The Edinburgh Chess Club, the second oldest chess membership on the earth, celebrates its bicentenary at the moment. Founded on November 4, 1822, over the 2 centuries the membership has been visited by well-known gamers corresponding to Howard Staunton, Joseph Blackburne, Jose Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Anatoly Karpov, and Veselin Topalov.

Second in longevity solely to the Zurich Chess Society, which was based in 1809, the Edinburgh Chess Club has an unimaginable historical past that’s now spanning 200 years. Much of it may be discovered on the membership’s web site, which is effectively value a go to. Here’s what’s written concerning the early years:

 It began with 31 members, a determine that had risen to 50 inside 2 years, and [in] the next years they had been discussing the acquisition of a home to function everlasting clubrooms. In reality they needed to wait one other 97 years earlier than that want would come true.

Early money ebook entries point out the acquisition of candles and cost to the sedan chairmen for the transport of chess items. Rent for his or her premises was £2 and a couple of shillings. In these days chess was largely a recreation for gents, and there are a lot of representatives of the professions and the army amongst the early membership lists. Entry charges had been £3 3s and subscriptions £1 1s.

Two years after it was established, the Edinburgh membership performed their well-known match in opposition to the London Chess Club in 1824. (Plans for the celebrating the 2 hundredth anniversary of this match in 2024 are underway!)

This was to play a sequence of video games by correspondence, the strikes being despatched by letter, which in these days had been carried by horse and carriage — an costly enterprise for the reason that “Penny Post” wouldn’t be launched till 1840. Three video games had been to be performed with any drawn video games being restarted, and two video games can be in play at anybody time. The losers had been to current the winners with a silver cup to the worth of £25.

Incidentally, it was on this match that the Scotch Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Bc4) was first recorded, when one of many London gamers tried it. Edinburgh then efficiently adopted the identical variation in two subsequent video games.

Founded on 4th November 1822 with 31 members (entry charges had been £3 3s, and subscriptions £1 1s), @EdinburghChess Club is the longest-in-service chess membership within the UK and the 2nd oldest on the Globe.🏆
Best needs for the following 200 years!😉❤

📸 ECC#ChessConnectsUs #scotchgambit pic.twitter.com/ln6ak7oF8u

— Judit Polgar (@GMJuditPolgar) November 4, 2022

The following anecdote is priceless:

The strikes had been printed in quite a few newspapers and drew appreciable public consideration and never a bit of controversy when in one of many video games the London membership tried to retract a poor transfer in a important place, even making use of unsuccessfully to the Postmaster for the return of the letter. The Postmaster having refused, the Edinburgh membership took the stance {that a} transfer as soon as posted was the equal of a bit having been launched and the transfer thus accomplished, and the sport was ultimately received by Edinburgh.

The books concerning the match that had been written later in addition to the unique letters with their wax seals that carried the strikes between the 2 capitals are nonetheless within the library of the membership. The match, which took about 4 years, was received +2 =2 -1 by Edinburgh.

The web site additional notes that the membership has had houses at a number of websites within the metropolis, together with Princes Street, George Street, Queen Street, St. Andrews Square, York Place, and Hanover Street. The present constructing on Alva Street was bought in 1922 and formally opened on November 4, 100 years in the past and 100 years after the membership had been established.

In July of this 12 months, the 2 hundredth anniversary was celebrated with a match between the Edinburgh membership and Schaakstad Apeldoorn from the Netherlands. Edinburgh received narrowly with 5.5-4.5.