William's Creek, 1865:
B.C.'S FIRST CHESS TOURNAMENT?
The early history of chess in B.C. is largely undocumented. When the province's fledgling cities grew large enough, organized chess followed almost as a matter of course, e.g., the Victoria Chess Club in 1892. However, before that time chess, along with horse racing, gambling, and other more adventurous activities, served as a social outlet from the hardships of pioneer life, and thus is not often mentioned in contemporary sources. One important early account, describing what was perhaps B.C.'s first chess tournament, occurs as a letter to the editor of the Victoria newspaper The Daily British Colonist of March 18, 1865:
Williams Creek, 18th February 1865
To the editor of the British Colonist
Sir,
It may not be uninteresting to your readers, at least that portion of them who are chess players, to receive an account of a chess tournament which lately took place among the players on the creek.
A public notice was put up by some of the most enthusiastic players that a meeting for the purpose of getting up a chess tournament would be held on the 10th ult. At this meeting twelve gentlemen gave in their names as competitors for the championship. It was decided that the players should be divided into pairs by ballot, to play five games, and the first three games won by either of the contestants to decide between them; the winners of these first games to be again paired off to play a like number of games, and so continue to pair off until only one winner remained, who should be declared the champion of the tournament.
Accordingly the players in the first ballot were as follows:
J.A. Fraser vs. D. McNaughton
J. Elliott vs. B. Bellenbur
Jas. T. Steele vs. W. Reynbow
W. Dodd vs. E. Hodgens
J.S. Thompson vs. J. McLaren
[the sixth pairing, presumably involving John Adair, is missing from the original]Second Ballot
J.A. Fraser vs. John Elliot [sic]
John Adair vs. James T. Steele
Edward Hodgens vs. J.S. ThompsonThird Ballot
The players were now reduced to three, Messrs. Thompson, Fraser and Steele. On drawing for partners the lot fell upon Messrs. Thompson and Fraser to play together and the winner to play Mr. Steele. In this match Mr. Fraser was again the winner. This gentleman had now played three matches without losing a single game, and his friends felt confident that he would come out the victor in the next, but his opponent Mr. Steele proved a tough customer, and after playing five well contested games, they stood two each the fifth one having been a drawn one; then came the deciding game of which I annex a copy, which was won in good style by Mr. Steele, who was accordingly declared the champion of the tournament.
I am, yours, &c.
A Chess Player
Fraser, J.A. - Steele, J.T. [C55] Williams Creek, 10.02.1865
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.e5 Ne4 6.0–0 d5 7.Bb5 Bd7 8.Bxc6 Bxc6 9.Qxd4 Bc5 10.Qd3 0–0 11.Nbd2 Ng5 12.Nb3 Nxf3+ 13.Qxf3 Qe7 14.Bf4 Bb6 15.Qg3 Qe6 16.Kh1 d4 17.Rad1 Rad8 18.Bg5 Rd7 19.f4 Re8 20.Rfe1 Qf5 21.Bf6 g6 22.Qh4 d3 23.Qh6 Bxg2+ 24.Kxg2 Qg4+ 25.Kh1 Qf3# 0–1
Williams Creek was the focus of the Cariboo gold rush of the 1860s. Inundated with miners and other individuals hoping to make a fortune, the creek acquired several towns almost overnight, including Marysville, Cameronton, Richfield, and the best known, Barkerville, which claimed to be the largest city west of Chicago and north of San Francisco. [At its height, Barkerville and environs had a population of some ten thousand; by comparison, Victoria's population at the beginning of the gold rush was substantially less than a thousand.]
The site of the tournament is not given by the correspondent; the first library in Williams Creek had opened in Cameronton in 1864, so it seems likely the event was publicized via the library, if not actually played there. The format, a series of knockout matches, had been standard since London 1851, and was only gradually supplanted by the round robin in the coming decade. With a minimum of sixteen "rounds" apparently occurring on the same day as the tournament was organized (the letter specifies that the printed final game was played on February 10), the games must have been played at a pretty fast rate. One wonders about the level of play at that speed; although the published game is relatively well-played, this may just reflect on the abilities of the finalists.
And what of the players? There is no way of knowing for certain if they are the same persons, but there is a J. McLaren and J.A. Fraser buried in the Barkersville cemetery. John McLaren was a grammar school headmaster before coming to the Cariboo in 1864; for a time he edited the local newspaper, the Cariboo Sentinel. He was killed at age thirty-one by a slide of sand and tailings in 1869. John Alexander Fraser was the fourth son of explorer Simon Fraser; he came to Cameronton in 1864 as an engineer. Money woes over his family's mortgaged farm and an unhappy love affair led him to commit suicide on May 20, 1865 - he was thirty-two. The next day one of the companies he had invested heavily in struck a rich lead. John Adair is identified in the photo at the beginning of this article. A James Steele worked for John Cameron's company, and can be identified in a photo of the latter. There was also a Steele Claim on the creek, said to be the richest piece of ground in the area; in 1861 it was producing thirty to forty pounds of gold a day.