This etext was produced by Stephen D. Leary CHESS HISTORY AND REMINISCENCES by H. E. Bird ====== To My Highly Esteemed Chess Opponent And Patron Of Nearly 40 Years W. J. EVELYN, Esq., Of Wotton, Surrey ====== CONTENTS PREFACE PECULIAR AND DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTIC OF CHESS WRITERS, LACK OF CHESS HISTORY RETROSPECT, AND HABITS, AND IDIOSYNCRACIES OF CHESS PLAYERS: TEMPERAMENT, ATTITUDE AND DEPORTMENT, STYLE, STAKES, LOSING, LOOKERS-ON, ODDITIES, AND PATRONS CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF CHESS: PREVAILING MISCONCEPTION ITS EVER GROWING POPULARITY THEORIES AS TO ITS INVENTION TRADITIONS THE THREE INDIAN TRADITIONS EARLY AND MIDDLE AGE CONJECTURES PROGRESS OF CHESS INDIA CHINA EGYPT THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND ROMANS SCANDINAVIA PERSIA ARABIA, SPAIN, FRANCE: CHOSROES, AL WALID, HARUN, PRINCESS IRENE, CHARLEMAGNE, OFFA, ALCUIN, EGBERT, AL MAMUN THE ROMAN EDICT OF 115 B.C.: SUPPOSED EUROPEAN FIRST KNOWLEDGE: SCANDINAVIA. ITALY. IRELAND. WALES. OPINIONS ON CHESS AND ITS ORIGIN: POPE'S LINES THE TRACK OF CHESS (UNIQUE SPECIMEN)--THE INDIAN KING TO SASSA THE KING OF HIND TO CHOSROES THE EARLY EXAMPLES OF PRAISE AND CENSURE THE REMARKABLE ADVANTAGES OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETIES, AND PHYSICANS RECOMMENDATIONS. FOOD FOR THE MIND AS WELL AS FOR THE BODY MIDDLE AGES AND MODERN: CHAUCER TO LYDGATE CAXTON, ELIZABETH'S REIGN VIDA PRATT SAUL AND BARBIERE SALVIC CARRERA ENCYCLOPAEDIA AN AMERICAN VIEW THE INDIAN PHILOSOPHER SOVEREIGNS COMMEMORATED AS CHESS PLAYERS PHILIDOR'S ASCENDENCY, POPULARITY & PATRONS THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: SIMPSON'S 1828-1893-CHESS CLUBS CHESS MASTERS OF THE DAY, MAGAZINE NOTIONS, THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW, AND REPLY IN AN IMPARTIAL ARTICLE from H. E. BIRD NATIONAL CHESS OF 1892, THE BELFAST CONGRESS AND NEWCASTLE SUPPORT. SPECIMENS OF PLAY BLINDFOLD CHESS THE GAME OF CHESS, (SUMMARY OR BIRD'S EYE VIEW) Dedicated to Belfast and Newcastle FOUR STYLES OF CHESS, "THE LION," "THE EAGLE," "THE SLOW WORM," AND THE LOCOMOTIVE A SKIT VAN DER LINDE'S CONCLUSIONS CHESS LOSSES SUPPLEMENTAL AND SEPARATE. REVIEW OF STEINITZ, PART 1, (8 pages.) NOTE. Postponed. "Times Reminiscences" (7 in number) "Ruskin's letters" (28), "Bayley's Article" and "Fortnightly Review" controversy, and "A few words with the German writer, and the works of 1872 and 1884." NOTES AND REFERENCES-BECKETT, LUTHER, CRANMER, WOLSEY, &c. PREFACE This little work is but a condensation and essence of a much larger one, containing the result of what can be discovered concerning the origin and history of chess, combined with some of my own reminiscences of 46 years past both of chess play and its exponents, dating back to the year 1846, the 18th of Simpson's, 9 years after the death of A. McDonnell, and 6 after that of L. de La Bourdonnais when chivalrous and first class chess had come into the highest estimation, and emulatory matches and tests of supremacy in chess skill were the order of the day.