First published in January 1881, it has appeared at monthly intervals ever since.

The founder and first general editor of the magazine was John Watkinson (1833–1923).

From the beginning, the magazine was devoted to the coverage of chess worldwide, and not just in Great Britain.

BCM is an independent and privately owned magazine; it is not owned or run by the former British Chess Federation (now the English Chess Federation), with which its name was occasionally confused, apart from the period August 1981 – July 1992.

Apart from being given a new look, the reloaded January 2016 BCM, now in collaboration with Chess Informant, offers more content, more pages and more writers, among them some of the top UK chess grandmasters.