Chess history trivia

[John Townsend]

Edward Winter has posted an article entitled The Meran Variation of the Queen's Gambit:

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/meran.html

You may recall that on pages 80 and 81 above we briefly discussed Arthur Reynolds.

[John Townsend]

Samuel Standidge Boden, a landscape painter, played a part in the chess mentoring of the young Cecil de Vere, but his first teachers were Francis Burden and another person, who, like Boden, was a landscape painter. Name him.

[Roland Kensdale]

Was the mysterious Albert Lane mentioned on page 2 of "The English Morphy' a portrait painter?

An Albert Lane portrait painter and player is mentioned at
https://www.welshchessunion.uk/llandudn ... b-history/

[John Townsend]

Yes, Roland, Albert Lane is correct. Those notes you added about Llandudno look interesting.

Somewhere in my "filing system" I have a few biographical notes about Albert Lane. He and Francis Burden were both lodgers in the house of De Vere's mother at the time of the 1861 census. He was born in Brussels. Burden was a civil engineer.

[John Townsend]

Which grandmaster ate porridge regularly and was a university graduate in history?

[NickFaulks]

I remembered about Viktor Korchnoi and porridge ( when the Siege of Leningrad ended ) - rather like the pea soup at Wijk. I didn't know about the history degree and in fact doubted that, but checked and it's true.

[John Townsend]

Yes, well done, Nick.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Pretty sure he mentions his degree in the original Chess Is My Life autobiography, and how it first brought him into conflict with CPSU hacks.

[John Townsend]

What was the first international tournament in which draws scored half a point and were included in the results?

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

What was the first international tournament in which draws scored half a point and were included in the results?

Dundee 1867?
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=82388

[John Townsend]

Yes, Jon, Dundee is correct.

[John Townsend]

In the weeks following Howard Staunton's successful match against Pierre St. Amant in Paris, he was entertained by two British chess clubs. One was Brighton, but there was a second. Name the hotel at which he was entertained by the second club.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

The St George's Chess Club was formed in 1843 (the year of the Staunton vs Saint-Amant matches). The club met at Beattie's Hotel in George Street, so perhaps they entertained Staunton as some sort of peace offering.

[John Townsend]

Jon, the question relates to his being entertained following his successful Paris match, and no such entertainment at St. George's Chess Club is recorded.

[David McAlister]

In the weeks following Howard Staunton's successful match against Pierre St. Amant in Paris, he was entertained by two British chess clubs. One was Brighton, but there was a second. Name the hotel at which he was entertained by the second club.

Staunton was also entertained at the Montague Hotel by the Bristol Chess Club.