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Chess Clubs - A Chronology

Here are a few of the first chess clubs, in chronological order, up to the 20th century.  Most have disbanded.  I tried to list the founding date and the disbanded date if known.

Naples (1610), Café de la Regence (1670-1916), Café Procope (1689-1740), Slaughter’s Coffee House (1692-1843), Dublin (1749-1750), Salopian Coffee House (1770-1861), Parsloe’s (1772-1825), St James in London (1774), Paris near the Palais-Royal (1783), Berlin (1803-1847), New York (1803-1804), London (1807-1865), Zurich (1809 to present), Dusseldorf (1812), Hereford (1812), Dublin (1813-1819), Athenaeum in Philadelphia (1814), Manchester (1817-1876), Dublin Philidorian Chess Society (1819), Amsterdam (1822), Edinburgh (1822-present), Paris (1823-1839), Winterthur in Switzerland (1822), Percey Coffee House (1823-1825), Rotterdam (1823), Gliddon's Cigar Divan (1825), St Martins (1825-1827), Dundee (1826), Philadelphia (1827), Hyderabad (1828), Madras (1828), Samuel Reiss’s Grand Cigar Divan (1828-1833), Breslau (1829), Bristol (1829-1871), Nottingham (1829-1845), Hamburg (1830), Westminster (1830-1840), Cambridge University (1832), Trinity (1832), Berlin (1833), Covent Garden (1833-1840), Dublin (1833-1867), Simpson’s (1833-1903), Leeds (1834-present), Doncaster (1835), Federal City in Washington DC (1835), New York Divan (1835-1837), Norwich (1835), Cerce des Panoramas in Paris (1836), Exeter (1836), Greenwich (1836), Hambro (1836), Newcastle (1836), Pentonville (1836), St Petersburg (1836), Taunton (1836), Yarmouth (1836), York (1836), Liverpool (1837), Bassford's chess room in New York (1837), Wakefield (1837), Worcester (1837), New Orleans (1838-1840), Budapest (1839), New York (1839), Washington DC (1839), Glasgow (1840), Halifax (1840-1959), Huttman’s Garrick Chess Divan (1840), Norfolk in Virginia (1840), Brighton (1841), Belfast (1843), Huddersfield (1844), Boston (1845-1848), St George's (1845-1857), SG Winterthur in Switzerland (1846), Amsterdam Philidor Club (1847), Athenaeum in Philadelphia (1847), Birmingham (1847), Dundee (1847), Sheffield Athenaeum (1847), Penzance (1848), Burnley (1850), Newcastle-on-Tyne (1850), Shropshire (1850), Huddersfield (1851), Krefeld (1851), Leamington (1851), Melbourne (1851-1852), Brooklyn (1852), City of London (1852-1939), Edgbaston (1852), Shrewsbury (1852), Stourbridge (1852), Aberdeen (1853), Bradford (1853), Burton-on-Trent (1854), Dusseldorf (1854), St Petersburg (1854-1862), Tasmania (1854), Folkestone (1855), Great Northern Railway (1855), Mechanics’ Institute (1855), Ballarat (1856), McDonnell CC in London (1856), Yale (1856), Boston (1857), Croydon (1857), Milwaukee (1857-1883), St George (1857-1881), Vienna (1857), Dubuque (1858), Anderssen Chess Club in Philadelphia (1859), Auraria (1859), Charleston (1859), Denver (1859), Philadelphia (1859-1866), Social CC in Scotland (1859), Beverly (1860), Glasgow Central (1860), Leicester (1860), Victorian Club in Dublin (1860), Dudley (1861), St Petersburg (1862-1862), Wolverhampton (1862), Napier CC in New Zealand (1863-1870), Adelaide (1864), Georgetown in British Guiana (1864), Ladies’ CC in Germantown (1864), Ballarat in Victoria (1865), Copenhagen (1865), Rotherham (1865), Clerkenwell (1866), Melbourne (1866-present), Philadelphia (1866-1867), Westminster (1866-1875), Bury St Edmunds (1867), City and County Club of Dublin (1867), Press Club CC in Philadelphia (1867-1874), West Suffolk (1867), Bamberg (1868), Halifax (1868), Cornell (1869-1870), Oxford University (1869), Café Europa in New York (1870-1872), Caissa Correspondence (1870), Chicago (1870), Bristol & Clifton (1871), Cambridge University (1871), Newport in Wales (1871), North London (1871), Café Cosmopolitan in New York (1872), Athenaeum in London (1873), Augsburg (1873), Brighton (1873-1921), Buffalo (1873), Ibis in London (1873), City of London College (1874-1875), Germana in Berlin (1874), Harvard (1874), Kentish Town (1874), Philadelphia (1874-1877), Dunedin in New Zealand (1875), International Club in London (1875), Manhattan (1877-2002), Belsize (1878), Ludgate Circus (1878), Philidor Club in Brooklyn (1878), Rockford Female Seminary (1878), College Club in London (1879), Seattle (1879), Bournemouth (1880), New Orleans Chess & Checker Club (1880-1936), Acton (1881), Montreal (1881), south Norwood (1881), Stratford (1881), Hastings (1882), Kimberley in South Africa (1882), Moscow (1882), Rochdale (1882), St Leonard’s (1882), Warsaw Club in Kiev (1882), Bradford Exchange (1883-1884), Quaker City in Philadelphia (1883), Southampton (1883), Bridgnorth (1884), Brixton (1884), Golden Gate club in San Francisco (1884), Grafton in New Zealand (1884), Battersea (1885), British Chess Club (1885), Ealing (1885), Franklin Club in Philadelphia (1885-1887), Hampstead (1885-1955), Havana (1885), St Patrick's Club (1885), Baltimore (1886), Belgrade (1886), Helsinki (1886), Junior Club in Philadelphia (1886), Macclesfield (1886), Yorkshire (1886), Hobart in Tasmania (1887), Naples (1887), Colchester (1888), Ellesmere (1888), Franklin Club (1888-1893), Hereford (1888), Ironbridge (1888), Kington (1888), New Viennese (1888), Rathmines (1888), San Antonio (1888), Cheltenham (1889), Oswestry (1889), Leek (1890), Metropolitan Club in London (1890), Norwood (1890), Shrewsbury (1890), Staten Island (1890), Steinitz Club in Hawaii (1890-1891), Tacoma (1891), Wellington (1891), Pollock Club in Hagerstown (1892), Buffalo (1893), Franklin club in Philadelphia (1893-1955), Mannersmith (1893), Insurance Club (1893), West London (1893-1893), Women’s club in New York (1894-1949), Caxton Club in Brooklyn (1895), Cirenceter (1895), Exeter (1895), Ladies’ Club (1895), Steinitz Club in Philadelphia (1895), Blackpool (1896), Cosmopolitan Club in New York (1896), Knights Club in Brooklyn (1896), Milwaukee (1896), Exchange Club in Brooklyn (1897), Salisbury (1897), Atlanta (1898), Evans Club in Manhattan (1898), Gambit Room in London (1898-1958), St Petersburg (1898), Muswell Hill (1899).

References:

British Chess Magazine, "Chess in the Victorian Age," (1897)

British History Online   www.british-history.ac.uk

Carolus Chess, “Chess Cafes and Clubs”  http://sites.google.com/site/caroluschess/chess-cafes-and-clubs

Harding, “Which is the Oldest Chess Clubs?”  www.chesscafe.com/text/kibitz184.pdf

The Chess Player’s Chronicle

The Chess Monthly

Wall, “Early Chess Clubs”  http://www.chessville.com/BillWall/earlychessclubs.htm

Comments


  • 4 months ago

    JG27Pyth

    Super list... so Zurich has the oldest chess club extant, and Edinburgh the second oldest? Kewl.   

  • 4 months ago

    billwall

    I indicate if it is open by writing "present," closed with a second date and unknown if there is nothing after the first date.

  • 4 months ago

    Blatchley

    Would have been nice to include whether or not they're still open.

  • 4 months ago

    Caliphigia

    Krefeld CC in Germany was founded when Andersen visited the city on his way from (or to, I can not remember which) London tournament in 1851. It was working in 1952 when it housted the match between West Germany and Yugoslavia.

    In Belgrade there was a chess club in 1886, but the only trace it left is a booklet with the rules of the game, dated that year.

  • 4 months ago

    davidmelbourne

    The entry for Melbourne is accurate, and the club still opens every day))

  • 4 months ago

    billwall

    I mentioned that this list was up to the 20th century.  There are over 2,000 chess clubs that have started in the 20th century.  Cafe Procope is still around as a restaurant, but I don't think you will find any living chess players there.  Good luck with their 45 euro meals.

  • 4 months ago

    melvinbluestone

    This is too obvious to have been omitted, so I must have missed it: The Marshall Chess Club in New York City (1915-present), or is this just pre-twentieth century clubs? .........  Also, what do you mean Cafe Procope disbanded in 1740?? I'm still paying dues?!

  • 4 months ago

    billwall

    Yup, missed it.  will add and update as I find more.

  • 4 months ago

    batgirl

    Great list!
    I see that some of the clubs mentioned, such as La Regence or the Procope for example, were actually cafes that may have housed clubs, such as Le Cercle des Echecs.  Since cafes are mentioned, an addition would be the famous Warsaw Cafe of Kiev where the likes of Prince Dadian, Bogolyubov and Duz-Chotimirsky were known to have played.

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