1897 Ladies' International, London, 23 June - 3 July 1897

1897 Ladies' International		Fed	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Total
1	Mary Rudge	Clifton ENG	&;	1	1	1	½	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1d	1	18½
2	Louisa Matilda Fagan	London / ITA	0	&;	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	1	1	0	½	1	1	1	1d	1	15½
3	Eliza Mary Thorold	Bridlington	0	0	&;	1	1	1	1	½	0	0	1	1	½	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	14
4	Harriet Jona Worrall	Brooklyn USA	0	0	0	&;	1	0	1	½	1	½	1	½	1	1	1	½	1	1	1d	1	13
5	Marie Bonnefin1	London / BEL	½	0	0	0	&;	½	1	½	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	½	1	1d	½	1	12½
6	Lady Edith Margaret Thomas	Southsea ENG	0	0	0	1	½	&;	1	0	1	1	0	½	1	1	0	½	1	1	1d	1	11½
7	Freda Sterling Berry2	Dublin IRL	0	0	0	0	0	0	&;	1	0	1	1	1	½	1	1	1	1	1d	1d	1	11½
8	Gertrude Alison Field [later Anderson]	London ENG	0	0	½	½	½	1	0	&;	0	½	1	½	1	½	1	1	1	0	1	1	11
9	Georgiana Watson3	Hastings ENG	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	1	&;	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	½	1	1d	1	10½
10	Annie Mabel Gooding4	Cheltenham ENG	0	0	1	½	0	0	0	½	0	&;	1	½	1	0	1	1	1	1	1d	1	10½
11	Alice Elizabeth Hooke5	London ENG	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	&;	0	0	1	1	1	1	1d	1d	1	10
12	Helen Eliza Sidney	Brighton ENG	0	0	0	½	0	½	0	½	1	½	1	&;	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	10
13	Rita Fox6	London ENG	0	0	½	0	0	0	½	0	0	0	1	1	&;	0	1	1	1	1	1d	1	9
14	Anna Hertzsch7	Halle GER	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	½	0	1	0	1	1	&;	1	1	0	1	1d	0	8½
15	Ida Eugenie Eschwege8	London ENG	0	½	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	&;	1	½	0	1d	1	6
16	Julie Müller-Hartung9	GER	0	0	0	½	½	½	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	&;	1	1	0	1d	5½
17	(Miss) Forbes-Sharp10	Glasgow SCO	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	½	0	0	0	0	1	½	0	&;	1	0	1	4
18	Constance E de la Vingne11	London / FRA	0	0	0	0	0d	0	0d	1	0	0	0d	0	0	0	1	0	0	&;	1	1	4
19	Kate Belinda Finn	London / IRL	0d	0d	0	0d	½	0d	0d	0	0d	0d	0d	0	0d	0d	0d	1	1	0	&;	1	3½
20	Anna S Stevenson12	Montreal CAN	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0d	0	0	0	&;	1

Kate Belinda Finn withdrew after eight rounds and so defaulted 11 games. Reason given was that she "was not able to bear the strain of play through being in indifferent health." (Madame) de la Vingne also defaulted three games in rounds 13 (Hooke), 14 (Berry) and 15 (Bonnefin). Mrs Stevenson defaulted her last-round game vs Müller-Hartung.

¹ Marie Bonnefin (c1856-1923) - married to a qualified doctor/surgeon called Fernand Henry Bonnefin. No record of their marriage, which probably happened abroad, and no sign of her maiden name but she appears to have been born in Gravesend, Kent. Her reported connection with Belgium is not clear. Her probate record gives her name as Marie Bland Bonnefin, so it is possible that Bland was her maiden name. She was a member of Leytonstone Chess Club.
² Mrs Sterling Berry is the name by which she was referred to in the press, no forename(s) given. But, from references to her residence in Blackrock, Ireland, she was almost certainly Sarah Fridzweeda (known as Freda) Berry, née Seymour (1851-1928) wife of Thomas Sterling Berry (1854-1931) who became the (Church of Ireland) Bishop of Killaloe, Kilfenora, Clonfert and Kilmacduagh in 1913. A member of the Blackrock and Booterstown Chess Club in Dublin as was her husband while he was rector of the parish. Sometimes Freda Sterling Berry was referred to in Irish newspaper chess columns as "F. S. B.".
³ Georgiana Watson (1849-1919) - was a regular player for Hastings CC until near the end of her life and also took part in British Championships.
⁴ Annie Mabel Gooding (1867-1925) - a regular competitor at British Championships. Single, daughter of a GP, Dr John C Gooding. Born and resident all her life in Cheltenham, latterly with a live-in housekeeper and gardener. The 'occupation' field of her 1921 census return reads "the search of a just rateable valuation!" (where the exclamation mark was in the original - she had lost a court case relating to this the previous year). Cheltenham Chess Club, of which she was hon. treasurer, met in a room at her house every day of the week except Sundays. She had wanted to leave the house to the club but was told by lawyers she could not. (Source of info re her will: Cheltenham Chronicle, 10 July 1926, with the headline "Eccentric Cheltenham Lady" & Peterborough Standard, 16 July 1926, with further examples of her utterances)
⁵ Alice Elizabeth Hooke (1862-1942) - played in British Championships and other tournaments into the 1930s. Her brother George Archer Hooke (1857-1934) was also a competition chess player who represented Britain on board ten in the 1903 Anglo-American cable match.
⁶ Rita Fox (1865-1930) was an active player before marrying J Walter Russell on 17 August 1903, playing on a high board and becoming match captain of the Ladies' Chess Club in the 1890s. After marriage was invariably referred to as "Mrs J Walter Russell," Joseph Walter Russell (c Jan 1849 - 17 February 1931) being the long-time hon. secretary of the City of London Chess Club (obituary, BCM, March 1931, ppn 127-129), which mentions Rita Russell's death in 1930 at the Lyceum Club.
⁷ Anna Hertzsch (Halle, Germany) - Mrs Worrall's personal account (see the link to Olimpiu Urcan's article) reported that she was 18 years old, so born c 1879. She did not speak English. Resident in Halle, according to the Daily Telegraph & Courier (London), 24 June 1897.
⁸ Ida Eugenie Eschwege (1870-1933) was a daughter of Hermann Eschwege who was a member of the City of London CC. Ida married a New Zealander, James A Marciel, lived for NZ for a while and eventually settled in Sussex.
⁹ Julie Müller-Hartung (Germany) - tentative ID, based on comparison of photos. She chattered constantly during play (according to Mrs Worrall's personal account).
¹⁰ Miss Forbes-Sharp(e) (Scotland) - nothing known for certain. There was a Scottish woman called Mary Forbes-Sharp (who was married to a James Flockhart) who died in 1934.
¹¹ Constance Eliza Waterworth de la Vingne (née Younger, 1854-1924) - resident in London. She was born in Blackfriars, London, and married Henry Ferdinand de la Vingne (born in Paris, France - his brother(?) and business partner Edward Delevingne also played chess and was reported as having died whilst playing chess in 1930) in 1887. Constance tended to spell her married surname Delevingne, but used her maiden name ("Madame Constance Younger") professionally. She was a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and a "one-time accompanist to David Ffrangcon Davies" according to The Musical Quarterly, Volume 14, 1928 p.364 (article, 'Music and Chess' by Orlando A. Mansfield). Described on a website of unsung composers as "teacher of singing and pianoforte, accompanist, and coach. Has published numerous songs." Obituary, The Musical Times, Vol. 65, No. 973 (Mar. 1, 1924), p. 270: "Madame Constance Younger (Mrs. H. F. Delevingne) at the age of sixty-nine. Well-known for many years as an excellent teacher of singing, she began her musical career at the Royal Academy of Music in the ’seventies under Sir John Goss, Walter Macfarren, Wallworth, Signor Gilardoni, &c., going later to Germany and France. In 1880 she was appointed pianoforte professor at the Guildhall School of Music, a position she resigned in 1889, a year or two after her marriage. She returned there, however, in 1906, as professor of singing, remaining until 1914, from which time up to the date of her death she devoted herself to private tuition."
¹² Anna S Stevenson (Montreal, Canada) - the Daily Telegraph & Courier (London), 24 June 1897, gives her city of residence as Montreal.

Venue: (1) Masonic Temple, Hotel Cecil, London (first four days, 8 rounds); (2) from 28 June, the Ideal Café (Ladies' Chess Club HQ), 185 Tottenham Court Road, London.
Schedule: two rounds a day from 23 June (four-hour sessions at 1pm and 7pm), rest day Sunday 27 June, one round only on 2 July (round 17), last two rounds on 3 July.

Prizes:
1st - £60 (equivalent to £6,756 in 2025) - Mary Rudge
2nd - £50 - Louisa Fagan
3rd - £40 - Eliza Mary Thorold
4th - £30 - Harriet J Worrall
5th - £20 - Marie Bonnefin
6th - £15 (£7 10s each to Lady Thomas & Freda Sterling Berry)

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Other links relevant to the tournament: Chess Archaeology / The 1st Women's International Tournament by Tim Harding (Kibitzer Column, ChessCafé, archive, part 1 and part 2) / tournament organiser Rhoda Annie Bowles by "Batgirl" / Belgian Chess History / Article about Mrs Worrall by Olimpiu Urcan (ChessCafé, archive)

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Lady's Pictorial, 10 July 1897

The International Ladies' Chess Congress. On the 28th ult. the tournament was transferred from the Hotel Cecil to the Ladies Chess Club, 185 Tottenham Court Road, W. C. The ladies had an additional large room placed at their disposal by the accommodating manager of the place, so that as far as space was concerned they were fairly well off. One of the competitors, Miss Finn, resigned the tournament, as she was not able to bear the strain of play through being in indifferent health. All her remaining games were scored by her opponents, each one thus obtaining a very welcome rest for one round. We continue the detailed result of the play.

Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 10 July 1897

CHESS CHAT.

The closing scene of the Ladies' Chess Tournament was enacted on Monday night [5 July 1897], and a very gay and pleasing ceremony it proved to be. In some previous incarnation the Ladies' Chess Club has no doubt been used as a concert room, or possibly as the home of an amateur dramatic club. In any case, at the end of the saloon there is a pretty little stage whereon the "flats" are arranged to represent artistic background, and in the centre of this platform, which had been specially prepared with floral decorations, Sir George Newnes took his place, with Lady [Priscilla Jenny] Newnes on his right and Mrs. [Elizabeth Fanny] Atherley Jones on his left, while at the wings were Mr. [Llewellyn] Atherley Jones, Q.C., M.P., who is a great favourite at chess gatherings by reason of his faculty for humorous speech; Mr. [Hermann] Eschwege, who presented four gold medals as consolation prizes, and is the father of one of the competitors; Mr. Byrne and Mr. Cope officially representing the British Chess Club; and, in the dim background, Mr. and Mrs. [Henry Lewis & Rhoda Annie] Bowles, the chief organisers of the congress.

This picturesque group surveyed from their point of vantage a large assembly of smartly attired ladies and appreciative chess players of the inferior sex, who had come to see the prizes distributed and to express their enthusiastic admiration of the achievements of the winners. Sir George Newnes remarked on the recent successes of women at the Universities, and did not see why they should not equally excel at a game like chess, which called for perhaps as much intricacy and accuracy of thought as the study of classics and mathematics. In conclusion he made a joke. The married competitors, he said, had been particularly successful, and he hoped, therefore, that the unmarried ones would be "mated," but not in the chess sense, before they entered another contest. Some of those present thought they had heard something like this before; but it caused a general laugh, and was evidently appreciated by the majority of the audience.

Lady Newnes then presented the prizes, a ceremony which she performed with much grace. Miss Rudge received £60 for her brilliant victory with becoming modesty, amid hearty applause, which was also given to the other winners as they walked up lo the platform to take their prizes. Mrs. Fagan, who was second, won £50; Miss Thorold, third, £40 ; Mrs. Worrall, fourth, £30 ; and Madame Bonnefin, fifth, £20; while Lady Thomas and Mrs. Berry, who tied for the next position, divided the last prize of £15 between them. The consolation prizes, consisting of gold medals, given by Mr. Eschwege, and a pretty music-case from another appreciative donor, were presented to Miss Gooding, Miss Hooke, Miss Field, Miss Fox, Miss Watson, and Mrs. Sidney.

A charming handbag was awarded to Miss Forbes-Sharpe [sic] as a prize for the prettiest mate, and after the witticism already mentioned, the audience did not fail to perceive a humorous suggestion in this circumstance. I did not observe that any of the competitors surreptitiously brushed away a tear as they recalled tender memories of their schooldays when the "amiability prizes" were handed to Miss Hertzsch and Miss Mullerhartung [sic]. Judging by their charming demeanour, I should say that these two young ladies thoroughly deserved the compliment that they received, although no one could doubt that the chairman was justified in suggesting that all the competitors deserved prizes for amiability, since such a hard-fought contest as they had gone through, playing nineteen games in ten days during tropical weather, must have been trying to the nerves of even the most sunny-natured among them.

This interesting ceremony being completed, the chairman asked Mr. Atherley Jones to express the general appreciation of the assistance that had been rendered by the press, both in promoting the congress and in acquainting the public with its progress. Mr. Atherley Jones first spoke of the admirable manner in which Lady Newnes had acquitted herself in the prize distribution, and, indeed, I was sorry that by some oversight she was not accorded the usual vote of thanks for taking the principal part in the proceedings. He then provoked the mirth of the audience by declaring his conviction that the standard of play in the Ladies' Chess Club was higher than in the British House of Commons. This is a subject on which he could speak with authority, since he was one of those who took part in the contest between the Legislatures of England and America. If, however, bis cstimnto bo doubted, it is to be hoped that the matter will be put to the test of a match.

But, when he came to the main subject of his amusing discourse, it became evident that the learned counsel had not studied his brief. He was apparently under the impression that the tournament had been noticed in a delicately emerald-tinted journal, with which the name of the chairman is generally associated, and nowhere else. The modest individual who represented the paper in question, however, generously included another publication with which he is personally connected in his reply for the Press. He said that, as the competitors had no doubt read every word that he had written, there was no need for him to say anything further, so that I was left in the dark as to what his views on the Ladies' Congress or any other subject might be. Some appropriate compliments were paid to the competitors by Mr. [Joseph] Blackburne and Mr. Eschwege, and later on Mrs. Bowles amid much enthusiasm charmingly responded to a hearty vote of thanks for her share in the organisation of the competition. This brought the proceedings to a close. G.

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Photos from the John White Collection, Cleveland Library

1897 Ladies International Chess Tournament, Hotel Cecil, London
(photo taken by Bradshaw of Newgate Street: from John White Collection, Cleveland Library)
Identity of the person in the group photo maybe be found by placing the mouse pointer over a face

Mary Rudge - 1st
Photo colourised by John Saunders

Louisa Matilda Fagan - 2nd
Photo colourised by John Saunders

Eliza Mary Thorold - 3rd
Photo colourised by John Saunders

Kate Belinda Finn - withdrew after eight rounds - 1st British Women's Championship in 1904
Photo colourised by John Saunders

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File Updated:

Date	Notes
16 July 2025	First upload: 190 game entries, consisting of 40 games, 8 part-games, 127 stubs, 15 defaults. Also photos, crosstable, biographical detail and some newspaper comments.
18 July 2025	A further three games added, and a fourth game has had a few extra moves added to the end: (1) E Thorold draw G Field (rd 1); (2) H Worrall draw A Gooding (rd 3); (3) F Sterling Berry 1-0 H Sidney (rd 4); (4) a few more moves added to the end of E Thomas 0-1 I Eschwege (rd 6). All the additional scores come from the ChessBase Mega Database 2022. This means that the game entries now total 43 games, 8 part-games, 124 stubs, and 15 defaults. My thanks to Brian Denman for drawing this to my attention.
25 July 2025	Correction: the 21-move game score previously given as F Sterling Berry 1-0 H Sidney (rd 4) has been reassigned to the game A Stevenson 0-1 H Sidney (rd 1). Apologies for the mistake and thanks to Brian Denman for drawing my attention to it.