Williamson Shield 1923: A hesitant revival
Competitive chess in Ulster had ceased shortly after the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914. In the autumn of 1922 representatives of the Belfast Chess Clubs met on a number of occasions to consider restarting the principal Ulster competitions. At a meeting in the Shaftesbury Restaurant on Monday 9th October, the club representatives considered the Williamson Shield and recommended that it should be revived. This could only be a recommendation as the custodian of the Shield was the Strandtown Chess Club and on Thursday 19th October at a meeting of the Committee of the Strandtown Club the recommendation was accepted. The rules of the competition were also considered at the meeting and in some respects revised. The principal changes, the first two of which had already been recommended by the meeting of the Belfast clubs, made to the
pre-war rules were that:(a) Any competitor had the right to claim the application of a time limit of 20 moves per hour to any or all of his games,
(b) Only the winners of the various Belfast club championships could enter
(c) The winner of the Shield for the previous year had an automatic right of entry and
(d) The competition to be held between 1st February and 1st May of each year.
The first report on the tournament in the local press was on the 22nd March 1923 in the Belfast News-Letter. Four games only had been completed, with the scores as follows:
|
Player |
Club |
Played |
Won |
Lost |
Drawn |
Points |
|
W. J. Allen |
CIYMS |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2.0 |
|
L. E. Deens |
Belfast |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1.0 |
|
R. A. Heaney |
Victoria |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0.5 |
|
B. McCann |
St Paul's |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0.5 |
|
J. W. Carey |
Strandtown |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.0 |
|
A. S. Roper |
North Belfast |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.0 |
On the 26th April the Belfast News-Letter reported:
A. S. Roper, being unable to complete the games within the time, has retired, but it is hoped that the Strandtown Committee will extend the time.
A report in the BNL a week later on the 3rd May disclosed the fact that the date for completing all games had passed and that Roper had not been alone in being unable to finish all his games within the prescribed period.
The date fixed for closing the competition for the Williamson Shield and Belfast City Championship has been passed without any of the competitors having completed their games. It is a matter of regret that the time was limited in this way without any dates having been fixed for the various rounds as the tendency is for some of the competitors to wait and see how the others get on before commencing their own games. Out of 30 games only 12 have been played - a very poor result of two month's play, and one directly due to the players being left to make their own arrangements about meeting their opponents. The present score is as follows:
|
Player |
Club |
Played |
Won |
Lost |
Drawn |
Points |
|
W. J. Allen |
CIYMS |
7 |
6 |
1 |
0 |
6.0 |
|
L. E. Deens |
Belfast |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
2.0 |
|
J. W. Carey |
Strandtown |
4 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1.5 |
|
R. A. Heaney |
Victoria |
5 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
1.5 |
|
B. McCann |
St Paul's |
4 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
1.0 |
|
A. S. Roper |
North Belfast |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.0 |
The Strandtown Chess Club Committee met the same night as the report/criticism appeared in the BNL and decided that W. J. Allen should be adjudged the winner of the Williamson Shield. Two weeks later, on the 17th May the Shield was formally presented to the new champion. The following report on the occasion appeared in the BNL on the 24th May:
A meeting was held in Strandtown Chess Club last Thursday evening for the purpose of handing over the Williamson Shield to the winner of the Belfast championship for the present year. Mr J. W. Carey presided, and there was a good attendance of members and representatives of other clubs, including Mr James Bennet, who, it is interesting to recall, was president of the Strandtown Chess Club and presided on the occasion when the Challenge shield was originally presented by Mr H. B. Williamson of New Zealand some nineteen year ago.
The secretary, Mr S. A. Bennett, B.Sc, after explaining the business, related the history of the Shield and the origin of the championship tournament. Although presented to the club so long ago as in 1904 the shield, he said, had only been competed for four times. It had been won in 1912 and 1913 by Mr H. Thomas, and in 1914 by Mr A. S. Roper. Owing to the war there had been no competition until the present year when Mr W. J. Allen proved the winner. Mr Bennett asked the chairman to make the presentation, expressing the hope that the present winner would hold the Shield until another Strandtown player secured possession of it.
Mr Carey then formally presented the shield and congratulated the recipient on his victory.
In accepting the shield Mr Allen said he would hold it in trust for the next successful competitor, who he also hoped would be a Strandtown man. He regretted that owing to the time-limit that had been imposed Mr Roper, the last winner of the championship, had been compelled to draw out of the tournament, but he looked forward to keen annual contests in future which would add to the general interest in the game and raise the standard of play.
Mr Roper said that as a previous holder of the Shield he would like to join in congratulating the winner.
The following game is the only one lost by the winner.
W. J. Allen - R. A. Heaney
Williamson Shield Belfast, 24th March.1923
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 d6 5.d4 Bd7 6.0-0 exd4 7.Nxd4 Nxd4 8.Qxd4 Bxb5 9.Nxb5 a6 10.Nc3 Be7 11.Be3 0-0 12.Rad1 Qc8 13.f3 Qe6 14.Nd5 Nxd5 15.exd5 Qg6 16.Qc4 Rae8
26.Rfd2