Remembering Marmaduke Wyvill (22-xii-1815 25-vi-1896)

Here is his Wikipedia entry

Here is an excellent article from the superb Yorkshire Chess History web site.

Interesting article from The Northern Echo

From The Oxford Companion to Chess by Hooper & Whyld :

He was winner of second prize in the first international tournament, London 1851. He developed his chess skill in the 1840s, meeting Dubois in Rome, Kieseritzky in Paris, and many players, including Buckle, in London, His style was that of the English school, and he understood well the positional ideas of the English opening and the Sicilian Defence. In 1847 he was elected Member of Parliament for Richmond, Yorkshire, a seat he held until 1868 except for a break of two years. The London 1851 tournament consisted of a series of knock-out matches. After defeating Williams (+4-3) in the third round and losing to Anderssen ( + 2=1-4) in
the fourth and final round, Wyvill was placed second. His score against Anderssen was better than that made by other players (Kieseritzky
“1—2, Szen +2—4, Staunton +1—4), Wyvill had
proved himself one of the leading players of his time. Although he played in no more tournaments he retained an interest in the game throughout his
life.

[pgn]
[Event “London knockout”]
[Site “London”]
[Date “1851.??.??”]
[Round “4.6”]
[White “Wyvill, Marmaduke”]
[Black “Anderssen, Adolf”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “A10”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “97”]
[EventDate “1851.05.27”]
[EventType “k.o.”]
[EventRounds “4”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2002”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2001.11.25”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2001.11.25”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,97,19,-12,31,-20,-21,-21,-17,-7,-5,-5,4,4,18,12,31,26,41,4,28,25,25,
10,36,37,40,42,32,27,30,6,9,-3,7,8,1,0,6,0,14,14,13,13,22,15,11,11,11,-141,
-136,-121,-66,-68,-57,-64,-73,-64,-54,-54,-3,-11,-11,-7,-6,-16,-23,-23,-23,-20,
-31,-45,-34,-31,-28,-31,-14,-9,-15,-5,0,0,0,-74,-60,-28,0,-30,-15,-22,108,117,
120,102,102,102,390,415,410,419]} 1. c4 f5 2. f4 Nf6 3. Nf3 e6 4. e3 Be7 5. Be2
O-O 6. O-O d6 7. b3 Ne4 8. a3 Bf6 9. Ra2 a5 10. d3 Nc5 11. Nbd2 Nc6 12. d4 Ne4
13. Qc2 d5 14. Ne5 Bd7 15. cxd5 exd5 16. Nxd7 Qxd7 17. Bb5 Be7 18. Nxe4 fxe4
19. Bd2 Rf6 20. Rc1 Rg6 21. Qd1 Qc8 22. Qe1 Na7 23. Be2 Nc6 24. h3 Qxh3 25. Qf2
Bh4 26. Kf1 Bxf2 27. gxh3 Bh4 28. Bg4 Kf8 29. Rc5 Rd8 30. b4 Be7 31. Rc1 axb4
32. axb4 Bd6 33. b5 Ne7 34. Be1 Rh6 35. Rac2 g6 36. Rxc7 Bxc7 37. Rxc7 Nf5 38.
Ke2 Ra8 39. Bb4+ Ke8 40. Rxb7 Ra2+ 41. Bd2 Nd6 42. Rb8+ Ke7 43. Kd1 Rb2 44. Ba5
g5 45. Bd8+ Kf7 46. Bxg5 Rg6 47. Bh5 Rxb5 48. Rxb5 Nxb5 49. f5 {Das
Schachturnier zu London im Jahre 1851, p. 83} 1-0
[/pgn]

From The Encyclopedia of Chess by Harry Golombek :

Regarded by Staunton as “one of the finest players in England”. Wyvill was primarily an enthusiastic amateur of chess, yet in his sole tournament appearance at London 1851 he took second prize behind Anderssen, but ahead of Williams, Staunton, Horwitz, Szen, etc.

In the course of this event Wyvill defeated Lowe by +2-0, Kennedy by +4-3=1 and Williams by +4-3. In the final he succumbed to Anderssen by the honourable score of +2-4=1. At the time of the tournament Wyvill was Member of Parliament for Richmond, Yorkshire.

An adherent of the same playing style as Staunton and Williams, Wyvill possessed a fine appreciation of the English Opening and the Sicilian Defence, both of which he employed to deadly effect in the London tournament.

Long after he had retired from competitive play he retained a great interest in the game and his name appears as one of the members of the General Committee in the book of the London 1883 tournament, together with his contribution to the tournament funds of the sum of £100. £100 in 1883 would be worth £2,500 today.

Here is an example of the Wyvill pawn formation :

[fen]8/p1p2ppp/1p1p4/3Pp3/2P1P3/P1P5/5PPP/8 w – – 0 1[/fen]

The Wyvill formation is a name given by Tarrasch to a pawn formation with doubled pawns as shown above. This formation was not unfamiliar to Wyvill but could with more justification have
been named after Winawer who so frequently doubled his opponent’s c-pawns that this and similar formations became known as his trademark. The technique for attacking the Wyvill formation was also understood by Neumann and before him by Carl Hamppe (1814-76), the leading
Viennese player of the 1850s.

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