19th century chess magazine

[Francis Fields]

I once heard the story of a chess magazine that ran from 1892-4. It published evidence that implied a chess player was a criminal. The magazine got taken to court by the player and then got closed down. Has anyone else heard this story?

[Gordon Cadden]

Seems to have been a bad period for new chess magazines;
1. American Chess Monthly, Boston, US 1892/93
2. London Chess Fortnightly, 1892/93
3. The Chess Review, 1892/93
Many more chess magazines have disappeared after a few years. Our BCM has an outstanding record for survival, but has come close to the brink on several occasions.

[Tim Harding]

I once heard the story of a chess magazine that ran from 1892-4. It published evidence that implied a chess player was a criminal. The magazine got taken to court by the player and then got closed down. Has anyone else heard this story?

I have done extensive bibliographical research into British and Irish chess magazines of the 19th and early 20th centuries and none matches the period 1892-1894. As Gordon said in his reply, the London Chess Fortnightly (ed Lasker) had just one volume ending 1893 and N. T. Miniati's Chess Review which only had five issues also ended in 1893. The reasons they closed were almost certainly financial (lack of subscribers) and perhaps in Lasker's case that he could not give it sufficient attention.

So, if true, the story about a lawsuit cannot concern a British magazine if your dates are correct, and I have not heard such a story.

This "I once heard..." kind of thing is what drives Edward Winter up the wall every time.

[MJMcCready]

This "I once heard..." kind of thing is what drives Edward Winter up the wall every time.

lol, though it doesn't have to be that way. He could be more accepting of the fact that chess history has an oral as well as written tradition.

[Francis Fields]

I believe it to be a true story though I have not seen the evidence. The magazine was called The Chess Almanac.

[Tim Harding]

I believe it to be a true story though I have not seen the evidence. The magazine was called The Chess Almanac.

More information required.
There is no such title in the Betts chess bibliography or the catalogues of the British Library, the Royal Dutch Library (The Hague) or the Cleveland Public Library (Ohio), the two latter being the world's largest public collections of chess literature.

Nor, in my extensive readings of Victorian chess literature have I ever come across this story or that title.
Unless you can provide solid evidence I don't believe it.