Rook House
Chess History, Articles, Games, Puzzles, and Books.
1914 – Lasker vs Tarrasch
This game is from the infamous St. Petersburg International Chess Tournament of 1914. Then world champion, Emanuel Lasker plays fellow German and nemesis, Siegbert Tarrasch. Lasker was 45 years old at the time of this match and had convincingly defeated […]
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1883 – Mason vs Bird
Featured below is a classic game from the sixth round of the 1883 London International tournament between legendary chess greats James Mason of Ireland and Henry Edward Bird of England. Bird would play a Sicilian Defense against his opponent’s king’s […]
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1885 – Blackburne vs Mackenzie
An enjoyable “Scotch Game” contested between Joseph Henry Blackburne and George Henry Mackenzie from the 1885 int’l chess tournament in Hamburg, Germany. This game was played in the second round of the tournament on July 13th, 1885. The closely contested […]
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1891 – Curtis vs Willenberg
C. Locke Curtis and F.H. Willenberg were regular mainstays in competing for the championship of the Ohio State Chess Tournament in the 1890’s. The following is the deciding game in a tie for that state’s annual championship in 1891, played […]
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1890 – Gunsberg vs Gunston
The following game is from the 1890 Manchester International chess tournament, played between prominent English masters Isidor Gunsberg and William Gunston on Saturday, September 6th in the 18th round. This game earned Gunston the tournament’s brilliancy prize awarded by Mr. […]
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Manchester 1890
The Manchester (England) Chess Club had been a prominent foundation throughout the 1800’s and was the meeting place in 1890 for the formation of a larger chess organization that consisted of 24 Cheshire and Lancashire chess clubs. In the early […]
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1st Piatigorsky Cup 1963
Paul Keres and Tigran Petrosian shared first place honors at the First Piatigorsky Cup Chess Tournament. Touted as the biggest tournament on American soil since Dallas 1957, the tournament took place at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California from […]
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The Evergreen Game (1852)
Here is a classic game between Adolf Anderssen and Jean Dufresne from 1852 in Berlin, Germany. Anderssen was the 10th unofficial chess champion of the world and was recently coming off his victory at the first ever international chess tournament […]
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Carl Haffner’s Love Of The Draw
Austrian author Thomas Glavinic produced a book in 1999 entitled “Carl Haffner’s Love Of The Draw”. The book is predominantly a fictional account of the 1910 match for the world chess championship between Emanuel Lasker and Carl Schlechter. The main […]
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Bald-Headed vs Full-Haired Match (1891)
The September 20th edition of the New York Tribune in 1891 announced the Manhattan Chess Club had organized a curious chess contest between bald-headed members and “those blessed with full crops of hair”. Club members were having a great deal […]
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Wilhelm Steinitz – Obituary
The chess world lost a legend in the truest sense of the word when Wilhelm Steinitz passed away on April 12th, 1900. Many newspapers and periodicals throughout the world expressed their condolences in the form of published articles, past games, […]
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Royal Rules for Sprightly Skittles
A word often used when referring to casual or off-hand chess games is “skittles”. This term was more prevalent in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, but should be somewhat familiar to chess enthusiasts nonetheless. The implied use is in […]
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An Interview with Emanuel Lasker (1892)
Emanuel Lasker gave an interesting interview in the December 18th, 1892 edition of the Washington Post. He discussed many chess related topics, mostly going in depth on the subject of blindfold chess play. Also included are some fascinating stories about […]
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A “New” Napier Game (by John S. Hilbert)
William Ewart Napier was born in England on January 17, 1881. His family soon moved to the United States, and because they did American chess has been all the richer. Napier first played correspondence chess, participating in one of the […]
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Blackburne Calls Chess “A Vice”
Joseph Henry Blackburne (a.k.a “The Black Death”), the renowned English chess champion in the late 1800s to early 1900s, gave an interesting interview shortly after his match with German master Curt von Bardeleben in 1895. The content of the interview […]
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Reshevsky’s Tournament Debut
Samuel Reshevsky, the legendary chess prodigy who was born in Poland and later immigrated to the United States, made his tournament debut at the age of 10 years old. The site was the Chess Club International in New York City […]
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A Classic Nimzowitsch Game
Aron Nimzowitsch (1886-1935) was born in Russia, but later made his home in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was considered one of the original “hypermodern” players, whose beliefs are that controlling the center squares is more important than actually occupying them. Chess […]
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Sam Loyd (1841-1911)
Sam Loyd (January 31, 1841-April 10, 1911) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA). He spent most of his childhood in New York, where he played chess and developed a fascination for solving complicated chess problems. He had one of his […]
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Morphy at the Cafe de la Regence
During Paul Morphy’s famous European adventures in 1858, he made several stops at the infamous Cafe de la Regence in Paris, France. The cafe had always been an important centerpiece in chess history, as most of the previous greats had […]
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