His father was farmer Philip Skipworth, Lord of the Manor of Laceby, Lincolnshire, but he was not born to his father’s first wife. His father married Mary Marris in 1819, and soon afterwards their child was born and Mrs. Skipworth died in childbirth, but her son lived. Philip Skipworth married his second wife in 1822 and had fourteen more children, though very few survived to adulthood.
Arthur Bolland Skipworth was born in 1830. His only surviving sibling at the time was half-brother Henry Green Skipworth, born to Philip Skipworth's first wife. Arthur was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School and then was admitted to St. John’s College Cambridge in 1851, matriculating in Michaelmas 1851.
While at university, Skipworth played at the Cambridge Chess Club, where he played two games in December 1851 against Lowenthal, who was visiting Cambridge as part of a tour. Skipworth received Knight odds and won one and lost one. He got his BA in 1856 and moved away from his mother and siblings.
Skipworth was ordained as a deacon in 1857, then became a priest in 1858. Clergymen often moved quite often, but Skipworth managed to spend the greater part of his career in his native Lincolnshire. In all, he held four positions: 1857-60, curate at Croxby, 1860-72, vicar of Bilsdale, 1872-75, inspector of schools for the diocese of Lincoln and 1875-98, Rector of Tetford. He was married in July of 1859.
His chess activities were numerous. He was secretary of the British Counties’ Chess Association. In September 1865, he won the first of several British Counties’ Chess Association tournaments. The Counties Chess Association was for ordinary local players as opposed to the short-lived British Chess Association which was mostly concerned with happenings in London. When he died in 1898, the British Counties’ Chess Association ceased to exist.
For the next 25 years he played many tournaments and had some success in local events. In 1880, he took 1st place in a correspondence tournament which had begun in 1878.
In 1883, he finished in last place at the 1883 London International (won by Zukertort), scoring only three points out of 26. In 1885, he lost a match to Henry Bird (+2-5=0).
In 1886, he participated in the Nottingham International tournament. The ten-player event was won by Amos Burn (+7 -0 =2) ahead of Schallopp, Gunsberg, Zukertort, Bird, Taubenhaus, Pollock, Hanham,Thorold and Rynd. There were 11 players at the start, but Skipworth withdrew after he lost the first two games. Skipworth had the habit of falling ill early in a tournament, especially when things were not going his way.
Besides being a chess organizer and playing in tournaments, Skipworth was involved in producing chess magazines. He was one of those involved in the Chess Players’ Quarterly Chronicle and from 1872 to 1875 he was involved in the Chess Players’ Chronicle.
Writing in Eminent Victorian Chess Players, Tim Harding made some interesting observations about Skipworth. Harding points out that he contributed nothing to chess theory and added that while he competed in a lot of tournaments he was noted less for winning them than for withdrawing when he’d lost hope of finishing in a respectable position. Harding suggested that Skipworth's job as a clergyman in various parishes in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire was more of a chore than a vocation and his true love was chess. As for his Counties Chess Association, which was hostile towards professional players, he protected it jealously and was opposed any organizations he regarded as likely to interfere with it, especially the British Chess Association.
According to Harding, Skipworth was prone to venting his wrath against his opposition in his chess columns. Harding also suggests that Skipworth had a romantic relationship with a married woman named Louise Rogers, who along with her husband was sharing the house in which Skipworth died. Skipworth left everything to her in his will.
One reviewer of Harding's book was of the opinion that his principal motivation was vengeance on his wife from whom he had been separated for a long time and added that his will reeked of revenge; not only did he leave his wife out of his will, but also his sons.
Looking at his games it seems that when he was at his best he played some very fine games and he possessed an aggressive style. In the following game he makes quick work of Charles Rankin.
Rankin (1797 – 1886 or 1888) was born in Ireland and moved to Upper Canada in his early years and in 1820 he was appointed deputy provincial surveyor and worked in the Southwestern Ontario area.
He died in Owen Sound, Ontario, a small city in the northern area of Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The area around the upper Great Lakes has been home to the Ojibwe people since prehistory.
In 1815, William Fitzwilliam Owen surveyed the area and named the inlet after his older brother Admiral Edward Owen. A settlement called "Sydenham" was established by Rankin in 1840 or 1841 in an area that had been inhabited by First Nations people. By 1846, the population was 150 and a sawmill and gristmill were operating.
Over the years, Owen Sound was a major port best known for its taverns and brothel. The community acquired names as the Chicago of the North, Corkscrew City and Little Liverpool because of its rowdy reputation. Supporting this reputation was a tavern named "Bucket of Blood", located on the corner of an intersection known as "Damnation Corners", because of taverns on all four corners; this location was also only a block away from an intersection with four churches called "Salvation Corners".
Sydenham was renamed Owen Sound in 1851. In his later years Rankin lived in Owen Sound until his death and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery. Ontario Plaques indicate Rankin's death as 1886, but cemetery records indicate his death as October 12, 1888.
Chessmetrics assigns Skipworth a rating of 2522 in 1891 when he was 61 years old which put him at number 38 in the world and at the same level as W.H.K. Pollack, David Baird, J.M. Hanham and Hermann von Gottschall. On the 1883 rating list Ranken was rated 2509 and ranked 30th in the world.
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