Charles Masson Fox (9 November 1866 – 11 October 1935) was a Cornish businessman who achieved international prominence in the world of

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

s and a place in the homosexual history of Edwardian England. Masson Fox was born into a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

family (although he was not related to the Quakers' founder

George Fox George Fox (July 1624 – 13 January 1691) was an English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. The son of a Leicestershire weaver, he lived in times of social upheaval and ...

) and was second cousin once removed of the fraudulent sinologist

Sir Edmund Backhouse, 2nd Baronet Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse, 2nd Baronet (20 October 1873 – 8 January 1944) was a British oriental scholar, Sinologist, and linguist whose books exerted a powerful influence on the Western view of the last decades of the Qing Dynasty (1644� ...

. Living throughout his life in the Cornish seaside town of Falmouth, Fox in the early decades of his life was a senior partner of his family's timber firm, Fox Stanton & Company, and was also on the Board of Messrs G C Fox & Company, a long-established firm of shipping agents. BudockQBG-Charles-Masson-Fox

Fox is described by chess historian

Thomas Rayner Dawson Thomas Rayner Dawson (28 November 1889 – 16 December 1951) was an English chess problemist and is acknowledged as "the father of Fairy Chess". He invented many fairy pieces and new conditions. He introduced the popular fairy pieces grasshopp ...

(1889–1951) as "a friendly man, kind, mellow, lovable, bringing peace and comfort and serene joy with him". He was also a discreet but active homosexual. In 1909 he visited Venice with his friend James Cockerton, meeting the writer

Frederick Rolfe Frederick William Rolfe (surname pronounced ), better known as Baron Corvo (Italian for "Crow"), and also calling himself Frederick William Serafino Austin Lewis Mary Rolfe (22 July 1860 – 25 October 1913), was an English writer, artist, ph ...

and becoming the reluctant recipient of Rolfe's famous ''Venice Letters'', in which the gay subculture of Venice is vividly described. In 1912–13 Fox was blackmailed by a woman who accused him of seducing her 16-year-old son. Eventually Fox reported the matter to the police and the woman was sent to prison for five years and her son for one year, with hard labour.''The Times'', Wednesday, 13 August 1913; p. 2; Issue 40289; col G: "Mother And Son Charged With Blackmail.." and Friday, 5 Sep 1913; p. 2; Issue 40309; col G: "Woman Blackmailer. Heavy Sentence". However, Fox was profoundly affected by the publicity surrounding the case, which was reported in detail in the local press. The predictable result of his courageous action was the destruction of his reputation, and the compromise of his business and social life in Falmouth. Although he continued to live in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, the focus of his social life shifted to London, and in the last two decades of his life, Fox became prominent in the world of

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 disti ...

. He was elected President of the Cornwall Chess Association, played a prominent part in the development of the

British Chess Problem Society The British Chess Problem Society is considered the oldest chess problem society in the world. The inaugural meeting of the British Chess Problem Society took place on 10 August 1918 at St George's Restaurant, 37 Martin's Lane London WC at 3pm. The ...

, and is still renowned as one of the greatest ever exponents of

fairy chess Fairy chess is the area of chess composition in which there are some changes to the rules of chess. The term was introduced by Henry Tate in 1914. Thomas R. Dawson (1889–1951), the "father of fairy chess", invented many fairy pieces and new c ...

(chess problems with variations in the rules).

Problem

Solution of problem is: 1.Gh3 Gh4 2.Gh5 Gh6 3.Gh7 Gh8 4.Ge7 Gd7 5.Gc7 Gb7 6.Ga7+ Ga6 7.Ga5+ Ga4 8.Ga3#

References

* Frederick Rolfe, Baron Corvo, ''The Venice Letters'', Cecil Woolf, 1974 * Robert Scoble, ''Raven: The Turbulent World of Baron Corvo'', Strange Attractor Press, 2013, . Chapter 13, "The Quest for Cockerton", pages 308–325, recounts the details of Fox's and Cockerton's fateful meeting with Rolfe in Venice. * T.R.Dawson, ''C.M. Fox, His Problems'', 1936

External links

British Chess Problems

Raven: The Turbulent World of Baron Corvo

Fox problems
on

PDB Server This article covers computer software designed to solve, or assist people in creating or solving, chess problems – puzzles in which pieces are laid out as in a game of chess, and may at times be based upon real games of chess that have been p ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Charles Masson Chess composers 1866 births 1935 deaths People from Falmouth, Cornwall

Charles Masson Charles Masson (1800–1853) was the pseudonym of James Lewis, a British East India Company soldier and reporter, independent explorer and pioneering archaeologist and numismatist. He was the first European to discover the ruins of Harappa nea ...

English chess players Writers from Cornwall English LGBT people British chess writers