[blind-chess] US Chess History Article #2
- From: Roderick Macdonald <rmacd@xxxxxxxx>
- To: Blind Chess Mailing List <blind-chess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2010 20:46:05 -1000 (HST)
US Chess History Article 2
CHESS AND BASEBALL
by Robert John McCrary
The games of baseball and chess seem to have little in common. Yet, there
were some surprising connections between the two games in early American
history. In fact, between 1857 and 1860, chess and baseball both enjoyed
huge surges in national popularity in the US They were the two main sports
"crazes" of the day, and were actually linked to some extent in the public
mind.
Before 1857, nothing like the modern sports scene existed at all in
America. Football was then in its infancy, and basketball had not been
invented. In fact, there were hardly any organized team sports before the
1840's, when cricket and two different kinds of baseball began to form
local clubs. The major sports of that time involved individual contests,
(e.g. racing and boxing in different forms), or animal events such as
horse racing and cockfighting.
Even among non-athletic games, chess had limited competition. Contract
bridge was still decades away from evolving from whist. The industry of
manufactured dice-and-board games (like monopoly) was just beginning, as
the first manufactured dice-and-board game in the US had been issued in
1843. However, that industry did not really go anywhere until the
formation of the Milton-Bradley Company in 1860. (That first commercial
dice-and-board game in 1843, by the way, was called "The Mansion of
Happiness" and was invented by a lady named Anne Abbott.)
Furthermore, sporting events rarely occurred above the local level, except
for a few sporadic and unsystematic efforts of promoters; there was no
national organization in any sport or game. There had been a sort of
unofficial national championship horse-race, pitting the best of the south
versus the best of the north. There were vague references to boxing
champions and a marksmanship champion. But without a national organization
of any kind, there was no system to such titles.
In 1857, baseball and chess became two of the first three sports to form
national organizations in the US (The other was cricket, which soon failed
to survive its rivalry with baseball in America.) In fact, chess and
baseball both formed their first national organizations in New York City
only a few months and a few blocks apart! The American Chess Association
started in October 1857, while the National Association of Baseball
Players began in March 1858, after an abortive attempt in early 1857.
Neither of those early organizations survived, although the baseball group
paved the way for the formation of the National League in 1876. Chess had
to wait until 1939 for a permanent national organization, the USCF, to be
formed. Interestingly, one of the early baseball clubs was named after
chess hero Paul Morphy.
In 1859, an occurrence of major historic significance to both baseball and
chess occurred. Intercollegiate baseball and intercollegiate chess began
simultaneously as part of a single event! The first intercollegiate
baseball game and the first American intercollegiate chess match were
played literally as a "double-header", a combined event between Amherst
College and Williams College. The colleges met on a neutral site in
Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Perhaps because the Amherst catcher was also on
the chess team, the baseball encounter took place on July 1 and the chess
match on July 2. The Amherst Express carried this headline: EXTRA WILLIAMS
AND AMHERST BASEBALL AND CHESS! MUSCLE AND MIND!!
According to that newspaper, Amherst had challenged Williams to a baseball
game, but Williams counter-challenged them to a chess team match, so that
there would be a "trial of mind as well as muscle."
Amherst won at both sports, and the chess team, upon arriving home 2 days
after the baseball team, were "saluted by a storm of cheers, conducted to
a barouche, in which they were drawn by their fellow students, with the
sound of music, to the residence of President Stearns." Needless to say,
it would be surprising these days for a college baseball team or a college
chess team to get this kind of reception!
The Express article concluded with these words: " The students of Amherst
rejoice not merely in the fact that in this contest their Alma Mater has
borne away the laurels; but also in the belief that by such encounters as
these, a deeper interest will be excited by these amusements, which, while
they serve as a relaxation from study, strengthen and develop body and
mind."
An interesting similarity between chess and baseball was found in the use
of the term "umpire" in both games in the nineteenth century. World
champion William Steinitz was the "umpire" at several chess events!
Another parallel between the sports was that both had simultaneous
controversies over professionalism. Initially, professionals in either
sport were considered essentially to be bums. When Paul Morphy protested
so violently against being termed a chess professional, he no doubt had
that "bum" social stigma in mind. At about the same time as Morphy's
remark, active attempts were occurring to discredit and destroy the
beginnings of professional baseball. Interestingly, Steinitz was
championing the respectability of chess professionalism near the same time
that the respectability of baseball professionalism was also being
supported.
Jackson Showalter, one of the holders of the US chess championship in the
late 1880's, was also an accomplished baseball pitcher who was credited by
some with the invention of the curve ball! Of course, a lot of people were
credited with the curve, and they may all have been right; that pitch
probably had many simultaneous inventors.
Henry Chadwick (1824-1908) was one of the most important people in
baseball history. He contributed tremendously through his writings to the
development of the modern baseball world, including the statistics and
scorekeeping that is so vital to the appreciation of the modern fan. Yet,
Chadwick's contributions to chess journalism have been almost forgotten.
That legendary baseball pioneer published a number of articles on the
contemporary chess scene in the nineteenth century, appearing in chess
periodicals of the time. (See the article on Chadwick by Edward J.
Tassinari in Lasker and his Contemporaries No. 5, (Thinker's Press Inc,
P.O. Box 8, Davenport, Iowa 52805-0008.)
Another interesting connection between chess and baseball is found in the
early 20th century. Jose Capablanca, who was world champion from
1921-1927, was a strong baseball player as well. He once wrote that " I
cherish as one of my special accomplishments my more than ordinary ability
in that very mundane but good American game of baseball." In 1909, when he
was already a very famous chess player, Capablanca made the newspaper for
two fine catches as a shortstop in a Cuban Amateur Baseball Championship
game. When he went to Russia for the great St. Petersburg 1914 tournament,
he commented " I shall miss my baseball and tennis."*
The cover of the September 1983 Chess Life had baseball star pitcher Ron
Guidry on it. Guidry was described as a chess enthusiast who had read
chess books.
* (quotes about Capablanca taken from CAPABLANCA: A Compendium of
Games,Notes, Articles, Correspondence, Illustrations and Other Rare
Archival Materials on the Cuban Chess Genius Jose Raul Capablanca,
1888-1942, pp. 2, 20, 71 by Edward Winter. McFarland & Company, Inc.,
Jefferson, NC and London, 1989.)
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