America's Civil War
Sort:
Oct 13, 2016
0
#2
He did beat Morphy at knight odds?!
very cool bat lady!
: curious.
during the war, North or South
did soldiers or officers play chess at camps?
Oct 13, 2016
0
#5
thegreat_patzer wrote:
did soldiers or officers play chess at camps?
see the links above.
Crazy game, but obviously the guy did know his stuff, after the exchange sacrifice 2B vs. R is a dream.
Oct 13, 2016
0
#9
Knight odds become telling when the guy with the extra knight knows what he's doing and doesn't blunder.
I suppose that's why they are giving only time odds nowadays...
Oct 13, 2016
0
#11
Shrug. People still give material odds.
Computers even play GMs giving material odds.
See https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-romance-of-chess which looks at material odds through the ages, so to speak.
Oct 13, 2016
0
#12
Recording games hadn't been in vogue but for 20 years by the late 1850s. We often find games with multiple endings - reported differenty in different contemporary sources. In may be that one player resigned and the game wasn't actually played out, just demonstrated, or it may be whoever was recording the moves (Morphy often wrote down the moves of his own games long after the game had finished) just quit when a win was evident. Players weren't required to record their own moves.
Nice, at last something interesting .
Good article as always Batgirl.
This one was particularly thought provoking for me.
Oct 13, 2016
0
#18
thats a cool forum piece batgirl , loving the problem so many good moves available
"First Battle of Manassas", not "Battle of First Manassas."
Oct 13, 2016
0
#20
Crazychessplaya wrote:
"First Battle of Manassas", not "Battle of First Manassas."
About 5 years ago I met a woman named Susan Harris. Ms. Harris is a freelance writer who was looking for information about George Nelson Cheney, a chess prodigy just two months older than Paul Morphy, who died during the battle of First Manassas in the American Civil War only 2 months after enlisting with the 12th New York Infantry.
She was interested in learning about the chess aspect of Cheney's life.
After writing her article, it took a time to find a publisher and more time to meet that publisher's specifications. Her article was just published in the July 2016 issue the "America's Civil War" magazine, pp.36-9.
I'm mentioned in the article as a "modern expert." I'm not, but I imagine it was to give the article more credence. Another sentence in the article concerned me. Ms. Harris wrote:
It is possible that Cheney’s former chess opponent, have somehow been involved in that same deadly prelude to First Manassas. Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard, leading what was known at the time as the Army of the Potomac, was a family friend of Morphy’s, and according to one account of the battle, published online in 2011, Morphy “served as a volunteer aid to Beauregard (even gathering intelligence for the Confederates during the First Battle of Manassas).”
PGT Beauregard was indeed a family friend of the Morphys, but there is nothing to indicate Paul ever served the Confederacy in any capacity and every reason to believe he didn't. Morphy was, however in Richmond in Octber of 1861, just a few months after the battle that claimed Cheney's life. This visit inspired the rumors of Paul Morphy's involvement in the Confederacy.
Other than for these two things, the article was a great read.
George N. Cheney (cropped from a photo given in the article),
originally published in the "Syracuse Sunday Standard" in 1950.
Article title
My Contribution:
Cheney was primarily known as a problemist.
Below is problem #17 from Thomas Frère's 1858 problem tournament, sponsored by "Frank Leslie's Ilustrated Newspaper" of which he had just suceeded Napoleon Marache as chess editor.
Theo. Brown won "Best Problem; Geo. Cheney won "Best Three-mover"; James H. Morrison won "Best Four-mover"; Theo Brown won "Best Five-mover."
The judges were Theo. Lichtenhein, Benjamin Raphael and William Horner.
George Cheney was also the chess editor of the "Syracuse Daily Standard." Below is a sample of his chess column (Sept. 9, 1859):