George Walker (chess player)

George Walker ( born March 13, 1803 in London, † April 23, 1879 ) was an English chess master and writer.

Tournament Players

He was the son of a London bookseller. Together with his father, he led until his death in 1847 a music publishing house, after which he worked as a stockbroker on the London Stock Exchange. After the death of Alexander McDonnell, who could pretend he Bauer and train, he was for several years as the best player in London. He founded several chess clubs: 1831 Westminster Chess Club and in 1843 the St. George 's Chess Club.

1845 Walker played along with Henry Thomas Buckle, William Davies Evans, George and William Josiah Perigal Tuckett in London two games ( a win and a draw ) by telegraph against a team consisting of Howard Staunton and Hugh Alexander Kennedy in Portsmouth. 1846 Walker won in London a match against Daniel Harrwitz 7: 5

Chess publicist

From 1835 to 1873 he was a regular chess column in the Sunday newspaper Bell 's Life. In addition, he was from 1837 to 1838 the first English chess magazine The Philidorian out. He was a friend of Louis -Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais and William Davies Evans, whom he supported financially.

Walker was the author of The Celebrated Analysis of AD Philidor (London, 1832), The Art of Chess - Play: A New Treatise on the Game of Chess (London, 1832), A Selection of Games at Chess played by Philidor (London, 1835), Chess Made Easy (London, 1836) and Chess Studies (London, 1844). The latter book contains over 1,000 games from the period 1780-1844, so it was the time of his most extensive game collection. Howard Staunton criticized the compilation Walkers and threatened to sue for copyright infringement.

Chess composition

From Walker over 80 compositions are known, almost all are related to the practical game. With its endgame studies, he made ​​important contributions to Endtwicklung the endgame in chess theory. Many of his published positions carry combinatorial character. The game is played according to the level of development of composition at the time, mostly forced.

Solution: 1 Td4 -d8 Tf8xd8 2 Da5xd8 Ka8 - b7 3 Ta4 - b4 KB7 - c6 4 Tb4 - b6 KC6 - c5 5 Qd8 -d4 matt