He began his education at home, where he was at first taught by his older sister, Elizabeth. He mastered Latin early and read classic literature. At the age of nine, he attended St. Paul’s School in London, where he excelled in the classroom and was given the title of “Captain of the School.”
He wanted to join the priesthood and at 19, he attended Trinity College at Cambridge. Despite being an honors student, he didn’t graduate because he refused to sign the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England (doctrines and practices of the Church of England) because he believed they were at that time very narrow. At that time he became a Unitarian.
In 1853, at the age of 24, he sailed for the United States and when he arrived in New York City he found a job preaching in a small town on Long Island. He asked only that the church pay for his room and board which was about three dollars a week.
Later he started his work in educating and preparing young men for life by founding a boys’ school in Bridgeport, Connecticut in which he taught them Latin, Greek and mathematics and introduced them to cricket, hockey and boating.
Calthrop was married in 1857. He and his wife, Elizabeth, were married more than 60 years and had five children. In 1860, he became an ordained Unitarian minster and preached in Boston and Marblehead, Massachusetts.
An inventor, in 1865, he designed a passenger train car in which all side doors and windows to be kept closed and it would be kept cool in the summer with redirected air carried into car by a series of tubes. He also had plans for a bullet-nosed train, but they never got beyond the planning stage.
Calthrop arrived in Syracuse, New York in 1868 to preach at the Unitarian Church, a position he would keep for the next 43 years. It was a job that he placed his highest priorities. He wrote, “There are two professions which no man should even think of entering whose only thought is to get on, and they are the ministry and medicine,” he said. “No self-seeker should enter those sacred doors, only those who are filled with an enthusiasm for humanity.”
Once at a Catholic fair, Calthrop was voted the most popular man in the city and he was often invited to speak at Jewish celebrations. His home a gathering place of hundreds of city residents and was the clearing house for their interests and ideas. The local paper spoke of his moral influence and high character.
He was a member of the Citizens Club, the organizer of the city’s Boy’s Club, instrumental in the construction of Syracuse’s first playground and was a director of the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts.
During the Depression of 1893, Calthrop was called upon to help needy citizens and formed a plan to aid them by enlisting the help of clergymen, teachers and doctors.
According to an article in the Harvard Square Library, Calthrop was an impressive figure of a man, over six-foot tall, broad-shouldered and had vigor written in every line of his figure. He participated in billiards, rugby, crew, tennis, boxing and cricket. He served as crew coach at Harvard, Yale, Syracuse and Cornell, and coached the cricket team at West Point. He also helped introduce tennis to Central New York and at his home e maintained courts and was always willing to teach anyone who was interested. In his old age he would swim in the ice-cold water of the St. Lawrence River. One time he even knocked out a prowler in his house.
Calthrop was interested in astronomy and from his personal observatory at his home, he became one of the first to explore the idea that sunspots affect the weather on Earth. Syracuse newspapers began to rely on him to make weather forecasts.
He was an ardent botanist and maintained a large garden in which he grew the first tomatoes that were ever shown at the New York State Fair. He conducted excursions of his congregation into fields and woods to study vegetation. Some of the ferns they collected were kept at the Museum of Natural History in New York City.
At the time it was especially controversial for a minister to to support Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, but Calthrop did it anyway, declaring that he must speak the truth as “God gave it to him to speak.”
Two years after this death, in 1919, a book of poetry by Calthrop was published, The Heaven of the Moon. Calthrop was also a prolific writer in other areas an published works including many on his faith, collections of his sermons sermons, science and current events.
Calthrop had played chess since he was a teenager and 1857, he was one of the 16 players to the first American Chess Congress in New York City and he founded a chess club at his church.
The first American Chess Congress was knock out event and was held in New York City and the 16 best American masters were invited, including Paul Morphy and Louis Paulsen. Morphy dominated and defeated Paulsen in the final match. Calthrop was knocked out by Paulsen 3-0 in the first round.
Calthrop won the New York championships in 1880 and 1883. Locally, he would take on all comers, often playing several opponents at once and was able to play blindfolded. He often gave local player a handicap which he called a “twenty-eighter” in which his opponent had to avoid getting checkmated for 28 moves. If his opponent succeeded it was was considered a win.
Calthrop died quietly after a battle with pneumonia on May 11, 1917. He was 87 years old.
Almost none of his games are available. Chessgames.com has only the three he lost to Paulsen and a check of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper did not turn up anything on him except a short article on one of his religious lectures, not even a mention ofr the New York State championships that he won!
However, I did locate a game of his that was annotated by Lowenthal that appeared in The Chess Player's Magazine in 1865. Calthrop’s opponent in this game was Hugh Alexander Kennedy (August 22, 1809 - October 22, 1878), an English master and writer. He was born in Madras, British India in 1809 and was a British army captain and leading London player. He established the first chess club in Brighton in 1842 and in1844, he lost a match to Howard Staunton (3–8). He also lost a match to Elijah Williams (+2 –4 =0) in 1846 and lost a match to Edward Lowe (+6 –7 =1) in 1849. Kennedy played in the great international London 1851 tournament where he finished in sixth place (out of 16). He knocked out Carl Mayet in round 1 and then lost to Marmaduke Wyvill in round 2.
Hugh A. Kennedy - Samuel Calthrop
Result: 0-1
Site: ?
Date: 1864
Sicilian Smith-Mora Gambit
[...] 1.e4 c5 2.♘f3 ♘c6 3.d4 cxd4 4.♗c4 e6 5.c3 When annotating this game in The Chess Player's Magazine, Lowenthal believed this move was not so good here. 5...dxc3 6.♘xc3 ♗c5 These days black usually plays 6...d6 although 6...a6 is also playable. 7.O-O
9...dxc5 10.♕c2 O-O 11.e5 ♘g4 More accurate was 11...Nd5 12.♖ad1 ♕e7 13.♖fe1 a6 14.h3 ♘h6 15.♘e4 b5 16.♘fg5 Threatening mate in 3 with Nf6+ 16...♘f5 (16...bxc4 17.♘f6 and 18.Qxh7 mate) 17.♗d3 With this move it is obvious white is making threats against h7, but they come to nothing after 17...c4.
7.a3 a5 8.O-O ♘ge7 9.♕e2 O-O 10.♖d1 ♘g6 11.♗g5 with about equal chances. Hedke,F (2380)-Sleisz,T (2280)/Budapest 1996.
7...d6 8.♗e3
8.♕e2 a6 9.♖d1 ♕c7 10.♗g5 ♘ge7 11.♖ac1 O-O 12.a3 with equal chances. Lauda,A (2010)-Sarwary,H/Instanbul 2005
8...♘f6 Exchanging Bs would have considerably weakened the d-Pawn, which could not be maintained against the attacking forces white could bring to bear. - Lowenthal. 9.♗xc5
9.e5 was suggested by Lowenthal as leading to some interesting attacking variations. However, black gains a clear advantage after 9...♗xe3 10.exf6
10.fxe3 fails against 10...♘g4 11.♕xd6 ♕xd6 12.exd6 ♘xe3 13.♘b5 O-O 14.♖fc1 ♖d8
10...♗h6 11.fxg7 ♗xg717.♗f1 was best then after 17...c4 18.g4 black gains the initiative after 18...♘b4 19.♕b1 h6 20.♘f3 ♘h4 with good attacking chances.
17...♘xe5
17...c4 was even stronger. 18.♗f1 ♘xe5 19.♘d6 ♘f3 20.♘xf3 ♘xd6
18.f4 After this white's position rapidly falls apart. His best chance was to play 18.Qxc5.
18.♕xc5 ♘xd3 19.♖xd3 h6 20.♘f3 ♗b7 21.♕xe7 ♘xe7 22.♖d7 ♗xe4 23.♖xe4 ♘d5 Whits has hopes of survival.
18...♘xd3 19.♕xd3
19.♖xd3 Also allows black a very strong attack after 19...c4 20.♖d2 h6 21.♘f3 ♗b7 22.♘e5 ♖ad8
19...c4 20.♕c2 g6
20...h6 was much more effective. 21.g4 ♕c7 22.gxf5 exf5 23.♘d6 hxg5 24.fxg5 ♗e6 with a won position.
21.g4 ♘g7 22.♕f2 h6 23.♕h4 h5
23...hxg5 Lowenthal incorrectly asserted that this would result in the immediate loss of the game. It would not, but it would still be a serious mistake because after 24.♘xg5 ♘h5 25.gxh5 after 26.Kh2 white has some excellent attacking chances.
24.gxh5 ♘xh5 25.♘g3 ♕c5 26.♔f1 ♘xg3 27.♕xg3 ♔g7 28.♕c3 ♔g8 29.♘e4 b4 Forcing white to abandon the diagonal, commanded by his Q and going over to the attack. 30.♘f6 ♔h8 31.♕g3 ♔g7 32.♖e5 ♕e7 33.♘h5 ♔h6 34.f5 To quote Lowenthal - White has exhausted all his resources. Not quite as there is a devilish trap that black could fall into.
34.♖d2 Hoping for a miracle was worth a try. Black should play 34...c3 and not 34...gxh5 35.♖xh5 ♔xh5 36.♕g7 and mates in 8!! 36...f6 37.♕xe7 ♖a7 38.♕xa7 ♔g6 39.♖g2 ♔f5 40.♕h7 ♔xf4 41.♖g4 ♔e5 42.♕c7 ♔d5 43.♖xc4 and mates next move.
34...gxh5 Black avoids the trap.
34...♔xh5?? would be a horrible blunder. 35.f6 mates next move.
35.h4 ♕f6 The tactics are over and black has a strategically won game. Even so, as is often the case, he has to prove it. 36.♕f4 ♔h7 37.♖d2
37.♖d4 exf5 38.♖xc4 ♖g8 39.♖xc8 ♖axc8 40.♕xf5 ♖g6 41.♕xf6 ♖xf6 with a won ending.
37...exf5 38.♖g2 ♖g8 Even better was 38...Be6. 39.♖xg8 ♔xg8 40.♖e8 ♔g7 41.♕g3 ♔h7 42.♕f3 Black is going to lose his T, but in the process he picks up a sufficient number of Ps. 42...♕xh4
42...♖b8 falls into a mating trap. 43.♕xh5 ♕h6 44.♕xf7 ♕g7 45.♕h5 ♕h6 46.♖e7 ♔h8 47.♕xh6 mate next move.
42...♗b7 is a viable possibility. 43.♕xh5 ♔g7 44.♕h8 ♔g6 45.♖xa8 ♗xa8 46.♕xa8 and white wins.
43.♕xa8 ♕f4 44.♔g1 ♕c1 45.♔f2 White's extra material is helpless against all the Ps. 45...♕xb2 46.♖e2 ♕d4 47.♔f1 ♕d1 48.♖e1 ♕d3 49.♖e2 ♗e6 50.♕xa6 f4 51.♕c6 f3 52.♕e4 ♗f5 53.♕xd3 ♗xd3 White resigned. Powered by Aquarium
No comments:
Post a Comment