The first Ballarat Chess Club was formed at Brun's Cigar Divan on Monday, 16th June 1856. It is unknown how long the 1856 club lasted. A number of chess clubs were founded in Victoria during the 1850's (Melbourne 1851, 1855 and 1857, Geelong 1855, Beechworth 1857, Ararat 1859) but the constant movements of the population during the gold rushes mitigated against the clubs lasting for very long.The first Ballarat Chess Club is no exception and it seems to have petered out like the others.

It seems likely that the present club goes back to a meeting at the Ballarat Mechanics Institute on Tuesday, February 28th, 1865, when the Ballarat Chess and Draughts Club was founded with 35 members. The meeting was chaired by Mr.Daniel O'Connor who a few days later was to be elected the first President of the club.

Events moved fairly quickly. On Tuesday night the club was formed. On Friday night at a meeting of the Mechanics Institute Committee O'Connor introduced a delegation consisting of Messrs. C.Fisher and W.Marshall which applied for the use of a room at the Institute two evenings a week.

Ballarat owes its accurate chess records to Mr.Nathan Spielvogel, who became secretary in 1893 and who also played interstate competition.

For a biography of Nathan Spielvogel. biography...

For more research on the history of Ballarat chess see the Bas van Riel website
which contains the following articles.

The Ballarat versus Geelong and Melbourne Matches in 1925-'26
The Smokery - the Ballarat Chess Club in 1932 
The Ballarat Handicap Chess Tournament 1866-'67
The Ballarat Champions 1966-2004

The Club currently runs four main tournaments annually.
The Spielvogel Memorial in memory of Nathan Spielvogel (above),
then the Club Championship with the A grade playing for the Andy Miitel championship trophy, and the others for John Baynham reserves title.
Andy Miitel was a former club president, and John Baynham was
Thereafter follows the Arthur Teters Memorial:

For the past decade or so, the period between the annual Club Championships, for the Andy Miitel shield and John Baynham shield, has been filled with non-descript rapid play tournaments. At the suggestion of some club members, a new annual 7 round Swiss, games to be rated, was devised. All that remained was to give it a name. After a great deal of discussion, it was finally agreed to honour a past Ballarat player who has faded, almost to obscurity, in our collective memories.
Arthur Teters was part of the great wave of post-war immigration to Australia of Baltic chess players. He arrived in Australia in 1950 and won the Australian Open in Melbourne in 1953, before settling in Ballarat in 1954.
It can be established that he won the Ballarat Club championship in 1954 and 1957, and possibly several other years as well. He was elected President of the Club shortly after arriving here and played successfully for the Club in numerous inter-city matches. His other OTB achievements included winning the Country Victorian championship in the 1950’s, and then the Victorian State championship in 1965, no doubt after he had returned to live in Melbourne.
Upon his arrival in Ballarat, he had told the “Courier” that a highlight of his youth was holding the World Champion to a draw in a simultaneous exhibition in Riga. The Champion could only have been Mikhail Botvinnik, a notable achievement indeed.
He was also a strong and active CC player, winning the Victorian Correspondence Chess championship in the 1950’s and representing Australia in a CC Olympiad.
By a curious coincidence, the current President of the Club, Patrick Cook, played against Mr. Teters a number of times in the 1970’s and ‘80’s, without ever knowing of his connection to Ballarat chess. So, it is important that he not be forgotten and this new tournament is an aproppriate salute to a past Ballarat champion.

The final tournament is the Arthur Koelle Tournament.