James Mason (chess player)
Encyclopedia
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
player and writer. He was born in Kilkenny
Kilkenny
Kilkenny is a city and is the county town of the eponymous County Kilkenny in Ireland. It is situated on both banks of the River Nore in the province of Leinster, in the south-east of Ireland...
in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. His original name is unknown: he was adopted as a child and only took the name James Mason when he and his family moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1861. There he learnt chess and eventually secured a job at the New York Herald
New York Herald
The New York Herald was a large distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between May 6, 1835, and 1924.-History:The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., on May 6, 1835. By 1845 it was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the UnitedStates...
.
Mason made his first mark on the chess scene in 1876, when he won the Fourth American Congress in Philadelphia, the New York Clipper tournament, and defeated Henry Bird in a match by the comfortable margin of 13–6. In 1878 he settled in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. His best tournament results were third at the very strong Vienna 1882 tournament, third at Nuremberg 1883 and equal second at Hamburg 1885. At Hastings 1895
Hastings 1895 chess tournament
The Hastings 1895 chess tournament was a round-robin tournament of chess conducted in Hastings, England from August 5 to September 2, 1895.Hastings 1895 was arguably the strongest tournament in history at the time it occurred. All of the strongest players of the generation competed...
, often considered the strongest tournament of the nineteenth century, he finished tied for 12th-14th with 9½ points of 21 possible.
Mason wrote several books on chess, the most popular being The Principles of Chess in Theory and Practice (1894), The Art of Chess (1895), Chess Openings (1897), and Social Chess (1900).
The opening
Chess opening
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...
1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 (in algebraic chess notation
Algebraic chess notation
Algebraic notation is a method for recording and describing the moves in a game of chess. It is now standard among all chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers...
) is sometimes called the Mason Variation in his honour; he played it several times from the 1880s. The variation of the King's Gambit
King's Gambit
The King's Gambit is a chess opening that begins with the moves:White offers a pawn to divert the Black e-pawn so as to build a strong centre with d2–d4...
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nc3 (allowing 3...Qh4+) is sometimes called the Mason Gambit, though Mason lost the only game he played with it (against Samuel Rosenthal
Samuel Rosenthal
Samuel Rosenthal was a Jewish chess master. Chess historian Edward Winter wrote, "He dedicated his life to chess-playing, touring, writing, teaching and analysing...
at Paris 1878); it is also known as the Keres
Paul Keres
Paul Keres , was an Estonian chess grandmaster, and a renowned chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s....
Gambit. The 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Be7 7.0-0 0-0 variation of the Petroff Defence is also named after him.
He died in Rochford
Rochford
Rochford is a small town in the Rochford district of Essex in the East of England. It is sited about 43 miles from Central London and approximately 21 miles from the Essex county town, Chelmsford...
, Essex, England.
Chess strength
According to ChessmetricsChessmetrics
Chessmetrics is a system for rating chess players devised by Jeff Sonas. It is intended as an improvement over the Elo rating system.-Implementation:...
, at his peak in October 1876 Mason's play was equivalent to an Elo rating of 2715, and he was ranked number 2 in the world, behind only Wilhelm Steinitz
Wilhelm Steinitz
Wilhelm Steinitz was an Austrian and then American chess player and the first undisputed world chess champion from 1886 to 1894. From the 1870s onwards, commentators have debated whether Steinitz was effectively the champion earlier...
. However, Mason was ranked the number 1 player in the world, albeit with a slightly lower rating, during 11 separate months between August 1877 and June 1878. His best single performance was at Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
1882, where he scored 15 of 23 possible points (65%) against 2622-rated opposition, for a performance rating of 2732.