Major chapters on Howard Staunton and William Steinitz, in particular, highlight the tensions between Englishmen and immigrants, amateurs and professionals. The contrasting long careers of Henry Bird and Joseph Blackburne provide a thread of continuity. The lives of several other important figures in Victorian chess are also presented. More than 160 chess games (with position diagrams), several annotated in detail, 50 photographs and line drawings, appendices include career records for all ten, notes, bibliography and indexes.
About the Author
Tim Harding played for Ireland at the 1984 FIDE chess olympiad in Thessaloniki, and is a Senior International Master of correspondence chess. A well-known writer on many aspects of chess, he was editor of Chess Mail magazine from 1996 to 2005. Since 1996 he has contributed the monthly articles in "The Kibitzer" series at www.chesscafe.com. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.