Oct-30-21
 | | MissScarlett: Tim Harding, <British Chess Literature to 1914>, McFarland (2018), p.197: <Volume 2 of the <Chronicle> has numerous games by Staunton, especially against Cochrane, but sometimes one has to guess, or it may be impossible to determine, who was his opponent. There are several games in which he gave odds of pawn and two moves to a Mr. "B----N," and Staunton even lost one of them. He became notorious for not publishing his losses but was fairer when it came to players he liked or respected. The first two of these games were reprinted in the <Oxford Encyclopaedia of Chess Games> on page 74, giving the name of White as "Brown, J." and the <Chronicle> as the source, and moreover calling it a match (for which there is no evidence). There are at least three plausible opponents but the most likely candidate is the man who, described as "Mr. J---B---N, Temple" contributed problems published on pages 145 and 158 of this same volume, and some "problems for young players later." Townsend has identified him as the barrister Joseph Brown QC, whom Staunton's obituary in the <Westminster Papers> was to name as one of his early opponents. On balance, he is probably right though there can be no certainty.> I have no idea who these other candidates are, but we can certainly discount the famous problemist, <J[ohn] B[rown] of Bridport>, because he was only born in 1827. I'm refraining from uploading any more P+2 games until the software here is sorted out. |
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Oct-30-21
| | MissScarlett: The Globe, March 22nd 1892, p.6:
<Having given up his chambers in Essex-court and sold his library, Mr. Joseph Brown, Q.C., will, it is feared, be known to the Temple no more. He is 84, and has, therefore, long deferred the steps which signalise actual retirement from the Bar. Probably the oldest of the Q.C.s, Mr. Brown came to the Bar late in life; he was called at the Middle Temple only 47 years ago, and "silk" was conferred upon him as recently as 1860.> |
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Kibitzing
