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by Tim Harding » Sat Feb 12, 2022 8:29 pm
Joseph Woods was a member of the London Chess Club committee for the correspondence match with Edinburgh (1824-28). Charles Tomlinson (1808-1897) was then his office boy and his memoir (BCM Nov 1891 page 492) includes a short passage which I quote in my thesis and in my history of CC (page 11). Tomlinson says he sometimes overheard players consulting about the games.
The two aforementioned games in OECG from 1810 and 1815 are said to be by J. Wood (not Woods) but this seems to a mistake made either by Lewis or perhaps by Murray, writing "Wood" instead of "Woods".
Lewis's notebooks of games are unfortunately not in the Bodleian, except for a transcript of part of one notebook (MS HJ Murray 51) and more usefully a typescript of some of it (MS HJ Murray 59b). The folios in 59b start at 413 because the major part, 59a, is a collection of Cochrane's games in India, copied from the John G. White collection.
At the front of 59b is a typed explanation (folio 414) by Murray of what befell the notebooks. On my last visit to the Bodleian I was allowed to photograph this and some other documents but I only had a few hours. (I was chiefly looking for stuff about Captain Evans on that visit.)
If somebody can tell me how to attach a JPG image to a post here, then I may post Murray's explanation.
The gist is that Lewis promised the notebooks to Von der Lasa but the latter was unable to come to London until 1858 when unfortunately only one notebook could be found. That was then for a long time in the v.d.Lasa collection in Kornik Castle, Poland, but I don't know if it's still there as I heard that some of the collection was sold off though Wikipedia says it is intact.
The games in the typescript are in English descriptive notation but Murray says that in the notebook Lewis used his own private notation except for games he copied from a Sarratt MS which he said were in Stamma's notation (i.e., a form of algebraic).
The good news is that John G. White of Cleveland obtained a copy after vdL's death and sent it o Murray for examination. Murray made his own copy and later the typescript.
So early on there is a game headed "Jos. Wood" [sic] v Lewis, Oct 1815 which is 1815 *LW-1 in OECG. Murray notes that this had been published in CPC volume 1 with the players' names reversed in error; colours are correct in OECG.
Then on folio 445, said to be page 270 in the notebook, there is the game Wood(s) lost to Abraham Samuda on 12 November 1810 which is page 23 in OECG but the editors omitted the final move of the game, Black's 42...Nxh6. Murray's transcript has "42 KxP KtxP wins."
So it seems to me that OECG has the only two games by Wood(s) in that MS in the Murray collection.
The boxes MS HJ Murray 64-65-66 could be checked for Woods games but I expect Levy and O'Connell went through those when doing OECG. On the other hand, they don't seem to have included every game in the Lewis/Murray typescript because I found there some Captain Evans games which are not in OECG.
Finally, Mr Samsin mentioned my name. I suppose he may be referring to either my old Kibitzer columns where I wrote about the Murray papers, or else to my book British Chess Literature to 1914. There on pages 282-287, for the benefit of anyone intending to do research in the Murray collection at Oxford, I provided what I think should be a helpful guide, including a brief description of what is in the various archive boxes which I have examined.
Tim Harding
Historian and FIDE Arbiter
Author of 'Steinitz in London,' British Chess Literature to 1914', 'Joseph Henry Blackburne: A Chess Biography', and 'Eminent Victorian Chess Players'
http://www.chessmail.com