Arthur John Mackenzie

05 February 1871, Birmingham - 21 August 1949, Hastings

• Scottish Champion 1908, 1909 and 1913. In 1908 he scored 7/7.
• Member of the Scotland team at the 1933 Folkestone Olympiad.

Mackenzie at the 1905 British Championship in Southport.
Photo from Cleveland Public Library, special collections.

Although born in Birmingham, Mackenzie was associated with chess in Scotland because of his family background.

He won the Scottish Championship on three occasions, but he also played in other years: 1906, 1907, 1910, 1920, 1923, 1928. He was Warwickshire County Champion 1931, and regularly represented that county in matches.

Mackenzie was very active in chess organisation. He was one of the founders of the Birmingham and District Chess League in 1897, the Midland Counties Chess Association (later Union), also in 1897, and the British Chess Federation in 1904, serving on its Executive from foundation to the 1930s. He was a controller at the famous Nottingham 1936 tournament, and he was the British delegate to the FIDE council at Stockholm 1937.

Mackenzie was the chess columnist for the Birmingham Post from 1896 to 1948.

Sources: BCM 1949, p 381; MCCU website; CHESS May 1947, p 230 (photo).

Alan McGowan
Historian, Chess Scotland