Chess history trivia

[Christopher Kreuzer]

How about F.L.Slous alias Selous.

Yes, Frederick Lokes Selous [aka Slous], father of a famous big game hunter who is in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Strong player in the 1830s and occasionally active thereafter. One of those who, some claimed, could (like Buckle) have rivalled Staunton had he been bothered.

Now supplying the source should be easy...

I thought I recognised the name Selous from somewhere. I'd come across that name in my readings (and television programme watching) related to World War I:

Frederick Courteney Selous

Frederick Lokes Selous had a brother, a painter:

Henry Courtney Selous

And there was another brother, a playwright, Angiolo Robson Slous (with that spelling, sometimes spelt Angelo Robson Selous?).

The other son of Frederick Lokes Selous (the younger brother of the big game hunter) was an ornithologist:

Edmund Selous

And here is a 1983 letter to the Spectator from a later Selous, recounting some of the family history in Camden:

The Selous Story - 15 JULY 1983, Page 19

I wonder if the current Andrew Selous (Conservative MP) is from that family?

[Richard James]

And here is a 1983 letter to the Spectator from a later Selous, recounting some of the family history in Camden:

The Selous Story - 15 JULY 1983, Page 19

I wonder if the current Andrew Selous (Conservative MP) is from that family?

The MP's father appears to be Gerald M B Selous, who is quite likely to be the author of the letter in the Spectator.

[John Clarke]

The poem that's the subject of Tim's puzzle is of course based on the opening lines of Virgil's Aeneid: "Arma virumque cano" - "Of arms and the man I sing".

As for the Selous family, our chess-player's son gave his name to the Selous scouts, a notorious (if efficient) special unit of the Rhodesian army in the years leading up to the country's official indepencence in 1980.

[Tim Harding]

Selous was of course writing a parody of the Aeneid. The book in which it appears has the wonderful title Leaves from the Scrapbook of an Awkward Man, pages 23-30, and the poem includes a game taken from "the Calabrois."

[MJMcCready]

Who is this bearded chess player?

[Mike Truran]

Tolstoy?

[MJMcCready]

Yes, according to http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/tolstoy.html

[Gerard Killoran]

Who wrote this?

It was 3 a.m. I was in a night café in one of the gayest cities on the continent, where I had been doing the town. Orgies were going on all round. The sexes were about equally divided. The place was devoted to the service of Venus, and was full of the blatant heroism begotten by drink. A band of musicians was playing hectic songs and popular airs. I was sitting near the orchestra, and after one of the pauses I saw that the band continued making music without its conductor, and the latter, to my astonishment, came and asked me to play him just one game of chess. I consented, and we continued playing until an empty wine-bottle came crashing on to our table and upset the board. It was intended for the head of a soldier, but had strayed in our direction. We did not resume play.

[Bob Kane]

Simon Williams

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Savielly Tartakower?

[Gerard Killoran]

Not Tartakower and Simon Williams would have been too obvious an answer if it had been him - also he would have insisted on finishing the game.

[MJMcCready]

Greco?

[John Moore]

Looks like it was written by someone who was a linguist so Tartakower was a good guess, particularly since it has a feel of the 1920s about it. My guess is Edward Lasker because it has something of the Lasker style about it.

[Gerard Killoran]

Not Lasker, but you're getting warmer. Earlier than the 1920s don't you think?

[John Moore]

Oh, Frank Marshall but would Carrie have let him stay out until 3am.