NATIONAL CHESS LIBRARY 

How to visit the National Chess Library at UCH

The English Chess Federation (ECF) collection is kept on open access shelves in the Library and can be visited at any time during normal opening hours. The other collections are kept in a locked room or the store, and visitors will need to make an appointment. Please ring the Library on 01273 644640 or email AskUCH@brighton.ac.uk   

 

The Collections

There are 5 original collections: Clarke, Croker, Diggle, Golombek and Jordan, plus the English Chess Federation collection. New collections which have been added since then are the Dunleavy, Ravilious, Rumsey, Wade and Whiting collections, also the Tinsley notebooks, and Gillam magazines, plus various small donations from individuals, but these are not yet all catalogued.

There are also Croker box files and scrapbooks, boxes of Golombek papers and memorabilia, and box files of ECF unbound journals.

(NB "Description" tags have been included into some of these documents in preparation for the possible creation of a searchable database at some future point.)

 

Searching for books within the National Chess Library on the UCH Library catalogue

The Library Catalogue is available online at http://library.uch.ac.uk  

Books in these collections have been classified with the start letters of their collection (i.e. CLA for Clarke, CRO for Croker, DIG for Diggle, GOL for Golombek, JOR for Jordan, RUM for Rumsey). 

Information about the Classification of the National Chess Library

  • To see a list of all the books within a collection: select the Advanced Search tab and change the search field to "Classification", then enter e.g. GOL.
  • To see books on a particular topic within a collection: combine a keyword with a classification search.
  • To search for books by a specific author and/or on a specific topic: enter Author name and/or Keywords (topics), e.g. in Advanced search enter the author name and/or 1, 2 or more keywords - e.g. "Staunton" and "handbook", or "chess" and "openings", or "chess" and "championship" etc.
  • To search for a journal/magazine title: in Advanced Search, enter Title name. You will see results for other items as well as the journal (NB sometimes Yearbooks/annuals/supplements will be listed as well as the actual journal). The journal(s) will have "Show library holdings" as an option, click this to see details of volumes/issues/numbers held.

 

  • Guidelines on searching the catalogue are available here. Help is also available within the Catalogue, by clicking on the "Help" tab (help screens match to your current screen).

 

The English Chess Federation    http://www.englishchess.org.uk/

ECF articles about the National Chess Library at UCH (News > News from the old site > then either: News Archives OR ECF Awards > President's Award, then follow link to Library).

 

President's Award for Services to Chess 2008  

University Centre Hastings Library is very proud to have received a President's Award for Services to Chess 2008.

Read about it on the ECF website here (News > News from the old site > ECF Awards > President's Award). The write-up says:

"University Centre Hastings is a Division of Brighton University. We first made contact in October 2005 after we had sent out a general request via ChessMoves for a new home for the Library which was languishing in boxes. This was followed by a meeting in November 2005 which really set the ball rolling. Apart from giving us such a wonderful new home for the Library the team from UCH backed by the faculty of Brighton University have supported the venture wholeheartedly from the outset. A great deal of work has been put in by the Hastings team, from unpacking the books to designing and providing bookplates for each book and providing shelving etc. Each book has been security tagged even the cataloguer has been provided free of charge from the university budget. UCH have hosted an open evening and welcomed visitors and researchers from the outset. It has taken three years of work for this library project to be up and running and expansion is already catered for. On 10th June 2008 a very well attended official opening took place with UCH once again providing the reception. Apart from the Library project UCH are developing a degree course on Chess and there are plans in the pipeline for tournaments and other events. None of these projects could have taken place without the dedication of UCH staff."

 

 

The official opening of the National Chess Library took place on Tuesday 10th June 2008 at UCH.  

Charles Clarke MP officially opened the National Chess Library at University Centre Hastings on Tuesday 10th June 2008.

Sir Richard Clarke (father of Charles) was the first to give his private collection of chess books to the British Chess Federation (now the English Chess Federation), to start the National Chess Library. 

80 specially-invited guests, including Eric Croker, relatives of Harry Golombek, and members of the English Chess Federation, browsed the Clarke, Croker, Diggle, Golombek, Jordan, and ECF collections and met distinguished speakers. Margaret Wallis, Head of Co-ordination and Development at UCH welcomed guests, then Stuart Laing, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Brighton, Charles Clarke, Gerry Walsh, President of the English Chess Federation, and Lothar Schmid, German Grandmaster and International Arbiter, all spoke.  

Information Science student Frances Warrell was presented with an award from the Special Libraries Association, for her dissertation on the National Chess Library.

Press Release

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The National Chess Library comes home to Hastings

On Tuesday 21st March 2006 contracts were signed between the University of Brighton and the English Chess Federation to house the National Chess Library in University Centre Hastings.

  • Message from Michael Foster DL MP (from ChessMoves, newsletter of the English Chess Federation) - "I was delighted to learn that the University Centre Hastings and the English Chess Federation have reached agreement for the housing of the National Chess Library. It is wholly appropriate that this important collection should be housed in Hastings given the status of the Hastings International Congress and the importance of chess in this town. I also think it`s important in that the University Centre Hastings is about the future of our local community and will also therefore send out a message that chess is not just an historic `past time` but is both contemporary and has a future too."