Checkmate by the Sea: the Battle of Minds Returns to Hastings
Schach. Шахи. Sjakk. Fichille. Tàileasg. Schaken. Şah. Échecs. Skak. Satranç. Call it what you will – it’s still Chess in any language – and as TOBY BULA-EDGE and KENT BARKER report, Hastings has a proud tradition going back well over a century as a local and international centre for the game
Just three days after Christmas dozens of earnest men and women will make their way up Bohemia Road to the dour-looking Horntye Park sports complex where they will be ushered into its cavernous hall. There, rows of tables, each with a chess board, thirty-two pieces and the all-important clock, will greet them. And it’s there, throughout the following week, that they will compete in various tournaments whose rules are almost as complex as the game itself. Welcome to the 99th Hastings International Chess Congress.
The story of chess in Hastings is reputed to go back to the Norman Conquest. King William I was, apparently, a keen player of the game who is said to have once broken a chess board over the head of his nephew, Louis the Fat, after accusing him of cheating. It’s not recorded whether the event took place at Hastings Castle.
Opening
It wasn’t until 816 years later–later – on 28 June to be precise – that the opening move was made that would make Hastings renowned throughout the chess world.
Mind you it had an inauspicious start. An advertisement appearing in the local paper read: ‘A meeting of those interested in chess will be held at the Albert Temperance Hotel, Queens Road, Hastings…’
Thus the Hastings and St Leonards Chess Club was born. An annual festival was inaugurated by the club which hosted lectures and exhibitions by leading chess players of the time. But it was an event three years after the club’s formation that led to the town’s reputation as the ‘Queen of Chess Venues’. The founding members decided in 1895 to organise an international tournament. As the club itself modestly puts it, the inaugural event was ‘widely regarded as one of the greatest tournaments ever held.’
The winner in 1895 was something of a dark knight, a young American, Harry Nelson Pillsbury. He was a surprise victor in the first tournament to feature all the top chess players of the time. They included the first official chess World Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, who held the title from 1886-1894; and the second official chess World Champion, Emanuel Lasker 1894-1921–the longest reign in the history of the game so far at 27 years.
Middlegame
Following this momentous event, the next big Hastings tournament was held in 1919. Known as the ‘Victory Tournament’ it was the first international chess event to be held in an allied country after World War One.
This in turn led to the Winter Hastings Congress, which began in 1920/21 and this year celebrates its 99th anniversary (no tournaments were held during World War Two).
Anyway, that first tournament was won by Frederick Yates. Yates was a prolific chess competitor, competing in around 60 events between 1919 and 1932. Far from being a mere pawn in the game, he is noted for his contributions to chess literature and chess journalism, having been the chess correspondent for the Manchester Guardian and chess editor for the Yorkshire Post. He died prematurely from asphyxiation caused by a gas leak in his house while he slept.
Since that inaugural competition, every World Chess Champion from Wilhelm Steinitz (1886-94) to Anatoly Karpov (1971-2) has taken part, with the sole exception of Bobby Fischer. (The American Fischer beat the Russian Boris Spassky in the famous ‘cold war confrontation’ in Reykjavik in 1972 but was stripped of the title when he refused to defend it three years later).
Endgame
As the Congress approaches its centenary, however, the future looks a bit more checkered.
Hastings Borough Council has pulled its sponsorship of the event, which has no commercial sponsors. It means the prize pot has not increased, making it a less prestigious event than previously.
Nonetheless the event this year will still have attracted around 300 players from around the world including France, Germany, Romania, China, Turkey, and Singapore and Malaysia.
Checkmate
Finally, to the confusing nature of the competition – complex enough to try the patience of a saint if not a bishop.
During the week the Congress hosts multiple events, appealing to players of different abilities. One is the ‘Con Power Christmas Tournament’, named after the former director of the Congress, which runs from 28 December to 30 December. The original 1895 competition was a round-robin tournament – every player had to play all the other players. The winner was the one with the best overall performance across the whole tournament. That concept seems to have been pawned for now in favour of the ‘Swiss’ style of tournament where players are matched up with others of a similar level.
The New Year Tournament is a five-round ‘Swiss’ running from December 31 into the New Year on January 2.
Then there’s the Hastings Weekend Congress: another five-round Swiss tournament with a ‘friendly, but competitive’, atmosphere for all levels.
The flagship event of the Congress, however, is the Hastings Masters–the event that aims to emulate the golden days of the local chess scene. This is a nine-round, six-day ‘Swiss’ tournament, with more than 100 players expected to compete for the top prize of £2,500, among them half a dozen Grandmasters.
Although it may not attract as high a level of competitors as previously, aficionados look to its illustrious history and international reputation and fervently hope it will continue for at least another 99 years. And admission is free, so anyone can turn up to watch this unique Hastings event.
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