| Apr-10-08 | | Karpova: "Stamma on the game of chess" from 1819:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Es...The six "games" in the database are the first game Stamma gives with five additional variations), page 1 to 14. |
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| Oct-25-10 | | Elsinore: It's a shame that no real games exist for a man regarded as one of the worlds strongest. Those Stamma/Philidor games would have been fun to look at. |
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| Jun-26-11 | | bartonlaos: The reason the older Chess books are written in descriptive notation is blamed on his lost to Philidor. Stamma had invented almost-modern algebraic notation, which I'll post shortly. But after the loss his influence in Chess circles dropped and Philidor's increased. It was Philidor's idea to use descriptive notation. |
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| Jun-26-11 | | bartonlaos: <Phillip Stamma 1745 - The Noble Game of Chess> "I have chosen to give the Directions for playing the Moves in a Kind of Short-hand, rather than in Words at length this leaves less Room for Mistakes...the Letters stand for the 8 Pieces, viz. "A" stands for the Queen's Rook, B for her Knight, C for her Bishop, and so on in Order as far as H, which stands for the King's Rook. P stands for Pawn. "The Arithmetical Figures, with the Letters immediately preceding them, point out the Squares you are to play into. Thus P-E4 directs you to play the King's Pawn into the King's fourth Square; G-F3 to play the King's Knight into his Bishop's third Square; and F-C4 to play the King's Bishop ito the Queen Bishop's fourth Square. And in playing the Black, P-E5 directs you to push the King's Pawn two Steps, B-C6 to play the Queen's Knight into the Queen's Bishop's sixth Square, and F C5 to play the King's Bishop into the Queen's Bishop's fifth Square. These are the First three Moves on each side, as they are directed to be played inthe first Game. The Cross + directs you to give Check, thus, D-H5+ directs you to give Check with your Queen in the King's Rook's fifth Square. "The common Method in this Country, is to begin the game by pushing the King's Pwn two steps; both for him that plays first, as likewise for his Antagonist. After which he brings out his King's Knight to the King's bishop's third square; this is what is called by me, 'The Knight's-Close Game'." <
OPENING: KNIGHT'S-CLOSE GAME
P-E4 P-E5
G-F3 B-C6
F-C4 F-C5
P-D3 P-D6
G-G5 D-F6
F-F7+ E-F8
CASTLE P-H6
F-G8 P-G5
F-D5 B-D4
P-C3 D-H6
P-H3 C-H3
P-D4 C-G2
E-G2 D-H3+ >
Beautiful isn't it? Here's a puzzle from him:
<
Situation of the Black: AC8. BF7. CA8. DE3. ED8. FC7. HE8.
PAWNS: C5. D6. E7. F5. G3. H4.
Situation of the White: AA6. BA4. D36. EF1. FD1. GB3.
PAWNS: D4. E5. F4. G2. H3.
The Play - White to Move and win in 7 moves:
D-D7+ E-D7
B-C5+ P-C5
G-C5+ E-D8
G-E6+ E-D7
F-A4+ C-C6
F-C6+ E-E6
P-D5+ mate>
It's amazing to me to see how close Philip Stamma was to modern notation. His brilliant idea was almost rediscovered a hundred years later. A player named Pearson had thought that children shouldn't have to spend so much mental energy to decipher descriptive notation, rather they should quickly glance at a page and follow the game. But in a comedy of errors, he completely botched the presentation, and helped to drive yet another century's worth of support for descriptive notation. I'm going to post Pearson's attempt just for comparison. |
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| Jun-26-11 | | bartonlaos: <Pearson 1842 - Chess exemplified in a concise and easy notation> Pearson wrote: "Notation, to meet the rapidity of thought, must unite brevity and precision. it must present the end at once with the true idea, and no other. It must not require time to analyse it...By the method explained in the following introduction, every square on the board is denoted most precisely by its peculiar syllable of two letters only...in a manner so clear as to be intelligible at sight throughout a game; which whether written or printed, according to this method, is exhibited in less space than by any other..." < Naming of files -
b orders
d ancer's
t eacher's
f avourite's
l oyalist's
s age's
p rancer's
k eeper's
C = Queen's Rook
N = Queen's Knight
V = Queen's Bishop
Q = Queen
M = King
X = King's Bishop
H = King's Knight
R = King's Rook
MR = Castling with the King's rook
MC = Caslting with the Queen's rook
Each pawn is denoted by a single letter upon which file it is placed and therefore requires no further effort of the memory. a = 1st rank
e = 2nd rank
i = 3rd rank
o = 4th rank <.>> This is Scholar's mate as one example:
< Move - Countermove
1 l lo - l ol
2 X to - X ot
3 Q ok - (or si) f if - should be Q el.
4 es s - + >
Pearson wrote: "Note: The consonants used (to denote the files and pawns) will be recognised by all who are acquainted with Dr Grey's "Memoria Technica," as indicating the numerals 1 to 8. The application of letters on Dr. Grey's system to the purposes of Chronology, Astronomy, and other matters connected with figures, suggested to the author, many years ago, the employment of them, which he now recommends from his own experience. The adoption from that system...will, to those already acquainted with the "Memoria Technia" be unobjectionable; and perhaps no other selection would really be better. For representing the other pieces, the author had to make do the best he could, with the other consonants." |
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| Jul-20-11 | | Lovuschka: It is a shame that the compositions in his book are full of errors, but luckily many are easily correctable. Instead of giving such one, here is a more difficult case to discuss:
click for larger view
Philipp Stamma
Essai sur le jeu des Echecs, 1737 (study no. 2)
White wins
Intention: 1.Rh4 Qxh4 2.Qg8+ Kxg8 3.Se7+ Kh8 4.Sf7+ Rxf7 5.Rc8+ Rf8 6.Rxf8 mate. Possible refutation (SH, original publication): 1...fxe5! 2.Rxh3 Sxh3+ 3.Kg2 Sxc6 4.Rxc6 Sg5 5.Rxb6 Rad8!! (diagram 2), or 4.Kxh3 Se7 5.bxa5 bxa5 6.Rc5 Sf5! 7.Rxe5 g2! 8.Kxg2 Sh4+ 9.Kg3 Sxf3 and while White would have some kind of advantage in a game it is unclear if he can win, see diagram 3. 
click for larger view
Diagram 2
click for larger view
Diagram 3 |
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| Jul-20-11 | | Lovuschka: It should be noted, in addition to my previous post, that there are three versions which work perfectly fine. Two have the Sf2 removed (one with additional pa3-a2), and one by Stamma himself in his 1745 book "The Noble Game of Chess" has Pa3-a4 Pb4-b5 and +wPd3. Judging by the number of versions in that book of his 1737 studies, Stamma must have noticed a great number of incorrectnesses or unclear variations. |
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| Dec-13-11 | | Penguincw: Technically, Stamma is has no recorded games because the games were just compositions and analysis. |
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