I have found a very early article attributing Labourdonnais' death to the strains
of playing blindfold. The article is in Der Humorist, March 19, 1841. The writer
is not so knowledgeable, saying Philidor was the 1st to ever played blindfold. He
says that Diderot and others warned Labourdonnais of the great risk he was
taking, but he wouldn't listen. Shortly after, he had 3 (strokes?). He tried to
recover with water cures, but to no avail, though he kept his chess strength to
the end.

Thus, the story of LaBourdonnais dying of blindfold chess is not a later
invention to try to bolster evidence of the danger of the practice, but was
circulating quite soon after his death.

Jerry Spinrad

"Jeremy Spinrad" wrote in message
...
I have found a very early article attributing Labourdonnais' death to the
strains
of playing blindfold. The article is in Der Humorist, March 19, 1841. The
writer
is not so knowledgeable, saying Philidor was the 1st to ever played
blindfold. He
says that Diderot and others warned Labourdonnais of the great risk he was
taking, but he wouldn't listen. Shortly after, he had 3 (strokes?).

Hmmm. They warned him of the know effects of playing blindfold,
and yet he was the first to try it. Doesn't add up, no?

Mike Leahy
"The Database Man!"
www.bookup.com

....who can play blindfold quite well, thanks.

(Jeremy Spinrad) writes:

I have found a very early article attributing Labourdonnais' death to the strains
of playing blindfold. The article is in Der Humorist, March 19, 1841. The writer
is not so knowledgeable, saying Philidor was the 1st to ever played blindfold. He
says that Diderot and others warned Labourdonnais of the great risk he was
taking, but he wouldn't listen.

The problem being that Diderot died in 1784.

There is a quote, I believe, in Schonberg's "Grandmasters
of chess" of a letter from Diderot to Philidor warning
of blindfold chess.

Schonberg's book isn't reliable, but I think I've
seen the quote elsewhere.


Shortly after, he had 3 (strokes?). He tried to
recover with water cures, but to no avail, though he kept his chess strength to
the end.

He had a stroke in 1838, died in 1840. He also had "dropsy".
I forget what that is in modern terms.


Thus, the story of LaBourdonnais dying of blindfold chess is not a later
invention to try to bolster evidence of the danger of the practice, but was
circulating quite soon after his death.

Perhaps it salved some consciences, as well. LaBourdonnais
was very poor in his last months. Perhaps his diet, or
lack thereof, contributed to his demise. According to
Oxford Walker gave them some money, but found out about
the situation only a few weeks before LaBourdonnais died.

William Hyde
EOS Department
Duke University

Mike Leahy wrote:
"Jeremy Spinrad" wrote:
I have found a very early article attributing Labourdonnais' death to
the strains of playing blindfold. The article is in Der Humorist, March
19, 1841. The writer is not so knowledgeable, saying Philidor was the
1st to ever played blindfold. He says that Diderot and others warned
Labourdonnais of the great risk he was taking, but he wouldn't
listen. Shortly after, he had 3 (strokes?).

Hmmm. They warned him of the know effects of playing blindfold,
and yet he was the first to try it. Doesn't add up, no?

You've misread: Philidor was the first to try it; Labourdonnais was warned
of the dangers.


...who can play blindfold quite well, thanks.

I only seem to be able to play the Ruy Lopez and the QGD blindfold... I'm
not sure what this says, given that I play neither side of the Lopez with
my eyes open, though I'm happy with both sides of the QGD.


Dave.

--
David Richerby Poetic Radioactive Soap (TM): it's
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ like a personal hygiene product but
it'll make you glow in the dark and
it's in verse!

wrote in message ...

He had a stroke in 1838, died in 1840. He also had "dropsy".
I forget what that is in modern terms.


Oedema.

wrote:

He had a stroke in 1838, died in 1840. He also had "dropsy".
I forget what that is in modern terms.

In modern terms it is 'oedema', but it's now regarded as a symptom, rather
as a disorder in itself. High blood pressure produces 'dropsy', as does
other heart disorders, but it can also be due to kidney problems, as in
the case of Samuel Johnson.

--
Anders Thulin ath*algonet.se http://www.algonet.se/~ath

First, let me say that I was quite sloppy with the quote. The article
says that earlier Diderot had spoken of the potential danger of
playing blindfold, and that this turned out to be the case for
Labourdonnais.

Second, I should state my thesis, which this quote helps back up. I do
not believe that playing blindfold killed Labourdonnais. However, I
feel that given the medical knowledge of the time, it was very
rational to believe that blindfold chess killed Labourdonnais, drove
Morphy crazy, killed Zukertort, etc. People feared the strain on the
brain from blindfold chess, and Labourdonnais has a series of strokes
shortly after one of his toughest ever blindfold exhibitions. He never
recovers fully. It seems quite rational to believe that the strokes
killed Labourdonnais by weakening him, even if it eventually took
another disease to finish him off in his weakened state. Similarly, we
often say someone dies of AIDS, even if the final cause of death is
pneumonia or some other disease.

After Morphy's death, we know that there was a feeling that his
blindfold stunts had caused his insanity. I feel that it was less well
known that this feeling was made stronger by the attribution of
Labourdonnais' death to blindfold chess; this is not so well known to
most of us. This quote, coming so soon after Labourdonnais' death,
shows that the idea that Labourdonnais' death being connected to
blindfold chess was not just something made up later as part of a
hysteria over Morphy's mental collapse, but in fact was a
well-established belief at the time.

Jerry Spinrad

wrote in message ...
(Jeremy Spinrad) writes:

I have found a very early article attributing Labourdonnais' death to the strains
of playing blindfold. The article is in Der Humorist, March 19, 1841. The writer
is not so knowledgeable, saying Philidor was the 1st to ever played blindfold. He
says that Diderot and others warned Labourdonnais of the great risk he was
taking, but he wouldn't listen.

The problem being that Diderot died in 1784.

There is a quote, I believe, in Schonberg's "Grandmasters
of chess" of a letter from Diderot to Philidor warning
of blindfold chess.

Schonberg's book isn't reliable, but I think I've
seen the quote elsewhere.


Shortly after, he had 3 (strokes?). He tried to
recover with water cures, but to no avail, though he kept his chess strength to
the end.

He had a stroke in 1838, died in 1840. He also had "dropsy".
I forget what that is in modern terms.


Thus, the story of LaBourdonnais dying of blindfold chess is not a later
invention to try to bolster evidence of the danger of the practice, but was
circulating quite soon after his death.

Perhaps it salved some consciences, as well. LaBourdonnais
was very poor in his last months. Perhaps his diet, or
lack thereof, contributed to his demise. According to
Oxford Walker gave them some money, but found out about
the situation only a few weeks before LaBourdonnais died.

William Hyde
EOS Department
Duke University

(Jerry Spinrad) writes:


Second, I should state my thesis, which this quote helps back up. I do
not believe that playing blindfold killed Labourdonnais.

I think that was clear from your post.

Diderot cited Legal to make his case. He claimed that
Legal played only one blindfold game and felt quite
ill after it. So they had the testimony, albeit second
hand, of at least one strong chess player to back up
the claim.


However, I
feel that given the medical knowledge of the time, it was very
rational to believe that blindfold chess killed Labourdonnais, drove
Morphy crazy, killed Zukertort, etc.

Even at the time of Pillsbury's death, Lasker was to blame
"inflammation of the brain cells" brought on by over use.
But he wasn't a medical doctor, of course.


William Hyde
EOS Department
Duke University

Jerry Spinrad wrote (2004-03-14 23:06:27 PST):

I feel that given the medical knowledge of the
time, it was very rational to believe that
blindfold chess killed Labourdonnais, drove
Morphy crazy, killed Zukertort, etc.

_
"Though the stories of Morphy's madness form
a large part of the Morphy myth, his irrational
phases formed only two short periods in his
life. He had not been driven mad by the strain
of blindfold play; the first symptoms only
appeared some fifteen years after he had
renounced chess." - Hartston (1985)

Hartston seems to be sugar-coating the issue a bit, doesn't it? Lawson (pg 292) also
seems to indicate that there was no evidence of any disturbance in Morphy's mind
before 1875, but Woodbury's 1873 letter (see page 290, which was published under
the title "Eccentricity of Paul Morphy" in the Brooklyn Eagle March 14, 1873)
seems to indicate, at least in hindsight, a disturbed mind.

Do you really think that Paul Morphy was well at any time from 1873 until his
death? I imagine that his illness started well before this, though excuses were
made for him; distraught over the war, loss of fortune, etc. Hard to pin down
when his illness started, but Hartston's quote seems to underplay it considerably.

Jerry Spinrad


In article , (Louis Blair) writes:
| Jerry Spinrad wrote (2004-03-14 23:06:27 PST):
|
| I feel that given the medical knowledge of the
| time, it was very rational to believe that
| blindfold chess killed Labourdonnais, drove
| Morphy crazy, killed Zukertort, etc.
|
| _
| "Though the stories of Morphy's madness form
| a large part of the Morphy myth, his irrational
| phases formed only two short periods in his
| life. He had not been driven mad by the strain
| of blindfold play; the first symptoms only
| appeared some fifteen years after he had
| renounced chess." - Hartston (1985)