Major James Moore Hanham (January 4, 1840 Woodville,

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

– December 30, 1923

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

chess master A chess title is a title regulated by a chess governing body and bestowed upon players based on their performance and rank. Such titles are usually granted for life. The international chess governing body FIDE grants several titles, the most pres ...

, who played in many American and international

chess tournament A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London 1851 chess tournament, London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard ...

s between 1884 and 1889. He fought on the side of the North during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, reaching the rank of

Major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

. He is remembered today for several innovations in the

opening Opening may refer to: Types of openings * Hole * A title sequence or opening credits * Grand opening of a business or other institution * Inauguration * Keynote * Opening sentence * Opening sequence * Opening statement, a beginning statemen ...

, particularly the Hanham Variation of

Philidor's Defense The Philidor Defence (or Philidor's Defence) is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 d6 The opening is named after the famous 18th-century player François-André Danican Philidor, who advocated it as an alternati ...

(1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nd7).

Military service, appearance

Although a

an, Hanham fought for the Union Army during the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

. He saw action at

Fort Pickens Fort Pickens is a historic pentagonal United States military fort on Santa Rosa Island in the Pensacola, Florida, area. It is named after American Revolutionary War hero Andrew Pickens. It is the largest of four forts built to defend Pensacol ...

and

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, and was promoted to the rank of

. After the war, he moved to

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

.James Moore Hanham
/ref> A writer in the ''New York Times'', describing the players in the Sixth American Chess Congress (1889), portrayed him as follows:

Major Hanham is a little, nervous man, who hates to sit still. He won his title during the war of the rebellion. He was one of the dudes of the tournament, and was always dressed in the latest style, with a carefully polished silk hat and neatly trimmed beard.

Chess career

Hanham played in many American and international

s between 1884 and 1899. At American tournaments, he finished second to

Eugene Delmar Eugene Delmar (September 12, 1841, New York – February 22, 1909, New York), was one of the leading United States chess masters of the 19th century and the four-time New York State champion in 1890, 1891, 1895 and 1897. He won a match against R ...

in the 8th and 9th championships of the

Manhattan Chess Club The Manhattan Chess Club in Manhattan, New York City was the second-oldest chess club in the United States (next to the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club in San Francisco) before it closed. The club was founded in 1877 and started with three dozen m ...

, both held in 1885, and at an 188
New York Chess Club
tournament. At

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

1888, the first United States Chess Association tournament, he tied for 2nd–3rd with 5.5/10, far behind winner

Jackson Showalter Jackson Whipps Showalter (February 5, 1859 in Minerva, Kentucky – February 5, 1935 in Lexington, Kentucky) was a five-time U.S. Chess Champion: 1890, 1892, 1892–1894, 1895–96 and 1906–1909. Chess career U.S. Championship matches Showal ...

. He finished 3rd with 3/6 at Lexington 1891, the fourth United States Chess Association tournament, behind Showalter and William Pollock, who tied for first at 5/6. He won two tournaments at Skaneateles,

in 1891. According to

Chessmetrics Chessmetrics is a system for rating chess players devised by Jeff Sonas. It is intended as an improvement over the Elo and Edo rating systems. Implementation Chessmetrics is a weighted average of past performance. The score considers a player's ...

, Hanham's best-ever performance was at Grove Spring 1898, where he scored 4.5/7 for the New York State team against the

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

team.Chessmetrics Player Profile: J. Moore Hanham
/ref> At international tournaments, Hanham performed respectably but not spectacularly, usually finishing in the bottom half. At

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

, both in 1886, he finished 12th out of 13 with a 3.5/12 score, and 8th out of 10 with a 2/9 score, respectively. At the Sixth American Chess Congress at New York 1889, a double

round robin Round-robin may refer to: Computing * Round-robin DNS, a technique for dealing with redundant Internet Protocol service hosts * Round-robin networks, communications networks made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology * Round-robin schedu ...

that was one of the longest tournaments in history, Hanham scored 14/38, finishing 16th out of 20 players;

Mikhail Chigorin Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin (also ''Tchigorin''; ; – ) was a Russian chess player. He played two World Championship matches against Wilhelm Steinitz, losing both times. The last great player of the Romantic chess style, he also served as a ma ...

and

Max Weiss Miksa (Max) Weisz (21 July 1857 – 14 March 1927) was an Austrian chess player born in the Kingdom of Hungary. Weiss was born in Sereď. Moving to Vienna, he studied mathematics and physics at the university, and later taught those subjects. Wei ...

tied for first with 29 points, edging out

Isidor Gunsberg Isidor Arthur Gunsberg (also spelled ''Günzberg'', ; 1 November 1854 – 2 May 1930) was a Hungarian chess player, best known for narrowly losing the 1891 World Chess Championship match to Wilhelm Steinitz. Biography Gunsberg began his caree ...

(28.5). At New York 1894, Hanham tied for 7th–9th with a 4/10 score; recently dethroned

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

Wilhelm Steinitz William Steinitz (born Wilhelm Steinitz; May 14, 1836 – August 12, 1900) was a Bohemian-Austrian, and later American, chess player. From 1886 to 1894, he was the first World Chess Champion. He was also a highly influential writer and c ...

won with 8.5/10. One of Hanham's best results was at New York 1893, where he scored 7.5/13 (finishing 6th of 14 players), beat the young

Harry Nelson Pillsbury Harry Nelson Pillsbury (December 5, 1872 – June 17, 1906) was a leading American chess player. At the age of 22, he won the Hastings 1895 chess tournament, one of the strongest tournaments of the time, but his illness and early death prevente ...

, and finished half a point ahead of him.

Emanuel Lasker Emanuel Lasker (; December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher. He was the second World Chess Champion, holding the title for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially ...

, who would become World Champion the following year, won with a perfect score. By Arpad Elo's calculation, Hanham's strength during his five-year peak was equivalent to an

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess or esports. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American chess master and physics professor. The Elo system wa ...

of 2360. At the time of his death in 1923, Hanham was the oldest player of

master Master, master's or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles In education: *Master (college), head of a college *Master's degree, a postgraduate or sometimes undergraduate degree in the specified discipline *Schoolmaster or master, presiding office ...

rank in the United States.

Opening innovations

Hanham's name is best remembered today for the Hanham Variation of

(1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nd7). David Hooper and

Kenneth Whyld Kenneth Whyld (6 March 1926 – 11 July 2003) was a British chess author and researcher, best known as the co-author (with David Hooper) of ''The Oxford Companion to Chess'', a single-volume chess reference work in English. Whyld was a st ...

note in ''

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 ed ...

'' that this line, which became a favorite of the great player and theoretician

Aron Nimzowitsch Aron Nimzowitsch (; , ''Aron Isayevich Nimtsovich''; 7 November 1886 – 16 March 1935) was a Latvian-born Danish chess player and writer. In the late 1920s, Nimzowitsch was one of the best chess players in the world. He was the foremost f ...

, allows

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

to maintain a defensive center and has become one of the main lines of Philidor's Defense.

Larry Kaufman Lawrence Charles Kaufman (born November 15, 1947) is an American chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE for winning the 2008 World Seniors Championship (which he later retroactively shared with Mihai Suba). Kaufman had been ...

writes that it is a "strategically rich variation" but is out of favor today because 4.Bc4! is awkward for Black, when 4...Ngf6? loses to 5.Ng5, 4...Be7? loses a

pawn Pawn most often refers to: * Pawn (chess), the weakest and most numerous chess piece in the game * Pawnbroker or pawnshop, a business that provides loans by taking personal property as collateral Pawn or The Pawn may also refer to: Places * Pa ...

to 5.dxe5 Nxe5 (5...dxe5? 6.Qd5! wins) 6.Nxe5 dxe5 7.Qh5!, and 4...c6 (best) allows 5.0-0 Be7 6.dxe5 dxe5 (6...Nxe5? 7.Nxe5 dxe5 8.Qh5 wins a pawn) 6.Ng5! Bxg5 7.Qh5 Qe7 8.Qxg5, when

White's White's is a gentlemen's club in St James's, London. Founded in 1693 as a hot chocolate shop in Mayfair, it is London's oldest club and therefore the oldest private members' club in the world. It moved to its current premises on St James's St ...

bishop pair This glossary of chess explains commonly used terms in chess, in alphabetical order. Some of these terms have their own pages, like ''fork'' and '' pin''. For a list of unorthodox chess pieces, see Fairy chess piece; for a list of terms specific ...

gives him a substantial advantage. To avoid this line, today Black often tries to reach the Hanham by different move orders, such as 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nbd7, 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7, or 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nbd7 4.Nf3 e5. Hooper and Whyld also credit Hanham with introducing a number of other opening lines, including the Grand Prix Attack against the

Sicilian Defense The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves: :1. e4 c5 The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. The opening 1.d4 is a statistically more successful opening for Whi ...

(1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4), the Indian Opening (1.e4 e5 2.d3), and the Hanham Variation of the

French Defense The French Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e6 This is most commonly followed by 2.d4 d5. Black usually plays ...c5 soon after, attacking White's and gaining on the . The French has a reputation for solidity a ...

(1.e4 e6 2.d3), often referred to today as the

King's Indian Attack The King's Indian Attack (or KIA) is a chess opening where White adopts the setup more commonly seen being played by Black in the King's Indian Defence. The King's Indian Attack is characterised by the following moves: the central pawns are de ...

Notable game

In this game from the Sixth American Chess Congress (at New York in 1889), Hanham (playing

) uses his

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

ous variation to defeat

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 ...

, one of the world's leading players:Blackburne-Hanham, Sixth American Chess Congress, New York 1889
/ref> 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 Be7 4.Nc3 c6 5.d4 Nd7 6.O-O Ngf6 7.Qe2 O-O 8.Be3 Qc7 reaching the typical setup of the Hanham Variation of

. 9.Bb3 h6 10.Nh4 Nb6 11.Ng6 Re8 12.dxe5 dxe5 13.h3 Bd6 14.Rad1 Be6 15.Bxe6 Rxe6 16.Nh4 Nbd7 17.Nf5 Bf8 18.g4 Nh7 19.h4 Rg6 20.Kh1 Nc5 21.Rg1 Ne6 22.Rg3 Rd8 23.Rdg1 Nd4 24.Qf1 Nxc2 25.Bc1 Nd4 26.h5 Rf6 27.f4 exf4 28.Bxf4 Qa5 29.Qc1 Re6 30.Bd2 Qe5 31.Bf4 Qa5 32.Be3 Nb5 33.Bd2 Nxc3 34.Bxc3 Qa4 35.Re1 Rxe4 36.b3 Rxe1+ 37.Qxe1 Qxa2 38.g5 hxg5 39.h6 Qc2 40.Nd4 Qg6 41.Qe5 Qxh6+ 42.Kg2 Qd6 43.Qe2 Qd5+ 44.Kh3 Qh1+ 45.Kg4 Nf6+ 46.Kxg5 Rd5+ 47.Kf4 Bd6+ 0-1

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanham, James American chess players 1840 births 1923 deaths Chess theoreticians