BRISBANE CHESS CLUB

Formal chess appears to have started in Brisbane in 'the chess rooms' of The Brisbane Arts Theatre in Ann Street, Brisbane in 1885. In 1893, Mr. Walter Syson (born Birmingham, England, 1861) founded the Brisbane Chess Club (location unknown), and within three years membership had swelled to sixty. In 1896, the Brisbane Chess Club hosted the innaugural Queensland Chess Championship in which Syson came second (following a playoff after having beaten the winner, 17 year old A.C. Palmer in both legs of the double round robin). Source: Town and Country Journal, 18th January 1896. The club's somewhat erratic history has been marked by periods of limited historical records, insufficient funds (and perhaps interest), various locales and disbandment.