Chess in 1884
by Bill Wall
In 1884, the first patent for chess clock was made by Amandus Schierwater.
In 1884, the Scottish Chess Association, the oldest chess association in the world, was founded.
In 1884, the first women’s' chess tourney was held, sponsored by the Sussex Chess Assosication.
In 1884, a chess club was organized in Louisville, Kentucky.
In 1884, George Vanderbilt was given the chess table and chessmen that formerly belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte. The gift came from Mr. McHenry, who previously owned it in London. When Napoleon died, the physicians, when making their post-mortem examination, removed his heart and put it in one of the drawers of the chess table. The table still had the deep stains of blood on the inside of the drawer. Vanderbuilt offered $10,000 for the table, but it was refused and McHenry gave it as a gift since he had no use for the table. (source: The Wilmington Daily Review, May 23, 1884)
In 1884, CHESS STUDIES AND ENDGAMES, by Horwitz, was published. It had 427 positions.
In 1884, the Golden Gate chess club was formed in San Francisco.
In January 1884, the first chess photo in the British Chess Magazine appeared.
On Jan 8, 1884, Daniel Harrwitz died in Bozen, Italy. He was a strong German player of his day.
On Jan 16, 1884, FrederickYates was born in Leeds. He was British champion 6 times.
On Jan 18, 1884, John Wisker died from bronchitis and consumption in Richmond, Victoria. He was a strong British chess master.
Om March 1, 1884, Erich Cohn was born in Berlin. He was a strong German master.
On March 18, 1884, the first chess club telephone chess match was played, between Cardiff and Swansea.
On June 5, 1884, Beniamin Blumenfeld was born in Volkovisk, Russia. He was a Russian chess theoretician.
On June 7, 1884, Ladislav Prokes was born. He was one of the most prolific chess composers of endgame studies in chess.
On July 10, 1884, Paul Morphy died at his home in New Orleans of apolexy at the age of 47. (source: New York Times, July 11, 1884 and The New Orleans Times Picayune, July 11, 1884)
On July 24, 1884, the British Chess Association was inaugurated. The President was Randolph Churchill. The Vice President was Lord Tennyson.
In July 1884, the first Scottish championship was held, on Glasgow. John Crum (1842-1922) took 1st place.
On Aug 26, 1884, Eugene Alexandrovitch Znosko-Borovsky was born in Russia. He was a chess master and author.
On Sep 19, 1884, Magnus Anderson was born in Melbourne, Australia. He Collected 6,000 chess books in his lifetime.
On Nov 28, 1884, Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky was born in St Petersburg. He won the Leningrad championship in 1925, 1926, and 1929.