William Norwood Potter

By on September 21, 2025

William Norwood Potter

Cleveland Public Library

William Norwood Potter (Aug.  27, 1840–Mar. 13, 1895) was an important and intriguing figure in Victorian chess history. Born and raised in London, Potter studied at Oxford University before entering the legal profession as a barrister. However, he was not known for practicing law, but rather for his contributions as a chess master and one of the finest chess journalists of his generation.

Potter emerged in the English chess world during the 1860s, mostly through London clubs and associations. He soon established himself as one of the strongest home-grown masters, a perceived rival in strength to the likes of Joseph Henry Blackburne and Cecil De Vere. Despite being unable to pursue a full professional chess career, his best games indicated his ability to hold his own with the leading players of Europe.

His most lasting contribution came through journalism. He was an important chess contributor to the Westminster Papers from 1868 to 1879, and together with Johannes Zukertort, edited the City of London Chess Magazine from 1874 to 1875. Though short-lived, the magazine was widely praised for the quality of its game analysis. Potter’s writing style was widely admired for its combined technical knowledge and lively literary style.

He participated in several important tournaments, including those held in London in 1870 and 1876, and Paris in 1878. In these he demonstrated flashes of brilliance, but his health and other obligations prevented him from achieving lasting prominence. Unlike his contemporaries Blackburne or Zukertort, he never entered the first rank of international masters. Nevertheless, his games remain valued by chess afficionados for their originality and daring.

Declining health marked his later years, reducing both his legal and chess activities preceding his death in 1895, William Norwood Potter holds a secure place in the history of English chess—as a player of brilliance, a writer of distinction, and a representative of the vibrant chess culture of Victorian London.

Chess historians Han Renette and Fabrizio Zavatarelli wrote a wonderful book on Potter and fellow Victorian player John Wisker that was published in June 2025 by McFarland Publishing. The book can be found for purchase HERE.

Shared below is one of his two wins in his 1875 match against Zukertort at the West End Chess Club in London. The game analysis is by Potter himself as published in multiple English chess columns of the time.

GAME & ANNOTATIONS: Field (Dec. 12, 1875); City of London Chess Magazine (Jan. 1876)

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Zukertort vs Potter (1875)

By on August 28, 2025

Johannes Zukertort

Chess Monthly (July 1888)

In the autumn of 1875, Johannes Zukertort and William Norwood Potter met in London for a highly anticipated chess match at the West End Chess Club in Leicester Square. Zukertort had recently arrived from Germany and was steadily gaining a reputation for himself amongst Britain’s leading players. He was also co-editor of the City of London Chess Magazine, along with his well-known opponent, Potter.

The match terms were somewhat unusual. The first player to win five games would claim victory, but to prevent endless repetition, the first five draws did not count toward the score. Any further draws would each count as a half point. Games were played at the rate of fifteen moves an hour, three times a week, for the stakes of £20 a side, and there were no official umpires.

The contest began on November 2 with Zukertort winning the first game. Afterward, there were a series of hard-fought encounters that produced several drawn games—at one point the score stood at Zukertort 2, Potter 1, with 8 draws. Ultimately, Zukertort’s consistency prevailed, and he won the match by a final score of 5 ½–3 ½ (with 3 of their 8 draws counting towards the score).

For Zukertort, the victory was more than a match win—it marked his first great success in England and laid the foundation for his future rise in the chess world, which culminated in his 1886 match against Wilhelm Steinitz for the inaugural official World Chess Championship.

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Marshall vs Capablanca (1909)

By on July 10, 2025

Chess Weekly (May 1, 1909)

The 1909 chess contest between José Raúl Capablanca and Frank Marshall took place from April 19 to June 23 across multiple U.S. cities including New York, Morristown (NJ), Scranton (PA), and Wilkes-Barre (PA). The match format was the first to win 8 games (draws not counting) with a time control of 30 moves in two hours, followed by 15 moves per hour thereafter. Capablanca won the marathon contest convincingly by a final score of 8 wins to 1, along with 14 draws. It was the Cuban master’s first match against a world-class master, reportedly achieving the impressive victory “without ever having opened a book to study the openings,” according to his 1920 biography “My Chess Career.” The match immediately established Capablanca as a force among the world’s elite players.

Although the New York State Chess Association initially recognized the match as being for the U.S. Championship, controversy arose after Capablanca’s decisive victory. Marshall objected to Capablanca’s claim to the title on the grounds that Capablanca, a Cuban citizen, was not a U.S. citizen. Legal counsel Walter Penn Shipley ruled that the title had reverted to the last living holder, Jackson Whipps Showalter, after Harry Pillsbury’s death in 1906. Capablanca later styled himself as the “Champion of America,” offering to defend this title against any challenger from the Western Hemisphere. The 50-year-old Showalter came out of retirement in November of 1909 to legitimize the American title, losing to the much younger Marshall by the score of  7 wins, 2 losses, and 3 draws.

Shared below is the lone victory by Marshall over Capablanca in their 1909 match, as annotated by the participants themselves.

To play through ALL of the games from this match, visit our match-viewer page.

GAME & ANNOTATIONS: My Fifty Years of Chess (Marshall) pp. 115-116; Chess Weekly (May 15, 1909)

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Vera Menchik

By on January 25, 2025

Vera Menchik

Menchik in 1930

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 Géza Maróczy, who started coaching her in 1922.

In 1923 she began participating in men’s international tournaments. FIDE established the first world championship for women in July, 1927, which Vera won at the age of 21 in London. She won every Women’s World Championship after that (Hamburg 1930, Prague 1931, Folkestone 1933, Warsaw 1935, Stockholm 1937, and Buenos Aires 1939). Her record in championship play was 78 wins, 4 draws, and only 1 loss.

Her brilliant career and life came to a sudden and tragic end during World War II. On the night of June 26, 1944, a German V‑1 flying bomb struck her home in the Brixton district of London. The explosion killed Vera, her younger sister Olga (also a talented chess player and official), and their mother. The family had remained in London throughout the Blitz and ensuing attacks, continuing their work and daily lives despite the dangers. She died at the young age of 38.

Menchik was the first woman strong enough to compete with men and was the only woman to play in men’s international tournaments in the first half of the 20th century. In 1929 she participated in the prestigious international tournament in Carlsbad, where the Viennese master Albert Becker mockingly proposed that anyone who lost to her should be inducted into the “Vera Menchik Club.” In a poetic turn of events, Becker himself became the club’s inaugural member after losing to her in the third round (see game below). Although Menchik finished last with a score of +2 –17 =2, her presence at such a major event marked a pivotal moment in chess history.

The “Vera Menchik Club” went on to include future world champion Max Euwe (twice), Samuel Reshevsky, Conel Alexander, Edgar Colle, Sultan Khan, Jacques Mieses, Karel Opocensky, Sir George Thomas, William Winter, Friedrich Saemisch, and Frederick Yates. Another fact not often mentioned is that she also played an important part in one of the strongest tournaments in the history of chess at Moscow in 1935. While Mikhail Botvinnik and Salo Flohr shared 1st place honors, it Menchik’s draw with Flohr that ultimately cost him the sole title.

Menchik’s first recorded simultaneous exhibition in January 1926 at the London Girls’ Championship.

When the Women’s Chess Olympiad was established in 1957, the trophy awarded to the victorious team was named the Vera Menchik Cup, further cementing her impact on women’s chess. In recognition of her pioneering achievements, she was posthumously inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2011.

GAME & ANNOTATIONS: Daily Telegraph (Aug. 8, 1929); British Chess Magazine (Oct. 1929)

PHOTOGRAPHS: Library of Congress; Bibliothèque nationale de France

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