Readers of chess history have much to be thankful for, with publishers
like
McFarland,
Caissa Editions, and others illuminating many of the
byways of the game. Little known players and once forgotten tournaments
are now getting their due, thanks to the enterprising spirit of these
publishers , and of a handful of hard working chess historians.
Tim
Harding the author of numerous chess books on opening theory and
correspondence chess has of late turned his attention to chess history;
Eminent Victorian Chess Players is the latest book to come from his
historical research.
Ten players are the subject of
Eminent Victorian
Chess Players they range from the well-known William Steinitz to the obscure Rev.
Arthur Bolland Skipworth. Each of the ten was eminent in his own way in
the Victorian chess scene, whether as player, author,chess journalist or
organizer.
The English champion Howard Staunton and Austrian world
champion Steinitz stand at the center of much of the narrative but the
other eight receive their just due. Much was made of the "gentleman amateur" vs. the "chess professional", Harding exposes the xenophobia
and anti-Semitism which was an undercurrent of Victorian chess life. I
must say they were a cantankerous lot with one totally disagreeable
character the aforementioned Rev. Skipworth. The battles in the chess
press of the time make for some entertaining reading.
To think that
all major chess in Victorian Britain was limited to London would be a
mistake, as there was an active scene in the counties with players like
Amos Burn (one of the eminent) being based outside the capital whether
for business or personal reasons. there were also nascent efforts to to
create a national chess organization which for the most part fell on
infertile ground at the time.
The inclusion Steinitz and the other
foreign "chess professionals" may come as a surprise but each had
substantial career in Britain and at least one became a British subject.
Several of the ten have been subject of biographies already of at least
part of their careers, with Burn already being the subject of an
exhaustive biography, but for the majority of the ten their lives and
games even their names are not well-known. There is still much to
discover and game scores to unearth.
At the end of the book there is a
full scholarly apparatus but this no dry scholarly tome but an entertaining and informative book.
Tim Harding has done very well by his model (
Eminent Victorians by
Lytton Strachey).
I don't intend to look a gift horse in the mouth but
one minor quibble, I regret
McFarland has decided to published the book
in paperback rather than hardcover.
