Chess History and ReminiscencesBird, H. E. (Henry Edward)
History
Chess History and Reminiscences
Bird, H. E. (Henry Edward)
Chess
Notwithstanding that the Mammoth laws of Limited Liability
in 1867, absorbed the gorgeous and spacious Divan Saloon, for the
present ladies dining room, and somewhat lessened the chess
accommodation, the distinguishing characteristics of the place
have remained unchanged, while the glorious chess events and
reminiscences continue nearly as vividly fixed in the recollection
as ever.
The interest felt in the associations of Simpson's, have in fact
continued unabated from the days of the supremacy of La
Bourdonnais, Staunton, and Morphy, to the time of Steinitz's
appearance in 1862, and, to the triumphs of Blackburne, Cap.
Mackenzie and Gunsberg in our own days, and Bird the winner of the
Tournament just held there, who has frequented the room for
forty-five years, still plays the game, with a vigour equal to that
displayed against the greatest foreign players in 1852, and with
scarcely less success. The transactions in chess connected with
Simpson's for the last quarter of a century, would fill a good size
volume, only including events of the greatest interest to chess
players. The lapse of the British Chess Association of 1862, and
the wane of the less successful B.C.A. of 1885, during a period
when chess has been making such rapid strides that clubs have
more than doubled, is a very remarkable feature in modern chess
play and its management. The seven years operations and
accounts of the present British Chess Association, though it had
the advantage of such names as Tennyson, Ruskin, Churchill and
Peel, on its presidential list, have not resulted in one half the
patronage, accorded to the Tournaments of 1851 and 1883, mainly
promoted by one single club, (the St. Georges') at times when no
Association of a public kind, ostensibly for the support,
improvement, and extension of worthy chess existed.
The eminent masters of the art of chess, registered in the list
of the British Chess Association of 1862, numbered 30, now there
are but 10, such has been the effect of the management of a game
yearly and daily increasing in favourable estimation, and the
practice of which, judging from the increase of chess clubs, press
notice and favour, sale of chess equipages of all kinds, and other
indications conclusively prove, must have increased at least
ten-fold in the present generation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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