Henry Golding Chessboard Trophy Welsh Championships
The Henry Golding Individual Championship Trophy presented at the Welsh Championships each year to the Welsh Champion.
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Henry Golding founded the Welsh Chess Union in 1954. He was born in London but spent 30 years living in Rogerstone, Monmouthshire, eventually retiring in 1969 when he moved to Cornwall. He dedicated a lot of time and effort to local and national chess affairs, and held the official title of President of the WCU between 1960-1964.
He was on the committee that organised the first Welsh Championship held over Easter in 1955. This was a five round event open to qualifiers of zonal events, one round was played per day, 40 moves in 2 hours and entry was a pound. Henry Golding was Purchasing Manager for Northern Aluminium and this was probably an influencing factor for the material used for the magnificent trophy along with inspiration from the design of the Greenleaf-Rowthorn Trophy, a wooden chessboard with silver plaques presented by the Newport & District League.
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Noral Chess Team winners Newport League 1953 Rear: JL Hamilton, AG White, FR Jackson, HB Davies Front: RG Cable, H Pugh, H Golding, E Osment |
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The Henry Golding Trophy being presented by the Lord Mayor of Cardiff, with Henry looking on. |
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Round 2 of the 1955 Welsh Championships
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All this information about Henry Golding, and lots more about the history of chess in Wales can be found in the book 'Chess in Wales' by Martyn Griffiths.
Thank you to Martyn for supplying copies of the photos, many of which came from Henry Goldings scrapbook which is now kept at the Gwent Archives. Thank you also to Howard Williams who instigated this article and draws attention to the fact that there are only three two more years this trophy can be presented before the squares run out !
