Amos Burn was one of the leading English masters in the late 19th and early 20th century. Below, I explore his life and games.
Photo: Cleveland Public Library, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Table of contents:
Biography
Early life
Amos Burn was born in Hull, England, in 1848. He learned the game of chess around the age of 16, and moved to Liverpool after school, to be an apprentice at a shipping firm. While in Liverpool, he met the strong player John Soul, who suggested that Burn visit the Liverpool Chess Club.
Burn quickly began to play for his new club in its matches. In 1869, he won both his games for the Liverpool team in its match against Manchester. This helped Liverpool to win the match 11-2.
Steinitz the mentor
In 1870, Burn moved to London, and joined the City of London Chess Club. There he met many strong and famous players, like Staunton and Blackburne. Around this time, Steinitz began to act as a mentor to Burn, a major boost for his chess development. Burn became quite active in English chess circles.
Champion of Liverpool
1871 saw Burn return to Liverpool, where the following year he took up the role of editor of a chess coloumn in the Liverpool Weekly Albion. However, he devoted most of his time to his professional career as a merchant, which left only little time for chess. Despite this, he became Liverpool Club Champion in 1874. These years were also important for Burn’s personal life: he got married in 1879 and had two daughters in 1880 and 1881.
Life at the top
Having secured his family financially, Burn entered top level chess in 1886. He drew a match with the famous English master Henry Bird (+9 =0 -9), where, interestingly, all the games ended decisively. He also drew a match with another leading English master, Mackenzie (+4 =2 -4). At London 1886, Burn shared 1st place with Blackburne, although he lost the playoff match. Despite this, he had finished ahead of a field which included Gunsberg, Taubenhaus, Mackenzie and Zukertort. Burn also took clear 1st at a strong tournament in Nottingham, ahead of Schallopp, Gunsberg, Zukertort and Bird.
This marked the start of a consistent run of participating in top tournaments. Burn finished in shared 11th place at Frankfurt 1887, but bounced back to share 1st with Gunsberg at the London tournament later that year, ahead of Blackburne, Zukertort and Bird, amongst others.
1889
1889 was a particularly successful year for Burn. He achieved a respectable 5th place at a strong tournament in New York, before taking a very impressive 2nd at Breslau. There only Tarrasch finished ahead of him. Later that year, Burn achieved tournament victory at Amsterdam, ahead of Emmanuel Lasker, who would go on to become the World Champion five years later. Also in 1889, Burn won the first Irish Chess Association tournament in Dublin, ahead of a field which included Pollock and Mason.
Cologne 1898
Burn continued to compete at the top level in the 1890s. At the strongest tournament of the 19th century, Hastings 1895, Burn finished in shared 12th place. He took 5th at Berlin 1897, behind Charousek, Walbrodt, Blackburne and Janowski, and equal 6th with Chigorin at Vienna the following year.
Perhaps Burn’s greatest ever achievement came at Cologne, Germany, in 1898. It was the 11th German Chess Congress, and the field included such famous names as Charousek, Chigorin, Cohn, Steinitz, Schlechter, Showalter, and Janowski, among others. In this incredibly strong field, Burn took clear 1st place, with a dominant 11,5/15 score. The fact that Burn achieved this only a few months before turning 50 makes this result even more impressive. Just before the turn of the century, Burn built on his success with victory at a Midland Counties tournament in Birmingham in 1899.
A new century
Burn began the 20th century strongly, securing an excellent 5th place at the famous tournament in Paris in 1900, behind only Lasker, Pillsbury, Maroczy and Marshall. This was followed by 4th at Munich later that year, behind Pillsbury, Schlechter and Maroczy. Even in his fifties, Burn was proving himself capable of competing successfully against the world’s best players.
Burn continued to compete at the top level throughout the decade. He achieved an impressive shared 4th place with Teichmann and Bernstein at the mammoth Ostend tournament of 1906. In general, though, age was catching up to him: he finished in shared 15th place at St Petersburg 1909 and 13th at San Sebastian 1911. At the famous tournament Karlsbad 1911, despite sharing 17th place with Salwe, Burn managed a win against the young Alekhine.
Later years
In 1911, Burn took up the role of editor of the chess section of the publication the Liverpool Courier. His annotations and analysis proved popular with the chess world. When Leopold Hoffer, the editor of the chess coloumn in The Field passed away in 1913, it was decided that Burn should take over the role. The success of his coloumn in the Liverpool Courier was likely a major contributing factor for this choice. To work in this post, Burn moved from Liverpool to London, and remained in the role for the rest of his life. Burn retired from professional chess after his 12th place finish at Breslau 1912.
Burn lived to the age of 77, when in 1925 he suffered a stroke and died the following day.
Legacy
Today Burn is remembered as one of the leading British masters of his time and for his excellent annotations to top level games. The Burn variation of the French defence bears his name, and he has been an inspiration to generations of British chess players.
Game Analysis
Burn won an instructive game against the experienced German player Johannes Minckwitz at Breslau 1889.
Lessons from this game:
- Every pawn move is a critical moment, as the advance gains space but weakens squares.
- Every exchange must improve the position in a clear and specific way. If not, it is better to maintain the tension.
- A common way of targeting a weak colour complex is to exchange off the opposing bishop which defends the squares of that colour.
Puzzles
Burn – Mackenzie, London 1886
Burn – MacLeod, New York 1889
Charousek – Burn, Berlin 1897
Chigorin – Burn, Ostend 1905
Solutions
Further Reading
To find more about the life and games of Amos Burn, the following are useful sources:
Burn’s chessgames.com page,
this chessbase article by Eugene Manlapao,
this article by britishchessnews.com,
and this chess.com article.
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