I’m posting this as a separate thread rather than in the earlier logo thread as it is a bit different in focus.
Bill Wall notes the following,
“In 1895, the Women’s Chess Club in New York City was incorporated. It was headquartered at the Martha Washington Hotel until 1920.”
billwall.phpwebhosting.com/artic … _Chess.htm
Does anyone have any further information on this club. I will attempt a corporate records search in NY State to obtain what information I can.
How is this a “US Chess Issue” (as opposed to “All Things Chess”)?
Who cares. Either way, glad he posted this thread here. Interesting topic
Rob Jones
I’d have preferred all things Chess so any non-members who happened by would be able to see it.
now this is a good reply - but I wonder is there any way to know how many non-members frequent that site?
Rob Jones
The US Chess Issues site isn’t even visible to people who aren’t registered members of the forum (USCF members or no), while the others are.
I thought we changed it a few years back so that the Issues Forum is visible to the public but not readable. That means non-members can know it exists, they just can’t read anything there, not even topic subjects. (I think the idea was that if non-members knew there was an issues forum, it might encourage some of them to become members. Whether that has worked in practice is unknown.)
I am not aware of a way to look at Apache web server logs of someone accessing the Forums and tell if that is coming from a member, a registered user or a non-member.
Also, because we use CloudFlare’s caching service, all web queries are logged as if they come from CloudFlare, so that keeps us from knowing how many unique IP addresses (a less-than-perfect proxy for users) we have accessing the Forum. We might be able to count the number of hits each post gets, but I’m not sure whether that tells us much.
Sorry, yes. PhpBB has (basically) four levels of access—invisible, visible but not readable, readable, writable. People who are not members of the US Chess Issues forum are in the second category—they can see it exists but can’t see what’s in it.
I’ve moved this topic from US Chess Issues to All Things Chess.
There is nothing listed in the online database at the NYS Dept. of State for the Woman’s Chess Club. This is not surprising given the reported date of the club’s incorporation. I’ve emailed the DOS asking how the incorporation and/or dissolution records might be obtained. Stay tuned…
I heard back from the NY Dept. of State. They did a search of their non-digitized card file and found nothing for the Women’s Chess Club.
They might need some assistance in scanning in their old records.
There’s a good chance the NY records have already been scanned/digitized, but that doesn’t necessarily make them any easier to search. (In fact, it could make them a little harder to search.)
The same would be true of the US Chess paper records (ratings supplements and rating report printouts), digitizing them would just be the first step.
As found in
amazon.com/Womans-Whos-Who- … 1-fkmrnull
Apparently, Miss. Foot defeated Steinitz in a correspondence game listed as blindfold. I’m not certain how that might work other than receiveing moves and not being permitted to use a board.
[Event “Correspondence, Blindfold”]
[Site “USA”]
[Date “1893.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Eliza Campbell Foot”]
[Black “Wilhelm Steinitz”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “C59”]
[PlyCount “105”]
[EventDate “1893.??.??”]
More can be found on Miss Foot here:
tartajubow.blogspot.com/2014/09/ … -foot.html
In December, 1895 the Women’s Chess Club of New York was incorporated with Miss Foot as the president, a position she held until the time of her death. The club was to become the leading chess organization for women in the US. Members included Nellie Showalter (wife of American champion Jackson W. Showalter) and Harriet Worrall. They elected as honorary members the English women’s champion Mary Rudge (1845-1919) and Irish women’s champion Mrs. Thomas Rowland (Frideswide Beechey) (1843-1919). The Women’s Chess Club of New York lasted until 1949. In 1909 Mrs. Foot wrote a book on chess puzzles, becoming the first American woman chess author.
Their meetings were held at the Town and County Club on East Twenty-second Street, on Tuesday afternoons. There were seven chess tables and the code of conduct of the Manhattan Chess Club was displayed on the wall so that in the case of a dispute, the members could refer to it. The rule was that members had to abide by the Manhattan code. Once a month Major Hanham, one of the masters from the Manhattan Chess Club, visited the Women’s Club to play simultaneous games against anyone present. Apparently later they moved to the Carnegie Building.
The first international chess tournament for women players that was held in London in the summer of 1897 had six cash prizes and a brilliancy prize offered by Baron Albert de Rothschild. The US was represented by Mrs. Harriet Worrall, of Brooklyn and Miss Foot was the reserve. Mrs. Nellie Showalter was selected but she declined to play.
According to an article in the New York Tribune dated December 16, 1906 she also served as director of the MacDowell Club. The MacDowell Club of New York was one of many women’s clubs by the same name around the country supporting the MacDowell Colony, the artists’ retreat in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The MacDowell Clubs around the country were part of a social movement to promote music and art in America. Organized in 1905, the MacDowell Club was initially located at the old Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
On December 6, 1914 near the Manhattan Chess Club during a stormy evening, Miss Foot was carrying an umbrella which apparently blocked her view of an oncoming vehicle as it came around the corner. She was struck and killed instantly; the driver never stopped.
According to several sources Miss Foot was cousin to Steinitz and in 1893 she challenged him to a correspondence game which he accepted. She won the game and took great pride in her accomplishment although it was reported by a Dr. Pollock that Steinitz had played the game without looking at the board. His play in the complications would seem to confirm that. Still, Mrs. Foot played a good game and her pride in her accomplishment is understandable.
One should not forget that this letter was written several years after the
incidence and that the actual visit happened about l0 months after the
shooting. It is quite possible that the visitors heard an embellished story.
There is a footnote to this letter. “During the seclusion at Upper Montclair,
Steinitz was playing a correspondence game with his cousin, Miss Eliza
Campbell Foot, President of the Women’s Chess Association, New York.
She sent me a copy of her game with Steinitz wherein he 'resigned,'but Dr.
Pollock told me afterwards that Steinitz played the game without looking
over the board.” The 27th dedication of a booklet published by \il7. Steinitz