J. Barnett Steen - Memories of Ulster Chess
J. Barnett Steen - Memories of Ulster Chess
by David McAlister
When I first started playing in Ulster Chess Union events as a student in the early 1970s J. B. Steen was already a veteran. He was a stubborn opponent, one of those players who always seemed to be giving 100% to their game. Of course, I knew very little then about his previous chess history. However, he probably was one of the most active Ulster players throughout the 1950s and 1960s, competing against the best players in Ulster and Ireland. In 1970, when his best days were already behind him, he was still good enough to win a Williamson Shield.
In 1983, less than three years before Steen's death, Alex Beckett, his Fisherwick club-mate asked him to write an article about his memories of over 30 years playing competitive chess. It seems appropriate 50 years after his first major triumph, the 1951 Ulster Intermediate Championship, to publish those memories. In his letter to Alex, Steen modestly suggested that his reminiscences did "not purport to be an article" and he entitled his efforts "Chess Notes." What follows is that account.
"Chess Notes" by J. Barnett Steen
Written 14th November 1983
I joined Fisherwick Chess Club in September 1949, Other players there were Messrs. Forson (whose grandson in now a player), Herbie Graham (who still plays occasionally), Wallace, McAuley, Chase, Shanks, Todd, Stewart, McConkey and Ritchie. I played in some club matches and won the club championship perpetual trophy two years in succession. I left Fisherwick at the end of my second season there and joined the Church of Ireland Young Men's Society. When a member of C.I.Y.M.S I played in club matches quite often. Other clubs were the Belfast Chess Club, Queen's University, St. Paul's, Fruithill, Central Presbyterian Association and Old Campbellians.
Other C.I.Y.M.S. players were Messrs. Heaney, Kearney, W. D. Kerr, Whiteside, Dodson, Thomas, and others. Among the Belfast CC players were Dr. Harte (who was President of the Ulster Chess Union) and Messrs. G.J. Boyd, Leslie, J. G. Allen, Gallery, Turner, Robertson, Roper, Dr. Wrigley and Nemtzov (who was also President of the Ulster Chess Union for a while). Members of St. Paul's included Messrs. Donnelly, Russell, J. McCann, G. McCann, Maguire and Father McKillop.
[In an addendum Steen went on to list many other players who crossed his path. Of the ones he encountered in the 1950s he mentioned Flood, Peebles, Crothers, Kerrigan, Keenan, Farris, J. Mills, A. Mills, Courtney, L. Graham, Alcorn (now playing again in Ulster chess after a long absence), Torney, Duffy, Evens, Finlay, T. Hall, L. Jackson (of Derry), Magenis, McEwen and Miss Chater. Of players from the 1960s and 1970s - many of whom are still playing regularly - he mentioned Tony Beckett, Alex Beckett, Livingstone, Strawbridge, Henderson (the last two presidents of the Ulster Chess Union in his playing years), B. Kerr, Moles, Henry, E. O'Hare (of Derry), Stone (of Downpatrick), McCrea, Pinkerton, Collins (the last three all secretaries of the Ulster Chess Union), Houston (secretary at the time Steen wrote the memoir) McAlister, Blair, Clarke, Frew, McCormick, Cootes, Lynn (the last two already in their sixties when Steen first would have first encountered them in competition), Rev Devenney and "I have seen many Queen's players come and go."]
Among players in the Republic of Ireland I encountered were Messrs, O'Hanlon, D. O'Sullivan, Dr. Maher, Walsh, Murphy, O'Riordan, Canton, Sadlier, Kelly, Bourke, Conboy, Rev. Father Weymes, Nash, Reid, Mulcahy, Lewis, Gaffney, Finnegan and Duignan.
I have played in inter-city matches for Belfast against Dublin two or three times [in fact only once in 1950]; there were about twenty players aside. Then I played for Ulster several times [in fact he played in the Interprovincials every year from 1951 to 1959 and again from 1963 to 1967]. In 1958 and 1963 the Irish Chess Union awarded me and some other Ulster players with a silver medal for having played in the winning team (Ulster) and for having won our individual games. I also played matches for Belfast against Derry in Maghera [on three occasions 1956, 1957 and 1958].
I won the Ulster Intermediate Championship in 1951 and the Williamson Shield in 1970. On both occasions I was given a silver plaque. I participated in The Ulster (Senior) Championship several times but never won it [his best performances were equal 3rd in 1951, the first year he entered, and equal fourth 2 years later]. I also played in the Irish Championships several times - 1951 (Cork), 1952 (Dublin), 1953 (Galway), 1956 (Dublin), 1957 (Galway), 1958 (Belfast), 1959 (Killarney), 1966 (Belfast) and 1970 (Belfast). In 1976 (Coleraine) and 1979 (Dublin) I played in the Intermediate section of the Championships, each event consisting of three or four dozen players. [In a sense Steen's career had turned full circle because he also mentions that his first appearance at an Irish Championship Congress was in the subsidiary Premier Open in Belfast 1950.] I played in other similar large tournaments in Downpatrick and in the Europa Hotel.
A good several years ago the C.I.Y.M.S. club moved out to Belmont from Donegall Square East. I then left C.I.Y.M.S. and rejoined Fisherwick. By that time I was playing much less than I used to do, due to various circumstances. I did attend several meetings of the Ulster Chess Union and was the auditor of its accounts for three years [in the early 1970s]. In 1979 I became an Honorary Vice President of the Union.
I think I was at my best in Galway 1957, when I came out in fifth in the Irish Championships; so said Albert Long, who was a very good secretary of the Ulster Chess Union for about twenty-five years. On one occasion Brian Reilly, who was editor of the British Chess Magazine, remarked to me that chess was a very difficult game to play and that he admired the effort I put into it.
