Chess in 1856
by Bill Wall
In 1856, Antony Guest was born in Staines, England. He was British amateur champion in 1888.
In 1856, the Chess Player’s Chronicle ended because of financial loss.
In 1856, Moritz Daniel Oppenheim (1800-1882) painted “Lavater and Lessing Visit Moses Mendelssohn.” The painting is an imagined meeting among scholars and intellectual associates Moses Mendelsohn (1729-1786) and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781), and the Swiss theologian Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741-1801), at the residence of Moses Mendelssohn in Berlin. Mendelssohn is depicted on the left, wearing a red coat, and seated at a chess table in his library with Lavater. Lessing stands at the center behind the two.
In 1856, Thomas Frere (1820-1900) started the Brooklyn Chess Club.
In 1856, a chess game between Schleiden and Grotjan was played. It is the earliest recorded game in California.
In 1856, The German Chess Club defeated the Pioneer Chess Club in a correspondence match. The German Chess Club won a supper.
In December 1856, the Sacramento Chess Club was formed. The officers were Dr. B.B. Brown, President; Joseph Mogridge, Secretary; and Dr. T.B. Baillie, Treasurer.
In December 1856, the San Francisco German Chess Club challenged the San Francisco Pioneer Chess Club in a correspondence match. The moves were published in the local newspapers. The German Chess Club won the game and the match after checkmating in 42 moves.
In 1856, Napoleon Marache (1818-1875) won the championship of the New York Chess Club.
In January 1856, the New-York Chess Club was founded.
In February, 1856, Ernest Falkbeer won the London knock-out tournament at the McDonnell chess club. There were 12 players.
On February 22, 1856, the first correspondence match (two games) between the Atheneum Chess Club in Philadelphia and the New York Chess Club began. Philadelphia won both games.
On March 15, 1856, the last chess column appeared in the Albion, edited by Charles Stanley.
On March 28, 1856, the first chess game by telegraph between Liverpool and Manchester was played. After 8 hours of play, the clubs agreed to a draw. (source: London Times, March 31, 1856)
On June 28, 1856, Paul Morphy's only chess problem was published on page 78 in the New York Clipper. Morphy composed the problem in 1849. (for more on Morphy, see http://www.oocities.org/siliconvalley/lab/7378/morphy.htm)
On July 6, 1856, the Immortal Problem was composed by Conrad Bayer.
On August 11, 1856, Ludwig Bachmann was born in Kulmbach, Germany. He was known as the Chess Herodotus. He was a chronicler of chess.
On September 9, 1856, Vincenz Hruby was born in Krivsoudov, Czechoslovakia. He was a Czech chess master.
On November 19, 1856, Simon Alapin was born in Vilnius. He took 1st place at St. Petersburg in 1878. He died in 1923.
On November 22, 1856, Alonzo Morphy, Paul Morphy's father, died in New Orleans
On December 15, 1856, the first regularly organized college chess club began at Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut.