Henry Edward Bird (14 July 1829A date of 1830 has been given, but baptismal records indicate 1829. – 11 April 1908) was an English

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

player, author and accountant. He wrote the books ''Chess History and Reminiscences'' and ''An Analysis of Railways in the United Kingdom''. Although Bird was a practising accountant, not a professional chess player, it has been said that he "lived for chess, and would play anybody anywhere, any time, under any conditions."Harold C. Schoenberg, ''Grandmasters of Chess'', W.W. Norton & Co., New York, Rev. Ed. 1981, p. 66.

Tournament play

At age 21, Bird was invited to the first international tournament, London 1851. He also participated in tournaments held in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. In 1858 he lost a match to

Paul Morphy Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837 – July 10, 1884) was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and is often considered the unofficial World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he was c ...

at age 28, yet he played high-level chess for another 50 years. In the New York tournament of 1876, Bird received the first ever awarded, for his game against James Mason.

Legacy

In 1874 Bird proposed a new chess variant, which played on an 8×10 board and contained two new pieces: ''guard'' (combining the moves of the

rook Rook (''Corvus frugilegus'') is a bird of the corvid family. Rook or rooks may also refer to: Games *Rook (chess), a piece in chess *Rook (card game), a trick-taking card game Military * Sukhoi Su-25 or Rook, a close air support aircraft * USS ...

and

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

) and '' equerry'' (combining the

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

and knight). Bird's chess inspired

José Raúl Capablanca José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he is widely renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play. Capabl ...

to create another chess variant,

Capablanca Chess Capablanca chess (or Capablanca's chess) is a chess variant invented in the 1920s by World Chess Champion José Raúl Capablanca. It incorporates two new pieces and is played on a 10×8 board. Capablanca believed that chess would be played out i ...

, which differs from Bird's chess only by the starting position. It was Bird who popularised the chess opening now called Bird's Opening (1.f4), as well as Bird's Defence to the Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4). Bird's Opening is considered sound, though not the best try for an opening advantage. Bird's Defence is regarded as slightly inferior, but "".

Bibliography

*Bird, H. E. ''Chess Masterpieces'' (London: Dean, 1875) *Bird, H. E. ''The Chess Openings, Considered Critically and Practically'' (London: Dean, 1877; New York: Lockwood, 1880, 1886) *Bird, H. E. ''Chess Practice'' (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1882; Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1892) *Bird, H. E. ''Chess History and Reminiscences'' (London: Dean, 1893) *Bird, H. E. ''Chess Novelties and Their Latest Developments'' (London, New York: F. Warne, 1895)

Notes

References

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External links