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Gossip 
 
George Hatfeild Gossip
Number of games in database: 83
Years covered: 1860 to 1900
Overall record: +20 -43 =20 (36.1%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games
      Based on games in the database; may be incomplete.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS
With the White pieces:
 Vienna Opening (13) 
    C25 C29
 Ruy Lopez (9) 
    C67 C63 C78 C80
 King's Gambit Accepted (6) 
    C39 C35 C34 C33
With the Black pieces:
 Ruy Lopez (8) 
    C77 C80 C62 C82 C70
 Vienna Opening (7) 
    C25 C29 C28
 Giuoco Piano (5) 
    C53 C50 C54
Repertoire Explorer

NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]
   Showalter vs Gossip, 1889 0-1
   Gossip vs Birmingham, 1860 1-0
   Lipschutz vs Gossip, 1889 0-1
   Burn vs Gossip, 1889 1/2-1/2

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GEORGE HATFEILD GOSSIP
(born Dec-06-1841, died May-11-1907) United States of America (citizen of United Kingdom)

[what is this?]
George Gossip was born in New York on December 6, 1841. He was winner of the Correspondence Tournament of the Chess Players Chronicle in 1873-1874. In 1874, he published The Chess-Players Manual, a 900 page opening book. In 1885, he took 2nd place in the 1st Australian championship. In 1887, he took 3rd place in the 2nd Australian championship. In 1889, he took last place in the 5th British Chess Federation championship. In 1889, he took last place in the 6th German Chess Federation championship. In 1890, he took last place in the 6th British Chess Federation Congress. In 1892, he took last place in the 7th British Chess Federation Congress. In October 1893, he took last place in New York. He died on May 11, 1907 in Liphook, England.

 page 1 of 4; games 1-25 of 83  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves Year Event/LocaleOpening
1. Gossip vs Birmingham 1-030 1860 City corrC42 Petrov Defense
2. Gossip vs Steinitz  0-140 1868 LondonC39 King's Gambit Accepted
3. Gossip vs Longman 1-015 1870 corr ENGC33 King's Gambit Accepted
4. Zukertort vs Gossip  1-030 1872 LondonC59 Two Knights
5. Gossip vs L Hoffer 1-019 1873 ENGC39 King's Gambit Accepted
6. Gossip vs Bird 1-047 1873 LondonC35 King's Gambit Accepted, Cunningham
7. W T Pierce vs Gossip 0-121 1873 corr ENGC39 King's Gambit Accepted
8. Gossip vs Bird 1-030 1873 LondonC35 King's Gambit Accepted, Cunningham
9. Gossip vs E E Gilbert 0-142 1879 US-Britain corr. matchC80 Ruy Lopez, Open
10. W Gattie vs Gossip ½-½82 1883 London VizayanagaramD02 Queen's Pawn Game
11. Gossip vs W Tullidge 1-069 1887 AUS-chC40 King's Knight Opening
12. H Charlick vs Gossip  ½-½35 1887 AUS-chC00 French Defense
13. Gunsberg vs Gossip 1-044 1889 USA-06.Congress New YorkC50 Giuoco Piano
14. Lipschutz vs Gossip 0-172 1889 USA-06.Congress New York (26-2)C28 Vienna Game
15. D M Martinez vs Gossip 1-056 1889 USA-06.Congress New YorkC62 Ruy Lopez, Old Steinitz Defense
16. Blackburne vs Gossip  1-029 1889 BreslauC25 Vienna
17. N MacLeod vs Gossip 1-053 1889 USA-06.Congress New YorkC20 King's Pawn Game
18. Taubenhaus vs Gossip ½-½61 1889 USA-06.Congress New YorkC62 Ruy Lopez, Old Steinitz Defense
19. Burille vs Gossip ½-½36 1889 USA-06.Congress New York (21-2)D30 Queen's Gambit Declined
20. Gossip vs J W Baird 1-061 1889 USA-06.Congress New YorkC25 Vienna
21. Gossip vs J Bauer  0-134 1889 BreslauB01 Scandinavian
22. J N Berger vs Gossip  ½-½40 1889 DSB-06.KongressC70 Ruy Lopez
23. D G Baird vs Gossip 1-030 1889 USA-06.Congress New YorkC80 Ruy Lopez, Open
24. Gunsberg vs Gossip 1-053 1889 06.DSB-KongressD03 Torre Attack (Tartakower Variation)
25. Gossip vs Showalter 0-139 1889 USA-06.Congress New York (24-2)C29 Vienna Gambit
 page 1 of 4; games 1-25 of 83  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Gossip wins | Gossip loses  
 

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing >
Feb-27-06   PaddyAlekhine: I donīt think anyone could actually finish last in so many champonships. I believe itīs nothing but gossip.

Sorry, couldnīt resist.

Sep-28-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  Knight13: He did beat up some good players. And that's not gossip!
Apr-20-07   wolfmaster: Guy was talkative, and then dies with his lips shut!(Lip hook)
Oct-12-07   psmith: Surely his middle name is "Hatfield"?
Oct-12-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: <psmith> That would seem to make him the real McCoy. At least, that's what everyone is saying.

But "Hatfeild" does appear to be correct. See http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/... (Item no. 5075), http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/... (Item no. 5100), and http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/....

Sep-30-08   GrahamClayton: The 1885 Australian championship was a match between Gossip and Frederick Esling. After playing in the Melbourne Chess Club handicap tournament in May, Gossip wrote in the "Australasian" chess column, dated 6th June: "The results of my play during the last year having led me to think that I may not unreasonably aspire to the title of Chess Champion of Australia...."

Gossip issued a challenge to play anyone for the Australian championship. Frederick Esling took up the challenge, with Andrew Burns being his "second". The match was set for 2 games each week, 20 moves an hour and the winner being the first to achieve 5 wins. Each player put up 20 pounds stake money.

Esling won game 1 on the 27th of June as Black. After commencing game 2, Gossip stopped the match, due to contracting bronchitis and having to stay in bed for several weeks to recover.

Source: Anthony Wright, "Australian Chess to 1914", Melbourne 1995

Dec-06-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: I recently wrote the Wikipedia article on Gossip. Quite a character. See http://www.wikipedia.org/George_H.D... Incidentally, Kenneth Whyld in a May 2001 British Chess Magazine article about Gossip wrote that the Australians probably regarded him as a "whingeing pom" for moving to their country in 1884, then the following year challenging anyone to play him for the Australian championship. I still have to look up what exactly "whingeing pom" means - but it doesn't sound good.
Dec-06-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Calli: Whingeing? Yeah, thats the worst kind of pom. :-]
Dec-06-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: Apparently it means an English person ("pom") who complains a lot ("whingeing") - see http://www.pacificislandtravel.com/... This isn't what I had expected: I had supposed it meant something like a carpetbagger, interloper, etc.
Dec-06-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: <Calli> You're actually right - from the above-cited dictionary: "Whingeing Pom - ('bloody whingeing pom'), the worst type of Pom, one who complains alot"
Dec-06-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Calli: Perhaps an over-siliconed Playmate Of the Month. :-}
Dec-06-08   sneaky pete: My dictionary says <whinghe> (fam.) = whine and <pom> = Pomeranian dog. I must admit that this morning I thought I read something about <whingeing porn>, which sounds, if not exciting, at least interesting, so maybe <Calli> is on the right trail.
Dec-06-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  anthro: When I was in high school in the 1960s, the only chess book I had was the ancient Gossip manual, which was given to me by my grandfather. I used the book as a guide to openings and won a surprising number of games as White (on my high school team (usually third board, occasionally second board) playing openings such as the Evans Gambit and the Fried Liver attack (though Gossip did not use that name).
Dec-06-08   newzild: As for the "whingeing pom" comments below, I am a New Zealander, and we also use the term in our country.

It should actually be "whingeing Pom" (capital P on the Pom).

To "whinge" is to complain about something and "Pom" is a slightly derogatory term for an English person.

The term is a reference to the New Zealand/Australian belief that English people tend to complain a lot, and need to harden up.

Dec-06-08   WhiteRook48: Does he gossip?
Dec-06-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: <blingice> G.H. Diggle in the British Chess Magazine called Gossip "the King of Wooden Spoonists" (that is a Briticism for someone who finishes last) because he finished last so often. But he actually did pretty well at New York 1889, where he won 11 games, drew 5, and lost 22. See my Wikipedia article for more details: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg...
Jan-01-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Caissanist: <FSR>, your Wikipedia article on Gossip is outstanding, congratulations and many thanks.
Feb-15-09   Karpova: Edward Winter in C.N. 5994:

<Having traced a copy of "The Jew of Chamant", a novel which G.H.D. Gossip brought out in 1898 under the pseudonym Ivan Trepoff, Frederick S. Rhine (Park Ridge, IL, USA) has sent us a photostat of the complete work. He comments:

‘It is a vile book, virulently anti-Semitic but also very anti-Catholic and with negative references to South Americans, American Indians, a [...], atheists, socialists and Romanians.>

Source: http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/...

There are also some excerpts.

Feb-15-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: <Caissanist> Thanks!

<Karpova> Yes, that's me: Frederick S. Rhine. I rather wish I hadn't ferreted out "The Jew of Chamant." Before that, I considered Gossip a harmless but entertaining crank. That book, unfortunately, gives us a whole new perspective on the man.

Feb-27-09   swarmoflocusts: "In 1889, he took last place in the 5th British Chess Federation championship. In 1889, he took last place in the 6th German Chess Federation championship. In 1890, he took last place in the 6th British Chess Federation Congress. In 1892, he took last place in the 7th British Chess Federation Congress. In October 1893, he took last place in New York. He died on May 11, 1907 in Liphook, England."

Life's a bitch and then you die, right?

Feb-27-09   cyruslaihy: why is chessgames doing its best to make fun of this already dead player? whats the meaning of saying last place in this last place in that when you can just say "his performance went poor later in his life"
Feb-27-09   Judah: One doesn't need to "take" last place. That's just what's left.
Feb-27-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: Gossip was really never a successful player. Fred Reinfeld in his book "A Treasury of British Chess Masterpieces" accurately called him "a mediocre player who figured at or near the bottom of every better than average tourney in which he participated." Far and away his best tournament result was at New York 1889, a super-tournament of the day, where he scored 11 wins, 5 draws, and 22 losses. His drawn match against W.H.K. Pollock in 1895 was also a respectable result. My Featured Article about him on Wikipedia has everything you ever wanted to know about Gossip but were afraid to ask: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg...
Apr-21-09   MaczynskiPratten: Although he had some bad results, I would never label as mediocre someone who could produce a game like Showalter vs Gossip, 1889, which even Steinitz admired in the tournament book. Or indeed someone who could write what was generally agreed to be a pretty good textbook. So I am intrigued why he finished last so often. Did he have a nervous or psychological flaw which meant that he got psyched out and his game fell apart when he had lost a couple in succession? Or simply ill-health or exhaustion towards the end of a long tournament?
Apr-21-09   Dredge Rivers: Stop telling Gossip!
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