James Alexander Porterfield Rynd (6 April 1846 – 17 March 1917) was an Irish

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 ...

player and lawyer. He was born on 6 April 1846 the son of Dublin solicitor James William Goodlatte RyndKing's Inn's Barristers, 1868–2004, edited by Kenneth Ferguson, 2005 and Isabella Susannah Stephens Rynd. Porterfield Rynd's uncle (his fathers half brother) was Dr.

Francis Rynd Francis Rynd AM, MRCS, MRIA (1801–1861) was an Irish physician, known for inventing the hollow needle used in hypodermic syringes. Background Rynd was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1801 to James Rynd and his third wife Hester Fleetwood, of Rynd ...

the inventor of the hollow needle syringe. His cousin, Maria Rynd, was First Lady of Bolivia in 1879. He won the Dublin Chess Congress No. 3 Tournament in 1865. This tournament, run alongside an international chess tournament in Dublin, was reserved for residents of Ireland and is widely considered to be the first

Irish Chess Championship The Irish Chess Championship is the national Championship of Ireland, currently run by the Irish Chess Union ( ICU), the FIDE-recognised governing body for the game. Below is the list of champions. The first champion was J.A. Porterfield Rynd, wh ...

. Porterfield Rynd's birth date is often listed incorrectly as 1855 this has led some books to cast doubt on his claim to the Irish championship in 1865, such as ''The Guinness Book of Chess Records'' by Ken Whyld. But further articles and his obituaries discount this and state he was born in 1846 and died aged 71 in 1917. He was accepted as the Irish Chess Champion until 1886 when a tournament was hosted by the Irish Chess Association to find an Irish Champion. Rynd won the title again in 1892. Porterfield Rynd held an LLB, in 1869 he entered the

King's Inns The Honorable Society of King's Inns ( ir, Cumann Onórach Óstaí an Rí) is the "Inn of Court" for the Bar of Ireland. Established in 1541, King's Inns is Ireland's oldest school of law and one of Ireland's significant historical environment ...

, Dublin, and was called to the Bar in 1874. On 7 September 1869 he married Anna Cranwill and on 9 October 1873 his first child was born: Kenneth Arly Rynd. ''Easily the most colourful personage in the place was Porterfield Rynd, one of the ablest members of the Dublin bar—a man who, if he had been half as devoted to the drudgery of work as he was to the allurement of play, could easily have attained the highest honours in the judiciary.'' He was a member of Clontarf Tennis and Chess Club, and played many sports in his youth. Rynd was a member of Dublin Chess Club and played in the first ever

Armstrong Cup The Armstrong Cup is the oldest Irish team league competition and has been played every year since 1888, perhaps giving it a claim on the longest running chess competition in the world. The Club is named after William Armstrong BL (1849-1899) who pr ...

, the oldest Irish league competition. He briefly wrote a column for the ''Irish Sportsman and Farmer''. In the 1890s Porterfield Rynd edited a chess column which regularly appeared on the back page of the Saturday issue of Dublin's

Evening Herald ''The Herald'' is a nationwide mid-market tabloid newspaper headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, and published by Independent News & Media who are a subsidiary of Mediahuis. It is published Monday–Saturday. The newspaper was known as the ''Ev ...

. He was not burdened with modesty and the title ''Irish Champion'' appears beside his column. He died in Dublin on 17 March 1917, his obituary was in the Irish Times of Monday 19 March 1917, ''RYND – 17 March 1917 JAMES ALEXANDER PORTERFIELD RYND, Barrister-at-Law, in his 71st year'', and there was also an obituary in the Belfast Newsletter 22 March 1917.

Politics

Porterfield Rynd was a Unionist and produced pamphlet of his thoughts on the subject in 1906 for the Irish Unionist Association. A letter of Rynd's outlining support for the unionist cause are contained in letters to

Bonar Law Andrew Bonar Law ( ; 16 September 1858 – 30 October 1923) was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1922 to May 1923. Law was born in the British colony of New Brunswick (now a ...

, to whom the ''Colourful'' Rynd was described as being a confidante.''The Stranded Tribe'' by Kenneth R. Dodds 2012. Rynd was also associated with the

Dublin Liberal Unionist Association {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 Dublin Liberal Unionist Association was a grouping founded in Dublin Ireland in the early years of the twentieth century of Liberal supporters who supported the Union between Britain and Ireland. They supported Chamb ...

, serving as its chairman.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rynd, James Alexander Porterfield 1846 births 1917 deaths Irish chess players Alumni of King's Inns 19th-century chess players