Nov-01-19
 | | MissScarlett: <Perhaps the game belongs to J.E. Rabbeth...> The first thing to say is that <James Rabbeth> was Samuel's father. In 1874, he was also President of the City of London Chess Club, then the strongest in the world (boasting Steinitz, Zukertort, Bird, Lowenthal, Blackburne, Horwitz, De Vere, Potter, Wisker, etc.) and it's clearly him alone on the scene at this point, e.g. the score of a regular simul game between Blackburne and <J. E. Rabbatt> played on August 5th 1874, appears in the <City of London Chess Magazine>, vol.i, p.225. The same volume reports on the club's handicap tournament where Rabbath is ranked in the fourth of six classes. He worked for the bank <Coutts & Co.> for many years. This isn't to deny that Samuel became a player in his own right. The <Eddowes's Shrewsbury Journal>, December 10th 1884, p.5: <Dr. Samuel Rabbeth, senior medical officer of the Royal Free Hospital, London, whose heroic death in the attempt to save the life of a little child was commented on in these columns in October last, was a noted and often brilliant chess player. He was member of the City of Loudon Chess Club, of which his father, Mr. J. E. Rabbeth, is an old president. Some interesting notes on his son’s chess career, from the pen of Mr. J. E. Rabbeth, appear in the <Chess Magazine>.> |