Firsts in Chess

 

First American Chess Congress - From October 5, 1857 to November 10, 1857, the First American Chess Congress was held in New York.  It was the first American chess tournament to determine the national champion.  It was won by 20-year-old Paul Morphy.  The top 16 players in the country took place in the Major tournament.  William Horner won the 16-player Minor tournament.

First American chess tournament — In 1843, the first documented American chess tournament was held, a local event in New York.

First American international chess tournament - In 1889, America organized the 6^th American Chess Congress and its first international chess tournament, held in New York.  The event was won by Mikhail Chigorin (1850-1908) after a play-off with Miksa Weiss.  It was a 20-player round robin.  Chigorin won 27 games in this event.  MacLeod lost 31 games in this event, the most losses ever in one tournament.

First Anglo-American cable chess match - March 13-14, 1896. The USA team beat the Great Britain team 4.5 to 3.5.

First black chess grandmaster - Maurice Ashley

First book to deal solely with chess - The Gottingen manuscript, written in 1471.

First British Chess Congress - In August 1857, the first British Chess Association (BCA) Congress was held in Manchester, England.  The winner was Johann Jacob Loewenthal (1810-1876) in the 8-person major section.  Loewenthal was supposed to play Boden in the final round, but after the first game was drawn, Boden was unable to remain in Manchester, and conceded the prize to Loewenthal.  First prize was a set of Chinese carved ivory chessmen.  John Owens (1827-1901) won the 16-player minor section.  The first place prize was a set of Staunton chessmen made of wood.

First Candidates Tournament - In 1950, David Bronstein and Isaac Boleslavsky won the first Candidates tournament in Budapest, Hungary.  First prize was $5,000.  Brontein won after a play-off.

First chess book on endgames - 1871, published by Philippe Durand (1799-1880).  It was the two-volume Strategie raisonnee des fins de partie, published in 1871 and 1873.

First chess book in English - The Game and Playe of Chesse, published by William Caxton in 1474

First Chess Boxing competition — 2003, in Berlin. Also in 2003, the first world Chess Boxing world championship was held in Amsterdam, won by Iepe Rubingh.

First chess championship -  In 1575,the first known championship between chess masters was hled in Madrid.  Giovanni Leonardo took first place, followed by Paolo Boi, Ruy Lopez, and Alfonso Ceron.

First chess club in America — New York City Chess Club, founded in 1802, but soon disbanded.

First chess computer to play in a tournament - In 1967, the first chess computer to play in a chess tournament with humans occurred when MacHack VI from MIT participated in the Massachusetts Amateur Championship.

First chess game in space — played by the Soyuz-9 crew on June 9, 1970. The two-man crew of Andrian Nikolayev (1929-2004) and Vitali Sevastyanov (1935-2010) (White) played chess via radio with cosmonaut Viktor Gorbatko, who was part of the ground control at the Center of Flight Operations in Moscow, and General Nikolai Kamanin, head of the cosmonaut training program (Black). The game lasted 6 hours and ended in a draw after 35 moves. The mission, and the chess game, was commemorated in a stamp issued shortly after the mission was completed.

Sevastyanov/Nikolayev - Gorbatko/Kamanin 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e3 e5 4.Bxc4 exd4 5.exd4 Nc6 6.Be3 Bd6 7.Nc3 Nf6 8.Nf3 0-0 9.0-0 Bg4 10.h3 Bf5(10...Bh5) 11.Nh4 Qd7 12.Qf3 Ne7 13.g4 Bg6 14.Rae1 Kh8 15.Bg5 Neg8 16.Ng2 Rae8 17.Be3 Bb4 18.a3 Bxc3 19.bxc3 Be4 20.Qg3 c6 21.f3 Bd5 22.Bd3 b5 23.Qh4 (23.g5 Nh5 24.Qg4 Qxg4 25.hxg4) 23...g6 24.Nf4 (24.Be5) 24...Bc4 25.Bxc4 bxc4 26.Bd2 Rxe1 27.Rxe1 Nd5 28.g5 Qd6 29.Nxd5 cxd5 30.Bf4 Qd8 31.Be5+ f6 32.gxf6 Nxf6 33.Bxf6+ Rxf6 34.Re8+ Qxe8 35.Qxf6+ Kg8 draw (the game can be found in Boys' Life, Dec 1971, p. 86)

First chess magazine in England — The Philidorian, edited by George Walker in 1837-38.

First chess match — the first match of consequence, the La Bourdonnais-McDonnell match was played at the Westminster Chess Club in London. The first match was 25 games. La Bourdonnais won the first match (+16-5=4). In October 1834, La Bourdonnais won overall in a series of 6 matches against Alexander McDonnell (1798-1835). He played 85 games (+46-26=13). William Greenwood Walker (1785-1839), the secretary of the Westminster Chess Club, recorded all the games. Over 3,500 moves were made.

First Chess Olympiad (official) - 1927, held in London.  Hungary took the gold medal.  Denmark took the silver medal.  Great Britain took the bronze medal.  16 countries participated in the event.

First Chess Olympiad (unofficial) - In 1924, the first unofficial Chess Olympiad team tournament took place in Paris.  Czechoslovakia took the gold medal.  Hungary took the silver medal.  Switzerland took the bronze medal.

First chess-playing software for personal computers - Sargon in 1978

First chess timer - 1852, with the use of sandglasses used to time a chess game.

First chess tournament - played in Heidelberg, Germany in September 1467.

First chess tournament (modern) - Leeds 1841 knockout tournament.  This was the first time the word "tournament" was used as a chess term.

First chess tournament (round-robin) - From June 13, 1862 to July 5, 1862, the first major round-robin (every competitor plays against every other competitor) chess tournament was held in London.  The 14-player event was won by Adolf Anderssen with a score of 12 out of 13.  All drawn games had to be replayed until there was a winner.  The first round-robin tournament in the United States was the 2nd American Chess Congress, held in Cleveland in 1871.  It was won by Captain George Mackenzie.

First composing chess tournament - In 1862, the first study-composing chess tournament was organized by Johann Lowenthal and won by Bernhard Horwitz (1807-1885).

First computer program for playing chess — created by Alan Turing (1912-1954) in 1951.

First computer to defeat a grandmaster — Deep Thought in November 1988 after defeating GM Arnold Denker at the US Open in Long Beach, California.

First computer to defeat a reigning world chess champion in match play — Deep Blue, when it defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997.

First correspondence chess match (recorded) — In 1804, the first authenticated correspondence match was played between a Dutch army lieutenant-colonel named Freidrich Wilhelm von Mauvillon (1774-1851) stationed at Breda, Netherlands, and one of his friends stationed at The Hague (Den Haag), Netherlands in 1804. Mauvillon's three correspondence chess games (winning two and drawing one) were published in his chess book in 1827.

First correspondence chess match between clubs — On April 23, 1824, the first serious correspondence match began play between the London Chess Club and the Edinburgh Chess Club. Edinburgh started the first game with the White pieces. The two clubs were 400 miles away and the moves were transmitted by stagecoach, which took 3 days to deliver. The match ended on July 31, 1828.

First correspondence chess match in the USA — 1835, New York Chess Club vs Federal City (Washington DC) Chess Club

First correspondence chess match outside Europe — in 1828, between the Hyderabad Chess Club of India and the Madras Chess Club of India.

First German chess magazine - Deutsche Schachzeitung, first published in 1846.

First German international tournament - In July 1880, the first international tournament in Germany was held in Weisbaden, Germany.  It was also the first major tournament interrupted by war (the Franco-Prussian war).  The tournament was the first to introduce chess clocks.  It was a three-way tie for first between Henry Blackburne, Berthold Englisch, and Adolf Schwarz.  16 players participated.

First intercontinental chess tournament - In 1878, the first intercontinental chess tournament in Europe was held in Paris.  The winner was Johannes Zukertort after a play-off with Szymon Winawer.  This was the first tournament that had an adjournment and the sealing of a move.

First international chess tournament - From May 5, 1851 to July 15, 1851, the first international chess tournament was held in London, England.  It took place during The Great Exhibition of Art and Industry and was a 16-player knockout elimination match-tournament.   The tournament was held at St. George’s Chess Club, Polytechnic Building, Cavendish Square.  It was won by Adolf Anderssen (1818-1879) of Prussia, who became regarded as the world’s best chess player, until he was beaten in a match by Paul Morphy (1837-1884) in 1858.  2^nd place went to Marmaduke Wyville (1815-1896).  The tournament was organized by Howard Staunton.

First international correspondence chess tournament - 1888, organized by the French weekly Le Monde Illustre.

First Interzonal chess tournament - In 1948, the first Interzonal chess tournament was held at Saltsjobaden, Sweden.  The event was won by David Bronstein, who survived an assassination attempt on his life in the last round.

First original American chess book — The Elements of Chess, was published in Boston in 1805 by William Pelham (1759-1827) and edited by William Blagrove (1750?-1810). Blagrove was the nephew of Pelham. The book recommended that the chess pieces be renamed. The king would be called Governor. The queen would be called General. The king's rook would be called First Colonel. The king's bishop would be called First Major. The king's knight would be called First Captain. The queen's rook would be called Second Colonel. The queen's bishop would be called Second Major. The queen's knight would be called Second Captain. The pawns would be called Pioneers.

First mechanical chess clock — invented by Thomas Wilson in 1883. Prior to that, sandglasses were used.

First New York chess championship - In 1886, the first New York State Association championship was held in Cooperstown, NY.  The winner was Walter Shipley.

First opera with a chess theme — In 1810, the opera, Das Schachturnier (the chess tournament), was composed by Traugott Eberwein (1775-1831).

First Pan-American Intercollegiate chess tournament - In 1945-1946, the first Pan-American Intercollegiate chess tournament was played in New York and won by City College of New York.  It is the largest and most prestigious collegiate chess tournament in the Western Hemisphere.

First pocket chess set — 1845, designed by Peter Roget.

First published game of modern chess - found in the poem, Scachs d;amor in 1475

Francesco di Castellvi - Vinyoles, Valencia, 1475, 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd8 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.h3 Bxf3 7.Qxf3 e6 8.Qxb7 Nbd7 9.Nb5 Rc8 10.Nxa7 Nb6 11.Nxc8 Nxc8 12.d4 Nd6 13.Bb5+ Nxb5 14.Qxb5+ Nd7 15.d5 exd5 16.Be3 Bd6 17.Rd1 Qf6 18.Rxd5 Qg6 19.Bf4 Bxf4 20.Qxd7+ Kf8 21.Qd8#  1-0

First reference to a goddess of chess - In 1510, Marco Vida wrote Scacchia ludus (The Game of Chess).  It mentions Caissa, the goddess of chess.

First Russian chess championship - In 1899, the first All-Russia chess championship was held in Moscow, won by Chigorin.

First stamp with a chess theme - issued by Bulgaria in 1947.

First Swiss System chess tournament - In 1895, the first tournament that used the Swiss pairing system (winners play winners, losers play losers) has held in Zurich, Switzerland.  In 1942, the first tournament in the United States that used the Swiss pairing system was the 1942 Texas championship.

First telegraph chess match — 1844, between Baltimore and Washington, DC.

First text of Modern Chess - 1475, the poem Scachs d'amor

First Undisputed World Chess Champion — William (Wilhelm) Steinitz (1836-1900), from 1886 to 1894.

First U. S. Open chess tournament - In 1900, the first U.S. Open (Western Chess Association) was held in Excelsior, Minnesota.  The winner was Louis Uedemann.  There were 20 players.

First woman Grandmaster - Nona Gaprindashvili in 1978.  In 1977, Gaprindashvili became the first woman to win a “men’s” chess tournament when she tied for first place at Lone Pine, California.

First women's chess tournament - In 1884, the first women’s chess tournament was held, sponsored by the Sussex Chess Association.

First women's international chess tournament - In 1897, the first Women’s International chess tournament was held at the Ladies’ Club at Hotel Cecil in London.  The event was won by Mary Rudge (1842-1919).

First World Computer Championship - In 1974, the first World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC) chess tournament was held in Stockholm, Sweden.  It was won by Kaissa, a chess program created in the USSR.

First World Correspondence Chess Championship - In 1947, the first World Correspondence Chess Championship started with 78 players.  It was won by Cecil Purdy (1906-1979) several years later.

First World Junior Championship -  held in Coventry/Birmingham, England and won by Borislav Ivkov.