Mar-17-12
 | | FSR: Judging by these results, Amsterdam 1889 must have been hell for Leather. |
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Mar-17-12
 | | Phony Benoni: <FSR> That's only the half of it--he wound up 0-8. Of course, two of the other losses were to Burn and Mason, so it was a pretty decent tournament. In fact, there's a tournament book available through Google Books. I sense a project coming on. |
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| Mar-17-12 | | King Death: Here's a page with most of his missing games: http://www.365chess.com/search_resu... The quick loss to Loman has a little bit of a 1950s look to it. |
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Mar-17-12
| | Phony Benoni: <King Death> Thanks. Right now, I'm taking a break from the US Open to work on even more trivial stuff: searching for Fred Reinfeld games. Did you know he lost a match to Santasiere in 1932 (+0 -3 =3)? |
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| Mar-17-12 | | King Death: <Phony Benoni> I never knew that. |
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Mar-24-12
| | Phony Benoni: Having gone through the games from Amsterdam 1889, I can give everybody some good news: Leather went only +0 -7 =0. He forfeited the last round game against Arnold Van Foreest--whether because of illness, apathy, or sheer disgust, I'm not sure. His style consisted of playing 1.Nc3 or 1...Nc6, the only exception being against fellow Liverpudlian Burn to whom he accorded the respect of 1.e4. He generally followed with a rapid kingside fianchetto and got crazy looking positions where he would eventually get outplayed or simply blunder. I notice his only game without a comment so far is R Leather vs Gunsberg, 1889, probably because of its length. It's worth looking at. He outplayed Gunsberg in an exciting game, only to miss a probable win on move 80: 
click for larger viewVan Foreest, in the tournament book, gives 80.c6 as winning for White; Leather's 80.Kf6 lost. He may have been a terror on the Liverpool scene, but was clearly out of his league at Amsterdam. I will have to try and dig up a few of his wins to restore the balance to some extent. |
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Mar-27-12
| | Phony Benoni: Game Collection: Amsterdam 1889 is ready. I hit a good spot on the Game Sumbittal Cycle, and the missing games got in quickly. |
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Mar-27-12
 | | WannaBe: Chess & Leather, kinky... |
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May-25-16
 | | Sally Simpson: Some interesting stuff on Robinson Kay Leather here: http://ilkleychess.blogspot.co.uk/2... More games.
His obituary.
One of his poems.
A link to this page with the addition:
"But take Chessgames assertion that he was a professor with the usual helping of salt." And a hint that Robinson Leather was Amos Burn's homosexual lover. Apparently Leather was a protégé of Burn and this term led to the confusion. The piece ends:
"Perhaps they were just good friends and team-mates." |
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| May-25-16 | | zanzibar: Thanks <Sally>. I hadn't realized the connection between Burn and Leather before. It's a little funny that I don't remember any mention of it in the BCM coverage, or the TB coverage. At the moment Manchester is calling, but perhaps I'll take a another look when I do the final pass over Amsterdam. |
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Oct-29-17
 | | offramp: The best way of traveling from Liverpool to Amsterdam in 1889 was by train to Shirehampton, then take the tumultuous ferry over to Pill, where one would sleep in the sumptuous Duke of Cornwall Inn for only £1 10/- a night. Day 2.
Pill to Bristol, then by train down to Portsmouth.
Portsmouth to Caen by ferry.
Day 3.
Caen to Paris. Paris to Brussels. Brussels to Amsterdam. END OF JOURNEY. |
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| Feb-12-21 | | Marcelo Bruno: I found a game won by him; the source is:
http://ilkleychess.blogspot.com/201... |
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Kibitzing
