ch
Senza Quartieri
Incontri per
corrispondenza tra circoli nel sec. XIX
By Prof. Carlo Alberto Pagni
(Caissa Italia editore, Roma, 296 pages, ISBN 88 – 88756
– 18- 3. € 28,00)
Prof. Carlo Alberto Pagni has published in the last
decade some booklets about correspondence chess games
played between cities during the 19th
century.
He
has now published a revised and completed edition of
this work, in Italian, but the books contains almost 600
games in figurine algebraic notation that can be easily
understood by everyone interested in CC in general and
particularly in chess history.
Everyone interested in CC history knows the labor
involved in such research and this book brings a large
overview of the games played between the chess clubs
that are now readily available in a single volume. It is
obvious that such a work cannot be perfect and that some
mistakes can be found here and there, mainly due to the
fact that Carlo Alberto did not always have access to
the original.
source of the games.
Tim
Harding, in his review of the book, published in Chess Mail
8/2004 (page 58-59) gives the example of the London –
Portsmouth games played by telegraph on the 9th
and the 10th of April 1845. In fact, the games
were played primarily by H. Staunton and Captain Kennedy on
the Portsmouth side of the telegraph and George Walker,
Captain Evans, Duncan Forbes and some other players from the
capital on the London end of the telegraph. Pagni does not
list the games in the chronological order and does not
report the correct circumstances in which the games have
been played, and probably mistakes about the length of the
games.
I did
not have time to go into the details of each and every game,
but I have spotted some other possible problems / mistakes
concerning the games played in the first decade on this
history:
Amsterdam -
Rotterdam (1824)
Pagni
has written that the games have been concluded on 20th
of December. the same information can be found in Bruno
Bassi’s CC history, a series of articles published in Mail
Chess in the 40s of last century. Bassi’s article is
probably the source of Pagni.
Von
Mauvillon, who was presumably one of the very first authors
to have published these games in his book, "Anweisung zur
Erlernung des Schach-Spiels mit besonderer Rücksicht auf
diejeningen denen das Spiel durchaus unbekannt ist," Essen
1827, page 375 gives the end of the two games on the 15th
of December.
There
is no indication where Bassi found the date of 20th
of December, but I would probably follow von Mauvillon’s
date.
Manchester - Liverpool (1825)
In the
game Manchester – Liverpool, Pagni gives a the last two
moves of the game 41...g5 42.Ke5. This can also be found in
Fernschach, in 1992 in the game annotations by GM Hermann
Heemsoth.
But
Bassi gives another end: 41...f4 42. Ke4 g5 43.h3.
Manchester – Liverpool (1825) is a good example of a game
that was almost forgotten and was not included in the two
major works on CC games in the 19th century,
Ludwig Bledow’s “Die zwischen dem Berliner uns Posener Klub
durch Correspondenz gespielten Schah-Partien…,” Berlin 1843
and Max Lange’s enlarged edition of this early work
published in Leipzig in 1872. I have been unable to find any
publication of this game before Bassi and it is very hard to
conclude what was the actual end of the game.
Hyderabad - Madras (1828)
This classical CC game is
often presented up to move 44, concluded by the victory of
the Madras team. This was to be found in the earlier works
of Pagni, in his newly published book, but also for instance
in Tim Harding’s article about early correspondence chess in
India (Chess Mail, 5/2004, page 19).
I do
not know what is the source of this 44 moves game, but all
early sources such as Bledow, Lange or the Chess Players’s
Chronicle (Vol I, pages 49-51) give the game in 52 moves.
Here is
the complete score of this game:
Hyderabad - Madras [A21]
Corr
1828 - 1829
1.g3 f5 2.¥g2 ¤f6 3.c4 e5 4.¤c3 ¥e7 5.d4 exd4 6.£xd4 c6
7.¤h3 ¤a6 8.a3 ¤c5 9.£d1 0-0 10.0-0 ¤ce4 11.£c2 d5 12.¦d1
¥e6 13.¤g5 £c8 14.cxd5 cxd5 15.¤gxe4 fxe4 16.¥e3 ¤g4 17.¥d4
¥g5 18.h3? ¤xf2!
19.¦f1 ¤xh3+ 20.¢h2 ¦d8 21.£b3 h5! 22.¥xh3 ¥xh3 23.¤xd5 ¥e6
24.¦f5 ¦xd5! 25.¦xd5 £c6
26.¦xg5 ¥xb3 27.¦xg7+ ¢f8 28.¦f1+ ¢e8 29.¦f6 £c2 30.¦h6
£xe2+ 31.¢h3 £f1+ 32.¢h4 £f8
33.¦xh5 ¥f7 34.¦xf7 ¢xf7 35.¦f5+ ¢e6 36.¦xf8 ¦xf8 37.¥xa7 ¢f5 38.¢h3 ¦d8
39.¥b6 ¦d3
40.¢h4 e3 41.g4+ ¢f4 42.¥c7+ ¢f3 43.g5 e2 44.¥a5 ¦d1
and here are the
missing moves :
45.g6 e1£+ 46.¥xe1 ¦xe1 47.¢g5 ¢e4 48.g7 ¦g1+ 49.¢f6 ¢d4
50.¢f7 ¢c4 51.a4 ¢b3 52.a5 ¢xb2 0-1
I have
informed Carlo Alberto Pagni about these and possible other
mistakes, so that he can include the correction in a future
edition of his book.
In the
last issue of ICCF Amici, I have published an article about
“Miss Gilbert”. Tim Harding has informed me that it should
have been ‘Mrs Gilbert”! and he was right. One has always to
be very careful when writing an article about chess history
and there is always something to be learned from others!
I
recommend the book of Carlo Alberto Pagni to every chess
player and especially the CC players who are interested in
the history of our game.
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