George Hatfield Dingley Gossip (December6, 1841May11, 1907) was an American-English chess master and writer. He competed in chess tournaments between 1870 and 1895, playing against most of the world's leading players, but with only modest success. The writer G. H. Diggle calls him "the King of Wooden Spoonists" because he usually finished last in strong tournaments.
Gossip was also a noted writer. His treatise The Chess-Player's Manual—A Complete Guide to Chess, a 900-page tome published in 1874 after several years of work, was harshly received by the critics, largely because he had included a number of informal skittles games that he had (atypically) won against stronger players. As a result, Gossip developed a lifelong enmity toward chess critics, whom he often attacked ferociously in his books. However, his 1879 book Theory of the Chess Openings was well received. Wilhelm Steinitz, the first World Chess Champion, wrote that the 1888 edition of The Chess-Player's Manual was one of the best available books on the game. Thanks in part to a 122-page appendix by S. Lipschütz, it became one of the standard opening works of the time.
Gossip made his living primarily as a journalist, author, and translator. He wrote for publications in England, France, Australia, and the United States. At various times he resided in each of those countries, as well as in Germany and Canada. In 1898 and 1899, two publishers issued Gossip's sole book about a subject other than chess, The Jew of Chamant. Published under the pseudonym "Ivan Trepoff", it was virulently antisemitic.
Chess writers have often mocked Gossip's play, calling him a "grandpatzer" and the like. However, Kenneth Whyld, one of his previous critics, suggests that history may have judged his strength unfairly.
Early life and education George Hatfield Dingley Gossip was born in New York City on December6, 1841, to George Hatfield Gossip, an Englishman, and his wife Mary Ellen Dingley Gossip, of New York.Gaige 1987, p. 146.Whyld May 2001, p. 265.Winter August 6, 2007, discusses the unusual "Hatfeild" spelling. When he was sixteen months old, his mother died; about two years later, he and his father moved to England.Winter 2004 (quoting Columbia Chess Chronicle, August 18, 1888, pp. 55–56). His aunt, Mrs. Reaston Rodes, raised him, apparently with little involvement by his father. Gossip grew up at Barlborough Hall, Derbyshire (the Rodes family seat), and at Hatfield, in Yorkshire. Both the Gossip and Rodes families are listed in Burke's Landed Gentry. He was educated at Windermere College, Westmorland, and won a scholarship to Oxford University, but was unable to attend as his father, uncle, and aunts lost a lawsuit that ruined them financially. As a result, Gossip had to support himself through his own labors.
Non-chess adult life
Gossip made his living primarily as a writer and translator, writing for newspapers and magazines on three continents. His profession is described in the 1871, 1881, and 1891 United Kingdom censuses, respectively, as a "translator of languages", an "author of work on chess", and a member of the "literary profession". He lived for over five years in Paris, contributing to French publications. From 1879 to 1880 he was "employed occasionally as translator and otherwise" in The Times of London's office in Paris. He also lived in Germany.Winter 2004 (quoting article by G. H. Diggle in Newsflash, April 1983, later republished in G. H. Diggle, Chess Characters: Reminiscences of a Badmaster, Chess Notes, Geneva, 1984, pp. 93–94).
Gossip married Alicia (the name is sometimes given as "Alice"), a music teacher from Dublin, in Jersey in 1868.Whyld July 2001. As of 1871, they were living in London with their 11-month-old son George and two servants. By 1881, Gossip and his wife had moved to Ipswich, and had three more children: Helen (born c. 1872), Harold (c. 1874), and Mabel (c. 1879).Whyld May 2001, p. 263.A photograph of the Gossips' house appears at Winter March 8, 2007. After Gossip's father died in 1882, the Gossips and their four children immigrated to Australia, arriving in January 1883. While in that country, Gossip wrote articles for the Sydney Star, Sydney Globe, Sydney Evening News, Town and Country Journal, The Advertiser (Adelaide), and other publications. He contributed literary articles to Once a Month magazine (Melbourne) and the Sydney Quarterly Magazine.
Gossip moved to the United States in 1888, departing in April from Sydney on the steamship Alameda.Diggle 1969, p. 2.Mechanics' Institute Chess Club 2007 (quoting G. H. D. Gossip, International Chess Magazine, June 1888, pp. 170–71). In May, the ship arrived in San Francisco, where, Gossip wrote, "I first set foot on my native soil after an absence of over forty years." He wrote articles for the San Francisco Examiner on the "Chinese Question in Australia" and the San Francisco Chronicle on "Protection and Free Trade in New South Wales".
His family apparently remained in Australia, where Alicia died of cancer in October 1888. In 1894, Gossip's children Helen and Harold both married, in Victoria and Melbourne, respectively. Gossip's grandson, George Hatfield Dingley Gossip, born in Sydney in 1897, was a World War I flying ace for Australia, "shooting down six enemy aircraft while flying his Sopwith Camel along the Belgian coast".Winter 2004 (citing George Hatfield Dingley Gossip – The Aerodrome – Aces and Aircraft of World War I; retrieved on November 9, 2009).
In 1889, Gossip returned to Europe. By 1891, he was living as a tenant in a London boarding house. In 1894, he moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.Diggle 1969, p. 3. While living there, Gossip contributed articles to a newspaper in Manchester, England. The June 1895 British Chess Magazine (BCM) and June 1897 American Chess Magazine reported that he was living in Buffalo, New York.Winter 2004 (quoting American Chess Magazine, June 1897, p. 59).
Under the pseudonym "Ivan Trepoff", Gossip wrote a book, The Jew of Chamant, which was published by Hausauer (Buffalo) in 1898, and by F.T. Neely (London and New York) in 1899. The two versions are subtitled, respectively, "or, the modern Monte Cristo" and "a romance of crime".Winter November 15, 2008. The book is intensely antisemitic.Winter February 14, 2009. The author explains in its preface:Trepoff 1899, p. 3. My object in the present work is to paint the rich Jew in his true colors, as the enemy of society; to show that the Jew who steals millions, can, in Europe, at any rate, defy the laws with impunity, and that he almost invariably escapes punishment owing to improper occult influences, and the mighty power of Israelitish gold.
The chess literature is silent about the last decade of Gossip's life.Diggle 1969, pp. 3–4. He died of heart disease on May 11, 1907, at the Railway Hotel in Liphook, England.Diggle 1969, p. 4.Winter 2004 (citing David Hooper, British Chess Magazine, October 1964, p. 306).
Chess career By 1864, Gossip was appearing in London chess circles, drawing a game against Joseph Henry Blackburne at a simultaneous exhibition in April.Diggle 1969, p. 1. He played in a number of chess tournaments between 1870 and 1895, usually with unimpressive results.Di Felice 2004, pp. 51, 54, 55, 57, 59, 89, 103, 114, 117, 118, 121, 128, 129, 133, 142, 157. At London 1870, the Third British Chess Association Congress (won by John Wisker after a playoff against Amos Burn), Gossip scored two of six possible points, finishing in a tie for fifth–sixth out of seven players. He had the consolation of handing Burn his only loss.Di Felice 2004, p. 51.Forster 2004, pp. 30–31, 43–44.Sergeant 1934, p. 152. At London 1872 (won by Steinitz ahead of Johannes Zukertort and Blackburne), he scored just one out of seven, finishing seventh out of eight players.Di Felice 2004, p. 54.
Gossip won the 1873–74 correspondence chess tournament of the Chess-Players Chronicle,Gossip and Lipschütz 1902, title page. after which he "was thought by some to be the strongest correspondence player known".Hooper and Whyld 1992, p. 152. However, playing first board for England in an 1879 correspondence chess match against the United States, he lost all four of his games to Ellen Gilbert of Hartford, Connecticut. She "caused a sensation in the chess world" by announcing mate in 21 moves in one game, and mate in 35 moves in another.Brennen 2005.Chernev 1974, pp. 132–33. Gossip responded gallantly, dedicating his book Theory of the Chess Openings to her.
In 1874, Gossip lost a match for the Championship Cup of the Provinces to Rev. John Owen, retiring because of illness after one win, two draws, and two losses.Sergeant 1934, p. 163. He won a local tournament at the Café de la Régence in Paris in 1880.Gossip 1891, p. v. In 1882, he beat Wordsworth Donisthorpe in a match held at Simpson's Divan in London.Sergeant 1934, p. 184.
Gossip's first significant success at over-the-board chess came at the 1883 London Vizayanagaram minor tournament.Hooper and Whyld 1992, p. 155.The tournament was held in London at the same time as the 1883 London master tournament (won by Zukertort ahead of Steinitz). Hooper and Whyld 1992, p. 155. The minor tournament was called the Vizayanagaram tournament in recognition of a donation of 200 pounds by the Maharajah of Vizayanagaram, which was used to pay most of the prize fund in that tournament. Minchin 1883, p. xiv; Sergeant 1934, p. 186. He scored 17½ out of 25, tying for fifth–sixth place out of 26 players with Charles Ranken, who later co-authored the treatise Chess Openings Ancient and Modern (1889).Minchin 1883, p. xxxi.Di Felice 2004, p. 89. Curt von Bardeleben won with 21½ points; Isidor Gunsberg, who would narrowly lose an 1890–91 World Championship match to Steinitz, finished fourth with 19 points.
In 1885 Gossip, a year after immigrating to Australia, issued a challenge to any player in the Australian colonies to play a match with him for 20 pounds a side and the title of Australian champion. Frederick Karl Esling, a leading Melbourne player, accepted the challenge. While given his experience, Gossip was considered to be a heavy favourite, Esling won the first game, and the second was adjourned in a position favorable to him. Gossip then pleaded illness and forfeited the match.Kooyman 1957 (quoting letter from C. J. S. Purdy). Kenneth Whyld writes that the Australians probably considered Gossip a "whingeing Pom".
An Australian commentator observes, "Gossip may not have been the most popular itinerant to venture to these shores in the nineteenth century, but when he announced his challenge ... he at least brought the question of an official Chess Champion of Australia before the chess playing fraternity".Peter Wagg in A.C.L. Partnership 1981, p. 51. In 1950, when Esling was 90, the Australian Chess Federation formally declared, belatedly, that he had become the first Australian Chess Champion by winning his 1885 match against Gossip.Peter Wagg in A.C.L. Partnership 1981, p. 50."Australian Championship for 90th Birthday!", Chess World, July 1, 1950, pp. 149-61. The Second Australian Chess Championship, a tournament, was held at Adelaide in 1887. Gossip finished third with 6½ out of 9, behind Henry Charlick (7½ points) and Esling (7 points).Di Felice 2004, p. 103.