Preston Ware Jr. (August 12, 1821 – January 29, 1890) was a US

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. He is best known today for playing unorthodox

chess opening A chess opening or simply an opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established theory; the other phases are the middlegame and the endgame. Many opening sequences have standard names such as the " Sicilian Defens ...

s. Ware was born in

Wrentham, Massachusetts Wrentham ( ) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,178 at the 2020 census. History In 1660, five men from Dedham were sent to explore the lakes near George Indian's wigwam and to report back to the ...

, and died in Boston, Massachusetts.

Boston Mandarins

Ware was an influential member of the "Mandarins of the Yellow Button" in Boston. The "Yellow Button" was a pin worn in the hats of Chinese imperial officials to indicate high rank in the civil service. The Boston Mandarins were a group of chess players in the late 19th century, including John Finan Barry, L. Dore, C. F. Burille, F. H. Harlow, Dr. Edward Mowry Harris, C. F. Howard, Major Otho Ernst Michaelis, General William Cushing Paine, Dr. H. Richardson, C. W. Snow, Henry Nathan Stone, Franklin Knowles Young, and Preston Ware. The group was the foundation of what would become the modern Deschapelles Chess Club in Boston.

Chess career

Ware was an avid tournament player and played in the Second International Chess Tournament,Second International Chess Tournament
Vienna 1882 at Chessbase.com Vienna 1882, the finest chess tournament of its time. He finished in sixteenth place of eighteen scoring a total of 11 points out of 34, but he did beat

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. We ...

and the winner of the tournament,

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 che ...

in a game lasting 113 moves.Ware's winning game against Steinitz
at

Chessgames.com Chessgames.com is an Internet chess community with over 224,000 members. The site maintains a large database of chess games, where each game has its own discussion page for comments and analysis. Limited primarily to games where at least one pla ...

At the time, Steinitz had not lost or drawn a game for nine years prior to this tournament and was the unofficial World Champion. Ware also competed in the first, second, fourth and fifth American Chess Congresses.

Legacy

Ware's other claim to fame was his eccentric opening play. He used the

Ware Opening The Ware Opening, also known as Meadow Hay Opening, is an uncommon chess opening for White beginning with the move: : 1. a4 It is named after Preston Ware, a U.S. chess player who often played uncommon openings. The Ware is considered an irreg ...

(then known as the Meadow Hay Opening), the Corn Stalk Defence (sometimes known as the Ware Defence), and the

Stonewall Attack The Stonewall Attack is a chess opening characterized by White (generally) playing their pawns to d4 and e3, playing Bd3, Nd2, and then playing pawns to c3 and then f4; although the moves are not always played in that order (see transposition). T ...

. Around 1888 he reintroduced the Stone-Ware 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 Bd6!?, named after Ware and Henry Nathan Stone (1823–1909). (It had originally been played by

Alexander McDonnell Alexander McDonnell may refer to: * Alexander McDonnell (chess player) (1798–1835), Irish chess master * Alexander McDonnell (engineer) (1829–1904), locomotive engineer of the Great Southern & Western Railway (Ireland), & North Eastern Railway ( ...

against

Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais (1795 – December 1840) was a French chess master, possibly the strongest player in the early 19th century. Early life La Bourdonnais was born on the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean in 1795. He w ...

in 1843.)

References

External links

Preston Ware's games
at

ChessGames.com Chessgames.com is an Internet chess community with over 224,000 members. The site maintains a large database of chess games, where each game has its own discussion page for comments and analysis. Limited primarily to games where at least one pla ...

*http://www.chesscafe.com/text/spinrad08.pdf (Includes a biography of Ware). {{DEFAULTSORT:Ware, Preston American chess players Chess theoreticians 1821 births 1890 deaths People from Wrentham, Massachusetts 19th-century chess players