Chess One wrote:
Which Alexander Cunningham is which?



There were 2 notable Alexander Cunninghams, in the early 1700's, both
learned and Whiggish Scotsmen who spent time in Holland: one a classical
scholar who dies in the Hague in 1730, the other a diplomat and historian
who dies in London in 1737.



So which was the famous chess player, who gave us the Cunningham gambit?



Leibniz, who was mildly interested in chess, once wrote in some bafflement
to ask of the two 'Messieurs Synonymes' he had the honour to know, so it is
not surprising, says Eales, that modern historians have the same problem.

Phil Innes

According to Hooper and Whyld, it was the historian (1654-1737), not
the critic (1655-1730). "At one time it was thought that they were the
same person, but a letter in the _Scot's Magazine_, Oct. 1804,
established that they were two ... Then the gambit was attributed to
the critic, an opinion not reversed until Murray published his
findings in the _British Chess Magazine_, 1912"