by G.H. Diggle
In 1949 G.H. Diggle, a British chess author and historian created a
record in London Banks League Chess by losing a game in seven
moves. Later, he sent the score on a Christmas card to the late C.H.
O'D. Alexander who, with a flash of genius, sent a card in return
awarding him the title of "Badmaster." Proudly adopting the
appellation, the Badmaster went on to contribute regular columns
to the British Chess Federation. As the Badmaster himself notes:
"[The Badmaster] has now mingled from time to time with three
generations of eminent players ranging Isidor Gunsberg to Nigel
Short, and rambled extensively round the highways and byways of
provincial chess. It is in these obscure haunts, as well as in the
higher circles, that he has observed great Chess Characters and
overheard many weird chess utterances..." G.H. Diggle passed
away several years ago; we were delighted to receive permission
from the then 90-year young Badmaster to use items from his
Badmaster series.
LaBourdonnais v. McDonnell (I)
This month [this column first appeared in June, 1984] marks the
150th Anniversary of a famous match series which (wrote R.N.
Coles) "still bears comparison with that of any later age", when, in
the words of George Walker, "La Bourdonnais came to London
with the roses of June" and encountered the great Irishman
Alexander McDonnell in 85 games lasting all through the summer
(LaB 46, McD 26, Drawn 13). These games were unevenly split
between six matches, but the conditions of play were very loose -
there were no seconds, there was no time limit, the stakes were
"very small" and, amazing to relate, the whole splendid series
would never have been preserved for us but for one man. William
Greenwood Walker, the aged Secretary of the Westminster Chess
Club, was "little of a chessplayer" but a fanatical "fan" of
McDonnell's and throughout the whole 85 games the old
gentleman sat beside the English Champion "with spectacles on
nose" eagerly taking down the moves and "scarce daring to breathe
lest the conceptions of his hero should miscarry." George Walker
(not a relative) wrote of him: "He died full of years - we would
well have spared a better - aye - many a better man."
The Champions played every day of the week except Sunday,
usually from noon till 6 or 7 p.m., but never more than one game at
a sitting. Many games were adjourned till next day. Indeed,
McDonnell was (except Williams) the slowest player this country
every produced. "I have seen him an hour and a half," writes
George Walker, "and even more, over a single move, and I once
timed LaBourdonnais 55 minutes." But in those spacious days this
seems to have impressed rather than repelled the spectators, who
(even if themselves not sufficiently advanced to appreciate the
quality of the play) felt that "this was indeed chess," far superior to
such weasel encounters of the past as that in 1821 between Lewis
and Deschapelles, who played their three game match "before
dinner."
The circumstances, as distinct from the conditions, under which the
matches were played strongly favored McDonnell. He was a very
comfortably off bachelor who held the post of Secretary of the
West India Committee of Merchants with a salary of œ1200 a year.
As his duties were to watch the progress of Bills affecting the West
Indies, he had work to do only when the Houses of Parliament
were sitting (in fact, the Palace of Westminster was burnt down in
the famous 1834 fire, which must have occurred during the match).
La Bourdonnais, though of a noble family and heir to an old estate
- in the earlier years of his marriage he possessed "un chateau, cinq
domestiques, et deux equipages" - impetuously lost all his money
in a building speculation and came down to œ60 a year as Secretary
of the Paris Chess Club and what he could make as a professional
at the Cafe de la Regence. During the McDonnell matches his
boisterous resilience was such that he would follow up a
seven-hour struggle by playing for half-a-crown a game against
all-comers till long after midnight.
McDonnell only lived a year after the great encounter, being
stricken with Bright's Disease at the age of 37. Later, in "Le
Palamede" LaBourdonnais wrote handsomely about him as "the
greatest player he had ever encountered" (he did add, as a rather
hurried afterthought, "except M. Deschapelles," but this was a sop
to his touchy old predecessor). No portrait of McDonnell has
survived and the only one of LaBourdonnais (the frontispiece of
"Le Palamede" 1842) was described by Staunton ("Chess Player's
Chronicle," Volume 2, p. 159) as a "lithographic enormity," though
Staunton never actually saw either of the two masters.
As many varying opinions on the actual games have been
expressed by experts, the Badmaster (having just played through
the whole series) hopes next month to report on his "findings,"
which will no doubt stagger the Chess World and set everybody
right.
