Samuel Tinsley (13 January 1847 – 26 February 1903) 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 and writer. Tinsley was born in

South Mimms South Mimms is a village and civil parish in the Hertsmere district of Hertfordshire in the East of England. It is a small settlement located near to the junction of the M25 motorway with the A1(M) motorway and is perhaps more widely known becaus ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...

to Sarah (née Dover) and William Tinsley. He was the seventh of ten children, and a younger sibling of publisher William Tinsley. As a young adult, Tinsley moved to

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 ...

and eventually worked with several of his brothers as a publisher.

Chess career

Unlike most masters, Tinsley did not take up chess until late in life, beginning to play the game seriously well into his forties. His most notable achievements include sharing seventh prize at Manchester, 1890 with

Simon Alapin Semyon Zinovyevich Alapin (russian: Семён Зиновьевич Алапин; – 15 July 1923) was a Russian chess player, openings analyst, and puzzle composer. He was also a linguist, railway engineer and a grain commodities merchant. B ...

and Theodor von Scheve. He played in the celebrated Hastings 1895 tournament, one of the strongest tournaments held up until that date, but finished 20th–21st out of 22 players. Tinsley was the chess columnist for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'', and after he died his three sons took on that work. In 1912 his son Edward (1869–1937) took sole charge.

Family and death

Tinsley married Sarah Ann Luetchford in 1875. Sarah had several children and the family resided in London. Tinsley died suddenly while attending a

church service A church service (or a service of worship) is a formalized period of Christian communal worship, often held in a church building. It often but not exclusively occurs on Sunday, or Saturday in the case of those churches practicing seventh-day S ...

on 26 February 1903 (aged 56). He was buried on 4 March at

Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries (also known as Ladywell and Brockley Cemetery) were opened within one month of each other in 1858 and are sited on adjacent plots of previously open land. The two component parts are characteristic examples of the ...

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in the London Plan as one o ...

Chess career

Family and death

References

Further reading