The chess games of Sam Loyd

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Sam Loyd

Loyd

Number of games in database: 32
Years covered: 1853 to 1898

Overall record: +10 -20 =1 (33.9%)*
* Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games in the database. 1 exhibition game, blitz/rapid, odds game, etc. is excluded from this statistic.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS

With the White pieces:

Giuoco Piano (8)
C50

With the Black pieces:

Ruy Lopez (4)
C62

Repertoire Explorer

NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]
   C Golmayo vs Loyd, 1867 0-1
   Fitzgerald vs Loyd, 1898 0-1
   Loyd vs S Rosenthal, 1867 1-0
   Loyd vs Charles Caldwell Moore, 1853 1-0
   E D'Andre vs Loyd, 1867 0-1
   Loyd vs C Golmayo, 1867 1-0

NOTABLE TOURNAMENTS: [what is this?]
   Paris (1867)

GAME COLLECTIONS: [what is this?]
   great games by awesome players by zzzzzzzzzzzz

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SAM LOYD
(born Jan-30-1841, died Apr-10-1911, 70 years old) United States of America

[what is this?]

Sam Loyd was born in Philadelphia. By age 9, young Sam won his club championship (one of the New York chess clubs (1) hosted a city championship in 1850), becoming deeply obsessed with chess, & frequented that club where his interest in making puzzles started. His first problem was published by a New York paper when he was 14, and during the next five years his output of chess puzzles was so prolific that he was known throughout the chess world. By 1858 he was hailed as the leading American writer of chess problems. When Loyd was only 17, he invented his ingeniously difficult "Trick Mules Puzzle," which was later sold to showman Phineas T. Barnum for $10,000.

Loyd's most famous puzzle was the "15 Puzzle" which he produced in 1878. The craze swept America where employers put up notices prohibiting playing the puzzle during office hours. Recent research, however, casts doubts upon whether Loyd was actually the originator of this puzzle.

He published a book of 500 chess problems, entitled Chess Strategy in 1878, comprised mostly of his weekly chess columns he wrote for the Scientific American Supplement & NYC dailies such as the Brooklyn Daily Eagle as a puzzle contributor. He also served as a chess columnist for the American Chess Journal (called Dubuque Chess Journal formerly when Orestes Brownson Jr. edited it).

Reference: (1) Brooklyn Daily Eagle (March 22nd, 1896).

Wikipedia article: Sam Loyd

page 1 of 2; games 1-25 of 32

Game	Result	Moves	Year	Event/Locale	Opening
1. Loyd vs Charles Caldwell Moore	1-0	24	1853	Casual	C33 King's Gambit Accepted
2. T Loyd vs Loyd	1-0	27	1855	New York	C44 King's Pawn Game
3. Loyd vs F Perrin	0-1	29	1856	New York	D30 Queen's Gambit Declined
4. C Stanley vs Loyd	0-1	15	1859	Stanley's Chess Room	C00 French Defense
5. Loyd vs J A Leonard	0-1	19	1860	New York	C77 Ruy Lopez
6. J A Leonard vs Loyd	0-1	33	1860	New York	C01 French, Exchange
7. Loyd vs de Riviere	0-1	50	1867	Paris	C50 Giuoco Piano
8. de Riviere vs Loyd	1-0	41	1867	Paris	C62 Ruy Lopez, Old Steinitz Defense
9. De Vere vs Loyd	1-0	43	1867	Paris	C62 Ruy Lopez, Old Steinitz Defense
10. Loyd vs De Vere	0-1	42	1867	Paris	C50 Giuoco Piano
11. E D'Andre vs Loyd	0-1	24	1867	Paris	A03 Bird's Opening
12. Loyd vs E D'Andre	1-0	31	1867	Paris	C50 Giuoco Piano
13. Loyd vs S Rosenthal	1-0	36	1867	Paris	C50 Giuoco Piano
14. S Rosenthal vs Loyd	½-½	51	1867	Paris	C62 Ruy Lopez, Old Steinitz Defense
15. Loyd vs E Rousseau	0-1	26	1867	Paris	C62 Ruy Lopez, Old Steinitz Defense
16. E Rousseau vs Loyd	0-1	36	1867	Paris	C52 Evans Gambit
17. Loyd vs G Neumann	0-1	46	1867	Paris	C50 Giuoco Piano
18. G Neumann vs Loyd	1-0	27	1867	Paris	C52 Evans Gambit
19. Loyd vs Winawer	0-1	44	1867	Paris	C42 Petrov Defense
20. M S From vs Loyd	1-0	26	1867	Paris	C45 Scotch Game
21. Winawer vs Loyd	1-0	51	1867	Paris	C62 Ruy Lopez, Old Steinitz Defense
22. Loyd vs M S From	0-1	40	1867	Paris	C60 Ruy Lopez
23. H Czarnowski vs Loyd	1-0	24	1867	Paris	C50 Giuoco Piano
24. Loyd vs H Czarnowski	0-1	39	1867	Paris	C50 Giuoco Piano
25. Loyd vs Steinitz	0-1	29	1867	Paris	B21 Sicilian, 2.f4 and 2.d4


page 1 of 2; games 1-25 of 32

REFINE SEARCH: White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Loyd wins | Loyd loses

< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 17 OF 17 · Later Kibitzing>
Dec-29-11		Phony Benoni: <jnpope> I couldn't speculate as to the actual originator, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were neither Zukertort nor Chigorin. But I do want to express my thanks for your work on the Jack O'Keefe Project. This is a important and useful resource, even for amateur researchers such as myself.

Jan-02-12		Richard Taylor: My father was given a book of Sam Loyd's in the middle 60s) puzzles for giving another chess player lifts by car to tournaments but I myself didn't look at them very much, I prefer "real positions" when I hopefully find it easier to recognize patterns...but I might haul it out... Studies are good. But good to see Sam Loyd on here today. Very clever man.

Jan-02-12		Richard Taylor: <becoming deeply obsessed with chess, > This sounds familiar!

Jan-02-12		Richard Taylor: < vonKrolock: <Phony Benoni> The atribution to Loyd in this instance is doubtful. There're some similar examples with this matrix in <WinChloe>, though, for instance this one: F. S. Bondarenko "feenschach" 1960 click for larger view w #21 1.Dd8+ Td6 2.Db7+ T��6 3.Da5+ T4�5 4.Db3+ Td�4 5.Dd2+ T�d4 6.Df3+ T��4 7.Dg5+ �5 8.Df7+ T�6 9.Dd8+ T�d6 10.Db7+ T��6 11.Da5+ T4�5 12.Db3+ Td�4 13.Dd2+ T�d4 14.Df3+ �4 15.Dg5+ T�5 16.Df7+ Td�6 17.Dd8+ T�d6 18.Db7+ T��6 19.Da5+ T4�5 20.Db3+ Td�4 21.Dd2� > I can visualize the whole process of this without moving the pieces! The pieces all move around the King like Merry go Round!!

Jan-02-12		Richard Taylor: These are intriguing! I must dust off (now my) book of Sam Loyd's puzzles!

Jan-02-12		Penguincw: Best puzzle composer ever.

Jan-02-12		erniecohen: Since Loyd is player-of-the-day, perhaps it's as good a time as any to ask: did anyone ever compose a rook excelsior (or show it impossible)? I seem to remember it was an open problem (with a prize!) back in the '70s.

Jan-02-12		erniecohen: <Phoni Benoni> I think even when the ambiguous rules allowed promotion to a Black piece, promoting to a ♘ constituted moving into check, which you are not allowed to do (even if you do it while checkmating the opposing ♔). On the other hand, promoting to a King (of either color) introduces all kinds of interesting possibilities. (I'd vote for the interpretation that you have to capture all of them.)

Jan-02-12		Phony Benoni: <erniecohen> You may be remembering an offer made by Al Horowitz. I don't recall the definite context, but it may have been in conjunction with P. L. Rothenberg and appearing in their book "The Personality of Chess" (also known as "The Complete Book of Chess"). They offered a $100 prize for a double knight promotion helpmate. In this problem, Black would move first and both sides would cooperate to mate Black in five moves by marching a single pawn which would promote to a knight. Just to illustrate the idea: click for larger view The intention, Black moving first, is 1.g5 a4 2.gxh4 a5 3.h3 a6 4.h2 a7 5.h1N a8N#. Black's g-pawn must jump two squares to avoid checking the White king, and must promote to a knight to avoid another check or covering the mating square on a8. Of course, this position is totally unsound. For example, Black can play ..Bb7 at some point, allowing axb7 and b8Q#. Horowitz and Rothenberg had not found a solution, and I believe Pal Benko also worked on it without success. Perhaps one of our more knowledgable problem fans knows something further.

Jan-02-12		erniecohen: <Phoniy Benoni> I do think it might have been in "The Complete Book of Chess", but I don't remember it as being a helpmate - it was supposed to match the original Excelsior problem, but promoting to different pieces (i.e. White to mate in 5, where the principal line was all moves by a single pawn, ending with promotion to an appropriate piece). So it was not supposed to be a helpmate. They had accomplished it for all pieces except for one, which I thought was the Rook (but it might have been Knight). Can somebody with a copy of "The Complete Book of Chess" check this out?

Jan-06-12		erniecohen: I finally tracked down a copy of "The Complete Book of Chess" and <PhoniBenoni> was absolutely right, it was indeed a helpmate in 5 with promotion to a ♘ (for both sides, the second delivering mate). There are several references to the problem on the web (google "Knight double excelsior"). The following solution from "Chess Life and Review" 1974 (by R. Stanley) shows a solution using promoted pieces: click for larger view It is apparently widely believed to be impossible to achieve this without using promoted pieces, but the problem seems to still be open.

Jan-30-12		brankat: Forever young!

Jan-30-12		Penguincw: R.I.P. Sam Loyd.

Mar-11-12		Peligroso Patzer: I just came across the following curious and interesting statement attributed to Paul Saladin Leonhardt: �Genius is creative, sees and combines visions, is original and catholic, so far as possible. If one may speak of genius in chess, then you may concede it to Morphy, Steinitz, Pillsbury and Lloyd [sic]. But to call Rubinstein a genius is a perversion of words.� The foregoing was quoted in <The Life and Games of Akiva Rubinstein, Volume 1: Uncrowned King>, 2nd Edition, Revised and Enlarged, by Donaldson, John and Minev, Nikolay, Russell Enterprises, Inc. �2006, at p. 269, in an extended passage excerpted from an article the above-identified source says appeared in the November 1912 issue of the <British Chess Magazine>. Despite the incorrect spelling, I wonder if Leonhardt was attributing genius to Sam Loyd on the basis of his creativity as a problem composer. Otherwise, I am at a loss to identify his reference to �Lloyd�.

Jul-30-12		TheFocus: I never liked chess problems. Or their composers. And isn't "composer" kinda pretentious? Of course, it is easier than saying "chess problem maker-upper." Just kidding. Sam Loyd was a fantastic chess problem maker-upper.

Jan-02-13		johnlspouge: From Wolfram's MathWorld: "The "15 puzzle" is a sliding square puzzle commonly (but incorrectly) attributed to Sam Loyd. However, research by Slocum and Sonneveld (2006) has revealed that Sam Loyd did not invent the 15 puzzle and had nothing to do with promoting or popularizing it." [ http://mathworld.wolfram.com/15Puzz... ] MathWorld therefore gives the following as the relevant reference. Slocum and Sonneveld (2006) [ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A... ]

Jan-08-13		thomastonk: Here is an early game of Loyd: [Event "*"] [Site "Stanley's Chess Room"] [Date "1859.01.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Stanley, Charles H."] [Black "Loyd, Samuel"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C01"] [PlyCount "30"] 1. e4 e6 2. c3 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. d4 Bd6 5. Bd3 Nf6 6. h3 O-O 7. Nf3 Re8+ 8. Be3 Ne4 9. Nbd2 Ng3 10. fxg3? Rxe3+ 11. Be2 Bxg3+ 12. Kf1 Nc6 13. Qc2 Ne7 14. h4 Nf5 15. Rh3 Rxf3+ 0-1 Source: NY Saturday Press 22 January 1859.

May-15-15		TheFocus: <My theory of a key-move was always to make it just the reverse of what a player in 999 out of 1000 could look for> - Sam Loyd.

Jan-30-16		TheFocus: Great problemist! Happy birthday, Sam Loyd!!

Aug-10-16		steinitzfan: Hard to believe that Loyd couldn't have become a top-flight player. I remember telling someone I was teaching the game that stalemates usually occurred with just a king and blocked pawns. Although, I hastened to add, I was sure that some uber-genius had composed a stalemate with like five (wow!) pieces. I thought that was a joke but then I saw Loyd's stalemate composition with every piece on the board. He was a genius.

Jan-30-17		TheFocus: I would wish you happy birthday, Mr. Loyd, but I am having problems.

May-24-17		RookFile: If Loyd mastered the openings he goes to the next level. I'm glad he didn't. His problems are amazing and we have those instead.

Sep-26-17		Stonehenge: "He collaborated with puzzler Henry Dudeney for a while, but Dudeney broke off the correspondence and accused Loyd of stealing his puzzles and publishing them under his own name. Dudeney despised Loyd so intensely he equated him with the Devil." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_L... See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry....

Sep-26-17		keypusher: For anyone familiar with Welsh -- why is Lloyd usually spelled with two L's? And whatever happened to Sam's second L?

Sep-26-17		Sally Simpson: It's one his lesser known puzzles. Where is the missing 'L', He may have sold an 'L' to Lionel Llewellyn.

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