Gossip Wainwright 1882

[Gerard Killoran]

I came across the following game in the Illustrated London News of April 22, 1882 (p394) but no date or venue was given. Wainwright was described as being 'of the Cambridge University Club' although he went to Oxford. (The Leeds Mercury made the same mistake in their report of the Counties Chess Association Meeting at Manchester later that year.) I can't find any event where Wainwright and Gossip competed together in 1881 or early 1882. Does anyone have a suggestion for where and when this game took place?

[Event "?"] [Site "?"] [Date "1882.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Gossip, George Hatfield Dingley"] [Black "Wainwright, George Edward"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C30"] [Opening "KGD: classical variation"] 1. e4 e5 2. f4 Bc5 3. Nc3 d6 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. Bb5 Bg4 6. h3 Bxf3 7. Qxf3 exf4 8. Qxf4 Ne7 9. d3 Ng6 10. Bxc6+ bxc6 11. Qf3 Qh4+ 12. g3 Ne5 {Very well played. Of course White cannot capture the Queen.} 13. Qg2 Qh5 14. Rf1 O-O-O 15. Rf5 Qg6 16. Ne2 Rde8 17. d4 {Best. If White had played the tempting move 17. Kt-B4, Black could have forced the game as follows:- 17. Kt-B4 QxR 18. PxQ Kt-B6++ 19. K-Q1 R-K8 Mate} 17... Bb4+ 18. c3 Nd3+ 19. Kd2 Nxc1 20. Rxc1 Qh6+ 21. Kd3 d5 {Black sacrifices the piece for the attack. If he had played 21. P-Kt3 White would have taken KBP with R, and when the Bishop retreated, he would have advanced his pawns on the Queen's side with the better game.} 22. cxb4 Rxe4 23. Rf4 Rhe8 24. Rxe4 dxe4+ {24. RxR seems preferable, although White has a good reply in Q-Kt1} 25. Kc2 e3 26. Kb1 Qg6+ 27. Ka1 Qd3 28. Qxc6 Re7 29. Qa8+ Kd7 30. Qc6+ Kc8 31. Rc5 Qd1+ {If 31... QxKt 32. Q-R8+ K-Q2 33. R-Q5+ and mates next move.} 32. Nc1 {Illustrated London News - April 22, 1882 p394} 1-0

[James Pratt]

I looked in Di Felice and BCMs of the era. Nuffin'. I could, if you like, Gerard, give the game in the magazine and see if someone would come forward. They very well might.

James Pratt
Editor
www.britishchessmagazine.co.uk

[MJMcCready]

Where would you put these players in terms of ability for their day? The very best in the world or on the fringe of that? Playing through the game is quite an experience.

[Matt Fletcher]

Where would you put these players in terms of ability for their day? The very best in the world or on the fringe of that? Playing through the game is quite an experience.

Gossip's entry is one of the best chess articles on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._D._Gossip

From that:

He competed in chess tournaments between 1870 and 1895, playing against most of the world's leading players, but with only modest success.

[Tim Harding]

I came across the following game in the Illustrated London News of April 22, 1882 (p394) but no date or venue was given. Wainwright was described as being 'of the Cambridge University Club' although he went to Oxford. (The Leeds Mercury made the same mistake in their report of the Counties Chess Association Meeting at Manchester later that year.) I can't find any event where Wainwright and Gossip competed together in 1881 or early 1882. Does anyone have a suggestion for where and when this game took place?

There is an unjustified assumption here that the game was played in a formal competition. Wainwright was in London for the Oxford-Cambridge university match on 30 March 1882 (held at the St. George's CC) where he was on board 2 for Oxford. A few days later he played in a match between Oxford and the fourth class of the City of London CC. This would have been during the universities' Easter vacations so Wainwright might have been in London for a week or two.

Several Oxford match results from this period can be found in the magazines and columns of the time (e.g. volume 3 of The Chess-Monthly) but no match in which Wainwright played Gossip. I also searched the British Newspaper Archive without finding a mention of such a match. So most likely this was an offhand game played in London early in April at one of the clubs.
Wainwright, who played in the England-USA cable matches of 1907, 1908 and 1909, was then only an up-and-coming young player from Yorkshire. Gossip was an erratic player who occasionally had good results and boasted about them. So he probably gave the score to the ILN columnist (P. T. Duffy) or else Duffy happened to be a witness when it was played.

[Gerard Killoran]

I'm sure Tim is correct, unless there was a tournament or match we've all missed. Wainwright went on to become a member of the City of London chess club and this - or perhaps Simpson's Divan - was probably the venue. Gossip was inclined to publish his victories in offhand games, which was just one of the things that made him unpopular with his contemporaries. In fact he went on to spend the rest of the year in a wonderful spat with D. Y. Mills and others following Gossip's exclusion from an amateur tournament on the grounds of his professionalism.