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The Chess
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Editor: Dr Tim |
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The Chess
History |
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Editor: Dr Tim |
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© Dr Tim Harding
Last modified:
24 September 2026
As explained in the first of a series of articles for this website we wrote some years ago, Tim used software developed by Thomas Niessen to check all Steinitz games. We are now turning our attention to Carl Schlechter, the Austrian grandmaster who tied a match for the world championship with Emanuel Lasker in 1910.
Carl Schlechter from Deutsche Schachzeitung 1909
Our collection of Schlechter games has now grown to over 1,100 and we have discovered several cases where game scores are incorrect in main databases. Checking all the primary sources for his career has been a major job on which we first embarked in 2024 but we now believe we have found almost all the games of his that weere ever published and (in most cases) the primary sources for the scores. We are also collecting his published problem compositions.
The next stage of this process will be to thoroughly review the sources for the Hastings 1895 international tournament where there are many discrepancies between the various books of the event which have been published.
Steinitz in London was the fifth of Tim's books to be published by McFarland. Then Covid and his wife's serious illness prevented further serious research for several years.
Tim is not preparing any new book at present. Although the Schlechter research may eventually result in a new and more complete game collection. we do not think a biography would be possible unless an Austrian historian collaborates on such a work. McFarland appear to have finished publishing chess history books after the retirement of their founder president, Robert Franklin.
Tim is also gradually preparing a total revision of his Blackburne biography but we do not expect any new edition to be ready for several years.
Some more Blackburne games have been found and we have been making a thorough list of corrections to games which are wrong in many databases to add to text corrections which have been listed on this website for a long time. We also hope eventually to be able to release new information about Blackburne's family but Schlechter is the priority for now.
Essays on Chess History : A possible project is to produce (perhaps as an e-book or print-to-order) a collection of essays in chess history, which in some cases would be extensively updated, with a few new essays included. There are still some sections of Tim's PhD thesis and past conference papers which have never been published in book or article form, including a major study of early Irish chess clubs and a biographical study of Lord George William Lyttelton, who was President of the first British Chess Association. This book might also include a section on more recent chess history.
Further ideas include the possibility of publishing e-books of some of my older books of which I have retained electronic rights. By all means, email with preference suggestions to help me prioritise.