John Washington Baird (February 22, 1852 – 1923)

Jeremy Gaige Jeremy Gaige (October 9, 1927 in New York – February 19, 2011) was an American chess archivist and journalist. He was best known for his work collecting and publishing tournament results and basic biographical data on chess players. Hooper and ...

, ''Chess Personalia: A Biobibliography'', McFarland & Company, 1987, p. 19. . was a minor

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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 Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

, who played in a number of American and international

chess tournament A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard form of chess competition amo ...

s between 1880 and 1906. He was the brother of

David Graham Baird David Graham Baird (3 December 1854 in New York City – 8 October 1913 in Elizabeth, New Jersey) was an American chess master. He was the brother of John Washington Baird, who was also an American chess master. A writer in the ''New York Times'', ...

, who was also an American chess master. A writer in the ''New York Times'', describing the players in the Sixth American Chess Congress (1889), portrayed Baird and his brother as follows:

Of the Baird brothers, David G. is the better player by far. He plays with characteristic Scotch carefulness, for he is of Scotch descent. Of medium height, he is inclined to stoutness, and is of light complexion. His brother John W. is very thin, although he looks like his brother in the face. He was one of the slowest players in the tournament.

The date and place of Baird's death are unknown.

Chess career

Baird played in a number of American and international

s between 1880 and 1906. Name Index to Jeremy Gaige's ''Chess Tournament Crosstables'', An Electronic Edition, Anders Thulin, Malmö, accessed 2008-11-20. He scored 9/13, finished tied for 4th-5th place, in the Minor Section of the Fifth American Chess Congress. He finished 4th in the Fifth

Manhattan Chess Club The Manhattan Chess Club in Manhattan was the second-oldest chess club in the United States (next to the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club in San Francisco) before it closed. The club was founded in 1877 and started with three dozen men, eventually ...

championship (1883). Baird finished 3rd with 6.15/12 in the Eighth Manhattan Chess Club championship (1883). At the Sixth American Chess Congress at New York 1889, a double

round robin Round-robin may refer to: Computing * Round-robin DNS, a technique for dealing with redundant Internet Protocol service hosts * Round-robin networks, communications networks made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology * Round-robin schedu ...

that was one of the longest tournaments in history, Baird scored 7/38, finishing 19th out of 20 players. Baird's brother

scored 16/38, finishing 14th;

Mikhail Chigorin Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin (also ''Tchigorin''; russian: Михаи́л Ива́нович Чиго́рин; – ) was a Russian chess player. He played two World Championship matches against Wilhelm Steinitz, losing both times. The last great ...

and

Max Weiss Miksa (Max) Weisz (21 July 1857 – 14 March 1927) was an Austrian chess player born in the Kingdom of Hungary. Weiss was born in Sereď. Moving to Vienna, he studied mathematics and physics at the university, and later taught those subjects. Wei ...

tied for first with 29 points, edging out

Isidor Gunsberg Isidore ( ; also spelled Isador, Isadore and Isidor) is an English and French masculine given name. The name is derived from the Greek name ''Isídōros'' (Ἰσίδωρος) and can literally be translated to "gift of Isis." The name has survived ...

(28.5). Baird played in the 1892 '' Hauptturnier'' in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

, scoring 4/6 (2nd-3rd place of 7 players) and qualifying for the final, where he scored 4/8, finishing tied 4th-6th of 9 players. At a strong tournament at New York 1893, Baird finished with 4.5/9 (a half point more than his brother), tying for 5th-6th.

Harry Nelson Pillsbury Harry Nelson Pillsbury (December 5, 1872 – June 17, 1906) was an American chess player. At the age of 22, he won one of the strongest tournaments of the time (winning the Hastings 1895 chess tournament), but his illness and early death prevent ...

won with 7/9.) Baird played in the very strong ''Meisterturnier'' (Master Tournament) at Leipzig 1894, scoring a respectable 7.5/17 (12th place out of 18 players);

Siegbert Tarrasch Siegbert Tarrasch (; 5 March 1862 – 17 February 1934) was a German chess player, considered to have been among the strongest players and most influential theoreticians of the late 19th and early 20th century. Life Tarrasch was born in Bresla ...

won.Di Felice, p. 150. Baird also competed in international tournaments at

Barmen Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of Wuppertal. Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the first electric ...

1905 and

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

1906.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baird, John Washington American chess players 1852 births 1923 deaths 19th-century chess players