Elijah Williams

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Elijah Williams (born November 7 or October 7, 1809 in Bristol , † September 8, 1854 in London ) was an English chess player .

Career

Williams was a pharmacist before dedicating himself exclusively to chess. He was a professional player at his home club in Bristol before moving to London and making a living with chess at the Divan , the most prestigious chess club in the British capital.

Williams took part in the first international tournament in chess history in London in 1851 and came third. On this occasion he managed to sensationally defeat his teacher Howard Staunton with 4.5-3.5 (+4 = 1 −3). After the tournament, Staunton called for revenge, and the two contested a competition in which Staunton Williams pretended to win three and wanted to see the match as lost if Williams came to three wins. When the score was +2 = 3 −6, Staunton gave up the competition because he could no longer bear Williams' extremely long thought. At that time you still played without chess clocks , and thinking times of several hours for a single move were not uncommon with Williams.

Williams also competed with other masters: in 1846 he defeated Hugh Alexander Kennedy with 4-2 (+4 = 0-2) and in 1852 Bernhard Horwitz 9.5-7.5 (+5 = 9-3). He lost a match against Johann Jacob Löwenthal in 1851 with 7-9 (+5 = 4 −7). He also lost to Daniel Harrwitz , against whom he competed three times with an overall result of 6-21 (+2 = 8 −17).

The best historical Elo rating for Williams was calculated as 2529 for January 1852.

Williams is said to have played for some time as the hidden operator of the chess Turk , then presented by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel . He had chess rubrics in the Bath and Cheltenham Gazette and The Field . In 1845 he published a collection of games played in the Bristol Club ( Souvenir of the Bristol Chess Club ), as well as a collection of games from the Divan, Horae Divananae , which appeared in London in 1852.

Elijah Williams died of cholera in a London hospital.

Works

literature

  • Mario Ziegler: The Chess Tournament London 1851 . ChessCoach, St. Ingbert 2013. ISBN 978-3-944158-00-6 , pp. 133-144

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ chessgames.com January 5, 2012 (English)
  2. ↑ Chessmetrics Player Profile January 5, 2012 (English)
personal data
SURNAME Williams, Elijah
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English chess player
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1809 or November 7, 1809
PLACE OF BIRTH Bristol
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1854
Place of death London