"The man has a rich and varied past behind him. In his younger days he was
a chess player. They say that he led a very adventurous life, that he made
a wild, romantic marriage which he afterwards dissolved." (Brentano's Chess
Monthly, May 1881, p.5). A correction soon appeared ("In his younger days
he was an actor"), as Ernst Falkbeer's original German word "Schauspieler"
had been misread as "Schachspieler"! Falkbeer's text originally appeared in
"Neue Illustrierte Zeitung" in Vienna and was copied in "Deutsche
Illustrierte Zeitung". Does anyone know where I could get hold of the text,
please? (I am indebted to the late Ken Whyld for this information).

Regards,

John Townsend

The guy was arrogant and an A$$. He would not play Morphy because he was
scared !

However: try he

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"John Townsend" wrote in message
...
"The man has a rich and varied past behind him. In his younger days he
was
a chess player. They say that he led a very adventurous life, that he
made
a wild, romantic marriage which he afterwards dissolved." (Brentano's
Chess
Monthly, May 1881, p.5). A correction soon appeared ("In his younger days
he was an actor"), as Ernst Falkbeer's original German word "Schauspieler"
had been misread as "Schachspieler"! Falkbeer's text originally appeared
in
"Neue Illustrierte Zeitung" in Vienna and was copied in "Deutsche
Illustrierte Zeitung". Does anyone know where I could get hold of the
text,
please? (I am indebted to the late Ken Whyld for this information).

Regards,

John Townsend

Gunny Bunny wrote:
The guy was arrogant and an A$$.

No comment!

He would not play Morphy because he was scared !


I do not think so. Staunton was never afraid of anybody. By 1858 he had
effectively retired from competitive chess. Morphy's wanting a match with
him is like someone today demanding a world championship match with Bobby
Fischer!

Staunton had a contract with the publishers, Routledge, to bring out his
edition of Shakespeare's works. There is no question that Howard Staunton
was a extremely busy man during that year, and this comes across in his
letters. He should have told Morphy sooner that he couldn't play a match.
I imagine he would really have liked to play, but his commitments prevented
it.

John Townsend

John Townsend wrote:

Illustrierte Zeitung". Does anyone know where I could get hold of the text,
please? (I am indebted to the late Ken Whyld for this information).

Neue Illustrierte Zeitung -- try British Library. As to *where*
in N.I.Z. you should look, no idea. The most likely thing to look for
would be an obituary, but ...

... it was Gelbfuhs who ran the column in 1874. Falkbeer ran it
1877 - 1885, so perhaps those years (up to 1881-05) are the most
probable. (The cited text also says about Staunton '... who died
several years ago', so it seems reasonable to go for the Falkbeer
period).

Or is it the Brentano text you're looking for?

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

"John Townsend" wrote in message
...
Gunny Bunny wrote:
The guy was arrogant and an A$$.

No comment!

He would not play Morphy because he was scared !


I do not think so. Staunton was never afraid of anybody. By 1858 he had
effectively retired from competitive chess. Morphy's wanting a match with
him is like someone today demanding a world championship match with Bobby
Fischer!

Staunton had a contract with the publishers, Routledge, to bring out his
edition of Shakespeare's works. There is no question that Howard Staunton
was a extremely busy man during that year, and this comes across in his
letters. He should have told Morphy sooner that he couldn't play a match.
I imagine he would really have liked to play, but his commitments
prevented
it.

Rubbish, he was at the location Morphy was and watched his games. He kept
delaying and Morphy 'out of frustration' left !

He came back to the USA as the recognized WC !

"Gunny Bunny" wrote in message m...
"John Townsend" wrote in message
...
Gunny Bunny wrote:
The guy was arrogant and an A$$.

No comment!

He would not play Morphy because he was scared !


I do not think so. Staunton was never afraid of anybody. By 1858 he had
effectively retired from competitive chess. Morphy's wanting a match with
him is like someone today demanding a world championship match with Bobby
Fischer!

Staunton had a contract with the publishers, Routledge, to bring out his
edition of Shakespeare's works. There is no question that Howard Staunton
was a extremely busy man during that year, and this comes across in his
letters. He should have told Morphy sooner that he couldn't play a match.
I imagine he would really have liked to play, but his commitments
prevented
it.

Rubbish, he was at the location Morphy was and watched his games. He kept
delaying and Morphy 'out of frustration' left !

He came back to the USA as the recognized WC !

No wonder! He creamed everybody Europe could throw at him.

Staunton's principal sin was leading Morphy on when he had little or
no intention of playing him. Staunton's game wasn't so rusty that he
didn't play in tournaments but somehow it was impossible to set aside
a few days to play Morphy a brief match.

I wouldn't call him a coward but Staunton knew what the result would
be so he spared his ego the bruising he would receive from his many
English enemies. Simply losing to Morphy was something he *probably*
could have digested.

TommyBoy wrote:

Staunton's principal sin was leading Morphy on when he
had little or no intention of playing him.

_
My opinion is that his principal sin was trying to lead
the public to believe that Morphy was causing a delay
in the match when it was in fact Staunton who was
refusing to make definite arrangements.


TommyBoy wrote:

I wouldn't call him a coward but Staunton knew what
the result would be so he spared his ego the bruising
he would receive from his many English enemies.
Simply losing to Morphy was something he *probably*
could have digested.

_
During Morphy's June-August 1858 visit to England,
there WERE two consultation games that were
played with Morphy and Barnes playing as a team
against a team consisting of Staunton and Owen.
Both games were won by the Morphy/Barnes team.
Of course, no Staunton-Morphy one-against-one
games are known.

TommyBoy wrote in message
. ..
I wouldn't call him a coward but Staunton knew what the result would
be so he spared his ego the bruising he would receive from his many
English enemies. Simply losing to Morphy was something he *probably*
could have digested.

I don't really see this. Staunton was no stranger to losing, but this had
not deterred him from playing matches in the past. He had lost at the
tournaments in 1851 (London) and 1858 (Birmingham). Why should his ego be
bruised any more as a result of a defeat at Morphy's hands?

Incidentally, Morphy did not play at Birmingham, and this does seem more a
case of being afraid of the consequences of losing (or winning!)

Regards,

John Townsend

Louis Blair wrote in message
t.com...
(snip)
My opinion is that his principal sin was trying to lead
the public to believe that Morphy was causing a delay
in the match when it was in fact Staunton who was
refusing to make definite arrangements.


I think there is some truth in this, but during the negotiations for the
match the parties on both sides were no saints! The process can't have been
helped by Morphy's choosing a "spin doctor" such as Edge to represent him,
and it seems to me that he was the source of much of the acrimony which
arose. A few weeks ago we discussed on this group the episode of the
"friend" in Paris: Morphy unreasonably invited the public to believe that
Staunton had fabricated the whole story, whereas it seems Staunton was
merely relating what had happened (or something close to it). I think Edge
was very successful in blackening Staunton's reputation, but on occasions he
was very unfair in his dealings towards him.

During Morphy's June-August 1858 visit to England,
there WERE two consultation games that were
played with Morphy and Barnes playing as a team
against a team consisting of Staunton and Owen.
Both games were won by the Morphy/Barnes team.
Of course, no Staunton-Morphy one-against-one
games are known.

Staunton claimed that he invited Morphy to play some off-hand games with him
at his home in Streatham and that Morphy did not reply. Incidentally, the
words Staunton used suggest that Morphy had previously been his guest. If
so, we can only speculate whether any chess was played on that occasion.

Best wishes,

John Townsend

My thanks to Anders Thulin. I will see if I can get it at the British
Newspaper Library (at Colindale, I think.) I wondered if it was online
somewhere. I would like to see the full text of what Falkbeer wrote about
Staunton. Probably the Brentano text would serve my purpose equally well.

(The cited text also says about Staunton '... who died
several years ago', so it seems reasonable to go for the Falkbeer
period).

Anders, when you say "cited text", where have you seen it? I agree that it
seems logical to look for it during the period when Falkbeer was the editor,
although the words, "The man has a rich and varied past behind him ..." may
indicate that it was written during Staunton's life time!

Best wishes,

John Townsend

Anders Thulin wrote in message ...
John Townsend wrote:

Illustrierte Zeitung". Does anyone know where I could get hold of the
text,
please? (I am indebted to the late Ken Whyld for this information).

Neue Illustrierte Zeitung -- try British Library. As to *where*
in N.I.Z. you should look, no idea. The most likely thing to look for(The
cited text also says about Staunton '... who died
several years ago', so it seems reasonable to go for the Falkbeer
period).

would be an obituary, but ...

... it was Gelbfuhs who ran the column in 1874. Falkbeer ran it
1877 - 1885, so perhaps those years (up to 1881-05) are the most
probable.
Or is it you're looking for?