al-Mu’tasim billah (794-842) was the Caliph of Baghdad from 833 AD to 842 AD who composed the first chess problem in 840 (a mate in 9 moves). He was the 8th Abbasid caliph and a son of Harun al-Rashid, himself a good chess player.

The first British reference to chess is the 36-line Latin poem De Shahiludo, written by a Winchester monk. It was written in the last decade of the 12th century. The poem uses the words calvus for bishop, regina for queen, rex for king, equestris for knight, rochus for rook, and pedestris for pawn.

The oldest European book on chess is “Juegos Axedrez, dados y tablas,” written in the 13th century. The first hardback book dealing with chess, Dass Goldin Spil, was published in Augsburg in 1472. The first chess book printed in Russia was a translation of Benjamin Franklin’s Morals of Chess, published in St. Petersburg in 1791. The title was Pravila dlia Shashechnoi Igry (Rules for the Game of Chess). However, the title used the word for checkers instead of the word for chess (shakmatnoi). The first book to explain chess strategy was L’Analyze des Eschecs, by Philidor in 1749. It went through more than 100 editions in ten languages. The first chess book published in America was Chess Made Easy by James Humphreys, printed in Philadelphia in 1802. This was just a reprint of Philidor’s book published in 1796. The first original American book was The Elements of Chess, published in Boston in 1805. The first chess book entirely devoted to the analysis of a single opening, Analysis of the Muzio Gambit by Kassin and Cochrane, was published in India in 1829. A book was published in German with the title, Advice to Spectators at Chess Tournaments. All the pages were blank except the last. On the last page were two words, Halt’s Maul, keep your mouth shut.

Paolo Boi (1528-1598) was one of the leading players of the 16th century. In 1549 he defeated Pope Paul III (1468-1549) in a chess match. The Pope offered to make him cardinal which he refused. Pope Pius V (1504-1572) also offered to make him a cardinal. In 1574 Boi defeated Ruy Lopez de Segura (1530-1580) at the court of King Philip II (1527-1598) of Spain. The King showered him with great rewards including an official appointment in Sicily that paid 500 crowns (scudi) a year. Boi served King Philip as a military officer. In 1576 he was taken prisoner and sold as a slave to a Turk. He played chess for his master that brought in a lot of money. He later gained his freedom back. Several sources say that he was poisoned by his servant for the sake of his money in Naples in 1598. Other sources say he caught a cold when hunting and died as a result of it.

The British Chess Association (BCA) was the first national body to promote chess. It was founded in 1884 by Wordsworth Donisthorpe (1847-1914). Winston Churchill’s father, Lord Randolph Churchill (1849-1895), was elected Vice President of the BCA in 1885. Another active member was John Ruskin (1819-1900), art critic an social critic. The President was the poet Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892). This organization soon failed after several years and reorganized as the British Chess Federation (BCF) in 1904. An earlier organization of the British Chess Association had its first championship in November, 1866. This was considered the first British Chess Championship. It was won by Cecil Valentine De Vere. In 1857, there was a British Chess Association Congress in Manchester, won by Johann Loewenthal. The 1862 BCA membership included 30 of British strongest players. In 2004, the BCF was replaced by the English Chess Federation (ECF).

The first “best chess game prize” was awarded to Isidor Gunsburg for his game against James Mason at the 6th American Chess Congress, held in New York in 1889. The game was played in the first round. For winning this game, Gunsberg was awarded the special prize of $50 donated by Frank Rudd and Fred Wehle for the best game of the tournament. The tournament itself was a 20-man double round robin (38 games for each player), one of the longest chess tournaments in history. Mikhail Chigorin and Max Weiss tied for 1st place. The tournament was intended to select a challenger for the world championship title.

Blindfold checkers is more difficult than blindfold chess. The greatest number played blindfold simultaneously is 22, by world checkers champion Ton Sijbrands of the Netherlands (winning 17, with 5 draws). The uniformity of checkers makes it harder to reach distinctive positions. In 1900, Harry Nelson Pillsbury once played 15 chess and 15 checkers games blindfold simultaneously. In 1933, Newell Banks played 20 checkers games blindfolded simultaneously in 2 hours and 25 minutes in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

In 1918 Ossip Bernstein (1882-1962), a Russian master and financial master, was arrested in Odessa by the Cheka (Bolshevik secret police) and ordered shot by a firing squad just because he was a legal advisor to bankers. As the firing squad lined up, a superior officer asked to see the list of prisoners’ names. Discovering the name of Ossip Bernstein, he asked whether he was the famous master. Not satisfied with Bernstein’s affirmative reply, he made him play a game with him. If Bernstein lost or drew, he would be shot. Bernstein won in short order and was released. He escaped on a British ship and settled in Paris. Bernstein’s son was President Eisenhower’s official interpreter because he spoke almost every European language. Ossip earned a doctorate in law at Heidelberg University in 1906.

The first ballet with a chess theme was Checkmate, composed by Sir Arthur Bliss (1891-1975) and choreographed by Ninette de Valois (1898-2001) for the Vic-Wells Ballet. It was first performed on June 15, 1937 at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris. The UK premiere of Checkmate was on October 5, 1937 at Sadler’s Wells. The premise of the ballet is that the chess pieces become animated and act out human emotions. It is a conflict between the Red Knight’s love for the Black Queen. The Black Queen turns on the Red King and the Black chess pieces surround the Red King. The Red King is then stabbed in the back by the Black Queen in the final “checkmate,” The first ballet on ice was included in the pantomime, Sinbad the Sailor (1953), where skaters played out the Morphy – Duke of Brunswick game.

Ronald MacKay Bruce (1903-1991) is the only player to have played two world champions in a tournament on the same day. In the Plymouth 1938 tournament he played world champion Alexander Alekhine in the morning and world woman champion Vera Menchik in the afternoonfor rounds 2 and 3 of this 7-round event played in 6 days.. He lost both games and took last place at Plymouth. Bruce won the Plymouth Chess Club championship 35 times between 1928 and 1968.

Perhaps the best selling chess book is CHESS MADE EASY by Cecil Purdy and Peter Koshnitsky. First published in 1942, by its 26th edition in 2010, it had sold over 500,000 copies.

Clare Benedict (1870-1961) was a distant relative James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851). Clare’s great-grandmother was the sister of James Fenimore Cooper. Clare was wealthy and spent much of her life in Europe. She was a chess patron of a team tournament of West European countries. She made possible the Clare Benedict Chess Cup, an annual international team chess tournament that was held from 1953 to 1979 (funds had run out). It was known as the ‘Little Chess Olympiad.’ West Germany kept the first silver trophy after it achieved 6 victories. The winners were: 1953 Netherlands, 1955 Netherlands, 1956 West Germany, 1957 West Germany, 1958 Switzerland, 1959 West Germany, 1960 West Germany, 1961 Austria, 1962 West Germany, 1963 West Germany, 1964 West Germany, 1965 West Germany, 1966 Netherlands, 1967 West Germany, 1968 West Germany, 1969 Netherlands, 1970 Spain, England & West Germany, 1971 Netherlands, 1972 West Germany, 1973 West Germany, 1975 Denmark, 1979 England.

Former world champion Mikhail Botvinnik (1911-1995) was the only man to win the title three times. He played every world champion of the 20th century and the early trainer of Karpov and Kasparov. He never played a “friendly” or leisure game of chess in his life. He lost only one game on time in his life. Against Smyslov in 1958, he forgot about his clock and lost the game on time in a won endgame. He had 3 minutes to make two moves, but failed to make his moves on time. In 1976, every Soviet grandmaster was asked by the Soviet government to sign a letter condemning Viktor Korchnoi as a “traitor” after Korchnoi defected. Only Botvinnik and Spassky openly refused to sign the letter.

In 1966, during the Palma de Mallorca, Spain chess tournament, Mikhail Tal became the first Russian to oppose a bull in a bull-fighting arena.

Hans Berliner (1929- ), born in Berlin, is a former world correspondence champion (5th World Correspondence Chess Championship, 1965-68) and a Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. His 3 point margin of victory was the greatest margin of victory ever achieved in a World Championship final round, and his winning percentage was also the greatest of any World Champion. In 1979 he developed a backgammon playing program that defeated the reigning World Backgammon Champion, Luigi Villa, by the score of 7-1. This was the first time that a world champion of any game had ever been beaten by a computer. He was the first U.S. correspondence Grandmaster. He directed the construction of the chess computer HiTech. In 1953, he won the New York State Championship and became the first winner by a non-New Yorker. He played in 4 US chess championships.

In 1983, Hans-Wereer von Massow initiated the Bertl von Massow Medal for distinguished service to international correspondence chess. It was in memory of his wife, Bertl, who was a great supporter and worker for the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF). They are awarded for 15 years (gold) and 10 years (silver) of faithful service to the ICCF.

Istvan Bilek (1932-2010) was a Hungarian Grandmaster and a three-time Hungarian Champion. In 1979 at an international tournament in Slupsk, Poland, he had a bye in the first round, drew his next 10 games in 13, 14, 12, 9, 12, 13, 17, and 9 moves, taking 5, 12, 15, 26, 7, 4, 5, 12, 18, and 5 minutes, respectively. Thus, he made only 125 moves in 109 minutes in this 11 round master event. The German chess master Berthold Suhle (1837-1904) was born in Slupsk.

Claude Bloodgood (1937-2001) was once one of the highest USCF ranked OTB player in the country. He was sentenced to death for killing his mother in 1969, rolling her body in a carpet and leaving it in a swamp. While on death row, he played over 1,200 postal games. The postage was paid by the State of Virginia. He was scheduled for execution 6 times, but received a reprieve on all occasions. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and the state stopped paying postage. He was allowed to play in OTB chess tournaments, accompanied by a guard. In one event, he escaped for several weeks in 1974. When he was recaptured, his correspondence privilege was taken away from him. He published three chess books on openings. He manipulated the USCF rating system by playing rated games against other prisoners and never losing. By 1996, his USCF rating was 2702, the 2nd highest rated player in the United States. The USCF later changed its rating system rules to attempt to prevent “closed pool” ratings inflation.

The first brother-sister to tie for first place in a tournament was Harold and Bernadette Reddik in Chicago in 1982.

By Bill Wall