William Norwood Potter (27 August 1840 – 13 March 1895) 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 ...
master
Master or masters may refer to:
Ranks or titles
* Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans
*Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...
and writer. He is primarily remembered for the quality of his chess journalism, and for his association with
Wilhelm Steinitz
William Steinitz (born Wilhelm Steinitz; May 14, 1836 – August 12, 1900) was an Austrian and, later, American chess player. From 1886 to 1894, he was the first official World Chess Champion. He was also a highly influential writer and c ...
, the first
winner of a world chess championship match.
Life and career
Potter was born in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
on 27 August 1840 to William and Mary Anne (Martin) Potter. He had three brothers and a sister,
Mary Potter
Mother Mary Potter (22 November 1847 – 9 April 1913) founded the sisters of the Little Company of Mary in 1877. On 8 February 1988, Pope John Paul II proclaimed her Venerable.
Early life
Mary Potter was born in a rented house at 23 O ...
.
A
barristers' clerk
A barristers' clerk is a manager and administrator in a set of barristers' chambers. The term originated in England and is also used in some other common law jurisdictions, such as Australia. In Scotland, the equivalent role is advocate's clerk. ...
by trade, Potter first appeared in London chess circles in 1867 and rose quickly from obscurity, winning the 1870 City of London Chess Club
handicap tournament, in which he defeated
Joseph Henry Blackburne
Joseph Henry Blackburne (10 December 1841 – 1 September 1924) was a British chess player. Nicknamed "The Black Death", he dominated the British scene during the latter part of the 19th century. Blackburne learned the game at the relatively late ...
and
Cecil Valentine De Vere
Cecil Valentine De Vere (14 February 1846 in London – 9 February 1875 in Torquay) was the winner of the first official British Chess Championship in 1866.
He was born Valentine John Cecil De Vere Mathews in 1846. It is likely that he was th ...
on even terms.
From 1872 to 1874 the City of London Chess Club contested a two-game
correspondence chess match with Vienna: the other London team members eventually dropped out, leaving Potter and Steinitz to continue the match by themselves, which they ultimately won by a score of 1.5–0.5. Steinitz would later point to this match as the beginning of the "systematic analytical development of modern ideas" in chess.
[ In 1875 Potter lost a hard-fought match against ]Johannes Zukertort
Johannes Hermann Zukertort (Polish: ''Jan Hermann Cukiertort''; 7 September 1842 – 20 June 1888) was a Polish chess master. He was one of the leading world players for most of the 1870s and 1880s, but lost to Wilhelm Steinitz in the World Che ...
, scoring two wins and four losses with eight draws.[
Potter was a chess columnist for the ''Westminster Papers'' from 1868 to 1879.][ From 1874 to 1876 he produced his own periodical, the ''City of London Chess Magazine'', which featured contributions from Zukertort and Steinitz. Subsequently, he became the last chess editor at '' Land and Water'' from 1877 to 1885.][ He also contributed the well-reviewed article on chess in the ninth edition of '']Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...
''.[
After 1885 Potter retired from the London chess scene.][ He died in his home in ]Sutton
Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to:
Places
United Kingdom
England
In alphabetical order by county:
* Sutton, Bedfordshire
* Sutton, Berkshire, a location
* Sutton-in-the-Isle, Ely, Cambridgeshire
* ...
on 13 March 1895.
Assessment and legacy
In Potter's obituary, the ''British Chess Magazine
''British Chess Magazine'' is the world's oldest chess journal in continuous publication. First published in January 1881, it has appeared at monthly intervals ever since. It is frequently known in the chess world as ''BCM''.
The founder an ...
'' noted that though "his record of first-class play is not a long one", "the quality of his best play entitles him, we think, to rank as the equal of any British-born master of his time, with the single exception of Blackburne."[ Regarding Potter, Steinitz once said: "Put all the pieces into a hat and shake them out on to the board, and you have Potter’s style exactly"; but nevertheless acknowledged him as "a very fine player of the modern school, as well as unquestionably the ablest analyst in England next to Zukertort."]Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker (; December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially recognised World Chess Cham ...
claimed in his ''Manual of Chess'' that Potter "had influenced Steinitz greatly" but subsequent commentators have cast doubt on this assessment.[ For his part, Steinitz claimed that Potter "was my pupil direct for some time." Potter's chess writings are praised for their mastery, liveliness and wit.][
'']The Oxford Companion to Chess
''The Oxford Companion to Chess'' is a reference book on the game of chess written by David Vincent Hooper and Kenneth Whyld. The book is written in an encyclopedia format. The book belongs to the Oxford Companions series.
Details
The first e ...
'' records two opening variations bearing Potter's name, one in the Scotch Game
The Scotch Game, or Scotch Opening, is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
:1. e4 e5
:2. Nf3 Nc6
:3. d4
Ercole del Rio, in his 1750 treatise ''Sopra il giuoco degli Scacchi, Osservazioni pratiche d’anonimo Autore Modenese'' ("On t ...
(1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5. Nb3) which he introduced in the 1870s and which was revived in the 2000s
File:2000s decade montage3.png, From top left, clockwise: The World Trade Center on fire and the Statue of Liberty during the 9/11 attacks in 2001; the euro enters into European currency in 2002; a statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled during th ...
by Vassily Ivanchuk and Magnus Carlsen
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...
, and one in the Compromised Defence to the 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 ...
(1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 exd4 7.0-0 dxc3 8.Qb3 Qf6 9.e5 Qg6 10.Nxc3 Nge7 11.Rd1) which he gave in his ''Land and Water'' column.
The Saavedra position
The Saavedra position is one of the best-known chess endgame studies. It is named after the Spanish priest Fernando Saavedra (1849–1922), who lived in Glasgow during the late 19th century. Though not a strong player, he spotted a win involving ...
, one of the best-known endgame studies
In the game of chess, an endgame study, or just study, is a composed position—that is, one that has been made up rather than played in an actual game—presented as a sort of puzzle, in which the aim of the solver is to find the essentially uniqu ...
in chess, originates from a game of Potter's against Richard Fenton in 1875.[
]
Notable games
Potter vs. Matthews, London 1868
This frequently published miniature, which features a knight delivering checkmate from a corner of the board, was played between Potter (White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
) and Matthews (Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...
) during a "meeting of the British Chess Association" in 1868.[
:1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Bc4 c5 4.Nf3 d6 5.0-0 Nc6 6.c3 d3 7.Re1 Bg4 8.e5! Nxe5? (''see diagram'') 8.Nxe5! Bxd1 10.Bb5+! Ke7 11.Bg5+! f6 White keeps an extra piece after 11...Ke6 12.Nxd3+ Kf5 13.Bxd8.][ 12.Ng6+ Kf7 13.Nxh8#.
]
Zukertort vs. Potter, London 1876
In a difficult position, Potter (Black) finds a remarkable queen manoeuvre to save this game against Zukertort (White) in an 1876 tournament at Simpson's Divan.[
:1.e3 e5 2.c4 d6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d4 Be7 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.Be2 0–0 7.0–0 Bd7 8.d5 Nb8 9.Nd2 Ne8 10.f4 exf4 11.exf4 f5 12.Nf3 g6 13.Bd2 Ng7 14.Qc2 Be8 15.Rae1 Bf7 16.Rf2 Nd7 17.Bd3 Re8 18.Rfe2 Nf8 19.Qb3 Rb8 20.Be3 b6 21.Nd4 Qd7 22.Nc6 Ra8 23.Nb5 Bf6 24.Nbxa7 h6 25.Nb5 Kh7 26.Bd4 Rxe2 27.Rxe2 Bxd4+ 28.Nbxd4 Re8 29.Rxe8 Qxe8 30.Kf2 Nh5 31.Nb5 Nd7 32.Qc2 Nc5 33.b4 Nxd3+ 34.Qxd3 Nxf4 35.Qf3 g5 36.Nxc7 (''see diagram'') 36...Qh8! Threatening 37...Qb2+. 37.Qb3 Qa1!! 38.Qc2 Qh1!! Forcing White to give ]perpetual check
In the game of chess, perpetual check is a situation in which one player can a draw by an unending series of checks. This typically arises when the player who is checking cannot deliver checkmate, and failing to continue the series of checks give ...
. 39.Qxf5+ Bg6 40.Qd7+ Kh8 Draw agreed. Avoiding the draw with 41.Qg4? would lose after 41...Nd3+ 42.Ke3 (or 42.Kg3 Qe1+ and wins the queen) Qg1+ 43.Kd2 Qc1+ 44.Ke2 Qe1+ 45.Kf3 Qf2 mate.
Potter vs. Mason, London 1879
This fine sacrificial attack by Potter (White) against Mason (Black) from their 1879 match was annotated by Steinitz in ''The Modern Chess Instructor'',
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Potter, William Norwood
1840 births
1895 deaths
19th-century English writers
British chess writers
English chess players
Sportspeople from London
19th-century chess players