Saw your join the dots comment on the best read worst blog in chess history. How I keep getting 2000+ hits is beyond me.

If you join the dots up in the correct order you will get Alekhine!

Just posted another where I've uncovered a cheat who entered a Beatles poem to the Eagle comic back in the 1960's. (and there is some chess as well.)

http://www.redhotpawn.com/blog/blog...

I have a Lewis 1830's book knocking about the house somewhere, I'll see if this game is in it and his excuse for missing #1.

Of course the other famous thing connected to this player is The Lewis Chess Pieces.

The convicted con-man who tried to pass them off as chess pieces used the name Lewis to give them some clout. Him being the most famous chess player around at the time.

There is not one shred of evidence 'cept hearsay to prove they came from the Isle of Lewis. Nothing.

Sir Walter Scott and his cronie who were first offered the pieces did not believe the 'from the Isle of Lewis' yarn and say so in their minutes. That is how the British Museum got their hands on them at a knocked down price.

And they are not chess pieces but Viking gaming pieces. Me and the British Museum have been arguing about that for 40+ years.

Finally two years ago I saw them displayed in the Edinburgh museum as Viking gaming pieces as well as possible chess pieces.

Every time I see a set I put the Bishop on the Rooks square (where, if it is a chess set, they were probably intended.)

Just because the Viking lad carved a Bishop it does not mean it is a chess Bishop.

The first mention of a Bishop in chess did not appear till 400 years after the things were carved. Even Caxton does not mention a Bishop in chess in his book printed 200 years after the bits were carved.

If it is a chess piece then it's a Rook and that skinny little man biting a shield is what we now call a Bishop.

Glad our museums didn't start displaying Lewis and Clark chess sets carved by Indians in the Northwest or found washed up from the Pacific Ocean. Or display a Viking chess set found in Minnesota.

Does France display a Jerry Lewis chess set?

The name might remind Americans of the historical 8,000 mile expedition of exploration though the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase (General Napoleon Bonaparte needed money to fund his war efforts in Europe, so he sold the land to the USA for $15 million.) along the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean and back from 1804-1806 led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. They were greatly assisted by Sacagawea, a young Native American woman from the Shoshone tribe. This hazardous journey of discovery that mapped is well-documented with historical markers, overlooks, monuments, and displays all along their path. https://home.nps.gov/mnrr/learn/his...

https://www.history.com/topics/west...

https://www.lewisandclark.org/learn...

Many American schools are named after these two significant explorers (8,000 miles is a long, long way without automation): https://lewisandclark.rsd.edu/activ...

Of course, neither Meriwether Lewis or William Clark played the White pieces in this game above. I found no concrete evidence that either explorer played chess, but Clark used the term "chess" in his journal log:

October 20, 1804 ( Camped below the mouth of Heart River, Morton County, North Dakota, and a few miles south of the town of Mandan)

"I walked out to view those remarkable places pointed out by Evens.... saw an old Village of the Mandans below the Chess shi ter R.* appear to have been fortified... the countrey thro which I passed this day is delightfull, Timber in the bottoms, Saw great nos. of Buffalow Elk Goats & deer."

Chess shi ter R.* - Heart River; Clark's "Chess chi ter" is an Arikara word for "fork (of a river)."

It does seem rather likely that Merriwether Lewis was at least acquainted with the game of chess through his duties as personal secretary to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson loved to play chess, as did his vice president Aaron Burr! See the article: Radcliff, Robert R. "Thomas Jefferson, Chessplayer." Chess Life, 36 (1981): 24-28.

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Englishman William Lewis (1787-1870) was one of the leading chess players -- perhaps referred to as a "grandmaster", a chess instructor and chess author, during his day.

BCM Post: http://britishchessnews.com/2020/08...

Here is a batgirl blog of an article on William Lewis: https://www.chess.com/blog/batgirl/... It seems to be an excellent article! If you like chess history, take note of the links to the right side of that webpage (outside the article).

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