CHESS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 228, 21 June 1921, Page 9

CHESS

CANTERBURY 0.0. V. WELLINGTON 0.0.

The above telegraphic match was reßiimert nromutly at 5 p.m. on Saturday, and tho'lact that It was the 18th of' June.raiSj ed tho question ’at 52 Cuba Street, Will this evening’s play provid© a- Waterloo for Wellington?" But TUe nnexjiected ham poned. After an hour s ffiay a teult in the wire caused a cessation of hostilities for the rest of the evening, as all efforts made during the next three hours to regain touch with the Canterbury Club proved futile. Consequently very little progress was made. By utilising a telephone at this end the local captain was able to exchange a niessagc with the southern captain about. 11 P-“-' " both clubs agreed to rcrame play at t> n.m. on Saturday next The local club has good prospects at Boards 7 and 9, as Mr. w !" s ' * knight and Mr. Purchts a bishop immediately on resuming. The game at Boaid 11 between H. G. Lee (ex-Somerset county representative) and 11. J; i, n f 'a Kent county representative) ended in a draw on the previous Saturde- a ? ® renorted. Several very interesting anil instructive finishes should be witnessed on Saturday evening Five n ! e ™ b n e " 3 in Working Men's Club aro taking part in the'telegraphic match, and the club will therefore probably ask lor a, w cek “ D”®*' ponement of the Interclub fixture, that was scheduled to be played at Ngaio next Saturday.

A CHESS ANNIVERSARY.

To-day it is 55 years since the first Wellington Chess Club came into existence it having been formed on June 20, 1866, by Mr 0. P. Powles, who is still a resident of this City. The Wellington -Independent'’ of Saturday, Juno. 25, !866, in refering to the club's formation, mentions that the Bishop of Wellington (Bishop ham) “has kindly offered the u&o rf diocesan room at Thorndon. (St. Pauls Church had been consecrated earlier in tho month—on June 6, 1866.) Pho club also had an offer of a room in tho Athenaeum (now known as the Exchange Buildings), and this was accepted os being more central. This room did not appeal to the pioneer me.mbers, Who totalled 25, and with a view to securing more inviting quarters the hon. secretary (Mr. L. r. Powles) a month later advertised for a room "about tho locality of tne Oddfellow's Hall.’’ A local published in the same issue of the “Independent referred to the fact that the Nelson and Canterbury Clubs wore then engaged in a contest (tna first telegraphic match nlaved in ho Southern Hemisphere), and the hone , wa ? f, 1 ' pressed that Wellingtontans would shortly be in a position to play a similar meten. It is not an easy matter to find out just, when this first Wellington Cness Club lapsed. It was flourishin-- in tho early 'seventies, but was presumably not in existence in 1875, otherwise it would hardly have boon necessarv for Mr. W. F. Barrand and the late Mr. Edward Beeves to make such a very thorough canvass for nmihbership to enable tho present Wellington Chess Club to be formed on July 1. 1876. Anv readers who can throw any light on the chess doings in this city during the 'sixties or early 'seventies aro invited to do so.