The late 1800's provided us with many great chess games and novelties from several underrated players of that era. Many of these games have been forgotten or simply never seen by chess enthusiasts of today. The game below was played between Dav...
Joseph Henry Blackburne (a.k.a "The Black Death"), the renowned English chess champion in the late 1800s to early 1900s, gave an interesting interview shortly after his match with German master Curt von Bardeleben in 1895. The content of the inte...
Vera Francevna Menchik (Mencikova) was born in Moscow, Russia on February 16, 1906. Her father was Czech and her mother was British. When Vera was 15, the family and she moved to England in 1921. She became affiliated with Geza Maroczy...
Sam Loyd (January 31, 1841-April 10, 1911) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA). He spent most of his childhood in New York, where he played chess and developed a fascination for solving complicated chess problems. He had one of his firs...
Jackson Whipps Showalter was the reigning United States chess champion in 1897 when he extended a challenge to up and coming phenom Harry Nelson Pillsbury. The match stipulations were that the first player to win seven games (draws not counting) w...
I came across this hilarious article from an old Harper’s Weekly magazine. It portrays Paul Morphy as “Jack the Giant-Killer” and gives a spoof on his adventures in Europe in 1858. Fair warning, fans of Staunton may n...
The Herceg Novi Blitz Tournament of 1970 was the greatest speed tournament of the 20th century. Four world champions competed in the tournament and Bobby Fischer finished 4 ½ points ahead of the second place finisher, Mikhail...
Can you name the two players sitting at the table? The year and location of this photograph? For More Chess History, www.rookhouse.com www.rookhouse.com/blog
John Finan Barry was a great American chess player from Boston, who once challenged Jackson W. Showalter for the U.S. Championship (losing -7 +2 =4) in 1896. Mr. Barry was also an excellent chess columnist and a true ambassador to...
Samuel Lipschutz was born in 1863 in Hungary but emigrated to the USA in 1880 at the age of seventeen. His chess career started to blossom in 1883, as he was chosen to participate in high level chess club matches, representing New Yor...
