‘The Southern Counties Chess Union – a retrospective’ is an important book that makes a significant contribution to English chess history. It is informative and compelling; an engaging piece of work that sometimes evokes a frontier spirit, where those seeking to advance their plans of a chess union are caught between known and unknown worlds.This book is a comprehensive, authoritative account of major episodes in the first 125 years of the Southern Counties Chess Union (SCCU) in England. Each page resonates with the author’s knowledge of chess history and his research. In the book you will discover: an overview of English chess in the mid- to late-nineteenth century why counties in the south of England formed the first chess union steps undertaken to realise and strengthen the union essential facts and statistics pertaining to the SCCU’s primary over-the-board competitions.