''The Chess Monthly'' was a short-lived monthly

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

magazine produced from January 1857 and May 1861 in the United States. Edited by professional diplomat and linguistics professor

Daniel Willard Fiske Daniel Willard Fiske (November 11, 1831 – September 17, 1904) was an American librarian and scholar, born on November 11, 1831, at Ellisburg, New York. He was awarded American Library Association Honorary Membership in 1895. Biography Fiske ...

, it was co-edited for a time by

Paul Morphy Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837July 10, 1884) was an American chess player. During his brief career in the late 1850s, Morphy was acknowledged as the world's greatest chess master. A prodigy, Morphy emerged onto the chess scene in 1857 ...

. The magazine was based in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Eugene B. Cook (1830–1915) and

Sam Loyd Samuel Loyd (January 30, 1841 – April 10, 1911) was an American chess player, chess composer, puzzle author, and recreational mathematics, recreational mathematician. Loyd was born in Philadelphia but raised in New York City. As a chess comp ...

edited the

chess problem A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle created by the composer using chess pieces on a chessboard, which presents the solver with a particular task. For instance, a position may be given with the instruction that White is t ...

s section. Running for only five volumes, the magazine is perhaps best remembered today for a series of articles written by Silas Mitchell regarding

The Turk Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic of Turkey * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic lan ...

, the chess-playing machine that perished in a fire in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

prior to the publication of the magazine.

References

* * Tom Standage, ''The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine''. Walker and Company,

, 2002. * Gerald M. Levitt, ''The Turk, Chess Automaton''. McFarland and Company Inc. Publishers,

Jefferson, North Carolina Jefferson is a town in and the county seat of Ashe County, North Carolina, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 1,622. History The North Carolina General Assembly created a special commission in 1799 to found a county seat fo ...

, 2000. * Moravian Chess Publishing Hous
Volume Listing.

''Chess Monthly'', Volume 3, 1859

''Chess Monthly'', Volume 4, 1860

The Chess Monthly archive at HathiTrust
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chess Monthly Chess magazines published in the United States 1857 in chess Magazines established in 1857 Magazines disestablished in 1861 Defunct game magazines published in the United States Monthly magazines published in the United States Defunct magazines published in New York City 1857 establishments in New York (state)