Author: From David DeLucia's Chess Library
Year: 1887
Publisher: Ohio Chess Association
Place: Cleveland
Description:
22 pages. Small octavo (7 1/2" x 4 1/2") bound in original publishers stapled wrappers. From David DeLucia's Chess Library. (not in Betts) First edition.
An interesting pamphlet from the Ohio Chess Association containing a brief history of the organization, a reprint of its constitution, and the first Ohio tournament report with selected games. Among the chess clubs that were members of the Ohio Chess Association were those from Cincinnati, Auburn, Dayton, and the Cleveland Chess Club with its member John G. White.
Thus George W. Smith with a score of +5 -0 =1 won the first championship with Edgar Bettmann and E.D. Payne tied for second and third. Interestingly, of the 32 games played, only three were drawn. As the tournament officials made no provisions for collecting the game scores only seven games of a few of the more prominent players survived. They were not of a particularly high quality and the deciding last round game between Smith and Payne was disappointing because in a position where Smith held only a small advantage, Payne hung a R and resigned. One of the better games was sixth round game between Bettmann and Smith.
David DeLucia's chess library contains 7,000 to 8,000 chess books, a similar number of autographs (letters, score sheets, manuscripts), and about 1,000 items of "ephemera". DeLucia's library contains such items as "a 15th-century Lucena manuscript, score-sheets ranging from Fischer's Game of the Century against Donald Byrne to all the games of the 1927 New York tournament, eight letters by Morphy, over a hundred Lasker manuscripts, Capablanca's gold pocket watch, [and] the contract of the 1886 Steinitz-Zukertort world championship match". Ten Geutzendam opines that DeLucia's collection "is arguably the finest chess collection in the world".
Condition:
Spine head hinge chipped, corners bumped else very good. Housed in an enclosure. Rare.