14 September 1896(1896-09-14) (aged66) Hull, England
Edward Freeborough (18 August 1830– 14 September 1896)[1] was the co-author, with Charles Ranken, of Chess Openings Ancient and Modern (1889), one of the first important openingtreatises in the English language and a precursor of Modern Chess Openings.[2] He was a member of the editorial staff of the British Chess Magazine from 1883 until his death in 1896.[3] He also wrote the books Chess Endings (1891, 1896) and Select Chess End-Games from Actual Play (1895, 1899), and edited the book Analysis of the Chess Ending, King and Queen Against King and Rook by "Euclid" (a pseudonym for A. Crosskill) (1895).[4]
Charles Edward Ranken was a Church of England clergyman and a minor British chess master. He co-founded and was the first president of the Oxford University Chess Club. He was also the editor of the Chess Player's Chronicle and a writer for the British Chess Magazine. Ranken is best known today as the co-author of Chess Openings Ancient and Modern (1889), one of the first important opening treatises in the English language.
A chess opening or simply an opening refers to the initial moves of a chess game. The term can refer to the initial moves by either side, White or Black, but an opening by Black may also be known as a defense. There are dozens of different openings, and hundreds of variants. The Oxford Companion to Chess lists 1,327 named openings and variants. These vary widely in character from quietpositional play to wild tactical play. In addition to referring to specific move sequences, the opening is the first phase of a chess game, the other phases being the middlegame and the endgame.
A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject.
Freeborough had just completed the third edition of Chess Openings Ancient and Modern and transmitted the final version to the publisher "when he was struck down by a sudden and mortal illness".[5]
Legacy book
Chess Openings Ancient and Modern, first (1889) and third (1896) editions
The first edition of the book was published in 1889. Later editions were published in 1893, 1896, and 1910.[6][7] It was one of the first opening books written in columnar form: columns of move-sequences thought to constitute best play, presented in chess notation and concluding with a symbol indicating the analyst's assessment of the final position (such as "equal", "White wins", or "advantage to Black").[8] The book also set forth a number of general principles,[9][10] many of which are still valid today.[8]
Chess notations are various systems that have developed to record either the moves made in a game of chess or the position of pieces on a chessboard. The earliest systems of notation used lengthy narratives to describe each move; these gradually evolved into terser notation systems. Currently algebraic chess notation is the accepted standard and is widely used. Algebraic notation has several variations. Descriptive chess notation was used in English- and Spanish-language literature until the late 20th century, but is now obsolete. There are some special systems for international correspondence chess. Portable Game Notation is used when working with computer chess programs. Systems also exist for transmission using Morse code over telegraph or radio.
Even contemporary grandmasters study the book. Frank Brady wrote in his biography of World ChampionBobby Fischer that Chess Openings Ancient and Modern was one of the most heavily annotated books in Fischer's personal library. Fischer had pencilled in his own analyses of the Scotch Game, Giuoco Piano, Evans Gambit, Bishop's Gambit, Danish Gambit, and other openings.[11] Referring specifically to the analysis in Chess Openings Ancient and Modern, Grandmaster Robert Byrne wrote in a 1991 chess column in The New York Times, "Ingenious strategies and tactics were tried out in the old days, and if your opponent knows them and you don't, you are in for a pounding."[12] Likewise Fischer, in his famous book My 60 Memorable Games, annotating an Evans Gambit that he had won against Reuben Fine, cited analysis from the 1893 edition of Chess Openings Ancient and Modern as an improvement on Fine's ninth move.[13]
Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain.
Frank Brady, is an American writer, editor, biographer and educator. Chairman of the Department of Mass Communications, Journalism, Television and Film at St. John's University, New York, he is founding editor of Chess Life magazine.
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of his or her life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality.
Freeborough was not distinguished as a player, and few of his games survive. Amos Burn, one of the world's strongest players, easily beat him in the following game.
Amos Burn (1848–1925) was an English chess player, one of the world's leading players at the end of the 19th century, and a chess writer.
Burn–Freeborough, Lancashire vs. Yorkshire match, 1887: 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Bc5 3. f4 Bxg1? 4. Rxg1 Nc6? 5. fxe5 Nxe5 6. d4 Ng6 7. Qf3 c6? 8. Bc4 Qf6 9. Qxf6 Nxf6 10. e5 Nh5?? Losing a piece. 11. g3 Ne7 12. g4 b5 13. Bd3 Bb7 14. gxh5 Kf8 15. Ne4 Nc8? Losing another piece. 16. Nc5 Rb8? 17. Nxd7+ 1–0[14] Burn commented, "Mr. Freeborough is so constant a writer on the theory of the game that this example of his practice is somewhat remarkable."[15]
Lancashire is a ceremonial county in North West England. The administrative centre is Preston. The county has a population of 1,449,300 and an area of 1,189 square miles (3,080 km2). People from Lancashire are known as Lancastrians.
Yorkshire, formally known as the County of York, is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Due to its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as a geographical territory and cultural region. The name is familiar and well understood across the United Kingdom and is in common use in the media and the military, and also features in the titles of current areas of civil administration such as North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and East Riding of Yorkshire.
Related Research Articles
In chess, Fool's Mate, also known as the Two-Move Checkmate, is the checkmate in the fewest possible number of moves from the start of the game. This can be achieved only by Black, who can deliver checkmate on move 2 with the queen. Fool's Mate received its name because it can only occur if White commits an extraordinary blunder. Even among rank beginners, the mate almost never occurs in practice.
The King's Gambit is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves:
Petrov's Defence or the Petrov Defence is a chess opening characterised by the following moves:
The Bishop's Opening is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
The Scotch Game, or Scotch Opening, is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
The Ponziani Opening is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
The Symmetrical Defense is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
The Queen's Gambit Accepted is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
The Mortimer Trap is a chess opening trap in the Ruy Lopez named after James Mortimer. The Mortimer Trap is a true trap in the sense that Black deliberately plays an inferior move hoping to trick White into making a mistake.
The Halloween Gambit is an aggressive chess opening gambit in which White sacrifices a knight early on for a single pawn. The opening is an offshoot of the normally staid Four Knights Game and is defined by the moves:
The Fischer Defense to the King's Gambit is a chess opening variation that begins with the moves:
The Jerome Gambit is an unsound chess opening which is an offshoot of the Giuoco Piano. It is characterized by the moves:
William Wayte was a Church of England cleric and a British chess master. He was one of a group of ministers who played a prominent role in English chess in the late nineteenth century. Although little remembered today, according to Chessmetrics he was the number 9 player in the world at his peak in 1878.
The American Chess Quarterly was a chess magazine that was published in the United States from Fall 1961 to 1965 by Nature Food Centres. Sixteen issues were published, in four volumes of four issues each, from Fall 1961 through April–May-June 1965. The publication count is sometimes considered to be Seventeen issues because Volume One Number Three was a two-part issue. Its principal editor was American grandmaster Larry Evans. Complete sets of the American Chess Quarterly magazine are becoming more difficult to acquire and typically command prices at auction in the $1,000-$2,000 range.
The Scandinavian Defense is a chess opening characterized by the moves:
↑ E. Freeborough and C.E. Ranken, Chess Openings Ancient and Modern, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co. (3rd ed. 1896), p. 1.
↑ Douglas A. Betts, An Annotated Bibliography of Works Published in the English Language, 1850–1968, Moravian Chess Publishing House, 2005 (reprint of original book published by G.K. Hall and Co., 1974), p. 182, 184, 186, 191, 599. ISBN80-7189-557-1.
↑ E. Freeborough and C.E. Ranken, Chess Openings Ancient and Modern, Trübner and Co. (1st ed. 1889), pp. 13–16.
↑ E. Freeborough and C.E. Ranken, Chess Openings Ancient and Modern, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co. (3rd ed. 1896), pp. 13–16.
↑ Frank Brady, Profile of a Prodigy (2nd ed. 1973), David McKay, p. 11.
↑ Robert Byrne, The New York Times, 27 October 1991 Chess Retrieved on 2 December 2008.
↑ Bobby Fischer, My 60 Memorable Games, Faber and Faber, p. 278. ISBN0-571-09987-4. The game may be played over here. Retrieved on 8 December 2008.
↑ Notes and punctuation based on notes by Burn in the 25 June 1887 Liverpool Weekly Courier, quoted in Richard Forster, Amos Burn: A Chess Biography, McFarland & Co., 2004, pp. 271–72. ISBN0-7864-1717-X.
↑ Forster 2004, p. 272 (quoting Burn in the 25 June 1887 Liverpool Weekly Courier).
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