The information below is what I have located from the Hampshire Chess Archives, or other sources (mainly the British Newspaper Archives). I welcome updates to correct any incorrect details, or to supply additional information.
Picture above of the excellent Basingstoke Chess venue.
Update April 2025 – David Graham has supplied additional information on the club.
- Club History
- Early Matches
- Emanuel Lasker Simul
- Recent Times
- Club Update
- Trophies
- Acknowledgements and Sources
Club History
The Hampshire Chronicle had details of the forming of a Basingstoke Chess club in November 1890, with Mr Gagan accepting the Hon. Secretary role and as Mr F Blatch presided on the meeting my assumption is that he was the Chairman. The club was to meet two nights each week. I don’t have a record of any of these players representing Hampshire, but several future members would do so.
Early Matches
With their location in the North of Hampshire, early matches were against other clubs in this vicinity, these included Winchester, Salisbury and Odiham (village close to Basingstoke / Hook).
Two matches from 1892 where they beat Odiham and Winchester. As can be seen from the teams the President and Secretary were on the top boards, but Mr H Seymour played for both Odiham and Basingstoke. In the Winchester match the strength in depth counted, as four points were scored on the bottom two boards (two games were played by these players).
Basingstoke entered the Hampshire Chess League (Hampshire Trophy) for the first time in 1898/99 which was three years after it commenced. It was not a great start as they lost all three matches.
The Hants and Berks Gazette and Middlesex and Surrey Journal had a match report on the Southampton B match from this season. As can be seen Basingstoke started well with a quick win by FC Bird and another board had a Queen for Knight advantage. Unfortunately things went wrong and the end result was a 4 – 1 loss.
It should be remembered that although their opponents were Southampton B, the Southampton team was meant to split evenly between A and B. This can be seen as Elwell and Kenny were very strong players. The two Bird brothers playing for Basingstoke were also of a decent level, both playing for Hampshire in the middle boards in County matches. The match against Cliddesden (small village near Basingstoke) also mentioned in the article had another two of the Bird family playing.
But it was not long before Basingstoke had success in the competition though, as in the 1900/01 season they won the Hampshire County Trophy only lost the one match in their season (including friendlies), whilst winning eight and drawing two.
The competition all came down to the last match of the season, where they beat Southampton C 5-2. This was not a weak Southampton team, as apart from King all were regular Hampshire County players. The Bird family, of which four played in this match were obviously strong players.
For Southampton their team included R Chipperfield the first President of the Hampshire Chess Association (1890-1908), WC Kenny the Treasurer (1891-1894) and HJ Penwell delegate to the SCCU (1920-1922).
Basingstoke would go on to win the Hampshire Trophy again in the 1906/07 season.
Emanuel Lasker Simul
In 1898 the World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker gave a number of chess simuls in England (15!) and this included one hosted by the Basingstoke Chess Club. Details on this was recorded in the Hants and Berks Gazette, but as per many of Lasker’s simuls he had no problems in winning all his games, 20 in this case.
Four games are included on Chessgames.com and looking at these the Basingstoke players did very well, and Lasker in most games won in the ending. All the games can be downloaded, but FC Bird’s game is below.
Recent Times
Basingstoke joined the Southampton Chess League in the 2014-2015 season1 Their activity has recently increased and, in the 2024/25 season they had five teams. They are yet to win Division One, but have managed to win the other four divisions. They have also won the premier cup competition, the Robertson Cup.
Their top player is currently Steven Jones, who finished 2nd in the 2023 British Chess Championship behind Michael Adams. This result included wins against GM Daniel H Fernandez and IM Tarun Kanyamarala.
David Graham Update
David Graham of Basingstoke Chess Club has supplied additional information on the club history. LC Whetham mentioned below played for Hampshire between 1911 and 1938, but winning the club championship with a gap of 63 years is very impressive. I have provided a couple of the newspaper cuttings which mention the Basingstoke Silver Rook Trophy and the 1st championship.
Basingstoke Chess Club
David Graham – April 2025
I imagine I could write a book on Basingstoke Chess club. However I can furnish you with some interesting information.
A. Silver Rook Trophy.
The first Basingstoke Individual championship was held in 1898 and the winner was LC Whetham. Whetham went on to win the Silver Rook Trophy 7 times the last one being amazingly in 1961.
B. Venues.
Over the years Basingstoke Chess club have had several venues. We believe they had spells at the Liberal club and the Conservative club before moving to Chineham House. This venue was very Spartan. However things were to change dramatically in 1974. Charles Henshaw a club member built an extension on his house called Maydene and appointed four trustees from the Basingstoke Bridge club. The condition Henshaw set was that the Chess club have Maydene one night a week that being Wednesday. It has been like that for the last 51 years.
C. Leagues.
Basingstoke were members of the Berkshire League continuously for most of its existence. Also over the last few decades the club play in the Surrey Borders League. In 2014 a decision was made to also enter teams into the Southampton League. It is worth noting that Basingstoke had at one time in the 1970-80 era had their own Basingstoke Chess League. Companies with Social clubs and Community centres entered and there were two Divisions.
D. Awards and Honours.
The most prestigious award for the club was the honour of being English Chess Federation club of the year in 1992. A lot of the credit was rightly bestowed on Joe French for his remarkable efforts with Junior chess. In the Berkshire League the club appears to have been a yo-yo member. Probably too strong for Division 2 but not strong enough for Division 1.
Similar story in the Surrey Borders League where only odd bits of success have been recorded. Almost achieved a promotion in 2020 to the top Division. Having won 5 and drawn 2 with no losses a win over the bottom club would have achieved top place. Unfortunately along came COVID and the League shut down. The highest honour was the 2024 winning of the Southampton League Robertson Cup. Juniors and Ladies chess.
The club put a huge emphasis on Junior chess and holds a weekly session which is well attended. Over the last number of years there has been a welcome upsurge of interest from Female chess players. We have held a club Ladies Championship for the past three years.
Trophies
Basingstoke league / cup wins in the Hampshire and Southampton Leagues. Full details of the SCL League winners can be found here.
| Season | League | Club | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1900-1901 | Hampshire League | Basingstoke | Division 1 |
| 1906-1907 | Hampshire League | Basingstoke | Division 1 |
| 1932-1933 | Hampshire League | Basingstoke | Division 2 |
| 1933-1934 | Hampshire League | Basingstoke | Division 2 |
| 1983-1984 | Hampshire League | Basingstoke | Division 2 |
| 2014-2015 | Southampton League | Basingstoke B | Division 5 |
| 2016-2017 | Southampton League | Basingstoke B | Division 4 |
| 2022 | Southampton League | Basingstoke C | Division 5 |
| 2022 | Southampton League | Basingstoke A | Division 3 |
| 2022-2023 | Southampton League | Basingstoke A | Division 2 |
| 2023-2024 | Southampton League | Basingstoke C | Division 4 |
| 2023-2024 | Southampton Cup | Basingstoke A | Rob Cup |
Additional Information
Please do contact me if you have any additional information to add to this brief history of Basingstoke Chess Club.
Acknowledgements and Sources
- Basingstoke Chess Club website
- David Graham for club update
- British Newspaper Archives
- Hampshire Chronicle
- Hants and Berks Gazette and Middlesex and Surrey Journal
- Reading Observer
- Portsmouth Evening News
- Britbase
- ChessGames
- Hampshire Chess Archives
- Basingstoke also play in the Surrey Border League and previously the Berkshire League. ↩︎
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