Belfast 1886 (2)




Results
 
Crosstable scores
Name   Edo    Dev.   Score  /  Games    Class 
Burn, Amos    2561 (29) 13 / 14 
Pollock, William    2375 (31) 10.5 / 13 
Neill, James    2063 (89) 10.5 / 14 
Magowan, S.J.    1810 (81) 8.5 / 13 
Barnett, Richard    2019 (51) 9 / 14 
Chambers, John    1974 (39) 7.5 / 13 
Harvey, Ernest    1902 (62) 7.5 / 13 
Peake, Alfred    1858 (58) 6.5 / 14 
Nicholls, William    1614 (71) 4.5 / 13 
Gamble, James    1663 (90) 4 / 11 
McTear, J.S.    1567 (91) 4 / 13 
Palmer, William    1754 (79) 4 / 12 
Barnett, Richard (1)    1298 (101) 3.5 / 14 
Boyd, Robert    1208 (130) 1 / 11 
Dill, John    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
  Odds for class difference of 5: knight and move
  Odds for class difference of 6: a rook
  Odds for class difference of 7: rook and move
 

Event table notes

Event data
Name: Handicap Tournament
Place: Belfast
Start date: 20 Sep. 1886
End date: 1 Oct. 1886
 
Notes:
J. Dill is listed at the end of the crosstable as the fifteenth player, with a score of 0, but apparently forfeited most of his games. The Belfast News-Letter (and Forster) does not indicate which games he actually played. McTear and Boyd also defaulted some games, though fewer than Dill. Again, which ones were forfeited is not indicated. For Dill, I have included his first 6 games, all reported as losses by 27 Sept. 1886, and no additional losses are recorded for him until 30 Sept. 1886. This is just a guess at how many were genuine losses (but for the moment this choice has no effect, since Dill is unratable in any case). Boyd, Gamble and Palmer never played their games between each other, so those are scored as 0-0. I have included all other results for McTear and Boyd, but the more games were forfeited, the more the ratings of these players (and Dill) are underestimated. Forster's account of the odds classes is inconsistent with reported results, since he has Dill and Magowan in class 4 and Dr. R. Barnett and Boyd in class 5, but Dill gave odds of two moves to Dr. Barnett, while Magowan gave odds of Pawn and move to Boyd. I have not found a contemporary report that specifies the odds classes of all players but the 8-class system I have imposed (or possibly 4 classes, each split into an A and B group) is consistent with all the reported odds pairings I have.
 
References
Books
   Forster, Amos Burn, page 207
   Rowland, Pollock Memories, page 3
   Sergeant, Century of British Chess, page 202
Periodicals
   [BCM], vol. 6, no. 11, Nov. 1886, page 414
   [BNL], vol. 150, no. 22226, 20 Sep. 1886, page 8
   [BNL], vol. 150, no. 22228, 22 Sep. 1886, page 8
   [BNL], vol. 150, no. 22229, 23 Sep. 1886, page 3
   [BNL], vol. 150, no. 22230, 24 Sep. 1886, page 7
   [BNL], vol. 150, no. 22231, 25 Sep. 1886, page 3
   [BNL], vol. 150, no. 22232, 27 Sep. 1886, page 3
   [BNL], vol. 150, no. 22233, 28 Sep. 1886, page 3
   [BNL], vol. 150, no. 22234, 29 Sep. 1886, page 3
   [BNL], vol. 150, no. 22235, 30 Sep. 1886, page 8
   [BNL], vol. 150, no. 22236, 1 Oct. 1886, page 8
   [BNL], vol. 150, no. 22242, 8 Oct. 1886, page 3
   [CML], vol. 8, no. 1, Sep. 1886, page 2
   [CPC], vol. 10, no. 319, 13 Oct. 1886, page 81
   [ILN], vol. 89, no. 2479, 23 Oct. 1886, page 435

Tournament information updated: 14 Nov. 2015