Edward Winter
(2014)
A number of C.N. items have discussed a gamelet first published in the nineteenth century. Given that it subsequently appeared in different guises, with various players named, we have split the C.N. items into separate parts, for ease of reference. Any further documentation discovered will be incorporated into the appropriate section.
Thomas Niessen (Aachen, Germany) has found online four occurrences of a short nineteenth-century game:
Omaha Daily Bee, 5 December 1897, page 23 (Library of Congress)
New York Clipper, 1 January 1898, page 728 (University of Illinois)
Albany Evening Journal, 15 January 1898, page 7 (Fulton History)
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 8 November 1900, page 14 (Brooklyn Public Library)
It has not yet been possible to trace the Times item mentioned in the first two cuttings.
(8573)
Patsy A. D’Eramo (North East, MD, USA) has found that the publication in question was the Philadelphia Times, 28 November 1897, page 14:
The references to ‘Joshua’ and ‘Grubber’ have yet to be explained.
(8577)
(Continuation of Thomas Niessen’s contribution in C.N. 8573)
In addition to noting the discrepancies over the identity of the players, the occasion, the conclusion of the game and the question of whether odds were given, our correspondent remarks that such a game (I.O. Howard Taylor v N.N., 15 August 1874) had been published on page 155 of the Dubuque Chess Journal, March 1875 and on pages 57-58 of Taylor’s Chess Skirmishes (Norwich, 1889).
Below is the complete feature in the March 1875 Dubuque Chess
Journal, pages 153-155:
The relevant pages of Taylor’s book were shown in C.N. 8597, courtesy of the Cleveland Public Library:
(Continuation of Thomas Niessen’s contribution in C.N. 8573.)
Mr Niessen also pointed out that pages 57-58 of Taylor’s Chess Skirmishes stated that a similar game played by Bird appeared in Wit and Wisdom, 5 January 1889 (a copy of which is sought).
Hans Renette (Bierbeek, Belgium) provides an extract from G.A. MacDonnell’s column in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 6 April 1889, page 109:
Although ‘Bradford, 1888’ was stated, Mr Renette adds that a similar finish was given by Bird on page 257 of his book Chess Novelties (London, 1895) with ‘Huddersfield, 1886’:
Our correspondent believes that 1885 would be correct given that, as reported on page 174 of the May 1885 BCM, Bird gave a simultaneous display in Huddersfield on 28 April 1885.
(8577)
(Continuation of Thomas Niessen’s contribution in C.N. 8573)
A further point made by Mr Niessen in C.N. 8573 is that the Bird version of the game was given on page 122 of 666 Kurzpartien by Kurt Richter (Berlin-Frohnau, 1966) as having occurred between Brech and Bogilow in Aachen, 1938:
(8573)
Mr Niessen adds that Otto Brech was the city’s leading player at the end of the 1920s and conducted the local chess column from 1934 until his death in 1937. It is unclear why Richter put 1938 for a game which had been published in the Aachener Anzeiger – Politisches Tageblatt on 5 August 1932. The newspaper called it a ‘freie Partie’ (offhand game) played in Aachen by Brech against Borobiloff.
(8577)
See the Quaade Gambit item below from the Schweizerische Schachzeitung.
From pages 190-191 of the December 1941 Schweizerische Schachzeitung:
The game was also published on pages 44-46 of L’art de faire mat by G. Renaud and V. Kahn (Monaco, 1947). See too pages 39-40 of the English edition, The Art of the Checkmate (New York, 1953), which gave White’s initial as Q. rather than W. Both players’ forenames are available from the Schweizerische Schachzeitung in connection with chess in Lausanne: Wilhelm Renold (March 1903, page 87) and Rodolphe Agassiz (April 1903, page 93). The French and English editions of Renaud and Kahn’s book misspelled the opening of the game (‘Quade Gambit’).
There was material on the Quaade Gambit by W. Timbrell Pierce on pages 138-139 of the April 1913 BCM, with analytical comments from a correspondent, W.M. Hardman, on page 183 of the May 1913 issue and a reply from Pierce on page 236 of the June 1913 number.
(8587)
Thomas Niessen writes:
‘Page 271 of the first (1984) edition of the Oxford Companion to Chess stated that the Quaade Gambit was “advocated by a Dutch sea-captain, D.L. Quaade, in 1884, but known earlier”. On page 328 of the second edition (1996) the entry was amended to read:
“... advocated by a Dutch sea-captain, D.L. Quaade, in 1882 but known earlier. The analysis was elaborated in the pages of Deutsche Schachzeitung by the German lawyer Carl Friedrich Schmid (1840-97).”
In the correspondence section of the November 1882 Deutsche Schachzeitung, page 360, there appeared the following:
“Oringe per Vordingborg, 3./10. (L.Q.). Sie schlagen im Königsgambit nach 1 e4 e5 2 f4 ef 3 Sf3 g5 den Zug 4 Sc3 vor. Derselbe wird sicherlich, und vielleicht nicht unvortheihaft, in Anwendung gebracht werden können, doch bedarf er einer gründlichen Untersuchung.” [“Oringe per Vordingborg, 3./10. (L.Q.). You suggest in the King’s Gambit, after 1 e4 e5 2 f4 exf4 3 Nf3 g5, the move 4 Nc3. This move can certainly be played, and is perhaps not disadvantageous, but it requires a thorough investigation.”]
The correspondent L.Q. from Oringe also appeared twice in the Deutsche Schachzeitung the following year. On page 64 of the February 1883 issue:
“Oringe, 20./12. (L. Q.). Prüfung der uns freundlichst mitgetheilten Varianten müssen wir uns vorbehalten.” [“We have not yet decided about an examination of the variations kindly provided to us.”]
And on page 223 of the July 1883 magazine:
“Oringe (Capt. L.Q.). Eine Ueberarbeitung Ihrer Vorschläge ist bereits von Herrn Dr. C. Schmid in Dresden vorgenommen worden. Sie müssen sich aber mit der Veröffentlichung noch so lange gedulden, bis wir Raum dafür gewinnen.” [“Dr C. Schmid of Dresden has already made a review of your proposals. You need to await publication until we have the necessary space.”]
Analysis appeared the following year. On page 167 of the June 1884 Deutsche Schachzeitung “L.Q.” was identified as L. Quaade:
His name was also given on pages 193 and 196 of the July 1884 Deutsche Schachzeitung and on page 228 of the August issue.
Since Oringe and Vordingborg are part of the Danish region Zealand (Sjælland), it is surprising that Quaade is called Dutch by the Oxford Companion to Chess and other sources. The earliest reference to “Dutch” that I have found is on page 510 of the seventh edition of Schallopp’s Handbuch des Schachspiels (Leipzig, 1891):
“Dieser Zug rührt von dem niederländischen Kapitän Quaade in Orinje [sic] her ...” [“This move is due to the Dutch Captain Quaade from Orinje [sic] ...”]
There are two genealogical sources online for a sea captain named Louis Magnus Johan Christian Carl Quaade, who was born in Helsingør on 7 March 1825 and died in Oringe/Vordingborg on 13 September 1906. See My Heritage and Geni.However, if this is the chessplayer L. Quaade, it means that page 203 of Johann Berger’s Schach-Jahrbuch für 1899/1900 (Leipzig, 1899) was mistaken in placing the symbol † against Quaade’s name, indicating that he was dead by 1899.’
Henk Smout (Leiden, the Netherlands), who has also mentioned the references to Quaade in the Deutsche Schachzeitung, points out with regard to the extract shown above that the Oxford Companion to Chess erred by putting ‘D.L. Quaade’. When the Deutsche Schachzeitung referred to ‘dem Kapitän a. D. L. Quaade’ it was using the German abbreviation ‘a. D.’, meaning außer Dienst (retired).
Concerning the references to Danish/Dutch, we wonder whether Oringe (Denmark) was simply confused with Orange (as in William of Orange).
(8589)
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