William Ewart Napier

Infobox Person
name = William Ewart Napier


image_size =
caption = Photo of William Ewart Napier from 1901
birth_date = January 17, 1881
birth_place = Surrey, England
death_date = September 6, 1952
death_place = Washington, D.C., United States
occupation = chess master, later president of insurance company
spouse = Florence Gillespie
parents =
children =

William Ewart Napier (17 January 1881 in East Dulwich, Surrey - 6 September 1952 in Washington, D.C.) was an American chess master of English origin.

Life

His parents emigrated to the United States when he was five years old. From 1895 he lived in Brooklyn and came into contact with some best chess players of the country. He had his first successes with simultaneous games, among other things winning in December 1894 versus the acting United States Chess Champion Jackson Whipps Showalter. At the beginning of 1896 he, despite his young age, became a member of the Brooklyn Chess Club. In the same year he defeated the later grandmaster Frank James Marshall in a match, winning 7:1 with 3 draws. 1897 saw him win a tournament match against ex world champion Wilhelm Steinitz.

At the beginning of 1899 Napier traveled to Europe, in order to study music there, and visited the chess clubs of London, Paris and Berlin. In 1900 he returned to the USA and established himself in Pittsburgh. There he wrote the chess column of the newspaper Pittsburgh Dispatch. In 1901, he won a master tournament in Buffalo versus Eugene Delmar, placing behind tournament winner Harry Nelson Pillsbury, but still above Marshall. This success encouraged him to participate in the following years in some international master tournaments. He played in Monte Carlo and Hanover in 1902 as well as in Cambridge Springs in 1904. He would win none of these tournaments, however in each case he received a special prize for brilliantly played matches, for example winning the Rothschild Brilliancy Prize for his match versus Mikhail Chigorin. In July 1904, he visited Great Britain and won a well-attended tournament in London against Richard Teichmann, Joseph Henry Blackburne and Isidor Gunsberg. Subsequently, he participated in the British championship in Hastings, where he was, because of his English birth, entitled to take part, and won the tournament against Henry Atkins, whom he defeated in the pass fight with 2,5-1,5, to become the first British Chess Federation Champion. In 1905 he played two matches: against Jacques Mieses the match was undecided (4-4 with 2 draws), against Teichmann he lost 1-5 with 4 draws.

Afterwards he withdrew from the international tournament arena. He gained American citizenship in 1908 and began a career at an insurance company, becoming president of the Scranton Insurance Company. He married Florence Gillespie (a niece of the chess master Pillsbury), with whom he later had two daughters. Although he still participated in chess, he played no more important tournaments. When he died at the age of 71, his chess career was nearly forgotten.

His best historical Elo number was 2662. He was, at the time, 11th place in the world.

Lasker

Napier called a lost game the best of his career. He played it in the third round of the tournament of Cambridge Springs, 1904, with the black pieces against the world champion at that time Emanuel Lasker. This had to show his skill in a tactical hand mixture. Napier showed up particularly impressed by the fact that Lasker had never lost the overview despite large time emergency. Lasker said afterwards to its young opponent: "It is my lost game, even if I won it."

Lasker - Napier

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nf3 g6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Bg7 6.Be3 d6 7.h3Nf6 8.g4 O-O 9.g5 Ne8 10.h4 Nc7 11.f4 e5 12.Nde2 d5 13.exd5Nd4 14.Nxd4 Nxd5 15.Nf5 Nxc3 16.Qxd8 Rxd8 17.Ne7+ Kh8 18.h5Re8 19.Bc5 gxh5 20.Bc4 exf4 21.Bxf7 Ne4 22.Bxe8 Bxb2 23.Rb1Bc3+ 24.Kf1 Bg4 25.Bxh5 Bxh5 26.Rxh5 Ng3+ 27.Kg2 Nxh5 28.Rxb7a5 29.Rb3 Bg7 30.Rh3 Ng3 31.Kf3 Ra6 32.Kxf4 Ne2+ 33.Kf5 Nc334.a3 Na4 35.Be3 1-0

Quotes

* "Of Chess it has been said that life is not long enough for it. But that is the fault of life, not Chess"
* "Mason had the unique quality of competently simmering through six aching hours, and scintillating in the seventh. Others resembled him, but forgot to scintillate."
* "The Pawn move is a capital investment. Every one of the forty-eight should, from the beginning, be spent as if it were one of the last forty-eight apprehensive and responsible dollars between yourself and starvation."

Bibliography

* "Amenities and background of chess-play." Napier, William Ewart, 1935.
* "Paul Morphy and the golden age of chess." Napier, William Ewart, 1957. (published posthumously)

References

* "Napier, the forgotten chessmaster." Hilbert, John S., Caissa edition, Yorklyn, Delaware 1997. ISBN 0-939433-51-6

External links

* [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=27118 a page detailing Napier's games]
* [http://www.chessarch.com/excavations/0007_napier/napier.shtml some of Hilbert's notes on William Ewart Napier]
* [http://www.lifemasteraj.com/old_af-dl/lasker-napier_cs1904.html comparative analysis of the Lasker vs. Napier game]
* [http://mywebpages.comcast.net/danheisman/Articles/Vukovic_story.html fictional story, illustrating Lasker Vs. Napier]