AAdditional Games
- Chessgames
- Game, William Nicholl Woodbury vs. Alfred N. Pray, California-Southern Correspondence Match, 1934-35.
- Game, M. Southward vs. William Nicoll Woodbury, Southern Chess Tournament, Atlanta, 1944.
Ex-Southern Chess Champion Ponders Move 03 Jan 1958, Fri The Birmingham News (Birmingham, Alabama) Newspapers.com
Birmingham Man Holds Title Of Chess Champion 25 Jul 1932, Mon The Birmingham News (Birmingham, Alabama) Newspapers.com
Birmingham Man Holds Title Of Chess Champion
Another Alabamian Is Winner Of Second Place At Savannah Tourney
Winning six and drawing three out of nine games played, W. N. Woodbury defended his title as Southern chess champion in the tournament recently in Savannah during which he played the pick of Southern chess experts.
Mr. Woodbury won his title last year in a tournament at Atlanta.
Ten contestants entered this years tournament, giving each nine games. Drawn games counting one-half point gave Mr. Woodbury a score of 7½. The second high score also was won by an Alabamian, Perry Hewitt, of Montgomery.
Mr. Woodbury, who lives at 2700 Lanark Road, and is division engineer for the Virginia Bridge & Iron Company, has been playing chess 30 years, during which time he has met some of the best players in the country.
He was captain of the chess team at Yale while a student there and while he has never been abroad, has played with English enthusiasts, one a woman, by correspondence. He is married and has two daughters.
Chess, Mr. Woodbury believes, affords excellent mental training as well as recreation and is a valuable asset for a young person in the discipline it gives in orderly thinking and planning. He finds it also valuable for this reason to bridge players.
Kibitzing 15 Sep 1935, Sun The Birmingham News (Birmingham, Alabama) Newspapers.com
William N. Woodbury, Birmingham bridge engineer, turned out to be a bridge engineer in more ways than one when he “engineered” his way to the “bridge” of the good ship Cavendish Club by capturing the Invitational Individual tournament Friday night. Mr. Woodbury scored 129 match points in the three nights of play to win the designation as the club's individual champion.
E. M. Friend, who has also played a steady game, came in second with 124½ match points and A. J. “Capt. Jack” Bowron came third with 122 points. R. L. Dodson played the last two tournament for Capt. Jack and brought him up from eighth to third place.
In winning the tournament, Mr. Woodbury kept close to the top throughout. He scored 48 points out of a possible 72 the first night, added 41½ the second night and then captured top honors by adding 40½ points Friday night. In making 129 out of a possible 216 points, Woodbury played 60 per cent bridge for the three nights.
Building bridges and playing bridge are not Mr. Woodbury's only forte. He is also a chess player of note and has achieved much distinction for his activities in this “silent, thinking” game.
William Woodbury 11 Apr 1948, Sun The Birmingham News (Birmingham, Alabama) Newspapers.com
Home Front Sports…By Brooks
“Man Behind The Crowds” Woodbury, Assistant Chief Engineer of the Virginia Bridge Company…Pioneer Steel-Stadium Designer…Extra Thousands of Football Fans who'll view games this year in the Sugar, Orange and Gator Bowls, The Mobile Stadium and many others, can thank this Yale Alumnus for their seats…
He began work on steel-deck stadia 20 years ago in Birmingham with the Woodlawn High School Stadium…
WILLIAM WOODBURY—Now considered a leading authority, is author of the “Bible” of stadium construction (“Grandstand and Stadium Design”)
Recently honored by being selected to write the article, “Stadium Construction” for Collier's Encyclopedia (soon to be released)…
He was a champion chess competitor at Yale…and has won the Southern Chess Title five times!! He's also a fine bridge player…
Woodbury designed the Double-Decking of Crossley Field in Cincinnati, on August 1, 1939… Six weeks later the job was complete!!
An Exciting Evening 21 Aug 1949, Sun The Birmingham News (Birmingham, Alabama) Newspapers.com
An Exciting Evening
I'll be helping move a few pawns around on Monday night at the Birmingham Country Club. My old friend and fellow chess expert, William N. Woodbury, and his local team will take on some traveling chess players who call themselves the Log Cabin Chess Club from West Orange, N. J.
William plays chess via mail and is right smack in the middle of 12 exhilarating games now. F. H. Richmond is another letter-writing chess player.
I hope they wipe those New Jersey boys right off the boards.
Our Lively Elders 03 Jan 1958, Fri The Birmingham News (Birmingham, Alabama) Newspapers.com
Noted retired engineer is chess, bridge expert
William Nicholl Woodbury, five times Southern chess champion, has designed and built football stadiums from Florida to New England and Colorado to the Atlantic Ocean. Nine of his smaller projects are in Jefferson County…the more famous ones include additions to the Orange and Sugar Bowls.
A native of Knoxville, Tenn., and a Yale graduate, this lively elder has made his home in Birmingham for 31 years. Before his retirement in 1951 he served 25 years as head of the Virginia (now American) Bridge Company's engineering department.
These days he is a consulting engineer, often called upon to “diagnose” the ills of structures both under construction and already completed.
MR. WOODBURY IS the author of a book, “Grand Stand and Stadium Design,” and is the author of the chapter on “Stadium Architecture,” in Colliers Encyclopedia.
Besides playing championship chess he has also won several bridge tournaments. He was city champion twice and a member of championship teams in Georgia and Tennessee tournaments.
Chairman of the draft board, a past president of the American Society of the Alabama Section of the Society of Civil Engineers, Mr. Woodbury is one of four engineers in the state accepted for membership by the American Institute of Consulting Engineers.
A former vestryman of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, he has two daughters, Mrs. J. R. Ranck of Atlanta, and Miss Virginia Woodbury, a medical social worker here; a grandson and a granddaughter. His home is at 2416 Park Lane Rd.
—LORINE ALEXANDER.
