George H. D. Gossip

George Hatfeild Dingley Gossip was a minor American-English chess master and writer. He competed in chess tournaments between 1870 and 1895, playing against most of the world’s leading players. 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. He died of cancer in Australia, where he and his wife Alicia had lived since 1871.

About George H. D. Gossip in brief

George Hatfeild Dingley Gossip was a minor 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. 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. Gossip developed a lifelong enmity toward chess critics, whom he often attacked ferociously in his books. His 1879 book Theory of the Chess Openings was well received. He made his living primarily as a journalist, author, and translator. He wrote for publications in England, France, Australia, and the United States. In 1898 and 1899, two publishers issued Gossip’s sole book about a subject other than chess, The Jew of Chamant, which was virulently antisemitic. He died of cancer in Australia, where he and his wife Alicia had lived since 1871. His grandson, George Hatfield Gossip, was born in Sydney in 1897, and died in October 1888. He was buried in the Gossip family cemetery in New York City, where his wife and three children are also buried. He is survived by his wife, Alicia, and two children, Helen and Harold. The Gossip and Rodes families are listed in Burke’s Landed Gentry, a book about the history of the British landed gentry. The family is listed as living in Barlborough Hall, Derbyshire, and at Hatfield, in Yorkshire.

He 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. 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. He also lived in Germany, Canada, and Australia. In April 1888, he moved to the U.S. in April from Sydney, departing on the steamship ship Alameda. In May 1894, he set foot on American soil for the first time after forty years of absence. His family apparently remained in New South Wales, where Alicia died in South Wales in October 1894. He had three more children: Helen, Harold, and Mabel. After his father died in 1882, the Gossips and their four children immigrated to Australia, arriving in January 1883. He later moved to San Francisco, California, where Gossip wrote articles for the San Francisco Examiner on the Chinese Question in Australia and theSan Francisco Chronicle on the Protection of Chinese Trade in San Francisco. He and his children married in 1894 in Melbourne, respectively.

Related posts:

Chess Bobby Fischer Magnus Carlsen Judit Polgár