The Black Ball Box

[Geoff Chandler]

By chance I was going through a box containing some old letters the Edinburgh Club had received in 1949. (it appears from 1822 the rule had been 'throw nothing out' and going by the number of boxes we have of correspondence dating from the 1820's they never did!)

The heading (dated 9th December 1949) suggests the Newcastle Chess Club was founded in 1838.



The letter mentions that Mr R.S. Rainbow (A young player who was trying join the club and gave Newcastle C.C. as a reference) is trust worthy. Before 1970 you could not just turn up and join. You had to make a request in writing and someone had to second you. Then you had to go through the 'Black Ball Box' (actually no black balls were involved. The balls were white. You put your hand in the hole and dropped your choice into the 'Yes' ir 'No' box.)



After the Fischer boom they had so many requests to join they lowered the bar (and I got in!)

[John Upham]

More detail here:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackballing

[John Townsend]

Black-balling was used at the London Chess Club. In my book, Historical notes on some chess players, page 2, I mentioned one of the rules from the laws of the club:

"5 That two black balls be an exclusion"

It seems almost incredible, but true, that the great Howard Staunton was excluded for several years from St. George's Chess Club. (See Chapters 3 and 4 of my book, Notes on the life of Howard Staunton). It was the arrival of St. Amant in London in the spring of 1843, with no other player good enough to oppose him, that prompted the committee finally to admit Staunton, after which a short match between the two of them was played.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi John,

In the Edinburgh Box when you put your hand inside you feel right away that is divided in two by a piece of sloping wood to direct your marble into the left or right box.

One of the older members recalls AGM's in the 1960's when a Black Ball Box incident from the late 1940's kept getting brought up at every AGM over a player being refused entry. Apparently these debates got quite heated. We know the name of lad refused entry but the reason why is unclear.

[John Hickman]

Hi John,

In the Edinburgh Box when you put your hand inside you feel right away that ...

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

[John Clarke]

The Brighton club was still requiring prospective members to be formally proposed in the late 1960s. I don't know when they abandoned the practice.

Re blackballing: there's a legend that at one London gentlemen's club, twelve members voted at one ballot and thirteen black balls were found in the box, the odd one being the club secretary who wanted to make absolutely certain of the result.

[Wadih Khoury]

Hi John,

In the Edinburgh Box when you put your hand inside you feel right away that ...

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

That is a very high bar to enter a chess club. Not to mention lethal