Chess Education Society

[Richard James]

Is there an argument to be made (apologies if this is well known and has already been established by chess historians) that organisations and work like this laid some of the groundwork for the later English chess explosion, and so is an important contributory factor?

Yes, I'm sure you're correct. For me the real heroes of the English Chess Explosion, apart from Leonard and Bob who, of course, both did wonderful work, were the secondary school organisers from the late 50s and 60s whose enthusiasm helped make chess popular with teenage boys (sadly not girls).

In my area there were the likes of Mike Sinclair (Middx/West London), Eric Croker (Middx/North London) and Tommy Dunne (Surrey). There would have been many more as well in other parts of the country.

[MJMcCready]

If you look at the national schools tournaments, I think you will find many of them there.

[John Saunders]

Miss L. Anness (Chess Education Society), the controller of girls events at the Chess Congress this week, is a remarkable figure in this magical chess world. When head mistress of Aylesbury Secondary School, Bromley, Kent, she introduced chess lessons—the first ever in any English school. She has taught the game for many years and has proved an invaluable "aide" to Mr. N[orman] [Fishlock-]Lomax. She impressed everyone with her charm and kindly care of the girls' in her charge.

Some time ago I appended the following to the 1953 British Championship page:

Lucy Anness (14 April 1888 - 2nd q. of 1973) Brief obit, BCM, August 1973, p329 & longer obit, SCCU Bulletin, June 1973. "She first became interested in chess in 1938 when headmistress of Aylesbury Senior School for Girls, Bromley, Kent, and immediately put chess on the school curriculum. When she retired in 1952, she threw her energies into the organisation of Junior Chess and became Kent School Organiser and then Junior Organiser, building up the Kent School Chess League from 27 schools in 1953 to 61 in 1961. For many years she also assisted in organising the S.C.C.U. Championships when these were held at Southsea and then at Bognor Regis. In recognition of these services in 1959 the Union elected her their first and only lady President. During all this time, she had close connections with the Bromley and Beckenham clubs and became assistant secretary of the Beckenham Chess Club which met in her own home from 1952 until 1966."

Link to a photo of Lucy Anness teaching girls chess. Two years ago Olimpiu Di Luppi and John Foley both discussed her work on Twitter.

I believe there was a trophy named after her which was awarded to junior winners at Bognor in the 1960s.

[Gerard Killoran]

From the Illustrated London News - Saturday 03 December 1949 p.17

Illustrated London News - Saturday 03 December 1949 p.17.png

[Gerard Killoran]

And from the Bognor Regis Observer - Friday 18 April 1958 p.4

Bognor Regis Observer - Friday 18 April 1958 p.4.png

[Simon Love]

I am currently visiting my father John Love and whilst wondering if there were any old Junior Chess magazines referenced online, discovered this thread.

I thought it might be of interest to plug some of the gaps.

John Love and John Hodgkins met at the Gloucester chess club and were both primary school teachers. They started writing books together whilst living in Gloucester “Chess Ideas for Young People” (1962) and “Further Chess Ideas for Young People” (1965). In 1959 John Love moved to Glenrothes, Fife and they collaborated by post. They had also wanted to produce a magazine for school pupils and settled on the title “Junior Chess”. Bob Wade who had relinquished the title the previous decade wrote articles for the magazine and helped promote it, but there was no conscious link to the Chess Education Society. They produced the magazine for four or five years, but it wound up, partly for financial reasons, but also because in 1966 John Hodgkins was heading to a school in Arctic Canada, and John Love to one in Germany (for the British Army of the Rhine). There had been some discussions about the title being taken on by BH Wood’s Chess, but in the end he just took the old stock.

John Love went on to write three more Chess books: “Chess a New Introduction” (1967) which he thinks was the first to use algebraic notation in an English language publication; “Tactical Ideas in Chess” (1981) and “Positional Ideas in Chess” (1985) which though no longer published, still has an entry and reviews on Amazon.

Yes, sorry for any confusion folks - I wrote that post in rather a hurry. The image referred to appears below. (BTW, Penrose was 17-18 in 1951, not 28.)

The 1960s magazine was definitely a different publication from this one, though I suspect it might have been a kind of direct descendant. I don't know if anyone's now in a position to confirm or disprove it, but possibly the CES had decided around 1961 not to continue publishing their version, and Love and Hodgkins decided to give it a go independently of them while being allowed to continue using the title. It was a rum sort of arrangement they had, with one of them (I forget which) living in Glenrothes, Fife, and the other in the Bristol area. Bob Wade continued to be a frequent contributor in the early days; Peter Clarke later did a whole series of articles as well. Many reports of junior events were by the participants themselves (e.g. David Smith on the 1961 world U-20s; Peter Lee on the 1963 ones). Mike Basman was becoming a regular towards the end.

The final issue was in December 1964, by which time the editors had evidently run out of money. There was a hint that another chess publisher might cut them some sort of deal, but it came to nothing. (The CES, while still in existence, was by then probably in decline and would have been unlikely to be interested.) All copies still in stock were bought up by B H Wood. Several months later (mid-1965) he was still flogging them off in job lots of 15 issues.

As for the CES itself, Bob Wade was certainly involved, along with the other names I mentioned in the earlier post. (Penrose I imagine withdrew as the demands of his education stepped up.) One issue of the Junior Chess magazine c1963 carried a report of some big meeting which mentioned the CES " ... rolling up its sleeves and getting down to work" or some such. It ended with a 20-board match in which several well-known names took part; unfortunately I can't remember any of them!

[John Clarke]

Thanks for clearing all that up, Simon. It looks as though the magazine would have closed anyway before much longer: the financial difficulties simply accelerated the process.

How did your search go elsewhere? I've tried myself from time to time, but managed to turn up very little on-line. Similarly with attempts to locate actual copies, to replace the 17 I once owned but which were lost as a result of my move to NZ in the late 70s. It's a shame there don't seem to be any around now (with the possible exception of the British Library), because they were an invaluable resource for the early history of what would later develop into the English Chess Explosion.

Delighted to hear your father is still with us. Please pass on my appreciation for his efforts in the field of chess writing and education. I found his book Further Chess Ideas particularl helpful in developing what very modest strength I was able to achieve as a player during my schooldays.