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William Lewis (1787–1870) was an English
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 author, nowadays best known for the Lewis Countergambit. He may have been the first player ever described as a Grandmaster of the game.


Life and works

Born in Birmingham, William Lewis moved as a young man to
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 ...
where he worked for a merchant for a short period. He became a student of chess player
Jacob Sarratt Jacob Henry Sarratt (1772 – 6 November 1819) was one of the top English chess players of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Sarratt was renowned as a player and author and adopted the title "Professor of Chess". He was the first profession ...
, but in later years he showed himself to be rather ungrateful towards his teacher. Although he considered Sarratt's ''Treatise on the Game of Chess'' (1808) a "poorly written book", in 1822 Lewis published a second edition of it three years after Sarratt's death in direct competition with Sarratt's own superior revision published posthumously in 1821 by Sarratt's poverty-stricken widow. In 1843, many players contributed to a fund to help the old widow, but Lewis' name is not on the list of subscribers. Around 1819 Lewis was the hidden player inside the Turk (a famous automaton), meeting all-comers successfully. He suggested to
Johann Maelzel A metronome by Maelzel, Paris, 1815. Johann Nepomuk Maelzel (or Mälzel; August 15, 1772 – July 21, 1838) was a German inventor, engineer, and showman, best known for manufacturing a metronome and several music-playing automatons, and displayi ...
that
Peter Unger Williams Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...
, a fellow ex-student of Sarratt, should be the next person to operate inside the machine. When P. U. Williams played a game against the Turk, Lewis recognised the old friend from his style of play (the operator could not see his opponents) and convinced Maelzel to reveal to Williams the secret of the Turk. Later, P. U. Williams himself took Lewis' place inside the machine. Lewis visited Paris along with Scottish player John Cochrane in 1821, where they played with
Alexandre Deschapelles Alexandre Deschapelles (March 7, 1780 in Ville-d'Avray near VersaillesOctober 27, 1847 in Paris) was a French chess player who, between the death of François-André Danican Philidor and the rise of Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais, was prob ...
, receiving the advantage of pawn and move. He won the short match (+1 =2). Lewis' career as an author began at this time, and included translations of the works of
Greco Greco may refer to: People * Greco (surname), a list of people with this surname * a masculine variant of Greca (given name), an Italian feminine given name * Greco Mafia clan, one of the most influential Mafia clans in Sicily and Calabria Wine ...
and Carrera, published in 1819 and 1822 respectively. He was the leading English player in the correspondence match between London and Edinburgh in 1824, won by the Scots (+2 = 2 -1). Later, he published a book on the match with analysis of the games. In the period of 1834–36 he was also part of the Committee of the Westminster Chess Club, who played and lost (−2) the match by correspondence with the Paris Chess Club. The other players were his students
McDonnell The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer based in St. Louis, Missouri. The company was founded on July 6, 1939, by James Smith McDonnell, and was best known for its military fighters, including the F-4 Phantom I ...
and
Walker Walker or The Walker may refer to: People *Walker (given name) *Walker (surname) *Walker (Brazilian footballer) (born 1982), Brazilian footballer Places In the United States *Walker, Arizona, in Yavapai County *Walker, Mono County, California * ...
, while the French line up included Boncourt,
Alexandre Alexandre may refer to: * Alexandre (given name) * Alexandre (surname) * Alexandre (film) See also * Alexander * Xano (disambiguation) Xano is the name of: * Xano, a Portuguese hypocoristic of the name "Alexandre (disambiguation) Alexandre may re ...
, St. Amant and Chamouillet. When De La Bourdonnais visited England in 1825, Lewis played about 70 games with the French master. Seven of these games probably represented a match that Lewis lost (+2 -5). Lewis enjoyed a considerable reputation as a chess player in his time. A correspondent writing to the weekly magazine ''Bell's Life'' in 1838 called him "our past grandmaster", the first known use of the term in chess. Starting from 1825 he preserved his reputation by the same means that Deschapelles used in France, by refusing to play anyone on even terms. In the same year Lewis founded a Chess Club where he gave lessons to, amongst others, Walker and McDonnell. He was declared bankrupt in 1827 due to bad investments on a patent for the construction of pianos and his chess club was forced to close. The next three years were quite difficult until in 1830 he got a job that assured him of solid financial security for the rest of his life. Thanks to this job, he could focus on writing his two major works: Series of ''Progressive Lessons'' (1831) and ''Second Series of Progressive Lessons'' (1832). The first series of the Lessons were more elementary in character, and designed for the use of beginners; the second series, on the other hand, went deeply into all the known openings. Here, for the first time we find the
Evans Gambit The Evans Gambit is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 Nc6 :3. Bc4 Bc5 :4. b4 The Evans Gambit is an aggressive line of the Giuoco Piano. White offers a pawn to divert the black bishop on c5. If Black accepts, ...
, which is named after its inventor, Capt. Evans. The works of Lewis (together with his teacher Sarratt) were oriented towards the rethinking of the strictly Philidorian principles of play in favour of the Modenese school of Del Rio,
Lolli Lolli is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alberto Carlo Lolli (born c.1876), Italian film director of the silent era * Antonio Lolli (1725–1802), Italian violinist and composer * Anthony Lolli, developer and found ...
and Ponziani. When he realised that he could not give an advantage to the new generation of British players, Lewis withdrew gradually from active play (in the same way that Deschapelles did after his defeat against De La Bourdonnais). After his retirement he wrote other chess treatises, but his isolation prevented him from assimilating the positional ideas of the new generation of chess players. For this reason, Hooper and Whyld in their ''Oxford Companion to Chess'' describe the last voluminous work of Lewis, ''A Treatise on Chess'' (1844),W. Lewis, A Treatise on the Game of Chess: containing an introduction to the game, and an analysis of the various opening of the game with several new modes of attack and defence (1844) as already "out of date when published". He died in 1870 and was buried on the east side of
Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
. His grave (no.12861) has no headstone or marker.


References and notes


External links

* Some of the games of Lewis can be found a
chessgames.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, William English chess players British chess players 1787 births 1870 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery Sportspeople from Birmingham, West Midlands British chess writers