Rook House
Chess History, Articles, Games, Puzzles, and Books.
Logical Chess, Move by Move
Logical Chess, Move by Move (Irving Chernev) – This book contains 33 well annotated chess games played by various chess masters in the years 1889 to 1945. The complexity of the games increases towards the end and the comments frequently […]
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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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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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Boris Spassky (Part 2 of 2)
After winning the World Chess Championship in 1969 from Tigran Petrosian, it was very apparent that there was no “rest for the weary”. The great American chess player Bobby Fischer quickly became the favorite to face Spassky for his crown […]
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Boris Spassky (Part 1 of 2)
Boris Vasiliyevich Spassky was born in Leningrad, Russia on January 30, 1937. He learned how to play chess when he was five years old and achieved the rank of International Master by the young age of sixteen. He was mentored […]
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Bird Touts Morphy Over Steinitz
Henry Edward Bird gave an interview to the Rochester (NY) Post-Express which was printed in the New York Sun on August 30th, 1890. The topic of conversation being his match experiences against American chess legends Paul Morphy and Wilhelm Steinitz, […]
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Vera Menchik (1906-1944)
Vera Francevna Menchik (Mencikova) was born in Moscow, Russia on February 16, 1906. Her father was Czech and her mother was British. When Vera was 15, the family and she moved to England in 1921. She became affiliated with Geza […]
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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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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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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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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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Wilhelm Steinitz (1837-1900)
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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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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