Walter Grimshaw

Walter Grimshaw, ca.1880

Walter Grimshaw (born March 12, 1832 in Dewsbury , † December 27, 1890 in Whitby ) was a British composer of chess problems . In 1854 he won a tournament in composing chess problems, which is considered the first problem tournament in chess history. His name stands for a common combination of intersection points, the Grimshaw adjustment . Grimshaw, a pawnbroker by profession , published numerous problems in the chess column of the Illustrated London News , edited by Howard Staunton , and in Stauntons from the age of 17The Chess Player's Chronicle , one of the first pure chess magazines in the world. He made a significant contribution to the discovery and sharply defined representation of topics that are still part of the basic chess composition today. He was also a strong chess player and is said to have even defeated the future world champion Wilhelm Steinitz in a free game.

Life

Grimshaw was a son of the brewer, innkeeper and later veterinarian James Grimshaw and his wife Mary. The family soon moved to Cleckheaton and, in the 1840s, to Hightown in the parish of Liversedge in West Yorkshire . Walter Grimshaw, who had at least seven siblings, left his parents' household early, possibly at the age of fourteen in 1846, and trained as a pawnbroker with John Wood in York . It was there that the young Walter Grimshaw met Henry Edwin Kidson , who was also an apprentice to a pawnbroker and with whom he had a lifelong passion for the game of chess. In 1855 at the latest, Grimshaw moved to Whitby and took over a pawnshop there.

He married a daughter of his teacher, Mary Wood (or Holliday), in St. Crux Church in York in 1861. His chess friend Kidson was one of the best man. The couple lived in Whitby. In 1862 their son Walter Edwin was born. Walter Grimshaw's wife died in childbed after the birth of the second child, daughter Mary, in 1868, and little Mary was no older than nine months either. In 1878 he married a second time, his second wife was named Jane Trattles and was a fairly wealthy widow. Walter Grimshaw lived in Whitby until his death. He held various honorary positions there, for example on the Town Improvement Board . In 1883 he became president of the Whitby Christmas Beef Fund , a charity that raised donations to provide a Christmas roast to the poor. Around this time he probably gave up his pawnbroking and became a privateer who invested his money mainly in ships (the first husband of his second wife came from a ship-owning family).

In 1890, Grimshaw is believed to have suffered from depression , possibly related to various deaths in his family and to an illness in his wife. He was found dead in his bedroom on December 27, 1890, with a razor and a cut in his throat. The slogan of the death survey was suicide in a state of mental confusion. Walter Grimshaw is buried in Larpool Lane Cemetery in Whitby with his first wife Mary and daughter Mary.

chess

Problem chess

During their time as apprentices in York, Grimshaw and Kidson, possibly inspired by Charles Tomlinson's chess column in Saturday Magazine , developed a predilection for the game of chess and, in particular, for chess problems. Grimshaw began to publish chess problems himself around 1849, first of all in the chess column of the Illustrated London News, which was provided by Howard Staunton . In Staunton's The Chess Player's Chronicle , one of the first chess magazines in the world, he was able to publish no less than ten chess compositions as early as 1850, when he was eighteen. In the years that followed, his problems appeared there regularly, as well as in other newspapers and magazines.

Grimshaw won a composition competition following the chess tournament in London in 1851 , which is considered to be the first problem tournament in chess history. The idea for such a tournament came from Staunton, but initially found little support. An ambitious attempt at an international tender in early 1852 failed. It was not until the beginning of 1854 that the idea could be implemented in a greatly reduced form. Due to financial problems (foreign problem composers were not willing to pay an entry fee) the competition had to be limited to British participants. Each problem composer had to pay a subscription fee of one guinea and was then allowed to submit eight assignments, which were judged by a panel of judges. The judges each selected the best three problems and ranked them. Grimshaw was unanimously placed first, ahead of Silas Angas , and thereby won the award, an ivory chess piece set . One of the “winner's best problems” was printed with the first report of the tournament in The Illustrated London News . All eight problems submitted by Grimshaw appeared shortly afterwards in The Chess Player's Chronicle under the title “Mr. Grimshaw's Prize Problems ”.

Because of this success Johann Jacob Löwenthal appointed Grimshaw in 1856 to the committee for the organization of the chess composition tournament of the magazine The Era . He was elected to the judges panel. His verdict on the first and second prize can be read in the German translation of Löwenthal's tournament report; In agreement with the majority of the judges, he voted for Conrad Bayer's submission , which was superior to the winner of the second prize, Frank Healey , due to its skilful construction . In August 1866 he received the problem price of the chess tournament in Redcar . In 1867 he won the British Chess Association's International Composition Competition for Best British Entry ( £ 10 ).

The Grimshaw pretense

His name is still known today in chess composition thanks to the combination of intersection points named after him, the Grimshaw adjustment. The starting point of the classic "Grimshaw" is the following situation: Two black long-stepped figures with unequal moves, traditionally a tower and a bishop, have lines of action that intersect at one point. If one of these two figures is forced to occupy this point of intersection, the line of action of the other figure is interrupted, one speaks of "adjustment" or blocking of this line. The white man can then use this adjustment for his own purposes. If this adjustment is only effective for one of the two figures, one speaks of a one- handed Grimshaw; if it is shown alternately for both (reciprocal adjustment), this is a double-ended grimshaw . It is typical of the Grimshaw that it is not white (as in the Nowotny ), but only black that occupies the intersection; it is a victimless disguise.

Initial situation Grimshaw   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

Grimshaw pretense I   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

Grimshaw Adjustment II   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

Scheme Nowotny   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

The Grimshaw is one of the elementary black intersection point combinations. Others are: the Nowotny , in which the adjustment is triggered by a white sacrifice at the intersection, the Plachutta , in which two black figures of the same move are adjusted by a white sacrifice at the intersection, and the "Wurzburg-Plachutta" (see Otto Wurzburg ), also known as "double-sided Holzhausen" (after Walther Freiherr von Holzhausen ), with victimless reciprocal adjustment of two stepped black stones.

Walter Grimshaw published the "root problem" of the Grimshaw disguise, ie the version that is considered the first representation.

Walter Grimshaw
The Illustrated London News ,
August 24, 1850

	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

Checkmate in five moves

Solution:

The attempt 1. Qf6 with the threat of 2. c4 mate is obvious. Black reacts by breaking the white queen's cover line on d6. To do this he has to occupy point e6. After 1.… Be6 the damage would already be done: on e6 the bishop moves the cover line of the rook to e5 so that White can checkmate with 2. Qe5. But 1.… Re6! refuted. Although the rook at the intersection e6 moves the cover line of the black bishop on d7 and c8, White cannot take advantage of that. It would be different if the black bishop were on the other side of the intersection; then he would be cut off by f5 after 1.… Re6 and White could use that after a queen sacrifice . To make this possible, in the key move , White puts a so-called critical control of the black bishop into action, thus forcing the bishop to move past the intersection:

1. Ba6 – c8! 2. Qc5 threatens mate.

1.… Bg4xc8 2. Qc3 – f6 Re8 – e6 3. Qf6 – d4 +! Kd5xd4 4. Nd6 – f5 + Kd4 – d5 5. c2 – c4 mate

2.… Bc8 – e6 3. Qf6 – e5 mate.

The typical Grimshaw disguise occurs on the second black move. Themes are the black bishop c8 and the black rook e8. Their lines of action intersect at point e6. If the rook occupies point e6 (2.… Re8 – e6), the line of action of the bishop is interrupted (adjusted) after f5. White can occupy this square with the knight on move 4 without the knight being captured by bishop c8 . If the bishop occupies the point of intersection, the line of action of the rook is shifted to e5, 3. De5 mate is possible. This makes it a double-ended Grimshaw, because the two themed stones alternate at the point of intersection. This adjustment happens without a victim, since white does not enter the intersection and does not sacrifice a stone there (that would be the case with Nowotny).

An additional value of the task is that the starting point of the Grimshaw is not given in advance. Only after the black bishop g4 has been steered past the intersection e6 to c8, which happens in the first pair of moves, can the intersection be used at all. So a critical pull must first be forced on the runner before the Grimshaw adjustment can take effect.

Johannes Kohtz and Carl Kockelkorn , who systematized the white and black intersection points in their "Chess Study" The Indian Problem in 1903 and named them after their first actors, led the Grimshaw intersection there under the heading "The nameless intersection point". They wrote that they had not been able to determine an initial representation, but that the idea had already been implemented in large numbers in 1859 at the latest. It wasn't until about six months later that they became aware of Grimshaw's assignment from 1850 and were thus able to give the intersection a name.

In the new German school of chess composition , Grimshaws are often enriched with previous critical moves that make the point of intersection useful. A well-known example of such a Grimshaw with critical moves is the Schwalbe problem by Kohtz and Kockelkorn himself, after which the problem chess association Schwalbe is named (see there).

Two award-winning problems

Among the compositions with which Grimshaw won the composition tournament of 1854 is the following assignment, which appeared in print with Staunton's first report on the tournament.

Walter Grimshaw
1st broadcast prize problem tournament 1854
The Illustrated London News
August 26, 1854

	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

Checkmate in four moves

Solution:

With 1. Bg8 + Kh8 White wants 2. Nf6! (threatens to withdraw Bg8 with mate) gxf6 3. Bxf6 checkmate. The active black queen, who could interfere with 2.… Qa5 +, is annoying. First a queen sacrifice is therefore required: as soon as the Nd3 draws, there is a chess check that forces Black to take the white queen and thus distracts the black queen from the a-file. Only one of the six possible knight moves leads to the goal, because at the same time it blocks the first row in advance for the black queen in order to deny her a check on e1.

1. Nd3 – c1 +! Qa1xb1 2nd Be6 – g8 + Kh7 – h8 3rd Nd5 – f6!

and mate on the next move as shown above. Black now has a deduction check: 3.… bxc1D +, but the withdrawing bishop g8 can cover this with cross check and mate: 4. Bg8 – b3 mate. The flight from kings to g6 is not a problem because it is regularly acknowledged with Ne7, for example with 1. Nc1 + Qxb1 2. Bg8 + Kg6 3. Ne7 mate.

That the idea of ​​selecting on the first move is not so easy to understand is evident from the very critical review of the editor of the renowned chess newspaper of the Berlin chess society Otto von Oppen, which appeared in 1855 : He thought 1. S3f4 + was the key because this move corresponds to the black one König takes the last escape square and believed that because of this, “hardly a beginner over 1. Nd3 – f4 ... will remain in doubt for long”. But the escape via g6 does not have to be prevented at all, and after 1. S3f4 + Qxb1 2. Bg8 + Kh8 the black queen not only covers the mate-square g6, but also has the fatal 3rd… Qe1 + on 3.Nf6! to disposal.

A second of the price problems of 1854 was reprinted more often, for example by Henri Weenink or in the Swiss chess newspaper , where it was described as a “masterpiece”.

Walter Grimshaw
1st Broadcast Award Problem Tournament 1854
The Illustrated London News
June 10, 1854

	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

Checkmate in three moves

Solution:

The battery Bc6-Rd5 directed at the black king is not yet ready to fire because the rook has to give up cover for one of the squares d4 and e5 on the trigger. 1. Nf3 would therefore be close, after which mate is threatened with a rook deduction on the 5th row (the rook still has to keep an eye on f5). After 1.… Kxf3! However, if the king conquers the new escape square f2, which the withdrawing rook cannot cover. This is the reason for the intuitively hard to guess key move:

1. Rg1 – f1! Also threatens 2. f3 + Ke3 3. Nf5, Ng2 mate.

1.… e2xf1D 2. Nh4 – f3! Nevertheless! Now the rook penalty threatens again on the 5th row, whereas the two queens do not help at all, for example 2.… Qg1 +, Qg2 + 3. Rg5 mate ( cross check ) or 2.… Qc4, Qb5, Qxf2 3. Re5 mate ( double check ).

Only 2.… Ke4xf3 parried, but now 3. Rd5 – d2 is mate . This shows the effect of the move of the key: By deflecting Be2, he forced an opening of the 2nd row in advance, so that the attempt Nf3 now comes through, because the withdrawing rook can cover f2. The black pawn on e2 was more valuable as a blocking stone on the second row than the queen on f1 with all her active possibilities.

Further variations: 1.… e2 – e1S 2. Rf1xe1 + Da6 – e2 3. Re1xe2 mate and above all 1.… f4 – f3 2. Rf1 – g1! Return to the starting point (often referred to as switchback in problemist terminology ). Amazingly, Black has no defense against 3. Rg1 – g4 mate .

To the conservative Otto von Oppen, who preferred the style of Philipp Stamma's classical chess puzzles over modern British problems, this composition appeared artificial, ie not appropriate enough, and in 1855 he published an "unsophisticated solution" in the Berlin chess newspaper . Unfortunately, as Friedrich Capraez wrote in the Schweizerische Schachzeitung in 1857 , it was “totally wrong”: 1. Rd3 + Ke5 2. Ng6 + Ke6 or Kf5 3. Bd7. He had overlooked that on 2.… Kf5 after the bishop's departure, 3.… Ke4! is possible.

Along with Frank Healey, Grimshaw was considered to be one of the best chess composers of the so-called Transition School in the mid-19th century, a period in which, starting with the Indian problem , a number of fundamental themes in chess composition were discovered in rapid succession, and for the first time in a sharply defined form The subject of chess problems. Henri Weenink, who wrote a history of chess composition in the 1920s, emphasized the "broad spectrum of his artistic skills".

Party chess

A game of Grimshaws is documented in the British Chess Review as early as 1853 . Grimshaw founded a chess club in Whitby, probably around 1859, and remained its president until his death. He has participated in a number of chess tournaments, mostly in Yorkshire, and appears to have been quite a good party player. It was even reported that he won a private game in London around 1875 against the eventual world champion Wilhelm Steinitz . Steinitz admitted this, but described the sequence of movements noted by a lapwing and published years later as a "bogus manufactured forgery". The game, whose authenticity there has been a downright press war since 1884, still appears in databases today, often with modified time and place information (e.g. in the Bigbase 2012: Vienna 1872).

literature

• Walter Grimshaw . In: The British Chess Magazine , 1891, pp. 68-70. (Obituary)
• Grimshaw Interference. In: Milan Vemirović, Kari Valtonen: The definitive book. Encyclopedia of Chess Problems. Themes and terms. Šahovski Informator, Belgrade 2018, pp. 193–194.

Web links

• Stephen John Mann: Walter Grimshaw . Online on Yorkshire Chess History . 2012-2014
• First publication of the Grimshaw strain problem in the Illustrated London News , Aug. 24, 1850, p. 174 (problem no. 344). On-line
• 1850 vintage of the Chess Player's Chronicle with ten compositions by Walter Grimshaw, online
• Compositions by Walter Grimshaw on the PDB server

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Walter Grimshaw . In: The British Chess Magazine , 1891, pp. 68–70, here: p. 68.
2. ↑ Stephen John Mann notes that the name Mary Holliday is given in the marriage register of St. Crux, whereas in the Whitby Gazette it is "Mary, daughter of John Wood". Mary was the daughter of John Wood and his wife Grace, née Holliday, see description of the painting The Trial of the Pony, which shows John Wood's children, on artuk.org: online .
3. ↑ Biography after Stephen John Mann: Walter Grimshaw , online ; on the circumstances of death see also: Obituary . In: The British Chess Magazine 1891, p. 15.
4. ↑ Edward Winter : Chess Note No. 7271 Walter Grimshaw (1832–1890), online at Chesshistory.com. With a photo of the tombstone taken by Stephen John Mann.
5. ↑ Walter Grimshaw . In: The British Chess Magazine , 1891, pp. 68-70, in connection with the corrections Tomlinson made in a letter to the editor, see Mr Grimshaw's Chess Lessons , in: The British Chess Magazine , 1891, pp. 130f. See also Stephen John Mann: Henry Edwin Kidson , online at Yorkshire Chess History .
6. ↑ According to a poll of the chess section of the Gentleman's Journal in 1871, which asked about the "first attempts of our composers", Grimshaw gave a problem from July 1849 as the first published problem, which was also printed in notation ( The Gentleman's Journal and Youth's Miscellany of Literature Information & Amusement , Volume 3, 1871, p. 224). It can be found in The Illustrated London News , Volume 15, July 21, 1849, p. 42, Diagram No. 287 ( online ), with the comment: "This beautiful end game we owe to an Amateur of York". Two of his problems, which were under the heading Chess Enigmas (chess puzzles) and were printed in notation under his name, can be recorded for December 29, 1849 in the Illustrated London News (see Volume 15, p. 443, online ).
7. ↑ In 1881, Patrick Thomas Duffy answered the question about the first problem tournament in chess history in the chess column of the Illustrated London News, which he took over after Staunton's death, and gave more details, see The Illustrated London News , June 4, 1881, p. 563, online at archive.org. See also Tim Harding: Eminent Victorian Chessplayers . McFarland, Jefferson 2012, p. 362, and calendar sheet. In: Die Schwalbe , issue 224, April 2007, online . The British Chess Magazine , in its 1891 obituary for Grimshaw, said that this tournament was probably the first to award prizes; see. Walter Grimshaw . In: The British Chess Magazine 1891, pp. 68–70, here: p. 69. The frequently adopted statement by Bill Wall (for example in Off the Wall - Chess Trivia , Pickard & Son, Wylie 2001) that it was a Tournament dealt in solving chess problems is almost certainly incorrect; none of the sources mentions a ransom competition.
8. ^ The Chess Tournament Problems . In: The Chess Player's Chronicle 13 (1852), pp. 26-28. Online .
9. ↑ Reports on this can be found in the chess column of the Illustrated London News , edited by Staunton, August 26, 1854, p. 191, online , as well as in The Chess Player's Chronicle , Vol. 15 (1854), p. 322f., By a certain E. .: Prize Problems at Chess , Online .
10. ^ The Illustrated London News , Aug. 26, 1854, p. 191, diagram no. 549. Online on GoogleBooks .
11. ↑ Mr. Grimshaw's Prize Problems . In: The Chess Player's Chronicle , Vol. 15 (1854), pp. 361-364. Online .
12. ^ Johann Jacob Löwenthal : A selection from the problems of the era problem tournament. T. Day, London 1857, pp. 6-8. Online .
13. ^ Johann Jakob Löwenthal: Era chess problem tournament book . Weber, Leipzig 1857, appendix: Judgments of the judges, p. 112f. Online .
14. ↑ Stephen John Mann: 1866: North Yorkshire & Durham Chess Association, 2nd Annual Meeting, Redcar . Online at Yorkshire Chess History; see. also Walter Grimshaw . In: The British Chess Magazine 1891, pp. 68–70, here: p. 70.
15. ↑ J. Löwenthal and G. Medley (Eds.): The Transactions of the British Chess Association for the Years 1866 and 1867 . Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, London 1868, pp. 12, 136f. (Diagrams of Submitted Problems), 139. Online .
16. ↑ See Henri Weenink : The Chess Problem . Office of the "Chess Amateur," Stroud 1926, pp. 37-39. Online .
17. ↑ Johannes Kohtz, Carl Kockelkorn: The Indian problem. A chess study . Stein, Potsdam 1903, pp. 114-119, online .
18. ↑ Calendar sheet . In: Die Schwalbe , issue 276, December 2015. Online .
19. ↑ Grimshaw Interference . In: Enycylopedia of Chess Problems , p. 193.
20. ↑ A broadcast prize is not awarded for a specific task, but for the entire submission: several compositions were required, which were evaluated as a whole.
21. ^ Otto von Oppen: Mr. Grimshaw's price problems . In: Schachzeitung der Berliner Schachgesellschaft , vol. 10 (1855), online , pp. 183–187, here: pp. 184f. The "No. 2 ”is the problem shown on the left (see Mr. Grimshaw's Prize Problems , in: The Chess Player's Chronicle , vol. 2, new series (1854), p. 361, where the problem bears this number). The solution printed on p. 380 of the same year, however, is correct.
22. ^ Henri Weenink: The Chess Problem . Office of the Chess Amateur, Stroud 1926, p. 40, diagram # 16, online .
23. ↑ Schweizerische Schachzeitung , vol. 1 (1857), p. 31, diagram No. 22, online .
24. ↑ Schachzeitung der Berliner Schachgesellschaft , vol. 10 (1855), p. 381 (with the quotation from Oppen); Schweizerische Schachzeitung , vol. 1 (1857), p. 99 (with the quote from Capraez).
25. ^ Henri Weenink: The Chess Problem . Office of the Chess Amateur, Stroud 1926, pp. 34-45, citation: p. 39, online .
26. ↑ W. Grimshaw – J. Watkinson. In: The British Chess Review , Vol. 1, p. 343. Online on Google Books ( descriptive notation ).
27. ↑ See Edward Winter: Grimshaw v Steinitz . 2011, with updates. Online at chesshistory.com.

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on April 4, 2020 .