[blind-chess] Re: US Chess History #5
- From: "Hugh Pharis" <h62730mp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <blind-chess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2010 08:26:16 -0400
Hello, Rod,
If you still have the first and second chess articles you posted, would you
be so kind as to send them to me again? Or possibly even post them with the
group again. Others may have missed them also.
Thanks.
Hugh
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roderick Macdonald" <rmacd@xxxxxxxx>
To: "Blind Chess Mailing List" <blind-chess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2010 2:36 AM
Subject: [blind-chess] US Chess History #5
US Chess History Article 5
THE FIRST CHESS JOURNALIST'S ASSOCIATION
by Robert John McCrary
The Chess Journalists of America is an active society whose members
explore and debate the burning issues of today. However, very few of its
members are aware that they are following in the footsteps of an earlier
association of chess journalists, which numbered among its members two of
the greatest figures in US chess history: world champion William Steinitz,
and great composer Sam Loyd.
In Steinitz's The International Chess Magazine, September 1885 issue, is
found this historic notice: "The novel and meritorious idea of
establishing an American Chess Editors' Association has been for some time
agitated chiefly through the initiative of the gentleman who first
proposed to organize such an institution, Mr. D.E. Hervey of the Newark
Sunday Call."
Steinitz then gives the names of its officers, including as its president
P.T. Bull, and Steinitz himself as member of a committee to draft the
constitution. The aim of the society is described as the promotion of
chess, the establishment of chess columns, and the interchange of chess
news. Steinitz adds the hopeful note: " We trust that the final rules of
the association will not limit the powers and scope of action of the
institution, and will enable the society to be prime movers in many chess
matters of general interest."
In fact, Steinitz had the lofty idea that the new society could become a
sort of governing arbitration body of chess in general! Just two issues of
his magazine later, Steinitz noted that the association's governing board
was willing to "...decide disputes between chess players when appealed to
by all the parties in the controversy." Steinitz added : "It is to be
hoped that this newly-created forum will soon gain authority and will soon
be accepted as a medium of arbitration, in order to check the growth of
differences on chess matters into exhibitions of public disagreement and
discord."
It is ironic indeed that this association, which was intended to be the
medium of arbitration for everyone else, very soon collapsed under a
controversy of its own! Furthermore, that association witnessed the
spectacle of two of America's greatest chess personages quarreling over
the princely sum of $20! William Steinitz, who became undisputed world
champion in 1886, in that same year accused Sam Loyd, the great problem
composer who had become vice-president of the Editors' Association, of
misappropriating $20 of the organization's $25 total funds. The issue was
complex, but essentially involved a conflict-of-interest allegation
against Loyd. Steinitz resigned from the American Chess Editors'
Association and sarcastically referred to Loyd as the "four-fifths
treasurer of the association." Loyd fought back, and the New York chess
club in effect exonerated Loyd and reproved Steinitz in a divided vote.
Soon, the American Chess Editors' Association disappeared from the scene
and from history. Despite its high hopes upon founding, it had achieved
little more than a $20 quarrel!
----------
Copyright U.S. Chess Hall of Fame
All rights reserved
http://www.excaliburelectronics.com/history_archive.html
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