The earliest known chess column appeared in the '' Lancet'' in 1823, but due to lack of popularity disappeared after less than a year.

Historical development

The first column to establish itself was that of George Walker in ''

Bells Life Bells may refer to: * Bell, a musical instrument Places * Bells, North Carolina * Bells, Tennessee * Bells, Texas * Bells Beach, Victoria, an internationally famous surf beach in Australia * Bells Corners, Ontario Music * Bells, directly stru ...

'' in 1834 which survived until 1873. From February 15, 1845 onwards it faced competition from

Howard Staunton Howard Staunton (April 1810 – 22 June 1874) was an English chess master who is generally regarded as the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Am ...

's column in the '' Illustrated London News'', a column which outlived Walker's, but only by 5 years. During this time a chess column also appeared in the ''Pictorial Times'' lasting from February 1845 to June 1848. In 1882 Henry Bird in his '' Chess History and Reminiscences'' estimated that there were 150 chess columns. Less than thirty years later in 1913

H. J. R. Murray Harold James Ruthven Murray (24 June 1868 – 16 May 1955) was a British educationalist, inspector of schools, and prominent chess historian. His book, ''A History of Chess'', is widely regarded as the most authoritative and comprehensive his ...

in his '' A History of Chess'' estimated there existed at least 1,000 chess columns worldwide. George Koltanowski became the chess columnist for the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'', which carried his chess column every day for the next 52 years until his death, publishing an estimated 19,000 columns. American Grandmaster Robert Byrne wrote a column for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' from 1972 to 2006. GM Lubomir Kavalek's column in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' ran from 1986–2010. GM Nigel Short wrote a chess column for the ''

Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', kn ...

'' from 1995–2005, and then for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' from 2005 to 2006. GM

Jon Speelman Jonathan Simon Speelman (born 2 October 1956) is an English Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster chess player, mathematician and chess writer. Early life and education He was educated at Worcester College, Oxford, where he read Mathematics. Caree ...

wrote for ''

'' from 2005 to 2008. GM

Patrick Wolff Patrick Gideon Wolff (born February 15, 1968) is an American chess Grandmaster. He is the son of philosopher Robert Paul Wolff and brother of law professor Tobias Barrington Wolff. Wolff won the United States Chess Championship in 1992 and 1995 ...

was co-writing a column for the ''Boston Globe'' in 2012.

Current day

Raymond Keene Raymond Dennis Keene (born 29 January 1948) is an English chess grandmaster, a FIDE International Arbiter, a chess organiser, and a journalist and author. He won the British Chess Championship in 1971, and was the first player from England t ...

's column appears daily in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' and ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

''. Bill Cornwall's "Chess: A Knight's Tour" has been published by

Tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...

since 1993, and appears in the ''

Sun-Sentinel The ''Sun Sentinel'' (also known as the ''South Florida Sun Sentinel'', known until 2008 as the ''Sun-Sentinel'', and stylized on its masthead as ''SunSentinel'') is the main daily newspaper of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as well as surrounding Br ...

'' and

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

. A record of longevity has been achieved by

Leonard Barden Leonard William Barden (born 20 August 1929, in Croydon, London) is an English chess master, writer, broadcaster, journalist, organizer and promoter. The son of a dustman, he was educated at Whitgift School, South Croydon, and Balliol College, ...

, who still writes weekly chess columns for ''

'' since September 1955 (61 years as of August 2017), and daily columns for the

London Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

since June 1956 (61 years as of August 2017). As of June 2022 the writer for the ''New York Times'' chess column is

Daniel Naroditsky Daniel Naroditsky (born ), also known as Danya, is an American chess grandmaster, author, and commentator. He published his first chess book at age 14. Chess career Born in San Mateo, California, Naroditsky learned chess at age six from ...

Sources

*The main bibliographical source for chess columns is Ken Whyld's 'Chess Columns: A List' (Caissa-90, Olomouc, 2002). {{Chess, state=collapsed Chess publications