English Chess Forum

Jacob Sarratt may not be that well-known to most.

He was self-described as a "Professor of Chess"

In 1807 he persuaded the London Chess Club to alter the result of games that ended in stalemate.

Previously the player stalemated was declared "the winner".

Remembering Jacob Sarratt (?-?-1772 06-xi-1819)

From 'Publishing Northanger Abbey: Jane Austen and the Writing Profession'
By Margie Burns

Thank goodness at least one chess-player of the time opposed slavery.

Bill Wall has good informative piece on Sarratt with links to his books and games etc.

http://billwall.phpwebhosting.com/articles/Sarratt.htm

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 06, 2020 4:10 pm

Bill Wall has good informative piece on Sarratt with links to his books and games etc.

http://billwall.phpwebhosting.com/articles/Sarratt.htm

Yes, I refer to that in the article Geoff.

There is an interesting post about a contemporary of Sarratt called John Brand.

https://www.chess.com/blog/simaginfan/j ... nd-lunatic

Brand was involved in a trial where he was declared to be a lunatic, and where it was claimed he squandered the enormous sum - especially for those days - of £1500 on chess lessons.

The Morning Chronicle of August 20, 1830 has a report of the trial where Sarratt was name as the recipient of Brand's largesse. The same paper picked up the case again on the 30th of August where one of the witnesses was someone who had played many games of chess with John Brand. This was none other than Charles Babbage, Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. Babbage was the inventor of the difference engine and as such, the father of the computer. In other words, the man who ruined chess!

John Townsend has chapters about Sarratt and Brand in his book "Notes on Some Chess Players."

The editors of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography considered Sarratt's second wife a bit more important than him, as the joint article about them is listed under D for Dufour.

Thanks for the free advert Gerard!! Naturally, there is a lot of material that I didn't include in that article.
Townsend's work on Sarratt is excellent - well worth buying the book for in itself.