Heck Of A Guy

Another Showalter¹ You Should Know

The devilishly handsome, dramatically mustachioed gent pictured above is one  Jackson Whipps Showalter.

The family resemblance fairly leaps out at one, doesn’t it?

And, he’s not just another pretty face of the sort that is, after all, standard among the males who populate clan Showalter.² As these excerpts from The Postal Lion: Jackson Showalter and Correspondence Chess (originally posted 15 June 2006) by Neil R. Brennen indicate, Jackson Whipps Showalter cut quite a figure in the upper ranks of the hierarchy of  chess.³

Jackson Whipps Showalter was born in Minerva, Kentucky, on February 5, 1860.⁴  His father was Freeman Showalter, a local landowner. The elder Showalter, a man with the curiously chessic middle name of Benoni, probably taught his son chess as a young man. Young Jackson knew the game by the time he graduated from Kentucky Military Institute in 1882. After a few years managing his father’s farm, Showalter moved to New York and began to roar among the chess masters. The tall Southerner probably made quite an impression; The Oxford Companion to Chess wrote that Showalter was “known as the Kentucky Lion after his birthplace and his mane of hair, but also perhaps on account of his playing strength.”

And his playing strength was prodigious. Showalter’s opponents included almost everyone who was anyone on the American chess scene in the 1890s. He was particularly skilled in match play. His match victims include Albin, Barry, Janowski, Judd, Kemeny, Lipschütz, and Whitaker. Losses include two championship matches to Pillsbury, one championship match to Lipschütz, an 1894 match to Lasker, and a 1909 match to Marshall that solidified the latter’s claim to the US Championship. Several of these matches were for the US Championship, a title Showalter had first won in the annual tournaments of the United States Chess association in 1889. Many of the games featured sparkling combinative play and sacrifices, making Showalter many friends among chess amateurs.

And, it appears likely that Jackson might well have had a cigar on hand to offer Steinitz. The following excerpt,  originally published as ‘The Chessboard Kings,’ (subtitle: ‘Ways and looks of 20 great players’)  in the 16 June 1889 New York Times along with a pen-portrait,  not only describes Showalter’s appearance and manner but also his predilection for stogies.⁵

The distinguishing traits of Showalter are a tremendously big pair of blonde mustaches and a frank, open countenance. He is tall and dignified in his bearing, and gentlemanly in his behavior. Like many other players he is fond of a good smoke, and likes to have a general good time after his work is over ...

And again with the cigar,

‘I remember seeing Showalter in a match game with Pillsbury brood 45 minutes over a fourth move. It was a Ruy López. Afterwards there came the explanation. “The cigar was good; and I thought that long looking might uncover some better move and sequel than those used.”⁶

An even grander description of Jackson’s visual aspect was  published in  London, 1899 Pen-portraits., which is  story about a 1899 London Chess  Tournament found on⁷  (The participants are identified as, standing (from left to right: D. Janowsky, G. Maróczy, F.J. Lee, L. Hoffer, J.W. Showalter, S. Tinsley, R. Teichmann and W. Cohn and seated: H.E. Bird, E. Lasker, M. Chigorin, J.H. Blackburne and C. Schlechter. (emphasis mine))

Showalter has the head and hair of a Goliath. He has a way of putting his elbows on his knees and heavily rocking his powerful body, when he reflects, as if a combination demanded the expenditure of muscular force in equal measure to intellectual force.

Returning to Brennan’s account,

[In 1884,] Showalter was a young man in the American South, managing his father’s ranch. Over the board competition was scarce for a player of Showalter’s strength, and so he turned to postal chess. Perhaps his earliest experience with chess by correspondence was a tournament run by the Elmira Telegraph of Elmira, New York.

Jackson was, however, able to travel to other countries for games in later years, as evidenced by these photos of participants in international chess tournaments.

Vienna 1898 Standing: Schwarz, Schlechter, Fahndrich, Caro, Maróczy, Showalter, Marco, Alapin, Halprin, Baird, Burn. Sitting: Tarrasch, Blackburne, Pillsbury, Steinitz, Chigorin, Janowsky, Schiffers and Lipke. (emphasis mine)

Nuremberg 1896 Standing: Lasker, Charousek, Schlechter, two organisers, Janowsky, Maróczy, Marco, Showalter, three organisers. Sitting: Albin, Porges, Chigorin, Tarrasch, Winawer, Steinitz, Blackburne, Schallopp, Schiffers, Pillsbury, Walbrodt, Teichmann (emphasis mine)

World Chess Links also lists him playing in several other tournaments, including (Cambridge Springs 1904), London (1899), and  Paris (1900).

According to Wikipedia,

[Jackson Showalter] won U.S. Championship matches against S. Lipschütz (twice), Max Judd and Albert Hodges. He lost championship matches to Lipschütz, Max Judd, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, and Frank Marshall.

…  The variation of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted⁸ is named after him.

The famous “Capablanca Simplifying Manoeuvre” in the Orthodox Variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined⁹ had in fact been used by Showalter in the 1890s, many years before José Raúl Capablanca played it.

Jackson Showalter also edited the chess columns for the New York Sun and New York Record.¹⁰

Chess Notes Archives contributes information about Jackson’s immediate family and this photo of his wife, Nellie.

This photograph (see C.N. 4473) is of Mrs Showalter, from page 138 of the December 1904 American Chess Bulletin. The following page described her as ‘without doubt the strongest player of her sex in America’ and reported:

‘Mrs Showalter comes of a prominent Kentucky family, but was born in the state of Missouri in 1872; although her maiden name was Nellie Love Marshall, she claims no family relationship with the new champion bearing the same surname.’

From page 7 of the January 1894 BCM:   ‘She is only 22 years of age and was married to him [Jackson Whipps Showalter] at 16. Soon after this event her husband taught her the moves, and then gave her the odds of the queen; but she progressed so rapidly that he cannot now give her the knight, and she has won two games of Mr Lasker at that odds. Not long ago, at Kokomo, Indiana, she played four games on even terms with Mr Jackson, the champion of that State, with the result that she won three and the other was drawn. She is said to be very handsome but, if so, the portrait of her in the New York Recorder does not do her justice …’

A photograph of their son, Freeman Showalter, who was born in 1895, was published on page 228 of the November 1918 American Chess Bulletin, where he was described by J.W. Showalter as follows:  ‘He plays a very good, unpolished and natural game, but without any book training or knowledge acquired from books at all. I think he has considerable talent, in fact, but, of course, undeveloped.’

The obituary of an elder brother of Jackson Whipps Showalter, Judge John William Showalter, was published on page 312 of the January 1899 American Chess Magazine and stated that he was ‘a devoted follower of the game of chess’ and that ‘he taught the moves of chess to Jackson W. Showalter when the future champion was eight years of age.’

With respect to Jackson and Nellie, Brennen adds that

… [Also in 1884,] Showalter moved ..  to Laredo, Texas, to oversee some of his father’s holdings there. He also married; his wife, Nellie, eventually learned the game from him, and developed enough prowess to defeat Emanuel Lasker at odds of a Knight.

Jackson Showalter Throws A Curve Ball

References to Jackson Showalter inventing the curve ball abound. Most resemble this description from Baseball Almanac:

Most baseball fans don’t know that Jackson Showalter, who is credited with inventing the curve ball, was also a U.S. chess champion in the late 1880′s.

Or, reformatted from the chess world”s point of view, as it is in a review of  2010 Chess Oddities By Alex Dunne (Thinkers Press 2003):

And did you know that Jackson Showalter, the first officially recognized US champion (1890) is also considered the inventor of the curve ball in baseball?

The details of the  accomplishment claimed are sometimes modified, asin  Showalter’s obituary on page 63 of the March 1935 Chess Review:¹¹

Mr Showalter was famous as a baseball player and was an ardent fan up until the latter part of his life, when bad health kept him at home. He was the first man in Kentucky to pitch a curve ball and one of the seven men who discovered the curve.

Mr Showalter was famous as a baseball player and was an ardent fan up until the latter part of his life, when bad health kept him at home. He was the first man in Kentucky to pitch a curve ball and one of the seven men who discovered the curve.

Given the existence of documentation of other individuals demonstrating a curve ball before Jackson could have done so,¹² the notion that he was the sole inventor of that pitch is unlikely. I’m not certain how one would determine, in the latter half of the 19th century, who was the first to toss a curve in the sovereign state of Kentucky.

It does appear that Jackson was a fan of the game.  A correspondent on the About.com Baseball Forum had accumulated this information:

Jackson Showalter spent 3 years at Kenyon College 1875-1878, Gambier Ohio. He spent 4 years at Cornell University Ithaca, NY. Cornell was first university to recognize baseball as a legitimate subject for academic inquiry. Showalter graduated from the Military Institute in Frankfort in 1882. His chess fame started when he was 30 years old. He has chess ties to Henry Chadwick, British-born American sportswriter who helped organize professional baseball. In 1869 Chadwick began an annual baseball handbook, which later became Spalding’s Official Baseball Guide.

From the Brooklyn Eagle, Oct 17, 1893: The article is called A Fair Chess Expert, and it remarks that while chess champion Jackson Showalter is an excellent amateur baseball player and the noted pitcher of the Lexington team, his young wife is also a fan of baseball and quite an expert at chess. Mrs. Showalter often accompanied her husband on trips, and it is often noted that both she and their child play chess.

And, Edward Winter, writing at Chess Notes Archive, responds to the claim that Jackson was the curve ball instigator,

…  [the claim that Jackson Showalter invented the curve ball] was mentioned, sourcelessly, by A. Soltis on page 30 of the April 1980 Chess Life. On the general subject of Showalter and baseball we can give a couple of quotes from pages 242-245 of the June 1892 BCM [British Chess Magazine]:

‘… he received a first-class school and college education – which included baseball.’

‘His tendency is the national game of baseball – in England he would have been a cricketer with a good strain of football thrown in. He travelled with the Georgetown baseball team, of which he was the only amateur, in a successful Southern tour some years ago, encountering all the crack teams from the Ohio River to the Gulf, New Orleans included. … He is a baseball crank.’

Jackson Showalter, Heck Of A Guy

I blundered into tidbits of the story of Jackson Showalter by chance  and was lucky enough to track down the information in this post with routine searches.  While I’m obviously biased, family connections being what they are, I think it’s fair to say Jackson lived a rich life – and one that has now enriched me.

Credit Due Department:  The picture of the trophy and the basis of information for the caption beneath that picture were found at the Rook House Blog.  The sketches from the New York Daily Tribune and the Philadelphia Public Ledger are from Chess Archeology. The sketch of Jackson Showalter near the end of this post was drawn from life by Mrs G.A. Anderson and  published on page 67 of the 1922 issue of Chess Pie. It was also reproduced to accompany an article on Showalter by W.H. Watts on pages 44-45 of the Chess Budget, 11 November 1925. I found it at Chess Notes Archives.

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1. “Showalter” is the meatspace alias used by DrHGuy. [↩]
2. My genealogically astute brethren have informed me that most of the  Showalters in this country are descendants of Christan Showalter or Jacob Showalter, Swiss Mennonite brothers who immigrated to Pennsylvania as adults with their families in 1740 and 1750, respectively. I have fastidiously avoided investigating this claim, thus eliminating  hours of tedious and possibly counterproductive research to establish my family ties to another Showalter.  If you’re willing to admit your name is “Showalter” or “Schowalter,” I’m willing to allege that you are kin – whether you like it or not. [↩]
3. Chess games played by Jackson Showalter are recorded on many sites. A handy compendium of his games set forth in algebraic notation and in java animation, along with annotations and analysis, can be found at Chess Games. [↩]
4. Although the birthdate of  February 5, 1860  and birthplace of  Minerva, Kentucky birthplace are the standard biographical data given for Jackson Showalter, I note the family genealogical database indicates that the Kentucky birth records show a birthdate of February 5, 1859. On investigation, I find this pertinent entry at Chess Notes: “Kevin Marchese (Canal Winchester, OH, USA) informs us that he is writing a book on Jackson Whipps Showalter, with the assistance of some of the master’s relatives, and that the work will show that Showalter was born on 5 February 1859 (and not 5 February 1860, as previously believed). His exact place of birth is still being investigated.” [↩]
5. Chess Notes Archives [↩]
6. From item 26 in Napier’s Amenities and Background of Chess-Play (New York, 1934), quoted in Chess Notes Archive [↩]
7. London, 1899 Pen-portraits,  André de M.   La Stratégie, 15 July 1899. Pp 210-213 [↩]
8. 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nc3 [↩]
9. 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Nf3 0-0 7. Rc1 c6 8. Bd3 dxc4 9. Bxc4 Nd5 [↩]
10. The Steinitz Papers: Letters and Documents of the First World Chess Champion By William Steinitz, Kurt Landsberger. McFarland, 2002.  p 307 [↩]
11. Chess Notes Archives [↩]
12. E.g., ‘In baseball, the pitcher attempts to get the batter to strike out by throwing a variety of tricky pitches. One of the oldest is the “curveball”, in which the pitcher puts a spin on the baseball such that it appears to curve away from the batter and then back towards him as it travels from the pitcher’s throwing arm to home plate.  The curveball has been a part of baseball since the 1860s or early 1870s and is generally regarded as having been invented around 1867 by William “Candy” Cummings, although there are several other claimants. The first recorded use of the term “curveball” is in the New York Herald on 7 July 1874.  From The Dickson Baseball Dictionary by Paul Dickson (New York, 1989. P 118). [↩]