Chess history trivia

[MJMcCready]

Which former titled player's attitude towards chess was commonly described as 'Forward, into battle!' by not only his student, and quite soon to be world champion, but just about everyone else too!

[MJMcCready]

Ok well no one answered. It was Tolusch.

[MJMcCready]

Which prominent figure in British chess lost his wife (also a chess player) due to an accident at an airport with an aircraft propeller, would marry again and lose another wife (also a chess player) in a tragic event also?

[John Townsend]

Rufus Henry Streatfeild Stevenson

[MJMcCready]

Yes correct.

[Gerard Killoran]

I don't think the tragic deaths of two women should come under the heading of 'trivia'.

[John Townsend]

Given that a thread already exists for Chess history trivia, I would suggest we don't want to start a new thread or heading whenever a question contains some distressing information.

In the past, a question which referred to the burning down of Parsloe's by a 15-year-old boy, who was sentenced to death, escaped censure and the thread was even favoured by contributions from Gerard:

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=7915&p=292562&hili ... 7s#p292562

[Gerard Killoran]

Given that a thread already exists for Chess history trivia, I would suggest we don't want to start a new thread or heading whenever a question contains some distressing information.

In the past, a question which referred to the burning down of Parsloe's by a 15-year-old boy, who was sentenced to death, escaped censure and the thread was even favoured by contributions from Gerard:

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=7915&p=292562&hili ... 7s#p292562

I believed this was a genuine question of historical interest, whereas the deaths of Agnes Stevenson and Vera Menchik are already well known and were the subject of a friviolous, pointless, and in my opinion, ghoulish post.

[John Townsend]

I'm not sure the deaths of Agnes Stevenson and Vera Menchik are that well known to forum members. I answered the question more than two hours after it was posed. If a question is too easy, it gets answered sooner than that.

I thought it was a decent question. To describe their deaths as having been "the subject of a frivolous, pointless, and in my opinion, ghoulish post" seems over the top to me.

[Gerard Killoran]

I'm not sure the deaths of Agnes Stevenson and Vera Menchik are that well known to forum members. I answered the question more than two hours after it was posed. If a question is too easy, it gets answered sooner than that.

I thought it was a decent question. To describe their deaths as having been "the subject of a frivolous, pointless, and in my opinion, ghoulish post" seems over the top to me.

1. They both have Wikipedia pages with their causes of death.
2. I could have answered the question instantly, but chose not to.

As for Mr McCready and his bona fides, I would have thought that a contributor to the Edward Winter site would know of this item

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/diggle.html

As mentioned in Copying, in a gross violation of copyright Mark McCready has posted on-line scans of both volumes of Chess Characters. Over 100 pages have been reproduced.

[John Townsend]

Gerard,

Yes, I know of the on-line scans of Chess Characters, and I absolutely deplore what has been done.

However, that's an entirely different matter. Mr McCready's contribution to the present thread should be judged on its own merits.

[Matt Mackenzie]

I would say how Vera Menchik met her end was fairly well known, but not so much Agnes Stevenson.

(IIRC the latter's demise featured as a news item in the first ever issue of CHESS)

[Gerard Killoran]

I would say how Vera Menchik met her end was fairly well known, but not so much Agnes Stevenson.

(IIRC the latter's demise featured as a news item in the first ever issue of CHESS)

It's on her Wikipedia page, which like other sources, can be found by a simple Google search using the facts given in the question.

Perhaps we should rename the thread, "Google this".

[John Townsend]

Attention. A new question. Google at the ready:

The Dundee 1867 tournament was attended by Steinitz, De Vere, Blackburne and others. But who represented the Midlands?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

S. Hamel? Was he related to L. Hamel?

Sigismund Hamel according to Stephen Mann at Yorkshire Chess:

https://mannchess.org.uk/People/Hamel,%20Sigismund.htm