IRLchess

Horace Curzon Plunkett played for Oxford University in four Oxford v. Cambridge ‘Varsity’ matches, in the years 1874 to 1877. The very first such match had been held in 1873, at the invitation and venue of the City of London C.C., and generated enormous interest. An excellent illustration, from the Illustrated London News, is given on John Saunders’ Varsity Chess Matches 1873-present: Oxford University versus Cambridge University page at BritBase.

For the following year, Plunkett’s début, the match was again held at the City of London C.C., but this time “a substantial railing around the players enabled them to conduct their games with much greater comfort than last year when the crowd was very oppressive” (Huddersfield College Magazine, vol. 2, 1874, pp. 154-57). The same source commented that

“The merest glance at the games already played in the University Matches will show their great want of skill. Yet was this contest on both occasions watched with a keen and surprising interest by all the chess talent of London.”

Indeed, the event seems to have captured the imagination of the chessplaying public to an astonishing extent. The 1874 match attracted a crowd of 600-800, including Staunton, Löwenthal, Horwitz, Bird, Blackburne, Zukertort, and Steinitz, who acted as referee and adjudicator.

Plunkett played on board 5 against T. H. D. May, and recorded one draw and two losses. The draw, from the first round, survives. May blundered a pawn in the opening, and after several exchanges, which White did not resist, the diagrammed position was reached.

May – Plunkett, Varsity Match 1874
25… ?

Plunkett now erred via 25… Nxd4? (25… Kh7 must give excellent winning chances), and after 26. Rxd4 Rc2?! 27. Rxd5 Rxb2 28. Rd7, his advantage had entirely dissipated.

[Click to replay May – Plunkett.]

In 1877, Plunkett had advanced to captain and board 1 of the Oxford team, which he led to a convincing victory, scoring one win and one draw against John Neville Keynes (1856-1949), father of the economist John Maynard Keynes. Again the drawn game survives.

[Click to replay Keynes – Plunkett.]

In 1897, the British House of Commons played a challenge match by cable against the U.S. House of Representatives. The top two boards on the House of Commons side were filled by players from Irish constituencies: the then Hon. Horace Curzon Plunkett (the ‘Sir’ was added in 1903) (County Dublin South), and John Howard Parnell, brother of Charles Stuart Parnell (Meath South).

Extended information about this match can be found in Edward Winter’s article Chess in the House of Commons at Chess Notes (2003, with subsequent additions). There’s an excellent picture of the ten players in the event (third picture of the article), with Plunkett at top left and Parnell at top right.

Plunkett’s opponent was Richmond Mumford Pearson, Jr., of North Carolina (bottom row, fourth from left). Unfortunately the latter didn’t put up much of a fight, and the game itself is of only historical interest. The overall standard seems to have been higher: the Westminster Budget, June 11, 1897 p. 26, wrote “Having watched the play during the progress of the match, we must admit that the games proved—except the American part of board No. 1—what we expected. … Four of the games have been good specimens of average chess”.

[Click to replay the full game.]

(The report in the Belfast News-Letter on June 1 menioned a ‘draw for play’. Could this mean that players were paired randomly, i.e., that board 1 was not reserved for the top player on each side? Or was it merely a draw for colours?)

Parnell lost a long game on board 2, and the match ended 2½-2½.