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MatPlus.Net Forum General A Loyd miniature of doubtful attribution
 
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(1) Posted by Joseph Balsamo [Friday, Oct 23, 2009 21:47]

A Loyd miniature of doubtful attribution


ACW in his Loyd book quotes the following position as No. 208:
(= 4+1 )

This is apparently 364 in Loyd's Strategy, and the source is given by White as “Lebanon Herald ?”
The question mark means that this was a source given by Loyd that ACW was unable to verify.
The earliest quote of this position that I have seen is in Gossip's Chess-Player’s Manual, p. 857.
This book was published c. ix/1874 (although internally dated 1875). It gives the problem
anonymously: “From “Land and Water.”” The natural conclusion is that this appeared in L&W without
clear attribution during 1874 or a bit before that.
This proves that Loyd's source is incorrect (this is true for the majority of sources queried by ACW):
the chess column in Lebanon Herald started on 7/vii/1875. Another pre-1881 quote of the position is
also anonymous.
A rotation of this position was also published by H. F. L. Meyer (as an original) in his column in Boy’s
Own Paper, c. 1879-81 (according to Meyer). This is clearly anticipated by the 1874 publication.
What is more important, however, is that Loyd was inactive as a composer from 1869 to 1876. After the
two problems he published during his trip to Dresden of 1869 there seems to be no original till 1876.
Due to the great simplicity of the position it is quite possible that it was composed by an unknown
(British?) composer and then again by Loyd between 1876 and 1881 (and published in the Lebanon Herald?).
Meson attributes the position to Loyd, and adds two odd pieces of information:
(a) It gives the original source as British Chess Association Ty. without a date. Which tourney is meant?
It cannot be 1866 (all six problems are given in the Nuts). Can Brian or anyone else present the evidence
for this source?
(b) It claims the position was quoted in the first volume (1874) of Hanshew's Maryland Chess Review.
Unfortunately in Meson there is no distinction made between sources examined directly and those found
mentioned in other sources. Can anyone tell us if the problem really appeared in the MCR, and if so to
whom it was attributed? Was it claimed to be an original or was a source given?
I personally suspect an anonymous quote. If Loyd was publishing originals in 1874 it would be news indeed.
 
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(2) Posted by [Saturday, Oct 24, 2009 11:17]; edited by [09-10-24]

Joseph Balsamo writes:

>(a) It gives the original source as British Chess Association Ty. without a date. Which tourney is meant?

Tourney years are rather badly defined, but as there was one that seems to have been associated with
the 1872 congress that had 1873-01-01 / 1873-02-01 / 1873-04-01 as termination date (for sendings from
different parts of the world), "1873" seems to be reasonable, though I would imagine "1872" (from the
congress) might be used also.

The problem was published in DSz 1873 p 275 (September, 1873) as part of the set "Suum quique".
I would expect the original source to be a British publication, of course -- perhaps The Field.

I find a statement (DSz 1874 p 212) that from 49 received sets, 40 were proved to be faulty in some
respect, so only 9 of the 10 prizes could be awarded. Loyd is not on the list, so it's not clear
if he was ever stated to be the author. (I hope there's an explanation of the fault found with this
set somewhere else.)

Here is the complete set from DSz (as above) to help further investigations:

#2, 8/8/2ppB3/KPkpQ3/2q1p3/8/8/2R5
#3, 8/6K1/5N2/4k3/3N4/8/8/6Q1
#3, 8/8/2pp1b2/5R1K/4k3/1B1RPp2/5P2/8
#4, 1n1q4/8/4pb2/1B2kNp1/2p5/1b2N1K1/2nQ4/4R3
#4, 1rqb4/Bp3p2/4kNP1/1p5p/P2pN3/3Q4/b7/4R1K1 (I find this in YACPDB as by Loyd)

If the authorship was not published (and for faulty sets, it probably would not have been), the
absence of author's name in the mentioned sources is understandable. It may also be understandable that
it was not identified as a tourney problem -- it probably did not appear in the final report,
and problem collectors tend to view early publications of tourney problems with a certain amount
of distrust, as they usually haven't been tested thoroughly.

I'm not entirely satisified with Suum quique = Loyd, as it is based on the identification of
problem 206 in the Loyd-book, and so is indirect. But perhaps there are better identifications elsewhere.
None of the others problems in the set appear in the Loyd book.
 
 
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(3) Posted by Mario Richter [Sunday, Oct 25, 2009 11:10]

Further readings w.r.t. the BCA Problem Tourney 1873:
- Dubuque Chess Journal 1873, August 1873, pp.503ff
- The City of London Chess Magazine, January 1875 pp.290-292
- Nordisk Skatidende 1873+1874 (several articles about the BCA PTy)
 
   
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(4) Posted by Ian Shanahan [Sunday, Oct 25, 2009 15:42]; edited by Ian Shanahan [09-10-25]

Zuncke's database of miniatures gives this miniature by Loyd (a #3) as "Lebanon Herald 1873" with a note - "Brit Chess Ass" [sic] Is this any help?
 
   
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(5) Posted by Sarah Hornecker [Sunday, Oct 25, 2009 17:53]

This is no insult but the abbreviation for "British Chess Association".
 
 
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(6) Posted by [Monday, Jun 17, 2019 10:51]

Some additional notes, possibly of some minor interest:

OP asked:
>(b) It claims the position was quoted in the first volume (1874) of Hanshew's Maryland Chess Review.
>[..]Can anyone tell us if the problem really appeared in the MCR, and if so to
>whom it was attributed? Was it claimed to be an original or was a source given?

Maryland Chess Review, vol. I:4 (March, 1874), p. 110, problem 49.

It was published anonymously as a B.C.A. Tournament Problem under its motto "Suum cuique" (Not 'quique' as I wrote earlier.)

It is worth noting that in the May issue (p. [167]), a letter from T. P. Bull, Detroit, states that it is for all practical
purposes identical to a problem of his that was composed six or eight years previously and published in Toronto Globe (no additional publication details given):

(= 4+1 )

#3


While this problem has the same solution (mutatis mutandis) as the Suum cuique problem (which is also the author's solution according to Bull),
it suffers from several second solutions. (Or more strictly, it may so suffer: the original stipulation is unknown, and as there are problem published as 'White plays
and mates in N moves, in X different ways' around this time, there is a remote possibility that Bull might also have done so. MCR has a
dedication problem by T.A. Thompson to Frank Healey that follows that pattern in its first issue, for example, so they seem not to have been
viewed as jokes by everyone.)


You may already know:

Maryland Chess Review is listed on Nick Pope's Chess Archaeology site: see http://www.chessarch.com/library/library.shtml for a link to the Google Books copy.

Loyd's Chess Strategy can also be found among the Google Books scanned works.
 
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MatPlus.Net Forum General A Loyd miniature of doubtful attribution