Chess history trivia

[Angus French]

My Google search produced a different answer(?) to David's: Richard Doddridge Blackmore who, likewise, is previously unheard of to me - though I'm not a student of chess history.

[Richard James]

Which famous chess player was called to the Bar on 7 June 1852?

If we're thinking about the same person, I paid a small tribute to him the Monday before last. I took a slight detour on my way home from school to walk along a road bearing his name.

[Richard James]

My Google search produced a different answer(?) to David's: Richard Doddridge Blackmore who, likewise, is previously unheard of to me - though I'm not a student of chess history.

That was my answer as well. There was an excellent article about him in CHESS a couple of months ago. He was a pretty decent player.

Wikipedia is good on his writing and rather unsuccessful attempt at market gardening, but doesn't mention his chess career.

If you visited Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club's former venue in Teddington, that was where he lived. I note that, like my grandmother, he's buried in Teddington Cemetery.

[John Townsend]

Help! Another one on 7 June 1852! But was Blackmore really a famous chess player, or was chess, rather, a life-long hobby?

Any more candidates?

I'm still waiting for the answer I had in mind ...

[John Townsend]

My intended answer was Thomas Wilson Barnes, who for a time was regarded as one of the strongest players in England. In 1858 he won casual games against Paul Morphy. An interesting obituary appeared in Westminster Papers, 1 September 1874.

I am amazed that of about ten people called to the Bar on 7 June 1852, three have so far been identified as keen chess players. What does it say about barristers and chess in general? I mentioned briefly chess at the Middle Temple in my article about Joseph Brown in Chess Notes, C.N. 9909:

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter142.html

John Cochrane was at the Inner Temple.

[Tim Harding]

Help! Another one on 7 June 1852! But was Blackmore really a famous chess player, or was chess, rather, a life-long hobby?

Any more candidates?

I'm still waiting for the answer I had in mind ...

On Blackmore, not a chess player of note but famous in his day as the author of "Lorna Doone", see pages 176 and 180 of my Eminent Victorian Chess Players. There is more on him in my PhD thesis which is now available online.
Blackmore was friendly with Steinitz, who dedicated his booklet on the 1876 Blackburne match to Blackmore.

Blackmore had qualified as a barrister but never practised, if I recall correctly.
Because of medical advice that he should adopt an outdoor occupation, he took up horticulture.

[MJMcCready]

Help! Another one on 7 June 1852! But was Blackmore really a famous chess player, or was chess, rather, a life-long hobby?

Any more candidates?

I'm still waiting for the answer I had in mind ...

On Blackmore, not a chess player of note but famous in his day as the author of "Lorna Doone", see pages 176 and 180 of my Eminent Victorian Chess Players. There is more on him in my PhD thesis which is now available online.
Blackmore was friendly with Steinitz, who dedicated his booklet on the 1876 Blackburne match to Blackmore.

Blackmore had qualified as a barrister but never practised, if I recall correctly.
Because of medical advice that he should adopt an outdoor occupation, he took up horticulture.

Where may we find your thesis on-line Tim? I had a look at your personal site and didn't see it there.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

On Blackmore, not a chess player of note but famous in his day as the author of "Lorna Doone", see pages 176 and 180 of my Eminent Victorian Chess Players. There is more on him in my PhD thesis which is now available online.

Where may we find your thesis on-line Tim? I had a look at your personal site and didn't see it there.

Try here?

‘Battle at long range’: correspondence chess in Britain and Ireland, 1824-1914, a social and cultural history

749 pages.

[MJMcCready]

Thank you very much. So I get to read chess history with an explained methodology, written by a[n] historian, that does make for a very pleasant change.