George Gossip

George Gossip, drawing from 1888

George Hatfeild Dingley Gossip (born December 6, 1841 in New York City , † May 11, 1907 in Liphook ) was an English chess player and chess author.

Life

After his mother died when he was eighteen months old, his English father returned with him to his homeland. He graduated from Windermere College in Westmorland , but was unable to begin the desired training at Oxford University due to financial problems. Instead he went to Paris for five years and worked there as a journalist , including from 1879 to 1880 for The Times . There he often visited the famous chess bar Café de la Regence . He then stayed in Australia for four years, from 1884 to 1888, where he worked for various newspapers, then went to the USA and finally returned to England, where he died of heart disease in 1907.

Chess player

Gossip took part in a few championship tournaments, but did not get good results. In the tournaments of Breslau in 1889, London in 1889, Manchester in 1890, London in 1892 and New York in 1893 he came last and came in a total of only four winning games with 52 defeats and 22 draws. At the tournament in New York in 1889 he reached 13.5 points from 38 games and was able to win some games against recognized masters such as Henry Edward Bird . In the not very strong Australian Championship in 1885 he came second, two years later he took third place.

Despite this unimpressive tournament record, he considered himself a good player and liked to cite successes in minor tournaments and games that were played outside of tournaments as evidence. He was accused of having invented some of these games freely, which he always denied. The truth is rather that he only published his winning games, but not the significantly more numerous losing games.

His best historical rating is 2470.

Cover of The chess player's manual , 1902 edition

Chess author

Gossip wrote several chess books , including The chess player's manual (1875, 2nd edition 1888), a 900-page treatise on openings , which was at least reviewed as a useful work by world chess champion Wilhelm Steinitz . Other chess books from his pen are Theory of the chess openings (1879, 2nd edition 1891), The chess players' text-book (1889) and The chess-player's vade mecum and pocket guide to the openings (1891). To the great bitterness of Gossip, these works were regularly panned in the English chess press because his chess qualifications were questioned.

literature

• Edward Winter: Chess facts and fables . McFarland, Jefferson 2006. pp. 200-205

Web links

• Edward Winter: Gossip (English)