings were leading to a natural split within the club, and in March 1945 it was proposed that each branch should enter separate teams in the newly founded Wolverhampton & District Chess League.  Nevertheless strong efforts were made to maintain the bond between the branches.  Not the least of these was the annual publication of ‘The Kipping Chess Club Magazine’, previously known as the Yearbook.  For example, the magazine of 1945-1946, under the editorship of W.F.Guy of the Wolverhampton branch, contained reports from all three branches and a Foreword from C.S.Kipping himself.  Eventually however, the final separation of the Walsall branch from the others took place in May 1948 when the name 'The Walsall Kipping Chess Club' was formally adopted by the club.  (Later, C S Kipping was to stipulate in his will that, providing the Club had retained this name at his death, it should receive a legacy of £200, which it did.)

 By this time the club had changed premises again, to the Wisemore schools.  A regular change in venue almost seemed like an unofficial policy, because over the years the club restlessly toured most of Walsall, taking up residence at different times at:-The Technical College, St.John's Ambulance Brigade Rooms, Littleton St.  Youth Centre, The Royal Hotel, The Kenmare Restaurant (Co-op), Walsall Library, The Mount Parish Hall, Rushall Central Club, Alumwell Community School, Walsall Rugby Club, The Chuckery Working Men's Club, The Bentley Leisure Pavilion and James Bridge Copper Works Social Club, before reaching its present venue at The Pleck Working Men’s Club.

Meanwhile, the club soon achieved success in the local Wolverhampton & District Chess League, when it became Champions in 1947.  Surprisingly though, it withdrew from this competition from 1951-54, only to return in the 1954-5 season.  It then reached its heyday in this League with a very strong team which won the Championship four years running, from 1956-59, under the guiding captaincy of Tom Hollington.  Although it continued to win this League from time to time, it never again managed to repeat that level of consistency.  In contrast, similar success in the stronger Birmingham & District Chess League only came in 1992.  In winning Division 1 of the League in that year to become Champions, the Club also succeeded in commemorating its Jubilee year in style.

However other plans to celebrate its 1992 Jubilee were in hand, the club having organised a major Chess Tournament at the Walsall Campus.  It was played  over the three days of the Easter weekend, and attracted entries from more than nine countries.  The players included Alexei Suetin of Moscow, a leading Russian grandmaster (GM), six other GMs, and eleven international masters (IM).  The national magazine CHESS described it at the time as 'the strongest ever weekend tournament on British soil', and recognised that the 'enticing conditions' provided by David Anderton, chief organiser from the club, played a major part in this achievement.  The winner was GM Murray Chandler from New Zealand, but a number of Walsall players won other prizes including WGM Jana Bellin, for Best Score by a Woman, and youngster Michael Gough (of Queen Mary's school), for Best under 200 grade.

The Jubilee was further marked by a simultaneous display by GM Alexei Suetin against members of the club at its clubroom the following week.  Rob Jones not only provided him with the stiffest opposition, but engaged him in a discussion of the game in Russian afterwards!

In the meantime, a leading member of the club, the late Bill Withnall, together with the Secretary Ben Payne, suggested in 1990 that it organise a Rapidplay Congress, a tournament in which all games last a maximum time of one hour.  It was held at The Alumwell Community School and was won by IM Lawrence  Cooper, from Staffordshire.  Since that time the club has held this one-day event annually, and it regularly attracts players from all over the Midlands and sometimes further afield.  In recent years it has had the good fortune to attract sponsorship, most recently from Ansons Solicitors, Lichfield  This has enabled it to offer larger prizes and become a very attractive event.

Further developments included the setting up of a training scheme for juniors at The Joseph Leckie Community School in 1993.  Professional help, in the shape of Robert Bellin, was provided through sponsorship and it attracted a substantial number of local children.  Much progress and enthusiasm was generated, and it ran for three years.  In 1997, the Club hosted the Staffordshire Centenary Chess Tournament at its premises.  This was a nine day event, organised by David Anderton.

These activities  are but one measure of the club's vitality.  The club's present premises at the Pleck Working Men’s Club currently enable it to maintain a fixture list involving at least 8 teams.  More than 100 matches are regularly played each season, providing a strong contrast with the early days, the1944 minutes showing that '11 matches during the season was not unreasonable…'!  Since 1990 the Club has won the Hickman Trophy, and therefore become Staffordshire Champions, no less than 9 times mostly under the dedicated captaincy of the President of the Club, Norman Young.  The Club were Champions of the Birmingham & District Chess League  for three successive years 2003, 2004 and 2005 and shared the Championship of the Wolverhampton & District Chess League in  2003. They are only the third club to have accomplished this ‘double’.  In 2004 Staffordshire Chess Association’s ‘Club of the Year’, Walsall Kipping may justly claim to be a bulwark of chess in the West Midlands.

Mike Groombridge

March 2007

********************

********

EMINENT MEMBERS OF WALSALL KIPPING PAST* & PRESENT

David Anderton, CM; O.B.E.:-

●         Non-playing captain of the English men’s team Skopje Olympiad 1972 until Novi Sad Olympiad 1990     during which time the team won 3 silver and 2 bronze Olympiad medals.

●         Midland Champion 1979; Correspondence IM (2000); Joint British Senior Champion 2003; British Senior Champion 2005.

●         BCF President 1979-82; BCF International Director 1982-1990; 2000-2002

●         FIDE Executive Board member 1989-93; Administrator of World Championship in London in 1986

●         Captain and Organiser of  AD’s teams in 4NCL, 1999 to date

 

Harry Baines*:-

●         BCF Congress Chief Controller until his death in 1989

●         F.I.D.E Arbiter; Heavily involved with the Hastings Congress for many years

 

Christopher Bellin:-

●         Joint British U-8 Champion 1999

 

Jana Bellin, WGM:-

●         British Lady Champion 8 times between 1970 and 1979. 

●         Represented England in Olympiads between 1972 and 2006.

●         Silver team and silver individual medals on Board 1 in 1976 Olympiad.

 

Robert Bellin, IM*:-

●         British Champion 1979, England International; has served as Captain of the English Women’s team.

●         A ‘prolific author’ including the book “Winning With The Dutch”, a recognised authority on the Dutch Defence.

 

Ray Dolan*:-

●        Co-Founder of Cannock & District Chess League; Express & Star chess columnist 1999-2003. 

 

Gordon Farrell*:-

●         Staffordshire County Champion in the ‘40’s

 

Maurice Johnson*:-

●          Correspondence GM.

●          British Correspondence Chess Association Champion 1989/90 and 1990/91.

 

C S Kipping*:-

●         World famous chess problemist; President of the Club 1942-64. 

A E Parsons*:-

●         Founder of the club; sometime contributor to ‘CHESS’

Tony Sutton*;-

●         British Championship player, 1963 and 1970 (when he and David Anderton qualified in the British Championship Qualifying Competition ahead of Tony Miles, John Fuller and others)

●         Correspondence player of the first rank

 

Darren Wheeler:-

●         England Junior International

●         Joint British U-11 Champion 1981

 

Mark Wheeler:-

●         England Junior International

●         British U-11 Champion 1980; British U-14 Champion 1982

 

Norman Young:-

●         President of the Club since 1977

●         President of Staffordshire County Chess Association, 1973-1998

WALSALL KIPPING CHESS CLUB HONOURS

 

BIRMINGHAM & DISTRICT CHESS LEAGUE

Division

CHAMPIONS

RUNNERS-UP

1

1992; 2003; 2004; 2005

1983; 1998; 1999; 2006

2

1963;1965; 1967; 1976

 

3

1956-II; 1958-III; 1959-IIA; 1962-II

 

4

1955-III; 1993-II; 1998-II;

 

5

2005-III

1981-III; 1992-II;

6

1976-II; 1980-IV; 2004-IV

 

7

 

 

8

1984-IV; 1998-IV

 

 

 

 

Terrill

1958-II

1970-II

Homer

1993-IV

 

Townsend

 

1974-IV

Barrington

2005-III

 

Note: II, III, etc refer to the 2nd, 3rd teams etc

**********

 

WOLVERHAMPTON & DISTRICT CHESS LEAGUE

Division

CHAMPIONS

1

1947; 1956; 1957; 1958; 1959; 1965; 1976; 1981; 1986; 1995; 2003=

2

1964; 1969-II; 1988; 2000-II; 2004-II

3

1957-II; 1967-II;1971-III; 1984-III; 2003-III

4

1965-II; 1987-V; 1999-IV

5

1984-V

Pittaway

1976; 1984; 1985

Lightning

1983; 1984

 

**********

 

DUDLEY AND DISTRICT CHESS LEAGUE
Division
CHAMPIONS

4

1997

 

**********

 

STAFFORDSHIRE CHESS ASSOCIATION
Trophy

WINNERS

Hickman

1970; 1976; 1982; 1984; 1985; 1986=; 1989; 1991; 1992; 1993; 1994; 1995; 1997; 1999; 2000; 2005

Gothard

1991; 1994; 1995; 2001

Jackson

1994; 1998

Withnall

 

 

**********

 

LEIGH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP:                                         Semi-Finalists                1992-3

 

LEIGH NATIONAL MINOR CHAMPIONSHIP:                 Plate Semi-Finalists                1993-4

 

 

**********

ANNUAL INTER CLUB MATCHES:

 

Walsall Kipping Chess Club v Wolverhampton Kipping Chess Club

(for ‘The C S Kipping Memorial Trophy for Annual Competition between his Clubs’, commonly known as ‘The Kipping Board’)

 

Year

Result

(Walsall)

Walsall Kipping

Wolverhampton Kipping*

1965

Lost

 

 

1966

Lost

 

 

1967

Lost

 

 

1968

Won**

6

6

1969

Won

11

1

1970

Lost

4

7

1971

Won

6½

5½

1972

Won

 

 

1973

N/A

 

 

1974

Lost

 

 

1975

N/A

 

 

1976

Won

9½

2½

1977

Won

 

 

1978

Won

 

 

1979

Won

 

 

1980

Won

 

 

*From 1978, Wolverhampton Kipping became part of Rock Kipping; **Decided on Board Count

**********

 

Walsall Kipping Chess Club  v  Rushall Chess Club

(for The Walrus Trophy)

   In 1985, Rushall proposed an annual match between the clubs, with grading limits on players.  As a consequence, the first match was held at Rushall on 12th May 1986.  A chess board, christened the Walrus Trophy, was later made by Peter Turner of Rushall to be held by the annual winning club.  In 2005, the match was extended to include the Wolverhampton Chess Club.

 

Year

Result (Walsall)

Walsall

Rushall

Wolverhampton

1986

Won

4½

3½ 

 

1987

Won

4½

3½

 

1988

Lost

3½

4½

 

1989

Won

5½

4½

 

1990

Won

5½

4½

 

1991

Lost

3½

6½

 

1992

Won *

5

5

 

1993

Won

6

4

 

1994

Lost

3

7

 

1995

Won *

5

5

 

1996

Lost

4

6

 

1997

Lost

4½

5½

 

1998

Lost

3½

6½

 

1999

Won

6

4

 

2000

Won

5½

4½

 

2001

Lost

3½

6½

 

2002

Won

5½

4½

 

2003

Lost *

5

5

 

2004

Won

6½

3½