Madame Ludovici of Wiesbaden
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Houlding, Herring and Sidney
Mrs. Mary Mills Houlding was born in England, but moved to Australia as a child. According to the 1958 Australia Encyclopedia, Mr. Houlding "lived most of her life at Wagga Wagga NSW When 60 years of age she returned to England and won th...
Some Turn-of-the-Century Ladies
The first international tournament of women took place in 1897. It was instigated by Rhoda Bowles who had also begun the famous Ladies' Chess Club of London in January of 1895. Many of the participants in the tournament came from that relatively...
Rosa Jefferson
Miss Rosa Jefferson The champion women chess player of the world Rosa B. Jefferson Although she was a significant historical figure in chess in America, Rosa Bradford Jefferson has remained largely unknown. Miss Jefferson edited a ...
Little Mother, Part 2
In the 1890s women's chess in England, as in most places, was considered nearly inconsequential. To bring this arena to the forefront required dedication, energy and persistance. It so happened that many women who had those requirements a...
Little Mother, Part 1
In the 1890s women's chess in England, as in most places, was considered nearly inconsequential. To bring this arena to the forefront required dedication, energy and persistance. It so happened that many women who had those requirements and wer...
These Women Can Play Chess
While helping me try to hunt down the elusive 4th game of the Mrs. Showalter vs. Harriet Worrall match, my dear friend, Deb, found this article. As the "The End of the Century Women" banner and the sketches reveal, it was a very poor quality scan...
American Ladies' Championship
Mansfield Daily Shield, Dec. 21, 1894WOMEN CHESS PLAYERS Mrs. Showalter and Mrs. Worrall MatchedBoth Rank Very High - Mrs. Worrall Has BeatenSteinitz and Mrs. Showalter Lasker, Each WomanReceiving a Knight as Odds. The chess match is no...
Carrera's History of Chess Players
In 1822 William Lewis produced 50 copies of a translation of Pietro Carerra's 1617 book, A Treatise on the Game of Chess.In the Preface, Lewis wrote:The Editor has not thought fit to translate the whole of the original, being unwilling to make a ...
Richard Penn's Maxims and Hints
Charles Dickens, Jr. mentions in his Dictionary of London (under CHESS) :"Richard Penn, the author of the quaintest book in the language, " Maxims and Hints for Chess Players and Anglers" (illustrated by Stanfield)." It seems that Penn's Maxim...
Dickensonian Chess
Charles Dickens, Jr. published an informative book about his contemporary London. Among the many entries in his Dictionary of London was one on Chess, informing the reader about not only the current chess scene, but even some history of London ch...
Ben Franklin
Ben Franklin was one of the greatest Americans in history. Already fairly old (70) when the British colony, America, declared war on England, Franklin was one of the original and most steadfast of the revolutionaries. His eclectic interests ...
1st Game, 1st World Championship
Excerpted from the BCM Feb. 1886 (From The Evening Telegram, New York, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 1886.)Promptly at two o'clock yesterday afternoon Mr. Green, the President of the Manhattan Chess Club, introduced the champions to a throng of eager and...
The Smothered Mate or Philidor's Legacy
Although when I started playing chess, I learned on a computer, at that time databases were all but non-existent. I happened upon game collection in a book named, The Golden Treasury of Chess (my copy said compiled by I. A. Hor...
Paul Morphy as Chess Editor
This article far below was written by John Albert Galbreath. But first, let's look at what vol. 1 of the American Chess Magazine in 1897 tells us about Galbreath: The chess editor of the New Orleans Sunday States is well known to America...
Enlightened Chess
The second half of the 18th century into the early 19th century was marked with cultural changes previously equalled perhaps only by the Renaissance. There were great and important political revolutions, such as those in America and France;...
Blind Ambition III
In both Blind Ambition and Blind Ambition II, I mentioned a blind player from Morphy's time named George Lumley. While noting some of the small articles written about him, I hadn't yet transcribed any of his games that were presented by in ...
The Hindu Philidor of Chess in India
Although India might be considered the cradle of chess, during 19th century chess in India took a strange turn. England, through the British East India Company, which had monopolize trade with India with complete backing from the Crown, in...
Miss Nellie Down and the Devil
While researching my previous posting on Mephisto, I came across a game between the Mechanical Chess-player and a girl in which the girl won. This, of course, aroused my curiosity about the girl who beat Mephisto either by her skill or throug...
Morphy, yet again
A recent forum posting on Paul Morphy demonstrated, to me at least, how aspects of chess history, really any type of history, can be distorted through depending on Google for immediate "facts," instead of striving for understanding and truth. ...
Mephisto revisited
Anyone who knows me, understands I love gambits, Morphy, Blackburn and chess-automatons. Upon reflection, I believe Ajeeb is possibly my favorite, but I must admit the Faustian Mephisto has its good points. ...
Chess in the Old North State
THE GREAT STATE of North Carolina, one of the original 13 colonies, compared to even much later developed areas, was a little slow in embracing chess. Book of the First American Chess Congress, 1859, mentions chess clubs in Boston, New York, Lo...
1st Brilliancy Prize
The very first Brilliancy Prize was awarded to Henry Bird in 1876. This game was included and anotated in Reuben Fine's The World's Great Chess Games. In this game which won the 1st Brilliancy Prize in Paris 1900, White leaves his Queen e...
Dadiani II
Prince Dadian of Mingrelia In Bobby Fischer:Profile of a Prodigy, Frank Brady wrote: "In 1903, Prince Dadian of Mingrelia, president of the Monte Carlo Tournament Committee, threatened to resign from his post and leave ...
