Showing posts with label Thulin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thulin. Show all posts

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Dii minorum gentium

Chessfriend Anders Thulin, some good time back, mentioned that page 155 of The Chess Monthly, Volume 8 (1886-1887) contained "a long diatribe against the naming of Gambits and Openings, which ends..."
...The new mania among Chess-players to affix their names to some sub-sub-sub variation makes it anyhow a small honor indeed to be an inventor of an Opening, and when Labourdonnais, Anderssen, Morphy, Kolisch, Blackburne, and other good names are among the not decorated, we at least would prefer to belong to the same section and not aspire to those honours which seem to be the pride of the Dii minorum gentium [of the inferior orders]. No offense to anybody, but it is difficult enough already to know what is meant when every new year is marked with new Gambits, like Jerome, Blackmar, Pierce, Rosentreter, Qaade, &c...