BCF Special Edition Newsletter September 1954
In August 1954 the British Chess Federation’s annual congress was held in Nottingham. The event was known as the ‘J N Derbyshire Memorial Congress’ in honour of the great chess benefactor – and driving force behind the famous Nottingham 1936 Masters Tournament – who had died just four months earlier. Alderman Derbyshire had, of course, not only been President of the BCF from 1941 to 1950 but President of the Nottinghamshire Chess Association from its formation in 1922 until his death.
Fittingly, the Nottingham University venue was the same as 1936; a decade later it had also hosted the BCF’s first post-war congress, Nottingham 1946.
To mark the occasion the BCF produced a special edition of its newsletter running to 22 pages and costing two shillings and six pence.
The congress comprised the British Championship, British Ladies’ Championship, British Junior Championship, British Boys’ Championship, Major Open, First Class and Second Class sections.
Naturally, the newsletter focuses on the British Championship and provides a round-by-round account of the action. Joint winners were the estimable Leonard Barden and Alan Phillips with 8 points from 11 games. Barden later admitted to having ‘botched’ a healthy lead in the final three rounds, though he recalled more fondly the visit by nine-times winner, H E Atkins, on the middle Saturday.
In all, the full scores for no less than 79 games are included. Indeed, despite the newsletter being dated September it manages to include all the moves from the (tied) 10-game Barden-Phillips play-off that took place in October.
Of local interest, Ken Whyld (Boots and Nottingham Mechanics) finished fourth equal in the Major Open with 7/11.
The newsletter is reproduced with kind permission of the English Chess Federation.
Stuart Humphreys