Merseyside Chess Association 2008

 Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008

MCA History - Silver Rook Trophy

The Silver Rook Trophy by Peter Inward (Hoylake CC)

The Merseyside Chess Association is privileged in having as its First Division Trophy a magnificent silver rook. The rook is hallmarked as is a shield on which are listed the names of early winners.  These hallmarks show that the material is solid silver and it was made in 1891 by the leading Victorian silversmiths, Elkington Ltd. The city hallmark is that of Birmingham. It was originally donated in 1892 by the Proprietors of the Liverpool Weekly Mercury 'for the encouragement of competition among Chess players of Liverpool and District'. The Northern Counties Chess Union has a similar, but not identical trophy made by Fattorini and donated by Mr A. E. Moore and first competed for in 1901.

The picture of the trophy in the Liverpool Weekly  Mercury of Saturday 8th October 1892 clearly shows a plaque bearing the words 'presented by the Proprietors of the Liverpool Weekly  Mercury'. Today, the trophy bears a plaque with different wording, i.e. 'Presented by the Proprietors of the Liverpool Post & Mercury'. Unlike the trophy itself and plaques giving the names of the original winners, this plaque has no hallmark and must have been applied at some time after the merger of the Daily Post and the Mercury in 1915.

Originally, the competition for which the silver rook was the trophy was a tournament for individuals, rather than teams and was run on a handicap basis, with five categories of players.  Handicap tournaments were quite common in those days.  The first of these tournaments was announced on 9th January 1892, commenced with 50 entrants on 16th January and ran on a weekly basis throughout the season.  The first winner was Aaron Levy, runner-up E. Smith, third place J. D. Harris and fourth place M. Kaizer.  Smith, Harris and Kaizer were all to be more successful in later years. Both the winner Aaron Levy and  E. Smith, the runner-up, were young members of the Liverpool North End Club. Both were Category 5 players, meaning they will have benefited from a substantial handicap, probably as much as a rook, when playing Category 1 opponents. The trophy was presented to Mr Levy by Rev. J. Owen, Vicar of Hooton, himself a chess player of international repute, during a meeting in Chapman’s Restaurant, Eberle Street on Wednesday 5th October 1892. Among those present were Mr G. Wynne, representing the Proprietors of the Liverpool Weekly  Mercury and  John Wild, the paper’s Chess Editor. In his introductory speech John Wild remarked 'that Mr Levy had castled early!'

 

Knight statuette      larger image

The following year, the trophy was won by M. Kaizer, a Category 1 player. Unlike Aaron Levy, M. Kaizer was certainly one of the strongest players in the region at that time as he contributed annotations to games published in the chess column of the Liverpool Weekly Mercury about that time. He also gave a simultaneous display at the Liverpool North End Club and in 1891 played Board 3 for Liverpool, below Amos Burn and  Rev. John Owen, in one of the periodic matches against Manchester. M. Kaizer MSc., is also recorded as playing on Board 1 for the Jewish Lads Club in 1910. He must have been very mature by then! 

The third winner, J. D. Harris was a member of the Liverpool Chess Club as was J. H. N. Clissold (1897-8). E. Swift the runner-up in 1892 went one better in 1896, by which time he had  progressed from Category 5 to Category 2. He also later joined the Liverpool Chess Club.

This list shows that competition for the trophy was continuous throughout the years 1892 to 1898. For one year, in 1897-8 the trophy was awarded to a team representing the Liverpool Chess Club, rather than an individual. There then appears to have been a gap of some six years until 1905-06 et seq., when the names recorded are again those of individuals. However, records in the library of the Liverpool Chess Club indicate that 1897-8 was the year in which the Liverpool Chess League was formed and Liverpool Chess Club won it. The silver rook thus appears to have been adopted as the trophy for the first division of this League. Interestingly, the same source indicates that the following year this league was won by the Birkenhead Chess Club, although this is not recorded on the trophy. It is not clear whether the record on the trophy is incomplete or whether the trophy was not presented for some reason.

As stated above, in 1905-06, the competition appeared to return to being a tournament for individuals for three years. After 1907-08 there was another long gap, much longer than would have been explained by the Great War of 1914-18. On the resumption in 1921-2, the competition was again for teams, the winning team representing the Wallasey Chess Club.

It is evident that this history is far from complete. If anyone has information on any of the players mentioned, or can throw light on any of the mysteries, I would be delighted to hear it.

The story of the Silver rook draws attention to the benign influence of Liverpool newspapers on chess in the district, the antiquity of some of our chess clubs and in particular the Liverpool Chess Club which is one of the oldest in the country and which has had an illustrious membership.

For your interest, the list of winners engraved on the trophy is reproduced here.