London, England 1888 (7)




Results
 
Crosstable scores
Name   Edo    Dev.   Score  /  Games    Class 
Gunsberg, Isidor    2604 (31) 14.5 / 15 
Mason, James    2519 (33) 13.5 / 15 
Bird, Henry    2446 (30) 12 / 16 
Gibbons, Thomas    2079 (52) 8.5 / 14 
Pollock, William    2381 (31) 8 / 14 
Sellon, Ernest    2048 (51) 8 / 14 
Mortimer, James    2278 (33) 7.5 / 14 
Zukertort, Johannes    2460 (44) 8.5 / 15 
Lee, Francis    2339 (37) 7 / 15 
Hicks (1)    1877 (76) 6 / 14 
Müller, Oscar    2290 (49) 5.5 / 14 
Kindermann, F.L.    1744 (86) 3.5 / 13 
Rolland    1900 (63) 4 / 14 
Purchase, J.B.    1621 (87) 2.5 / 13 
Gaitskill, W.    1471 (124) 1 / 14 
Evans, T.F.    0 /
Ball, W.F.    1 /
Jackson (2)    0 /
 
  Odds for class difference of 1: two moves
  Odds for class difference of 2: pawn and move
  Odds for class difference of 3: pawn and two moves
  Odds for class difference of 4: a knight
 

Event table notes

Event data
Name: Simpson's Divan Handicap Tournament
Place: London, England
Start date: 22 Mar. 1888
End date: 3 May 1888
 
Notes:
Feenstra Kuiper and Di Felice give only total scores for the top 10 and make no mention of odds. A full account, including handicaps, is given in the Chess Monthly of 1888 (pp.230-231, 258-259, 291), but only using surnames. Ball retired after playing only one game, a win over Jackson. Jackson retired after playing only two games, losses to Ball and Bird. According to the Chess Monthly, Evans retired after playing five games, all losses, against Bird, Gunsberg, Lee, Mason and Zukertort, but Renette's crosstable indicates the loss to Zukertort as being by default. The remaining games of these players were scored as wins for their opponents, but are not, of course, counted here for rating purposes. The game between Purchase and Kindermann seems not to have been played. There are errors in the crosstable given on p.258 of the 1888 Chess Monthly. The game Kindermann-Müller is given as a 0 for both players, though Kindermann's total is given as if he won that game, so I infer that he did. Rolland's entry against Jackson in the crosstable of the Chess Monthly is given as a 0, though Jackson is shown as having defaulted that game, so Rolland should have been credited with the point and his total on the right should have been 7, rather than 6. Of course, this game is not counted for rating purposes in any case. These are the only adjustments I have made to the crosstable as given in the Chess Monthly. Renette makes a different set of adjustments. He gives Kinderman-Müller as a win for Müller, and has Rolland losing to Kinderman. The official totals for Kinderman and Rolland thus come out as 6.5 and 6, respectively, which match the totals given in the crosstable of the Chess Monthly. But that crosstable clearly shows a win for Rolland over Kinderman. And Renette's adjustments of the crosstable result in an official total for Müller of 9.5, though it is shown erroneously in his crosstable as 8.5, the value given in the Chess Monthly. All games were finished by 28 Apr. 1888 except Mason-Pollock which was played on 3 May 1888. The identities of some of the players are unclear; the reports in the Chess Monthly give only surnames, but Renette identifies most of them. It seems likely that the player named only as 'Ball' was W.F. Ball, who was strong enough to be placed in the second class, though Renette has 'W.P. Ball', as does the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News of 24 Mar. 1888 (p.42). 'Sellon' was probably E.L. Sellon, as identified by Renette, though the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News of 24 Mar. 1888 (p.42) has 'M. Sellon'. I am not sure which 'Jackson' played here. It might have been E.M. Jackson, but he was quite young, and even in 1891 was playing for the Oxford University team before returning to London and there a number of other players named Jackson in Britain in 1888.
 
References
Books
   Di Felice, Chess Results, 1747-1900, page 112
   Feenstra Kuiper, 100 Jahre Schachturniere, page 34
   Renette, H.E. Bird, page 390
   Rowland, Pollock Memories, page 3
   Sergeant, Century of British Chess, page 209
Periodicals
   [BCM], vol. 8, no. 4, Apr. 1888, page 185
   [BCM], vol. 8, no. 6, June 1888, page 279
   [CML], vol. 9, no. 8, Apr. 1888, page 230
   [CML], vol. 9, no. 9, May 1888, page 258
   [CML], vol. 9, no. 10, June 1888, page 291
   [ICM], vol. 4, no. 5, May 1888, page 132
   [ICM], vol. 4, no. 6, June 1888, page 164
   [ISDN], 24 Mar. 1888, page 42
Web
   Sericano, C.  [London 1888]

Tournament information updated: 19 Aug. 2022