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Apr-01-19
 | | MissScarlett: Some sources (http://www.edochess.ca/players/p78....) have identified this player as the mysterious <Smith> who flitted in and out of the Birmingham tournament of 1858: Game Collection: Birmingham 1858 I'm unaware of any positive evidence for this, e.g., a contemporary publication that included any identifying initial, but my doubt has been reinforced upon reading the chapter on <C F Smith> in John Townsend's <Historical notes on some chess players> (2014). His discovery that Smith's adulthood was bedevilled by mental illness supports the suspicion that Smith was already lost to the game by 1858. Harding had already noted, back in 2011:
<Smith's chess career, brief as it was, falls into three periods. First comes the period 1848-50, the formative years from which about two-thirds of his known games come. Second, there is a re-emergence into competition in late 1852 and he is quite active in 1853. Now he is recognised as one of a group of accomplished amateurs, but he appears to have fallen behind his old adversary Bird, then approaching master strength. The third period is that of the postal tournament, after which no game by Smith is known except the one published in 1859, which may in fact have been played earlier.> http://web.archive.org/web/20130521... |
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Apr-02-19
 | | Stonehenge: Same chap methinks:
Charles France Smith |
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Apr-02-19
 | | Tabanus: London Births and Baptisms, Parish of St. James, Clerkenwell, Middlesex has a "Charles French" born 21 Jan 1827, baptized 22 April 1827, parents James & Harriet Smith. Abode Lloyds row. Father's occupation: Cabinet maker. Why "Charles French" anyway, born in Ireland? |
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Apr-02-19
| | Tabanus: The Era, 7 November 1858, p. 13:
<Chess in the City-road. We hear that a Chess club has been lately organised at Browning's, Commercial Coffee-house, in the City-road, and wish it every success. Chess meetings at the same house were held some few years ago, and Messrs. Bird, C. F. Smith, and other good players, attended them regularly. The subscription to this new society is a monthly one, and the whole, we learn, only amounts to 6s. per annum.> |
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| Apr-02-19 | | whiteshark: Here's a link to Harding's worth reading article:
http://web.archive.org/web/20140224... (that works for me) |
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Apr-02-19
| | Tabanus: https://books.google.no/books?id=aX... Charles French Smith in Renette's book. Name found by Townsend according to Edo chess. Must be the one born born 21 Jan 1827. |
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Apr-02-19
| | MissScarlett: <Charles France Smith> Mea culpa. <Must be the one born born 21 Jan 1827.> Why? The 1851 census, in which Townsend found the <Chas. F Smith>, a patient of Bethlem Royal Hospital, whom he identified as the chess player, states his birthplace as <Waterford, Ireland>, c.1828. Smith's hospital admission form gives the same birthplace. |
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Apr-02-19
| | MissScarlett: Renette's book adds one interesting detail - Falkbeer placed Smith in Birmingham in December 1857 (<Sunday Times>, 20.12.1857). This I admit increases the possibility that our man may have been present at the Birmingham congress. I should explain why Townsend could be sure that Smith the chess player and Smith the <lunatic> are one and the same. Smith's surviving Bethlem hospital records reveal one of the two securities (a person legally responsible for the incoming patient) as John Smith (presumably his father or close relative) of <16 Spencer Terrace, Islington>. This same address had appeared in the chess column of <Bell's Life> in 1847 (May 2nd, p.8) requesting a correspondence opponent for one <C F Smith>. Sweet as! |
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Apr-02-19
| | Tabanus: The UK Lunacy Patients Admission Registers" gives "Smith, Charles French", licenced house "Grove Hall", d. 21 Feb 1868. Hmm. The 1851 census is very blurred. Anc--.com has Institution Royal Hospital of Bethlehem, Chas F Benish, the "Chas F. Smith" there is member-submitted. Plus I find no Charles Smith b. or bapt. in Waterford, Ireland. |
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Apr-02-19
| | MissScarlett: <Plus I find no Charles Smith b. or bapt. in Waterford, Ireland.> Don't know if this will be of help using a certain well-known genealogical site, but Townsend's reference is <National Archives, HO 107, 1565, f.524.> <Why "Charles French" anyway, born in Ireland?> The French Connection: https://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/F... |
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Apr-02-19
| | Tabanus: Clerkenwell is situated in S part of Islington. The Clerkenwell source is a <baptism> register, he was bapt. 22 April 1827. The birth date is written in the left margin (outside of the form), 21 Jan 1827. Is it therefore possible that he was born in Ireland, and that the two are the same. |
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Apr-02-19
| | Tabanus: Case closed? :) |
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Apr-02-19
| | Tabanus: Ireland, Select Marriages:
James Smith, spouse Harriet Helsham, married 10 May 1828 in Kill St Nicholas, Waterford, Ireland. If them, it's 16 months after Charles was born. |
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Apr-02-19
| | Tabanus: Ilustrated London News, 17 July 1847, p. 43:
<Any amateur wishing to play a Game at Chess by Correspondence, may hear of an opponent, by addressing "C. F. Smith, 16, Spencer-terrace, Lower Road, Islington".> |
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Apr-02-19
| | MissScarlett: <Smith's surviving Bethlem hospital records reveal one of the two securities (a person legally responsible for the incoming patient) as John Smith (presumably his father or close relative) of <16 Spencer Terrace, Islington>.> In the 1851 census, at this address are found: John Smith, Irish-born, married, age 60, clerk in National Bank of Ireland; wife, Jane, 38, Irish-born; two sons, both at school, James, 16, Irish-born, and William, 12, born in Islington; a servant, Anne Pierse, 41, Irish-born. The 1841 census has the Smith family living at another address in Islington - John Smith, 50, a clerk, Irish-born; no wife listed; <Chas. F Smith>, 13, a clerk, Irish-born; James, 6, Irish-born; Sidney, 4, and William, 2, both born in Middlesex; Anne Pierce, 25, Irish-born. Townsend surmises the family probably moved from Ireland to London between 1835 and 1837, with John being transferred from the National Bank branch in Waterford to the head office in London. |
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Apr-02-19
| | MissScarlett: Illustrated London News, 17 July 1847, p. 43: http://www.chessreference.com/Staun... <ILN>, September 12th 1846: http://www.chessreference.com/Staun... |
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| Jul-11-19 | | Jean Defuse: ...
More game played by C.F. Smith:
Smith vs NN, 1852 A Simons vs Smith, 1852 (London) Source: JWD
... |
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Jul-24-24
| | MissScarlett: Illustrated London News, December 20th 1856, p.609: <A SECOND-RATE wishes to engage in fifty games of Chess by correspondence. Address, Omega, 16 Spencer-terrace, Lower-road, Islington.> |
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Jan-03-25
 | | jnpope: The game Bird vs C Smith, 1850 (clearly given as C. F. Smith in the ILN source) is the same game that Dr. C. F. Schmidt, editor of the <Cincinnati Sunday Dispatch> published as "played many years ago between the Editor and one of the leading Chess players of London, England"; see <Hazeltine Scrapbook>, v32, pdf p18 (Cincinnati Dispatch, column problem 6). Did C. F. Smith (London) move to the United States and change his name to Schmidt? And if so, how did he "die" in England, 1868, when I have him moving to Washington, DC USA where he is listed as the Vice President of the Washington Chess Club in the <Chess Journal>, v2 n14, May 1871, p128?? I have some serious questions about <<any and all>> prior identifications of this man. I get the feeling he was a German/Austrian who moved to England (changed his name to Smith while there) and then relocated to the US where, living in Cincinnati was comfortable using Schmidt as Cincinnati had, and still has, a large Germanic community. |
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Jan-04-25
| | MissScarlett: Hmmm. <Bell's Life> of September 22nd 1850, p.5, reports on a match between <C F Smith> and <Cradock>, the former giving the odds of P+2, won by Smith 5-0. More importantly, Smith is identified as the President of the City-road Chess Club. This wasn't a major club, but would be a 22 year-old Irishman likely be its president? |
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Jan-04-25
| | MissScarlett: The Era, November 7th 1858, p.13:
<We hear that a Chess club has been lately organised at Browning's, Commercial Coffee-house, in the City-road, and wish it every success. Chess meetings at the same house were held some few years ago, and Messrs. Bird, C. F. Smith, and other good players, attended them regularly. The subscription to this new society is a monthly one, and the whole, we learn, only amounts to 6s. per annum.> This earlier incarnation doesn't sound a particularly formal affair, so Irish-Smith's youth might not be a serious objection. Irish-Smith lived in Lower Road, Islington, about this time, which is fairly close to City Road. I think we need some more background on American-Schmidt. |
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Jan-04-25
| | jnpope: The <Penny Illustrated Weekly News>, 1864.02.06, p538, gives a game between C. F. Smith and J. N. Smith. Clearly there was a C. F. Smith in London while C. F. Schmidt was in the United States. Was Dr. C. F. Schmidt claiming to have played the game of C. F. Smith vs Bird? Or was there an intersection of two chess-players named "C. F. Smith" in England in the 1850s? |
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Jan-04-25
| | MissScarlett: What’s the earliest date you can place Schmidt in America? In 1864, Irish-Smith should still be in the asylum. |
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Jan-04-25
| | jnpope: He's the initial chess editor of the <Cincinnati Sunday Dispatch>, so that places him in Cincinnati in June 1858. |
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Jan-04-25
| | MissScarlett: Well, that rules him out from being Birmingham-Smith, at least. What does the <ILN>say about the 1859 Parr game? |
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