Memories of Hexagonal Chess

A letter of David Anderson

Hello !
I had the good fortune to meet both Glinski and Edmunds when they estabalished their shop in Clapham, London. Both a junior and adult hexagonal chess club was formed and various competitions run. I had the good fortune of winning the junior tournament and was presented with a hexagonal chess set ( which I still have ), a melamine hexagonal chess board, a signed copy of Glinski's book ( which I've lost ). I still have, however, the small pamphlet which they published about the rules of hexagonal chess. I was contacted some years latter by the Daily Mail who were running a chess tournament inviting me to defend my title. I've never, however, found out what title that was supposed to be !. I was then of course no longer a junior and moved onto University and greater challenges!.
I also played Glinski on a number of occasions, both at square chess and hex chess. It was always a challenge which he accepted with great spirit ( seeing it was inevitable that he would win ! ). He was, however, a patient teacher and explained many facets of the game. Edmunds was also involved in technical authorship and used to prepare catalogue pages at the back of the shop in Abbeville Road.

The shop was quite unusual for the time, it had a plate glass front with the entrance door located on the left hand side. The window area was full of the various hexagonal chess products available at the time. These consisted of the books, chess sets ( with the extra bishop ) and some rather nice side-table boards constructed from onyx with solid cast iron legs. These were highly priced.

Apart from playing at the club I also manned the shop on a Saturday lunchtime. There was a steady stream of customers but the purchases were relatively small in value. The most popular items being the books and pamphlets, a folding cardboard board, and the chess set. It was , of course, compulsary for someone to be playing a game of chess in the shop.

As the junior club grew in popularity it became impossible to use the shop premises for the meetings. These were then moved to a private house in Elms Crescent, Clapham. It was here that the first junior competitions took place. There was also a visit by a press photographer. The photo shows a row of children sitting either side of some trellis tables with a large hexagonal board on the wall behind. I believe the picture was published by a national newspaper... I think I am one of the (older) children in the photo. ( Has anyone got a copy ? I'd like to see it again ! ).

David Anderson. B.Sc(Eng), AMIEE (email removed contact us for address) .org