Earlier today I stumbled across a game purportedly played by Henry Bird in 1890. However he plays the Scotch, which I don't remember seeing in any of his published games. I'm not very good at searching databases so I was wondering if anyone with more skills than me in that area could see if Bird played the opening three moves in any of his known games?
My suspicion is that the newspaper where I found this game was incorrect, and that Bird was actually Black.
I have found five games where Bird played the Scotch as white and six where he faced it as black. Details as follows:
NN v Bird, England 1850
Meitner v Bird, Vienna, 1873
Bird v Roberts, USA, 1876
Judd v Bird, USA, 1876
Wemmers v Bird, Wiesbaden, 1880
Bird v Messemaker, Gouda, 1880
Rosenthal v Bird, London, 1883
Blackburne v Bird, London, 1887
Bird v Lasker, London, 1899
Bird v Janowski, London, 1899
Bird v Schlechter, London, 1899
There is no game in that lot that is 21 moves long so it may not be among those listed.
Just discovered Bird's Chess History and Reminiscences is available for nothing on Kindle or one of the many Kindle reader doodahs that run on PCs, tablets, phones and probably my fridge. Looks to be an entertaining read. Just spotted the great man being rude about his own defence to the Ruy Lopez.
Hi Kepler
Often a players name is attributed to an opening for all the wrong reasons.
In Bird's case it is deserved because he did essay on quite a few occassions.
I always feel sorry for poor Damiano who said after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6 is a poor move.
But as he was the first to mention it...it got named after him!
And the monk Ruy Lopez advised that 2...Nc6 was not a good 3rd move because
3.Bb5 threatens to win the e-pawn. He advised Black play 2...d6 instead.
2...d6 is the Philidor's Defence.
This is the same Philidor who was born 160 years after Ruy Lopez died.
There is no recorded game of Philidor ever playing Philidor's Defence.
What's in a name.
I have the Bird book you mentioned - a good fun read but I enjoy reading
anything about chess.