Morphy And Globe-trotters. A Drunk, A Criminal And An Artist. Lines Through A Forgotten Tournament.
Been away for a few days in Paris. As usual I took a holiday book with me. This wonderful little work.
One of my long chains of thought coming, so yet another of my over-long offerings that you should treat like a book - dip in and out of it when you have 15 minutes to kill. Let us begin!!
Pindar is not a name you will know of, unless you are a real chess history nerd. ( Guilty as charged!! 
) He is generally only noted as Blackburne's first important opponent. The two played three matches, each winning one, with the third - it appears - abandoned as a draw with the scores level.
Getting to a tournament that he won in 1861 my head started to pull some strings together, and I ended up with this. The tournament was a small event in Manchester in 1861, with a knock-out format.
I am not big on the biographical stuff, but the three strongest players involved had lives rather more interesting than usual. A quick pen-portrait of each of them.
Bernard Horwitz.1808-1885.
Born in Germany he studied art in Berlin whilst enjoying chess as a member of the famous Pleiades. In 1845 he moved to London and had a career as an artist. He became a highly regarded portrait painter - numbering the Princess of Wales amongst his clients. Whyld and Hooper say that he would have preferred to be known for his landscapes.
A quick search came up with this, via www.lizwestbynunn.za
His side-line profession was chess. In 1852 he became resident professional at Josef Kling's chess and coffee house in Oxford Street. He played a number of high profile matches - against Staunton, Harrwitz and Bird, for example, and stayed a leading figure in British chess for many years.
In 1857 he moved to Manchester, becoming resident professional at the chess club there.
His enduring legacy is his position as the greatest endgames expert of the era, exemplified in the books 'Chess Studies' with Kling, and later 'Chess Studies and Endgames'. Both can be found online.
A famous Illustrated London News engraving.
Charles Henry Stanley. !819-1901.
Quite a character!! John Townsend has done research in his wonderful book 'Historical Notes on some Chessplayers. You can also find a short article by the inimitable batgirl here :- http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/stanley.html
Born in Middlesex, England ( not Brighton as often given) he established himself as a strong player in London - including playing a match at odds of Pawn and two moves, which he won 7 1/2 - 5 1/2, against Staunton in 1841.
He moved to the USA in 1845, and in that year played a famous match - considered to be the first USA Championship - against Eugene Rousseau, for the incredible sum of $1000.
By 1855 he held a good position in The British Consulate in New York. However, things then started to go downhill.
He lost that job through - as I understand it - trying to recruit soldiers for the Crimean War, in violation of the U.S. neutrality. After nearly a year of the case being in limbo, he was not criminally charged.
He was part of the organisation of the famous New York 1857 tournament.
Shortly after it finished he played a short match with Morphy, receiving odds of pawn and move, for $100 a side. He lost 41/2 - 1/2. Actually the most interesting game between the two ( there were also some off-hand games without odds where he won just one) was the draw!!
Morphy is said to have given his winnings to Stanley's wife, saying that if he had given it to the man himself, he would have drunk it all away.
It should have been one of the most famous of Morphy's serious games, and be found in all the anthologies to be enjoyed by thousands ever since. Instead it is forgotten. Those who write that Morphy never blundered are talking utter rubbish!! In this game he missed a simple - but very beautiful -mate, which would have made the game famous. In the end he had to employ his great powers to try to save the game. Stanley agreed the draw with the win in his grasp! A shame all round!!
In November 1877 Pindar handed himself in at Hitchin police station, confessing to having assaulted one of his French language students - Miss Augusta Wiles - in her home.
He had attacked her with a knife - after she spurned his advances and rejected his proposals of marriage - with the stated intention of 'disfiguring her'.
Whilst in custody he tried to kill himself by hacking at his own throat with a breakfast knife.
End result - a five year prison sentence for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. A charge of attempted murder was set aside.
After serving his sentence he returned to Reval. There Friedrich Amelung
recalls him as ' a small weakly person of a hectic appearance whose way of speaking betrayed chest pains. But, despite his illness and poverty, there was still an unbending pride to be heard in his words and directly afterwards he cursed his sad situation.' Amelung provided him with a free return ticket to 'Petersburg'.
O.K. Lets get to the chess than links these guys together.
The tournament was on the knock-out system - table given above - for a prize of a set of Staunton chessmen, valued at two guineas. Each match was to the first to win three games.
The Francis - Birch ( there were two Birchs amongst the Manchester amateurs) match went unfinished, and the players defaulted.
A selection of games with my own observations as I went along. There are contemporary notes by Staunton and Boden that I did not have time to include, plus some other interesting games, but this article is more than long enough as it is.
Horwitz got a bye in the second round. Pindar had to play the secretary of the Manchester club, J.S. Kipping - best known for winning from Morphy in one of the latter's blindfold exhibitions.
To the final - the value of Pindar's win was questioned and debated at the time - Horwitz being past his best - but he played beautifully, albeit botching a won position in one of the games.
A huge shout out to Owen Hindle - his books are a joy, and this would never have been written without the one pictured above. If you can find a copy, go buy it - a wonderful read.
Take care everyone, and thanks for sticking with this overlong bit of self - indulgence!
