Chess in 1905
By Bill Wall
In 1905, the "Scachs d'amor" (Valencian for Chess of Love) poem (manuscript) was discovered by the Jesuit priest Ignasi Casanovas (1872-1936). The manuscript was published in Valencia, Spain around 1475.
In 1905, a telegraph match was played between the Manhattan Chess Club and the Chicago Chess and Checker Club. Emanuel Lasker was the referee and adjudicated the unfinished games. The Manhattan Chess Club won 9 to 7.
In 1905, telegraph cable companies refused to handle and sponsor chess games over cable, giving the reason that their services was always rendered as a loss. In the early days of cable matches, the telegraph companies were very glad to avail themselves of the means of advertising that these chess matches afforded. The rates were not considered important, and there was always room for chess matches on days like Friday and Saturday. The hope of future matches relied on Deforest or Marconi wireless telegraphy.
In 1905, Malik Mir Sultan Khan (1905-1966) was born in Mittha in the Punjab area of British India. He won the All-India chess championship in 1928. He was British chess champion in 1929, 1932, and 1933.
In 1905, Izaak Appel (1905-1941) was born in Poland. He was a Polish chess master.
In 1905, Jose Capablanca (1888-1942), at the age of 17, visited the Manhattan Chess Club and beat its champion the first time they played.
In 1905, John Richard Harman (1905-1986) was born in England. He did a systematic study of chess compositions and categorized them.
On April 12, 1905, Charles Edward Ranken (1828-1905) died in Malvern, England at the age of 77. He was a British chess master. He was the first president of the Oxford University Chess Club in 1869. He was a vicar at Sandford-on-Thames near Oxford.
In 1905, the first Scottish Ladies Ch and won by Miss Florence Stirling Hutchinson.
In 1905, the Shanghai Chess Club founded.
1905, Jose Brunet y Bellet (1819-1905) died in Barcelona. He was a chess historian and chess author.
In 1905, Chess in Iceland and in Icelandic Literature was published in Florence, Italy after Willard Fiske's death in 1904.
On January 6, 1905, Frank Marshall married Miss Caroline Krause of New York. The next day they were both on a ship to Paris for a chess tournament.
On January 11, 1905, James Mason (1849-1905) died in Rochford, Essex, England at the age of 55. He was an Irish-born chess player, journalist and writer, who became one of the world's best half dozen players in the 1880s.
On February 28, 1905, Nancy Krotoschin Roos (1905-1957) was born in Belgium. She tied for 1st place in the 1955 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship. She was a professional photographer.
On March 14, 1905, Herbert Heinicke (1905-1988) was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil. He was a German IM (1953). He tied for 2nd in the German Championship of 1953 and also played for Germany at the Munich 1936 Team tournament and at the Helsinki Olympiad in 1952.
In April 1905, a chess match between Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley ended in a tie for the third year in a row. They played at the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club. The Stanford team included F. P. Whitaker, R. A. Fuller, E. W. Doane, M. M. Stearns, H. W. Strong, G. E. Dole, and L. Newland. The Berkeley team included E. K. Strong, A. D. Weitbee, W. Scotcher, E. Kohnke, E. Gibbs, P. C. Dickson, and P. Johnson.
On April 11, 1905, Josep Platz (1905-1981) was born in Cologne, Germany. He was a USCF Master Emeritus and a medical doctor. In 1926, he won the championship of Cologne. In 1928, he won the championship of the Rhine. In 1931, he won the championship of Hannover. In the 1940s, he won the Bronx Championship six times. In 1948, he played in the US Championship, placing 14th out of 20. Between 1954 and 1972, he won the Western Massachusetts & Connecticut Valley Open Championship 14 times. He won the Connecticut Championship three times. He tied for the New England Championship four times. In 1978, he wrote Chess Memoirs: The chess career of a physician and Lasker pupil. He died on December 30, 1981 in Manchester, Connecticut.
On April 15, 1905, Herman Steiner (1905-1955) was born in Dunaszerdahely, Austria-Hungary (now Dunajská Streda, Slovakia). He was New York State champion in 1929. He was US Open champion in 1946. He was US champion in 1948. He was awarded the IM title in 1950. He was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame in 2010.
In May, 1905, Harry Nelson Pillsbury (1872-1906) tried to commit suicide at the Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia hospital during a fit of insanity, brought on by syphilis. He tried to jump from the 4th story window. He was stopped by several nurses and doctors (source: Salt Lake Herald)
On May 26, 1905, Paulin Frydman (1905-1982) was born in Warsaw, Poland. He was Warsaw chess champion in 1931, 1932, 1933, and 1936. He was awarded the IM title in 1955.
On June 23, 1905, Arthur Ford Mackenzie (1861-1905) died in Jamaica. He was a chess problemist. He was the author of Chess, Its Poetry and Its Prose (1887). He composed dozens of chess problems while blind.
In July, 1905, a game of chess was played by wireless between the Carpathia and the Baltic in the Atlantic Ocean. The game ended in a draw after 30 moves.
On July 4, 1905 Holloway, Alfred (1837-1905) died in Gawler, Australia. He was a leading chess player in South Australia. He was a headmaster of a public school.
On July 18, 1905, Geza Maroczy (1870-1951) won at Ostend, followed by Janowski, Tarrasch, Schlechter, Marco, Teichmann, Burn, Leonhard, and Marshall.
On August 7, 1905, Walter Muir (1905-1999) was born in Brooklyn. He was an International Master of correspondence chess and former secretary of the ICCF. He was known as the Grand Old Man of Correspondence Chess.
On August 16, 1905, Alfred August Christensen (1905-1974) was born in Denmark. He played on the Danish chess Olympiad team in 1936 and 1939.
On August 26, 1905, Henry Ernest Atkins (1872-1955) won the 2nd British Chess Federation Championship in Southport, England.
On August 27, 1905, Edward Friederich Schrader (1877-1966) won the 6th Western Chess Association (US Open) in Excelsior, Minnesota.
On August 31, 1905, David Janowski and Geza Maroczy won the section A and Leo Fleischmann won section B at Barmen, Germany.
On September 12, 1905, Oldrich Duras won the first Czech Championship in Prague.
On October 20, 1905, Karl Fabel (1905-1975) was born in Hamburg, Germany. He received a doctorate in chemistry and worked as a mathematician and civil judge. In 1967, he was awarded the International Master title for chess composition.
On November 7, 1905, Viktor Goglidze (1905-1964) was born Kutaisi, Russia. He was awarded the IM title in 1950. He tied for 5th place in the 1937 USSR Championship.
On November 12, 1905, New York defeated Berlin in the first cable chess match between the two cities. The New York team won 3 games, drew 2 games and lost one game (Harold Phillips lost to Berthold Lasker, Emanuel Lasker’s brother). President Roosevelt signed a photograph of himself and gave it to the New York team. The portrait hung on the walls of the Manhattan Chess Club for many years. The referee of the match was Emanuel Lasker.
On November 17, 1905, Stefan Erdelyi (1905-1968) was born in Temesvár (now Timişoara), Romania. He was a Hungarian-Romanian chess master. He won the Romanian championship in 1931, 1934, and 1949. He was awarded the IM title in 1950.
On November 19, 1905, Isaac Irving Kashdan (1905-1985) was born in New York. He won the 1929-1930 and the 1931 Manhattan Chess Club championship. He was awarded the GM title in 1954.
On November 30, 1905, Gustavus Charles Reichhelm (1839-1905) died in Philadelphia. He was a chess editor for over 40 years, analyst, problem composer, solver and player. He was chess editor of the Philadelphia Times and North American. He was the Games Editor of Brentano's Chess Monthly (1881-1882). From 1895 to 1905, he was secretary of the Franklin Chess Club in Philadelphia. He was a member of the Mercantile Library Chess Association and the New Orleans Chess Club. In his earlier years, he was a piano tuner. For many years, he was chess champion of Philadelphia.
On November 30, 1905, Samuel (Salomon) Lipschütz (1863-1905) died in Hamburg Germany of ling disease at the age of 42. He won the Us championship in 1889 and 1892.
On December 1, 1905, George Brunton Fraser (1831-1905) died in Wormit, Fife, Scotland. He was Scottish champion in 1898. He was a wine merchant.
On December 11, 1905, Ludwig Engels (1905-1967) was born in Dusseldorf, Germany. He was a German-Brazilian chess master. At the 1939 Buenos Aires Olympiad, Ludwig Engels scored +12 =4 -0, winning the gold medal on third board.
On December 27, 1905, Paul (Pablo) Michel (1905-1977) was born in Alzenau, Germany. He was a German-Argentine chess master. He was awarded the IM title in 1956.