Cyril Bexley Vansittart (1852 – 22 January 1887) was an English–Italian

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 ...

master. Born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, he moved to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 1860, later establishing a bank there. He twice participated in unofficial

Italian Chess Championship The Italian Chess Federation (Italian: Federazione Scacchistica Italiana (FSI)) was established in 1920. The first Italian Chess Championship took place at Viareggio 1921. The 1998 Championship was held 21–29 November in Saint-Vincent. The ten-p ...

s (''Torneo Nazionale''), taking 6th at Livorno 1878 (the 2nd Italian National Tournament, Luigi Sprega won); at Venice 1883 he only played the first half, though his second half games were not counted as forfeits. Vansittart tied for 18-19th at London 1883 (Vizayanagaram Tournament,

Curt von Bardeleben Curt Carl Alfred von Bardeleben (4 March 1861 – 31 January 1924) was a German chess master, journalist, and member of the German nobility. Biography Curt von Bardeleben started playing chess when he was ten years old and quickly developed into ...

won). By the early 1880s, Vansittart had a chess library of around 300 volumes, and in 1883 he purchased the 400-volume library of the late Count Salimbeni. The library contained books and periodicals and had complete runs of the ''

Chess Player's Chronicle The ''Chess Player's Chronicle'', founded by Howard Staunton and extant in 1841–56 and 1859–62, was the world's first successful English-language magazine devoted exclusively to chess. Various unrelated but identically or similarly named public ...

'', ''

Le Palamède ''Le Palamède'' was the world's first periodical devoted to the game of chess.David Hooper (chess player), David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld, ''The Oxford Companion to Chess'' (2d ed. 1992), p. 56. .H. J. R. Murray, ''A History of Chess'', Oxford Uni ...

'' and ''

Deutsche Schachzeitung ''Deutsche Schachzeitung'' (English: "''German Chess Paper''") was the first German chess magazine. Founded in 1846 by Ludwig Bledow under the title ''Schachzeitung der Berliner Schachgesellschaft'' and appearing monthly, it took the name ''Deutsche ...

''.

Hoffer Hoffer is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Abram Hoffer (1917-2009), Canadian biochemist and psychiatrist * Bernard Hoffer (born 1934), Swiss-American composer and conductor * Bill Hoffer (1870–1959), American baseball playe ...

stated in the ''Chess Monthly'' in 1887 that Vansittart had died of heart disease aged 35; Adriano Chicco said in the ''Dizionario Enciclopedico Degli Scacchi'' that there was a triple suicide that shocked Rome.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vansittart, Cyril Bexley 1852 births 1887 deaths English chess players Italian chess players 19th-century chess players

Cyril Cyril (also Cyrillus or Cyryl) is a masculine given name. It is derived from the Greek name Κύριλλος (''Kýrillos''), meaning 'lordly, masterful', which in turn derives from Greek κυριος (''kýrios'') 'lord'. There are various varian ...