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Howard Staunton
Howard Staunton (April 1810 – 22 June 1874) was an English chess master who is generally regarded as the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant. He promoted a chess set of clearly distinguishable pieces of standardised shape – the Staunton pattern promulgated by Nathaniel Cooke – that is still the style required for competitions. He was the principal organiser of the first international chess tournament in 1851, which made England the world's leading chess centre and caused Adolf Anderssen to be recognised as the world's strongest player. From 1840 onwards he became a leading chess commentator, and won matches against top players of the 1840s. In 1847 he entered a parallel career as a Shakespearean scholar. Ill health and his two writing careers led him to give up competitive chess after 1851. In 1858 attempts were made to organise a match between Staunton and Paul Morp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Staunton2
Staunton may refer to: Places ;Canada * Staunton, Ontario ;Hong Kong * Staunton Street on Hong Kong Island ;United Kingdom * Staunton (near Coleford), a village in the west part of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire * Staunton (near Gloucester), a village in Gloucestershire, near the border with Worcestershire * Staunton, Nottinghamshire * Staunton on Arrow, Herefordshire * Staunton on Wye, Herefordshire ;United States * Staunton, Illinois * Staunton Township, Illinois * Staunton, Indiana * Staunton, Ohio * Staunton Township, Ohio * Staunton, Virginia * Staunton Natural Area, a protected area of Staunton State Park, Colorado * Staunton State Park, Colorado *Staunton River, a portion of the Roanoke River in central Virginia Other uses * Staunton (surname), including a list of people with the name *Staunton chess set, a set of chessmen See also *Stanton (other) *Saunton, a village in Devon, England *Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keswick, Cumbria
Keswick ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Allerdale Borough in Cumbria, England. Historically, until 1974, it was part of Cumberland. It lies within the Lake District National Park, Keswick is just north of Derwentwater and is from Bassenthwaite Lake. It had a population of 5,243 at the 2011 census. There is evidence of prehistoric occupation of the area, but the first recorded mention of the town dates from the 13th century, when Edward I of England granted a charter for Keswick's market, which has maintained a continuous 700-year existence. The town was an important mining area, and from the 18th century has been known as a holiday centre; tourism has been its principal industry for more than 150 years. Its features include the Moot Hall; a modern theatre, the Theatre by the Lake; one of Britain's oldest surviving cinemas, the Alhambra; and the Keswick Museum and Art Gallery in the town's largest open space, Fitz Park. Among the town's annual events is t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chess Player's Chronicle
The ''Chess Player's Chronicle'', founded by Howard Staunton and extant in 1841–56 and 1859–62, was the world's first successful English-language magazine devoted exclusively to chess. Various unrelated but identically or similarly named publications were published until 1902. The earliest chess magazine in any language was the French '' Le Palamède'', published in 1836–39 and 1842–47. In 1837 George Walker introduced an English-language magazine, the ''Philidorian'', that was devoted to "chess and other scientific games". Only six issues of it were published, and it expired in May 1838. The ''Chess Player's Chronicle'' became the first successful English-language chess magazine.Kevin J. O'Connell, writing in ''Golombek's Chess Encyclopedia'', p. 70. In 1840 or 1841 Staunton bought the fortnightly magazine ''The British Miscellany and Chess Player's Chronicle''.Anne Sunnucks, ''The Encyclopaedia of Chess'', St. Martin's Press, 1970, p. 72. In 1841 it became the ''Chess P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aaron Alexandre
Aaron (Albert) Alexandre ( he, אהרון אלכסנדר, around 1765/68 in Hohenfeld, Franconia – 16 November 1850 in London, England) was a German– French–English chess player and writer. Aaron Alexandre, a Bavarian trained as a rabbi, arrived in France in 1793.Saint-Amant ierre-Charles Fournier de ''Nécrologie: A. Alexandre'', La Régence, 1st ser., 3, no. 1 (January 1851): 3–13. Encouraged by the French Republic's policy of religious toleration, he became a French citizen. At first, he worked as a German teacher and as mechanical inventor. Eventually, chess became his primary occupation. He tried to make a complete survey of the chess openings, publishing his findings as the ''Encyclopédie des échecs'' (''Encyclopedia of Chess'', Paris, 1837). In this book, he used the algebraic notation and the castling symbols 0–0 and 0–0–0. In 1838, he won a match against Howard Staunton in London, though before Staunton became a master. Alexandre was one of operators o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evans Gambit
The Evans Gambit is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 Nc6 :3. Bc4 Bc5 :4. b4 The Evans Gambit is an aggressive line of the Giuoco Piano. White offers a pawn to divert the black bishop on c5. If Black accepts, White can follow up with c3 and d4, ripping open the , while also opening diagonals to play Ba3 or Qb3 at some point, preventing Black from castling and threatening the f7-pawn, respectively. If Black declines, the b4-pawn stakes out on the queenside, and White can follow up with a4 later in the game, potentially gaining a tempo by threatening to trap Black's . According to Reuben Fine, the Evans Gambit poses a challenge for Black since the usual defences (playing ...d6 and/or returning the gambit pawn) are more difficult to achieve than with other gambits. (Fine was once beaten by this gambit in a against Bobby Fischer, in just 17 moves.) The ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' has two codes for the Evans Gambit, C51 and C52. *C5 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Davies Evans
Captain William Davies Evans (27 January 1790 – 3 August 1872) was a seafarer and inventor, though he is best known today as a chess player. He is buried at the Belgian port of Ostend. Early life Evans was born at St Dogwells, Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is almost certain that young Evans went to Haverfordwest Grammar School, the only school of any antiquity in Pembrokeshire. About the beginning of the century the family moved to Castle Pill, the name of an inlet of Milford Haven on the north side, just east of Milford town. By 1818, he had learned the moves of chess. Early career Evans served at sea in the navy from 1804, when he was 14, until the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815. He was then transferred to the postal department. By 1819, he had reached the title of Captain of the sailing packet. Around 1825–1826, on shore leave in London, Evans played Alexander McDonnell, beating the latter with what is now regarded in chess circles as the first Evans Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chess Handicap
Handicaps (or "odds") in chess are handicapping variants which enable a weaker player to have a chance of winning against a stronger one. There are a variety of such handicaps, such as material odds (the stronger player surrenders a certain piece or pieces), extra moves (the weaker player has an agreed number of moves at the beginning of the game), extra time on the chess clock, and special conditions (such as requiring the odds-giver to deliver checkmate with a specified piece or pawn). Various permutations of these, such as "pawn and two moves", are also possible. Handicaps were quite popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, when chess was often played for money stakes, in order to induce weaker players to play for wagers. Today handicaps are rarely seen in serious competition outside of human–computer chess matches. As chess engines have been routinely superior to even chess masters since the late 20th century, human players need considerable odds to have practical chances ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Walker (chess Player)
George Walker (13 March 1803 – 23 April 1879) was an English chess player and author of ''The Celebrated Analysis of A D Philidor'' (London, 1832), ''The Art of Chess-Play: A New Treatise on the Game of Chess'' (London, 1832), ''A Selection of Games at Chess played by Philidor'' (London, 1835), ''Chess Made Easy'' (London, 1836), and ''Chess Studies'' (London, 1844). His father was a publisher and novelist. In 1839, Walker visited Paris and the Café de la Régence, where he lost (+1-2) a short match to Boncourtbr> In 1845, he teamed up with Henry Thomas Buckle, William Davies Evans, George Perigal, and William Josiah Tuckett in London in two telegraph games (one win and one draw) against a team of Howard Staunton and Hugh Alexander Kennedy in Portsmouth. He won a match against Daniel Harrwitz (7-5) at London 1846. Walker used his column in ''Bell's Life in London'' to propagate organizing the international London 1851 chess tournament, the first international chess tour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander McDonnell (chess Player)
Alexander McDonnell (1798–1835), sometimes spelled MacDonnell, was an Irish chess master, who contested a series of six matches with the world's leading chess player Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais in 1834. Early life The son of a surgeon, Alexander McDonnell was born in Belfast in 1798. He was trained as a merchant and worked for some time in the West Indies. In 1820 he settled in London, where he became the secretary of the Committee of West Indian Merchants in which role he advocated strongly on behalf of slave-owning sugar plantation owners. It was a lucrative post that made him a wealthy man and left him with plenty of time to indulge his passion for chess. In his politics McDonnell was a committed Whig. Chess career In 1825 he became a pupil of William Lewis, who was then the leading player in Britain. But soon McDonnell had become so good that Lewis, fearing for his reputation, simply refused to play him anymore. Around 1825–1826, McDonnell played Cap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edmund Kean
Edmund Kean (4 November 178715 May 1833) was a celebrated British Shakespearean stage actor born in England, who performed, among other places, in London, Belfast, New York, Quebec, and Paris. He was known for his short stature, tumultuous personal life, and controversial divorce. Biography Early life Kean was born in Westminster, London. His father was probably Edmund Kean, an architect's clerk, and his mother was an actress, Anne Carey, daughter of the 18th-century composer and playwright Henry Carey. Kean made his first appearance on the stage, aged four, as Cupid in Jean-Georges Noverre's ballet of ''Cymon''. As a child his vivacity, cleverness and ready affection made him a universal favorite, but his harsh circumstances and lack of discipline, both helped develop self-reliance and fostered wayward tendencies. About 1794 a few benevolent persons paid for him to go to school, where he did well; but finding the restraint intolerable, he shipped as a cabin boy at Po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merchant Of Venice
''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock. Although classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is most remembered for its dramatic scenes, and it is best known for the character Shylock and his famous demand for a "pound of flesh" in retribution. The play contains two famous speeches, that of Shylock, "Hath not a Jew eyes?" on the subject of humanity, and that of Portia on " the quality of mercy". Debate exists on whether the play is anti-Semitic, with Shylock's insistence on his legal right to the pound of flesh being in opposition to Shylock's seemingly universal plea for the rights of all people suffering discrimination. Characters * Antonio – a prominent merchant of Venice in a melancholic mood. * Bassanio – Antoni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick Howard, 5th Earl Of Carlisle
Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle (28 May 1748 – 4 September 1825) was a British peer, statesman, diplomat, and author. Life He was the son of Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle and his second wife Isabella Byron. His mother was a daughter of William Byron, 4th Baron Byron and his wife Frances Berkeley, a descendant of John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. She was also a sister of William Byron, 5th Baron Byron and a great-aunt of George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, the poet. In 1798, Carlisle was appointed guardian to Lord Byron who later lampooned him in ''English Bards and Scotch Reviewers''. During his youth Carlisle was mentored by George Selwyn and was chiefly known as a man of pleasure and fashion. He was created a Knight of the Thistle in 1767, and entered the House of Lords in 1770. After he had reached thirty years of age, his appointment on a Commission sent out by Frederick North, Lord North, to attempt a reconciliation with the Thirtee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
