Chess clubs of the Ruhr and where they meet 95

The clubs of the Ruhr carry their history in their names. Many give a founding year or two, the second one from a merger, such as Rochade Steele/Kray 1919/38 or Schachfreunde Essen-Werden 1924/80, and among the oldest are the Dortmunder Schachverein 1875 and the Oberhausener Schachverein 1887. Others are the chess department of a gymnastics, police, railway or parish sports club, among them DJK Ewaldi Aplerbeck, the Polizeisport-Verein Duisburg and the Bahn-Schachklub Weiße Dame Wedau-Bissingheim.

Nearly all of them field teams in the leagues of the Ruhr federation or, in Duisburg and the Wesel district, of the Lower Rhine federation, and the results portals of those leagues are often the newest dated trace a club leaves. Club rooms are parish halls, schools, civic centres and youth houses. The list is grouped by town; Dortmund comes first, then the towns with the most clubs, and the smaller towns of the outer districts follow.