Among other English chess players of the past and present generation,
that have come into front rank there, are Boden and Bird, the
most successful of the young rising players during Staunton's ten
years chess reign. No games on record seem to have occasioned more
interest than the contests between these two favourite opponents,
unfortunately neither made any practice of recording games, which
is rather a subject of regret, for they were much in request by
chess editors in England as well as in America and Germany. The
few on record owe their preservation mostly to lookers on, who took
them down. Boden and Bird were never known to play for a stake, not
even for the time honored and customary shilling. In 1852 Barnes,
and a few years later Cap. Mackenzie, the Rev. G. A. MacDonnell,
and Cecil de Vere, began to adorn the first class chess circle, in
1862 our unsurpassed Blackburne appeared to the front almost
simultaneously with Steinitz, and ten years later the amiable Dr.
Zukertort (the winner of the Paris International of 1878, and the
great London "Criterion" Tournament of 1883), came to this
country, and was destined to create nearly as much sensation in
chess circles as Paul Morphy (who appeared 14 years before him,
and 4 before Steinitz and Blackburne) had done, and it may be
safely asserted that Dr.
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