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Sicilian Defense
The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves: :1. e4 c5 The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. Opening 1.d4 is a statistically more successful opening for White because of the high success rate of the Sicilian defence against 1.e4. '' New In Chess'' stated in its 2000 Yearbook that, of the games in its database, White scored 56.1% in 296,200 games beginning 1.d4, but 54.1% in 349,855 games beginning 1.e4, mainly because the Sicilian held White to a 52.3% score in 145,996 games. 17% of all games between grandmasters, and 25% of the games in the Chess Informant database, begin with the Sicilian. Grandmaster John Nunn attributes the Sicilian Defence's popularity to its "combative nature": "in many lines Black is playing not just for equality, but for the advantage. The drawback is that White often obtains an early initiative, so Black has to take care not to fall victim to a quick attack." Gran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giulio Cesare Polerio
Giulio Cesare Polerio (c. 1550, – c. 1610; reconstruction of places and dates by Adriano Chicco) was an Italian chess theoretician and player. Name affixes used for him are ''l'Apruzzese'', Giu io Cesare ''da Lanciano'' (Salvio/Walker), and ''Lancianese'', because he was born in Lanciano, a town in the province of Chieti of the region Abruzzo of Italy. He died in Rome. Chess playing The first published mention of Polerio is from 1634 in '' Il Puttino'' by Alessandro Salvio. It recounts an event that must have occurred around 1575. "Il Puttino, altramente detto il Cavaliere errante" is a nickname used by Alessandro Salvio for Giovanni Leonardo. According to Salvio, Polerio accompanied Giovanni Leonardo on his way to Madrid until Genoa. After returning to Rome around 1584, Polerio became a chess player and writer in ordinary of Giacomo Boncompagni, Duke of Sora and son of Pope Gregory XIII (born Ugo Boncompagni). Polerio wrote a number of codexes in which a lively inter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
François-André Danican Philidor
François-André Danican Philidor (7 September 1726 – 31 August 1795), often referred to as André Danican Philidor during his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player. He contributed to the early development of the ''opéra comique''. He is widely regarded as the best chess player of his age; his book ''Analyse du jeu des Échecs'' was considered a standard chess manual for at least a century. A well-known chess opening, an endgame position, and a checkmate method are all named after him. Musical family François-André Danican Philidor came from the well-known musical Philidor family. The original name of his family was Danican, but François-André's grandfather, Jean Danican Philidor, was given the nickname of Philidor by Louis XIII because his oboe playing reminded the king of an Italian virtuoso oboist named Filidori. Music career Philidor joined the royal choir of Louis XV in 1732 at the age of 6, and made his first attempt at the composition of a song at th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1851 Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took place in Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 15 October, 1851. It was the first in a series of World's Fairs, exhibitions of culture and industry that became popular in the 19th century. The event was organised by Henry Cole and Prince Albert, husband of Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom. Famous people of the time attended the Great Exhibition, including Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Michael Faraday (who assisted with the planning and judging of exhibits), Samuel Colt, members of the Orléanist Royal Family and the writers Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, George Eliot, Alfred Tennyson and William Makepeace Thackeray. The opening music, under the superintendence of William Sterndale Bennett, was directed by Sir George Sma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Bird (chess Player)
Henry Edward Bird (14 July 1829A date of 1830 has been given, but baptismal records indicate 1829. – 11 April 1908) was an English chess player, author and accountant. He wrote the books ''Chess History and Reminiscences'' and ''An Analysis of Railways in the United Kingdom''. Although Bird was a practising accountant, not a professional chess player, it has been said that he "lived for chess, and would play anybody anywhere, any time, under any conditions."Harold C. Schoenberg, ''Grandmasters of Chess'', W.W. Norton & Co., New York, Rev. Ed. 1981, p. 66. Tournament play At age 21, Bird was invited to the first international tournament, London 1851. He also participated in tournaments held in Vienna and New York City. In 1858 he lost a match to Paul Morphy at age 28, yet he played high-level chess for another 50 years. In the New York tournament of 1876, Bird received the first ever awarded, for his game against James Mason. Legacy In 1874 Bird proposed a new chess var ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Handbuch Des Schachspiels
''Handbuch des Schachspiels'' (''Handbook of Chess'', often simply called the ''Handbuch'') is a chess book, first published in 1843 by Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa. It was a comprehensive reference book on the game, and one of the most important references on opening theory for many decades. The ''Handbuch'' had been the project of Paul Rudolf von Bilguer, who was with von der Lasa a member of the Berlin Chess Club and the influential group of chess masters later called the Berlin Pleiades. Bilguer died in 1840, with the work still in the early stages. Von der Lasa completed the project and saw it published, with his friend von Bilguer alone named as author. It contained comprehensive analyses of all opening variations then known, plus a section on the history and literature of chess. Von der Lasa prepared four further editions (1852, 1858, 1864, and 1874). The sixth edition (1880) was by Constantin Schwede; and the seventh edition (1891) was by Emil Schallopp, with th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London 1851 Chess Tournament
London 1851 was the first international chess tournament. The tournament was conceived and organised by English player Howard Staunton, and marked the first time that the best chess players in Europe would meet in a single event. Adolf Anderssen of Germany won the sixteen-player tournament, earning him the status of the best player in the world. Background and objectives In May 1851, London staged the Great Exhibition to showcase British industry and technology, and London's thriving chess community felt obliged to do something similar for chess. Howard Staunton proposed and then took the lead in organizing the first ever international tournament, to be held at the same time. and He thought the Great Exhibition presented a unique opportunity because the difficulties that obstructed international participation would be greatly reduced, for example it would be easier for contestants to obtain passports and leave from work. This can be viewed online at or downloaded as PDF from I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierre Charles Fournier De Saint-Amant
Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant (12 September 1800 – 29 October 1872) was a leading French chess master and an editor of the chess periodical '' Le Palamède''. He is best known for losing a match against Howard Staunton in 1843 that is often considered to have been an unofficial match for the World Chess Championship. Chess career Saint-Amant learned chess from Wilhelm Schlumberger, who later became the operator of The Turk. He played at the Café de la Régence, where he was a student of Alexandre Deschapelles. Anne Sunnucks, ''The Encyclopaedia of Chess'', St. Martin's Press, 1970, p. 419. For many years he played on level terms with Boncourt, a strong player, and received odds of pawn and two moves from Deschapelles and Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais. In 1834–36, he led a Paris team that won both games of a correspondence match against the Westminster Club, then England's leading chess club. After La Bourdonnais' death in 1840, he was considered the cou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Bourdonnais – McDonnell Chess Matches
The La Bourdonnais – McDonnell chess matches were a series of chess matches in 1834 between Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais of France and Alexander McDonnell of Ireland. These matches confirmed La Bourdonnais as the leading chess player in the world. They are sometimes seen as having been unofficial World Chess Championship matches, before the title of World Chess Champion existed. It was the first match of importance in the history of chess and is sometimes referred to today as the World Championship of 1834. The games were published widely, and were annotated and discussed by enthusiasts all over Europe. In the course of the mammoth encounter, both players introduced several new innovations, a few of which are still seen today. McDonnell, for instance, introduced the McDonnell Gambit variation of the already popular King%27s Gambit. Considered obsolete by MCO (Modern Chess Openings), this variation is rarely seen today. La Bourdonnais won the first, third, fourth and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Korn
Walter Korn (May 22, 1908 in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic) – July 9, 1997 in San Mateo, California, United States) was an Austro-Hungarian writer of books and magazine articles about chess. Despite his status as a writer, there is no known record of him playing tournament chess, and few chess players ever met him. One of his few known games is a draw against a 13-year-old Gordon Crown, published in the April 1943 issue of ''Chess''. Korn was a FIDE International Judge for chess compositions and contributed the entire topic of chess for the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (1972). Korn was the writer of ''Modern Chess Openings'' (''MCO'') (revised editions 7 through 12, 13th revised by Nick de Firmian), which was considered an authoritative work on the openings of chess. A new edition of ''MCO'' would come out every five years or so, and it was essential reading for tournament chess players. In later years, Korn enlisted the help of top players, such as Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Jaenisch
Carl Ferdinand von Jaenisch (russian: Карл Андреевич Яниш, ''Karl Andreyevich Yanish''; April 11, 1813 – March 7, 1872) was a Finnish and Russian chess player and theorist. In the 1840s, he was among the top players in the world.Adriano Chicco, Giorgio Porreca, ''Dizionario enciclopedico degli scacchi'', Milan: Mursia, 1971 Life and career Born in Vyborg, he began a military career in Finland, but soon moved to Russia to teach rational mechanics in Petersburg (now Saint Petersburg). He dedicated his life to mathematics and chess, two subjects which he considered closely related. He tried to show their connections in his work ''Découvertes sur le cavalier (aux échecs)'', published in Petersburg in 1837. In 1842–43 he published a book on the openings in two volumes: ''Analyse Nouvelle des ouvertures''. In 1862–63 he published his major work: ''Traité des applications de l'analyse mathématique au jeu des échecs'', in three volumes. He wanted to ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Paulsen
Louis Paulsen (15 January 1833 in Gut Nassengrund near Blomberg, Principality of Lippe – 18 August 1891) was a German chess player. In the 1860s and 1870s, he was among the top players in the world. He was a younger brother of Wilfried Paulsen. Paulsen was one of the first players to challenge the notion that an attack could be constructed out of brilliance. He put forward the idea that any brilliant attack would have failed against correct defence. His ideas were grasped by Wilhelm Steinitz, who declared that attack and defence have equal status, and particularly by Aron Nimzowitsch, who listed Paulsen among his six greatest "purely defensive players". Paul Morphy and Paulsen were early masters of the game and of blindfold chess; they were capable of playing 10 blindfold games at the same time without any major errors. Paulsen played in the final match of the 1857 First American Chess Congress, losing to Paul Morphy five games to one with two draws. In 1862 Paulsen dre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Staunton
Howard Staunton (April 1810 – 22 June 1874) was an English chess master who is generally regarded as the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant. He promoted a chess set of clearly distinguishable pieces of standardised shape – the Staunton pattern promulgated by Nathaniel Cooke – that is still the style required for competitions. He was the principal organiser of the first international chess tournament in 1851, which made England the world's leading chess centre and caused Adolf Anderssen to be recognised as the world's strongest player. From 1840 onwards he became a leading chess commentator, and won matches against top players of the 1840s. In 1847 he entered a parallel career as a Shakespearean scholar. Ill health and his two writing careers led him to give up competitive chess after 1851. In 1858 attempts were made to organise a match between Staunton and Paul Mor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
