The History of Letchworth & Hitchin Chess Club [as compiled by David Cox and Anthony Burrows] Edited and corrected by Tim Thurstan
Part 1- The beginning
Letchworth Chess Club began in 1922 when one of the founders was a Mr Simmons. Mr Simmons worked at British Tabulating Company [BTC] and people from the company began to meet at the original Garden City Hotel on the corner of Norton Road South and Station Road. This hotel was owned by BTC for housing various staff members. British Tabulating Company Limited later became International Computers and Tabulations Limited [ICL]
After World War II, the company sold the premises to a company called Fraser. Shortly afterwards, the chess club decided to look for other premises. They had a member called Norman Dunlop who worked for Kayser Bondor [an American company which manufactured stockings]. At the time, the president of Kayser Bondor was John Goodenay. He was keen on his employees having benefits and in Baldock there was the John Goodenay sports and social centre located where Tescos is now. It was arranged by Norman Dunlop that the club should move to Baldock provided that the club name was changed to Letchworth and Baldock Chess Club. The premises were free.
At this time the club was quite strong with one or two very good players who came from S.E.R.L. which were very secret government and research laboratories in Baldock. There, one of the members was a Dr James Wood. He was the country's leading expert on lasers and when President Reagan decided to have the Strategic Defense Initiative, Dr Wood went to the USA for three years in co-operation with the Pentagon in connection with the Strategic Defense Initiative. One part of this was to use lasers to destroy an enemy's Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.
An annual chess match against Stevenage was started in which the two teams played for the Field Trophy given by a major scientific expert at S.E.R.L.
PART 2
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
In 1966 Anthony Burrows [the current president] joined the club being then graded 185. The secretary was Reuben Presley who was a laboratory assistant at S.E.R.L. and an expert at glassblowing. There were just 12 members and when Anthony attended for the first time there were just 5 or 6 players in a tiny corner of this enormous hall.
From this point the club had a growing influence on the Herts Chess Association. In those days there wasn't a league. Instead it had a competition for clubs divided into major and minor sections. The main problem was that there was no promotion or relegation. Letchworth & Baldock were in the minor section. Gradually new players arrived and the team strengthened.
In the 1970s some of the new players were Tim Thurstan, Clive Hutchby (who became a newspaper editor) and Marius Krawczynski. These were all good juniors from Hitchin Boys Grammar School with grades over 100. This resulted in the club winning the Minor section many times but because there was no promotion, the club could not play in the Major.
In the early seventies there was a meeting of the Hertfordshire Chess Association to decide whether to have a league system or to continue with the Major and Minor sections. The meeting resolved to institute a league system with promotion and relegation. Some clubs who were opposed to having a league and wanted to keep the Major and Minor sections. One of these clubs was Berkhamsted. A prominent member of this club was John Sharp. He planned to set up a competition with the same rules as the Major and Minor sections and presented the Herts Chess Association with a solid silver trophy for the winners. However, the majority of the clubs in Hertfordshire were in favour of a league and boycotted this competition and it collapsed. This led to a number of clubs leaving for the Buckinghamshire league.
PART 3
A PERIOD OF PROMINENCE
The newly formed league consisted of three divisions. Letchworth & Baldock began in division 2. In the late 1970s some very strong players joined the club with dramatic effects. Tony Ball who was graded over 200 and was County Champion for three years running ????????????was one of these players. This resulted in the club winning division 1 of the Herts League and reaching the semi-finals of the National Club Competition. However, the player who had the greatest influence was the Polish International Master???[Proof?] Wladik Taberkienik. In his prime he had been part of the Polish team who played in the 1939 Buenos Aires Olympiad.[NB He is not mentioned in the results as so doing!]
Wladik came to be living in our area due to a succession of events, beginning in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. He was thus unable to return from the Buenos Aires Olympiad because he was a captain of the Polish army and would have been imprisoned. He joined the Polish Corps (part of the 8th Army) and was involved in many campaigns including those in the desert and in Gallipoli???[wrong war!]. After the war he came to England and ended up in a Polish veterans hostel, before lodging with a Polish family in Stotfold and working as a machine operator in a factory. It was whilst living in Stotfold that he discovered our chess club.
Although he was in his sixties he was still a strong player; in fact one of the strongest player in the county. His feel for positions enabled him to make sacrifices which seemed impossible. He benefited the club not just due to his playing strength but also as he attracted other strong players to join.
PART 4
THE CLUB TODAY
Gradually the league system evolved into the 7 divisions we have today as more new clubs formed and clubs entered more and more teams.
We have run up to 5 teams as more new members joined in the 1980s and 1990s. However, the strength of the club has leveled out so that the range of grade today is between 70 and 160.