The Inter-University Cable Match 1907. Early Capablanca Plus Bits and Pieces.

Afternoon Everyone - Back with a mixed bag today.

Before I forget - looking quickly for some background, a thought struck me. Over here in the U.K. we have a number of people doing excellent work researching the genealogy of chess players of the past. That doesn't seem to be the case in the USA!? If anyone reading this knows of anyone doing that kind of  research in America, please let me know!

Let us begin.

Whilst on holiday recently I picked up a couple of books. One was the chess columns of 'The Field' for 1907. ( Yes I really am a chess history nerd!) The column was in the hands of Leopold Hoffer from 1882 until his death in 1913, when Amos Burn took over.

Like his contemporary over at 'The Times' - Samuel Tinsley - he couldn't annotate a chess game for love nor money, but the columns are full of interesting background material, and the guys worked hard attending events and reporting on them.

 A nice picture containing  Hoffer, Tinsley and I. L. Rice, who also gets mentioned here- and is based on  a cable match like this post -from The New York Daily Tribune, March 6th.1896.

I spent some time with the cable match between the U.S Universities - i.e. Yale, Harvard and Columbia, and the English Universities - i.e. Oxford and Cambridge. 

The match was notable as featuring the first 'international' game of Capablanca that I can think of.

Hoffer's report.

The American Chess Bulletin for 1907 has quite a bit on the match.

The New York Sun game the match some excellent coverage.

O.K. Let's get to the games. I have added Hoffer's notes - for what they are worth!! - plus a couple of my own observations, as indicated.

I will add in some background on the players. As said, there is some fine research into players of the past being done in England. The content on the English players is from John Saunders' incredible britbase site.

A quick look for the U.S.A players found a couple of military enlistment records which I shall add, plus one bit of background from chessgames.com. 
O.K. The young Capablanca was - despite not having played a single event of any note - already a star of New York chess, giving simultaneous exhibitions, joint guest of honour at one New York chess club dinner - the other being the World Champion, who must have been pretty miffed at having to share the limelight(!!) and being touted as a future World Champion.

Let's debunk a couple of myths from the 'good story' type writers here! He didn't just miraculously appear from nowhere by beating Marshall in 1909. Recently I wrote that those who say that Morphy never blundered are talking rubbish. Same applies to Capablanca, who over-pressed in this game in trying to trick his opponent and should have lost. 

Herbert Jennings Rose  (5 May 1883, Orillia, Ontario, Canada – 31 July 1961, St Andrews, Scotland). Balliol College, Oxford. Varsity matches  1905,  1906,  1907,  1908. Classical scholar, university professor, author on Greek mythology. Educ: private tuition; Collegiate Institute, Ottawa; McGill University, Montreal (1st class honours, classics, 1904). Rhodes scholar. Double first, Greats, Oxford. Fellow and lecturer, Exeter College, Oxford, 1907. Associate professor, McGill University, 1911-1915. WW1 service as private, Canadian light infantry, 1915-19. Professor of Latin, Aberystwyth, 1919-1927; Professor of Greek at St Andrews, 1927-1953. Drew with Capablanca in a cable chess match three days before playing top board in the 1907 Varsity match.  Wikipedia.

BCM, September 1961, p254: "We learn with regret the death of Prof. H. J. Rose, Professor of Greek in the University of St. Andrews from 1927 until his retirement in 1953, at the age of 78, on July 31st last. A native of Orillia, Ontario, he graduated at McGill University, Montreal, in 1904, and later came to Balliol College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. He played for Oxford and was top board of the Oxbridge team in the 1907 Cable Match against Harvard, Yale, and Columbia when he drew his game with J. R. Capablanca."

William Rawson Greenhalgh (13 December 1883 – 13 November 1972). Pembroke College, Cambridge. Varsity matches 1904, 1905, 1906.

Shrewsbury School Register: "William Rawson Greenhalgh, b. 1883, [G.T.H.]; left 1902; Pembroke Coll., Camb., B.A., 1905; played in Camb. Univ. Chess Team; ord. 1907; Curate of St. John the Baptist, Hoxton."

He played in the Cambridge Past vs Oxford Past match of 3 April 1954, fifty years later. He played in the 1907 Anglo-US cable match and was a regular for the Shropshire & Herefordshire county team. His father William Henry Greenhalgh (1849-1923) and brother Cecil Henry Greenhalgh (1887-1970) were also chess players.

Leonard Illingworth  (16 July 1882 - 22 July 1954). Trinity College, Cambridge. Varsity matches  1907  and  1908.

BCM, Sept 1954, p289: "Leonard Illingworth, musician, linguist, bee-keeper, and chess-player, died in hospital at Cambridge, aged seventy-two, on July 22nd [1954], after a long illness. He was a Yorkshire man, born at Bradford. His musical studies resulted in an open scholarship at the Royal College of Music. Later he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, and took his degree in modern languages. He played on Board 1 against Oxford in 1907 and 1908, drawing against  H. J. Rose  and  N. J. Roughton. He was a regular competitor at chess congresses, appearing once in the British Championship, and on one occasion winning his section of the Major Open. He had been President of the Cambridgeshire County Chess Association, of the Cambridge Chess League, and of the Deaf Chess Club. He did much to spread a knowledge of chess among the deaf and dumb and among the young. In 1922 he settled at Foxton, a village near Cambridge, and started and developed a large apiary. He became Secretary of the Apis Club, and attended bee-keepers' congresses abroad. A keen churchman, he was for many years churchwarden of Foxton parish, and at times emergency organist. R.I.P. - B. G[oulding]. B[rown].

To the foregoing tribute, may we add a few words on Mr. Illingworth's services to correspondence chess. As a correspondence player he was in the first flight, as past victories in the B.C.C.A. Championship will testify. But he was also that  rara avis  who put back into the game much of what he took out. An active President of the British Correspondence Chess Championship for nine years, he also acted as Best Games Secretary; his services were also in constant demand as an adjudicator. Yet it was in a unique way that he left his mark, for on his own initiative he devised a correspondence course of instruction in chess. Pupils were also encouraged to send in their games for annotation and those who have experience in annotating games for weaker players will know the amount of work involved. From his work in this connection the Association profited by entry fees; the pupils profited by gaining an insight into the theory of the game; and we feel sure the instructor profited by the knowledge that he was helping others the better to enjoy and appreciate the game he loved so well himself. - S. S[edgwick]

Noel James Roughton  (25 December 1885, London – 14 July 1953, Kenya). New College, Oxford. Varsity matches  1905,  1906,  1907,  1908. Educ. Winchester. Civil servant, India and Kenya.

BCM, August 1953, p212: "An older generation of home chess-players will probably recall the name of N. J. Roughton who died suddenly in Kenya, after an operation, on July 14th [1953]. He was sixty-six years of age. Noel J. Roughton had a brilliant academic career at Winchester and at New College, Oxford, and in 1908 he captained the Varsity side in the annual match against Cambridge. In the same year he also took top board in the various matches which the combined University side played against the leading London clubs, in the course of which he recorded wins against R. P. Michell and J. H. Blake and a draw against W. Ward. He also played at top board for the Combined Universities in the cable match against the American Universities in 1908, winning his game. Soon after this he joined the Indian Civil Service and thus England lost the services of one who would otherwise undoubtedly have left his mark on British chess. He nevertheless retained an active interest in the game and participated in various home tournaments whenever these coincided with periods of home leave. Amongst these may be mentioned the Victory Congress at Hastings in 1919 and the British Championship Tournament at Scarborough in 1927. While in India he made the acquaintance of the brilliant Indian player M. Sultan Khan, with whom he contested many games, and it was mainly through Roughton's representations to the B.C.F. that Sultan Khan was selected to play in the British Championship in 1930; a tournament which he won, thereby introducing a new star on the horizon of master chess. He came to Kenya in 1947 and was President of the Nairobi Chess Club until the time of his death. He won the European Championship of Kenya in 1951 - the last occasion when this was contested. Roughton was a modest and unassuming man with an extremely pleasing personality. He possessed a first-class brain and as a chess-player was, in his day, undoubtedly in the very first flight of British amateurs. His style was sound, combined with a vivid imagination and he possessed a very thorough theoretical knowledge of the game in all departments. He liked an open game and once confided to the writer that he had never opened a game with 1 P-Q4 in his life! His active participation in the game continued to the very end and the present writer is proud to think that he contested with him what were to prove the last games of his career. He was a life-long subscriber to the "B.C.M." Like so many chess-players, he was also, in his day, a bridge-player of more than average ability. He leaves a widow and one son, resident in Kenya, to whom we extend our deepest sympathy. - B. Barton-Eckett.

India Office List 1933: ROUGHTON, Noel James, C.I.E., B.A. Indian C.S. [financial secretary. to govt., Central Provs.) (b 25th Dec., 1885).—Educ. at Winchester, and New Coll., Oxford; apptd. after exam, of 1908; arrived 22nd Nov., 1909 and served in the Central Provs. as asst, commr.; regr., judl. commr.’s court, July,. 1913; under-sec. to chief commr., Jan. 1918 to March, 1919; dep. commr. (provl.) Dec., 1920; eonfd., Nov., 1921 ; dir. of industries and regr. of co-op. societies, Central Provs., July, 1923 ; dep. sec. to govt, of India commerce dept., June, 1925 ; finl. secty. to govt., C.P., April, 1928; C.I.E., Jan., 1933.

John Rowland Hanning  (11 July 1884 – 29 November 1961). New College, Oxford. Varsity matches  1904,  1905,  1906,  1907. Educ. Winchester. Solicitor. Played in the 1906 and 1907 Universities Cable matches. Member of Metropolitan CC.  chessgames.com. Took part in the  1926 Oxford Past vs Cambridge Past match.

William Herbert Humphreys  (1875?, Wrexham? – ??). Christ's College, Cambridge. Varsity matches  1907,  1909. B.A., 1st Class Hon., Modern and Mediaeval Languages Tripos, 1908. LL.B., 1909. Middle Temple. Played in the 1907 and 1909 Anglo-US universities cable match and the Combined Universities v House of Commons match in the same year. Captained the Cambridge University team in 1909. Articled clerk, chartered accountant, 1911.

Via chessgames.com re. Blumberg.

A couple of additions - my thanks to others for the link. Some more information on Quincy Brackett.

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter85.html#7220._Cable_game 

And two relevant pictures - both containing him, and one with L. J. Wolff.