Bill Wall's Chess Blog

  In 1946, the first USCF Chess Problem Tourney had 226 entries.   (source: Chess Life , Sep 1, 1946, p. 1)   In July 1946, Larry Friedman (1930- ) won the first USCF Junior Tournament, held in Chicago.   There were 32 juniors, from 14 to 19, in the event.   Friedman also won in 1947.   (source: Chess Life , Sep 1, 1946, p. 1) In 1922, the Georgia-Florida Chess Association was formed.   It turned into the Southeastern Chess Association in the early 1930s.   In 1935, the Southern Chess Association (SCA) was created as a successor to the Southeastern Chess Association.    At one time the SCA rivaled the US Chess Federation. (source: Chess Life , Nov 1, 1946, p. 7)   During World War II, there were wartime restrictions on amateur and shortwave radio transmissions.   In 1946, after restrictions were lifted, the USCF announced the formation of a national chess radio league.   (source: Chess Life , Nov 20, 1946, p. 1) ...

  In December 1939, the National Chess Centre opened in London.  After a few months, it had 360 members.  An advertisement for the Centre was “Large and well-appointed Air Raid Center on the premises.”  (source: Chess Review , March 1940, p. 31) On February 17, 1940, the several times New England chess champion, Harold Morton (1906-1940), died in Iowa after a car wreck.  His passenger, Al Horowitz (1907-1973), was seriously injured.  They were travelling together giving tandem simultaneous chess exhibitions across the country.  Morton was driving on the return trip from the west back to an exhibition in Minneapolis when he collided with a truck.  Morton was killed instantly and Horowitz suffered a concussion and chest injuries.  (source:  The Brooklyn Daily Eagle , Feb 22, 1940)  In 1940, the California School for the Deaf lost 3 matches in a row to the chess team of the California School of the Blind.  (source: Chess Review , ...

In 1881, the first Canadian chess championship was held in Quebec.    The winner was Joseph W. Shaw (1834-1897) of Montreal, who scored 7 out of 8.   (source: Chess Review , Sep 1935, p. 213) In 1882, the Toronto Chess Club played the Detroit Chess Club by telegraph.   This may be the first telegraph match between the USA and Canada. On April 26, 1883, the London International Tournament began. It was the first tourney in which double-headed chess clocks were used.   Time control was 15 moves in two hours, and if you failed to make the time limit, you forfeited the game.   The time piece consisted of two balanced clocks on a seesaw beam so that when one was tilted, it stopped and the other started.   The tumbling-clock was manufactured by  Fattonini  & Sons of Bradford, England.   In 1884, the Scottish Chess Association (SCA), the oldest chess association in the world, was founded.   In 2001, the Scottish Chess Associa...