Edith Baird

Edith Baird (before 1898)

Edith Elina Helen Winter-Wood Baird , known as Edith Baird , (born February 22, 1859 as Edith Elina Helen Winter-Wood , † February 1, 1924 in Paignton ) was an English chess composer . She published as Mrs. William James Baird .

chess

According to her own account, Baird began playing chess before she was ten years old. Baird created more than 2,000 problems from 1888, of which more than 750 were within the first decade. She was the first woman to win prizes in self-mating tournaments. The compositions received many awards. One of their strongest tournaments was The Hackney Mercury in 1893, where up to six stones were allowed for threesomes. Baird won first prize in front of the composers Benjamin Glover Laws and H. F. L. Meyer , who are considered strong composers, among others . Before 1897 she was named Queen of Chess .

She won a silver chess medal in Sussex for three consecutive years .

Edith Baird
A1 1895

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Mate in 2 moves

Solution:

1. Sa3 – c2
1.… e6 – e5 2. Nc2 – e3 mate
1.… d7 – d6 2. Qb6 – b5
mate 1.… Kd5 – c4 2. Nc2 – e3 mate
1.… Kd5 – e5 2 Qb6 – d4 mate

Family and private

Edith Baird

Edith Baird was the daughter of the poet Thomas Winter-Wood, the owner of the property of Hareston in Brixton in the county of Devon , which since the eighth year of the reign of King Edward III. owned by the family. After nineteen generations, John Wood left behind only one daughter for the first time, who married John Winter, a descendant of Admiral William Winter († 1589). Thomas Winter got the name Wood back in November 1850.

Edith Baird's mother was the daughter of Edward Sole and granddaughter of Lieutenant John Sole. She was also very interested in chess.

Edith Baird's brothers EJ Winter-Wood and Carslake W. Wood were also chess composers.

In 1880 Edith Winter-Wood married Deputy Inspector-General WJ Baird, MD, RN, who received several awards for his work. Baird got involved in politics, where she campaigned for women's financial independence and against violence against animals, both in sport and through animal testing . She was also a good sports archer . In addition, she illuminated and painted . She also wrote poetry .

Baird has been described as friendly and charming.

EJ Winter-Wood

EJ Winter-Wood (1847–1920) was the older brother of Edith Baird. His father taught him chess while he was still in school. In Boulogne-sur-Mer he played in the Boulogne Chess Club in 1858 and received money from his parents for every game he won. He won 118 of 185 games. In 1868 he joined the City of London Club, where he played regularly for several years. He played twice " blind " against Löwenthal and once against Blackburne . All three games ended in a draw.

A few years later he won 23 out of 30 games in a tournament at the Croydon Chess Club. He was a strong correspondence chess player and solver.

Around 1884 EJ Baird composed his first chess problem. His third was reprinted as number 1 in The Brooklyn Chess Chronicle and was highly praised by critics. In the years 1886 to 1888 he won first prize at the annual tournament of The Sheffield Independent in the area of ​​the three-move and from 1887 to 1889 each time the second price in the area of ​​the two-move. He rarely took part in tournaments, but received an award every time. In 1886 his book Chess Souvenirs was published with over 100 of his best assignments. In total, he created at least several hundred tasks.

In 1890 he won first prize and a silver cup with 50 participants in the handicap chess composition tournament of the Plymouth Chess Club, of which he was vice-president.

Carslake W. Wood

Carslake W. Wood (1849–1924), born in Harslake, Devonshire, was a brother of Edith Baird. He learned chess as soon as he could tell the stones apart. After traveling abroad for some time, he settled with his maternal uncle, Major Sole of the 5th West York Militia, in Torquay , where he founded a chess club. In 1888 he moved to Plymouth . After a chess club was founded there, Wood was appointed honorary treasurer and secretary. In 1894 he resigned from these offices. He began chess composition around 1882. By 1897 about a hundred of his problems, all of them two-move, had been published. He won prizes in solving tournaments, but did not take part in any composition tournaments. Still, his problems were considered outstanding. In the 1896 Plymouth Chess Club gambit tournament, Wood won all eighteen games.

He published "Chess Notes" weekly in the Western Morning News .

Lilian Baird

Edith Baird had a daughter named Lilian, born around 1884, who was also a chess composer. By the age of thirteen, she had already created more than 70 problems, which most critics rated positively. She also wrote poetry and painted.

Works

• Mrs. William James Baird: Seven Hundred Chess Problems . ( Memento of November 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) 1902
• Mrs. William James Baird: The twentieth century retractor, chess fantasies, and letter problems ;: Being a selection of three hundred problems . H. Sotheran, 1907

literature

• Frederick Richard Gittins: The Chess Bouquet , dedicated to EN Frankenstein. 1897, pp. 9-11, 14, 24-26 and 28-29.

Web links

• edochess.ca