History


Is there any records of their games, books or pictures. I wonder what kind of pieces they played with.
Thanks for the info.

I would love to start a topic concerning the history of Chess. Dose anyone know if the Founding Fathers of American played. Or if the game was big during the Civil War?
Benjamin Franklin loved the game of chess. In fact, you can read a little essay he wrote about the virtues of chess on my chess fan site. Bill Wall also has a good collection of Franklin and his chess adventures here. For pictures of some Franklin chess equipment, look here.
You can read a little about Thomas Jefferson and chess, and see some of his pieces here.
Robert E. Lee played chess and took a little traveling chess set with him on his travels. You can see it here.
General McClellan played chess and you can see his set here.
President Lincoln also played chess and his set is now in the Smithsonian.
PS: Great question!

A Photo of US Grant playing chess:
http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/oldsoldiers.html
Ben Franklin and Chess:
http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/BenFranklin.html
Some Civil War chess relics:
http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/civilwar.html
George Nelson Cheney, a promising player was killed at 1st Manassas:
http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/cheney.html
A little tidbit on J.Q. Adams and chess:
http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/JohnQuincyAdams.html




"Bobbie Lee for the King, a Jackson for the Rook"
Today a Civil War chess set might better have as the white pieces Jeff Davis as King, Varina Davis as Queen with RE Lee and Jackson as Bishops, JEB Stuart and Bedford Forest as Knights. Rooks .. hmm, maybe Longstreet and Johnston.
What do you think?
and propose for the Union side (the black pieces, of course)?


Here at Chess.com we have several people who consistently turn out great articles on chess history. Anyone interested in that sort of thing will find valuable information and insight by visiting their pages of contributions.
Some articles are posted in their blogs, some in the article section. If you go their homepage (by clicking on their names below) and under Recent Activity, click on view content, you can bring up a chronological list of their postings regardless of it's location.
Bill Wall, the Cornucopia of Chess - if you can dream it, it's there.
RookHouse has contributed history articles of incredible depth and accuracy, incisively written.
Dr. Kurt Godden has excellent quality articles of various interests but most captivating to me is his series on the origins of opening names.
KenyTiger has a whole slew of Horowitz-inspired articles on great and/or clever games, each one a gem.

Batgirl seems to be resident librarian... gold star for being such a helpful person batgirl. :D
Back to work I go


Black would have to have ABE as the king, his wife as the Queen, Grant may.be as a knight.
Question for you all why do chess boards have to be so plan, why not have a Civil War set like we are talking about, set on a relief map of Gettysburg?
Just an idea, I often wonder why it is always black and white

"Black would have to have ABE as the king, his wife as the Queen, Grant may.be as a knight"
I see Abe Lincoln as King; Mary Todd Lincoln as Queen; US Grant as Bishop, William T. Sherman as Bishop; Sheridan as Knight, Geo. Stoneman as Knight; Geo. Meade as Rook, either David Porter or David Farragut as Rook.
I would love to start a topic concerning the history of Chess. Dose anyone know if the Founding Fathers of American played. Or if the game was big during the Civil War?