Famous members

Kingston has always been a competitive chess club and has numbered amongst its membership some famous names in chess. The grandmaster, former British Champion and World Chess Problem Solving Champion John Nunn played for the club as did the world class Pakistani maestro Sultan Khan. Other famous names include Joseph Blake, E.G.Sergeant, and the chess authors P.C. Griffiths and R.N. Coles.

Surrey Trophy

The records show that the club has won the Surrey Trophy, the premier division of Surrey chess clubs, on only one occasion, in our centenary year 1974/5. In addition, under the name of the Thames Valley club, it won fifty years earlier in 1924/5. The club target is to try to reach prominence again in 2024/5.

Kingston won the Alexander Cup (the Surrey club knockout competition) in 1946 defeating Croydon 5-3. (Source: Chess, September 1946 page 288). In that year, Croydon won the Beaumont Cup.

Joseph Blake

One of the strongest players ever to be a member of the club was Joseph Henry Blake, who was born on the 3rd of February 1859 in Farnborough.

In the 1901 UK Census his occupation is given as ‘railway clerk’; he was living in Hampshire then, so he must have joined Kingston Chess Club later.

The Surrey Comet for 14 October 1922 reported that he had won the club KO tournament and had just given a simultaneous display (won 15, drew 1, lost 6) against 22 players of the Thames Valley Chess Club (which had amalgamated with Kingston CC in 1914). He died in Kingston in 1951.

Blake was British Correspondence Champion in 1922 and also finished 1st= in the British Championship of 1909 but lost the play-off to Atkins. He was also the first SCCU champion (jointly with W Ward) in 1898-99.

At Hastings he scored wins against Yates and Colle and a draw against Maroczy. These games were played in the early 1920s when he was already in his sixties, but he went on to win the Kingston Club Championship 20 years later in 1942, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1948 and 1949 (the last, amazingly, at the age of 90!).

Blake’s book, Endings for Beginners was published in 1901. It is now available as an ebook from chesscentral. There is an article about him on
wikipedia

There is a magnificent king hunt attributed to Joseph Blake in 1891, see chessgames which has been lauded in chess anthologies but chess historians have cast doubt on whether it was correctly attributed.

Historic club venues

The club has played at several venues during its history.

Pre-1927: The Scotch Café, Kingston Bridge
1927: Ye Olde Post House
About 1929: the Zeeta Café (previously the Scotch Café)
1937: Penrhyn House
1940: the drawing room of Dr T.W. Letchworth, the club President
(enemy bombs having damaged Penrhyn House)
1941: Penrhyn House
1947: Tiffin Boys’ School
1951: Richmond Road County School
1964: Bonner Hill Road School
1967 (?): Kingston Workmen’s Club, London Road
Nov 1970: All Saint’s Church Hall, Ashdown Road
Feb 1971: The Castle pub, the Fairfield
Late 1971: The Grove Tavern, off Hawkes Road
1972 (?): The Friends’ Meeting House, Eden Street
2003: The Royal Oak pub, New Malden
2007-: The Friends’ Meeting House, Eden Street

We would like to capture some of the history of the club on this page. If anybody has material relating to the club it would be gratefully received.