Given certain recent accusations, I thought I would add my favorite
piece of reporting from my chess history research.

The obituary for the famous player Berthold Englisch (NY Times Oct 20
1897)mentions the fact that

Englisch withdrew from the recent Berlin tournament. Rumors of his
accepting a bribe from a weak player to withdraw were disproved by his
death.

Jerry Spinrad

A TAD NAIVE

By Larry Parr

Jeremy Spinrad is a tad naive. Any good yellow journalist would know
how to respond: "Briton Bribed to Die." And who is left to deny the charge?
Indeed, a good headline the following day would be: "Englisch Fails to Deny
Bribe Charge."

Further headlines might include "Englisch Inquiry Stalemated," "Briton
Loved Perpetual Checks, Say Opponents," and so on.

Subject: Great Moments of Yellow Chess Journalism

On 2 October 2003 (Jerry Spinrad) wrote in
Message-id:

Given certain recent accusations, I thought I would add my favorite
piece of reporting from my chess history research.

The obituary for the famous player Berthold Englisch (NY Times Oct 20
1897)mentions the fact that

Englisch withdrew from the recent Berlin tournament. Rumors of his
accepting a bribe from a weak player to withdraw were disproved by his
death.

Jerry Spinrad


According to The Oxford Companion to Chess, "In 1897 he [Englisch] entered the
Berlin tournament, fell ill, withdrew after 12 rounds, returned to Vienna, and
died two weeks after the tournament ended."
Dizionario Enciclopedico degli Scacchi (in English translation) adds that
Englisch writhdrew from the Berlin tournament after scoring 6.5 points without
playing the remaining eight games.
Englisch died on 19 October 1897 in Vienna. The New York Times ran his obit the
following day.

George Mirijanian