Grimshaw v Steinitz

Edward Winter

(2011, with updates)



grimshaw v steinitz

Page 115 of The Golden Treasury of Chess by Francis J. Wellmuth (Philadelphia, 1943)


Steinitz denied having lost such a game to Walter Grimshaw, describing it as bogus and a fraud. Below are the relevant texts from the International Chess Magazine, edited by Steinitz:

April 1891, page 118:

grimshaw steinitz

May 1891, pages 144-148:

grimshaw steinitz

grimshaw steinitz

grimshaw steinitz

grimshaw steinitz

grimshaw steinitz

June 1891, pages 170-171:

grimshaw steinitz

grimshaw steinitz

August 1891, pages 234-236:

grimshaw steinitz

grimshaw steinitz

grimshaw steinitz

September 1891, page 266:

grimshaw steinitz



The game-score was given in item 298 of unit three of Napier’s Amenities and Background of Chess-Play (New York, 1935) with this introduction:

‘Steinitz is here seen trying a debatable defense. Such games are the master’s sketch-book – and his divining-rod.’

The game was dated ‘about 1872’, but when the item was reproduced on page 359 of the December 1952 Chess Review the date specified was 1878.



Fabrizio Zavatarelli (Milan, Italy) notes that the score was published on page 414 of the Illustrated London News, 23 October 1880, with no mention of Steinitz:

grimshaw

Mr Zavatarelli furthermore observes that the game under consideration was preceded by one involving Earnshaw, whose role in the affair is reported in our feature article.

(9347)

A photograph of Grimshaw was published on page 108 of CHESS, 14 November 1937.



Latest update: 5 May 2022.


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