Elijah Williams (7 October 1809 – 8 September 1854) was an eminent British

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 of the mid-19th century. He was the first president of the ''Clifton Chess Club'', and publisher of a book of games from the Divan Club. His most notable result was at the 1851 London tournament, in which he defeated the celebrated British player Howard Staunton in the play-off for third place. He was accused by Staunton of taking an average of 2½ hours per move during some matches, a strategy thought to cause opponents to lose their focus on the match. According to Staunton, following a particularly dilatory performance by Williams in the London 1851 tournament, a 20-minute per turn

time limit A time limit or deadline is a narrow field of time, or a particular point in time, by which an objective or task must be accomplished. Once that time has passed, the item may be considered overdue (e.g., for work projects or school assignments). In ...

was adopted for standard play the next year. However other sources contradict this viewpoint and indeed it was not uncommon for Staunton to attribute his losses to the intolerable dilatory play of his opponents. Staunton is quoted as remarking while playing against Williams, "... Elijah, you're not just supposed to sit there – you're supposed to sit there and think!" In ''The Complete Chess Addict'' by Mike Fox and Richard James he was dubbed "the Bristol Sloth" due to his alleged extreme slowness. This sobriquet inspired a musical tune "The Bristol Sloth" by guitarist

Leo Kottke Leo Kottke (born September 11, 1945) is an acoustic guitarist. He is known for a fingerpicking style that draws on blues, jazz, and folk music, and for syncopated, polyphonic melodies. He overcame a series of personal obstacles, including par ...

(who also applied the term 'sitzkrieg' in describing Williams' playing style). Williams died in London, a victim of the

1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak Events January–March * January 4 – The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the ''Samarang''. * January 6 – The fictional detective Sherlock Holmes is perhaps born. * January 9 – The Teut ...

References

*http://www.chessit.co.uk/Centenary/History/1982%20-%2075th/history/1982/bristolclifton.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20091028033153/http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lab/7378/history.txt *https://web.archive.org/web/20080627120750/http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/staunton.html *Fox and James, ''The Even More Complete Chess Addict'' Faber and Faber. *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Elijah 1809 births 1854 deaths British chess players 19th-century chess players