Earliest Known Chess in Tennessee Cities and Towns
(abridged)
by Jerry Spinrad (with permission)
(also, with thanks to Peter Lahde for contributing material)
As part of my research on chess history for my column "New Stories about Old Chess Players" (at www.chesscafe.com), I have collected a very large file with information on 19th century chess. I decided to make a little survey of the first reference I could find to chess players in the various cities and towns of Tennessee.
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| The first Bon Aqua Springs Hotel 1870 |
Bon Aqua Springs: This city was the site of one of the most bizarre chess matches of all time, and the event was sufficiently funny that the story was told in a number of papers. A "chess player" named JC Rightor of
Helena, Arkansas was staying in Bon Aqua in 1887, and boasted that he had never been beaten in the game. Bon Aqua resident Felix N Moore arranged for this supposed champion to play
AB Hodges, the best player of Nashville and perhaps of the entire South. Hodges, of course, beat him repeatedly, also while giving odds, playing blindfold, and in every way a person could show superiority; Hodges account of this "match" is quite amusing, and shows that sometimes a local reputation as a great player may be less impressive than it seems to be!
