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Home » Chess Players » Amos Burn: Chess Player, Writer, and Eponym of The Burn Variation

Amos Burn: Chess Player, Writer, and Eponym of The Burn Variation

Editorial Staff by Editorial Staff
in Chess Players

Amos Burn was an English Chess writer and player who played from the year 1866 through 1920, most commonly known for being the eponym of the Burn Variation of the French Defense.

Full Name: Amos Burn

Place of birth: Kingston Upon Hull, England

Born: November 25, 1925

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  • Most Frequently Played Openings
    • With The White pieces
    • With The Black pieces
  • Biography
  • The Beginning
  • Notable Achievements
  • Notable Games
    • Amos Burn vs John Owen – Craigside Amateur Congress Round 5, Llandudno WLS – January 06, 1898
    • Edmund MacDonald vs Amos Burn – Offhand game – Liverpool ENG, January 1910
    • Mikhail Chigorin vs Amos Burn – Ostend Round 18 – Ostend BEL – July 07, 1905

Ratings

There are no recorded Elo ratings for Burn due to the time period he played in. Only a couple centuries before FIDE was established.

Profiles

  • Chessgames.com

Most Frequently Played Openings

With The White pieces

  • Ruy Lopez
  • Orthodox Defense
  • Queen’s Gambit

With The Black pieces

  • Ruy Lopez
  • French Defense

Biography

Amos Burn was a chess Master born on April 8, 1827, in Kinston Upon Hull, England. Burn was an English chess player and chess writer who was one of the global highest players at the end of the nineteenth century. As a young teen, Owen relocated to Liverpool and apprenticed to a shipowner and merchant company. Burn only discovered how to play chess when he was 16 years old. Subsequently, in London, Burn studied chess with potential global victor Wilhelm Steinitz and, same as his instructor, became recognized for his outstanding defensive prowess. Burn was labeled one of the globe’s six best and most exciting defensive players by Aron Nimzowitsch in his book The Praxis of My System. Burn died on November 25, 1925.

The Beginning

Burn’s prime contest was a handicap championship at the Liverpool Chess Club in 1867/1868. Burn conveniently triumphed in the second tier, where he obtained pawn and move odds from the four best players while giving up knight odds to the other players, 24/25 points.

Burn’s first major championship was the British Chess Association’s Third Challenge Cup held in London in 1870, where he amazed the columnists by sharing first place with John Wisker, ahead of Joseph Henry Blackburne and others, however, ended up losing in a semifinal to Wisker. Burn’s most recent appearance was in Breslau 1912, where he placed 12th out of 18 contestants, scoring 7.5 points out of a potential 17.

Notable Achievements

Burn’s best tournament outcomes were a tie for first with Isidor Gunsberg in London 1887 ahead of Joseph Henry Blackburne and Johannes Zukertort, first in Amsterdam 1889 ahead of a young Emanuel Lasker, second in Breslau 1889 behind Siegbert Tarrasch, and first in Cologne 1898 ahead of Rudolf Charousek, Mikhail Chigorin, Carl Schlechter, David Janowski, and Steinitz.

Burn also competed in Hastings 1895, the most prestigious tournament up to that point, finishing in joint twelfth place with 9.5/12.

Notable Games

Amos Burn vs John Owen – Craigside Amateur Congress Round 5, Llandudno WLS – January 06, 1898

Edmund MacDonald vs Amos Burn – Offhand game – Liverpool ENG, January 1910

Mikhail Chigorin vs Amos Burn – Ostend Round 18 – Ostend BEL – July 07, 1905

Did you enjoy reading about Amos Burn? If you did, you might be interesting in reading other influential players from the past, such as Paul Morphy, and Kermur Sire De Legal.

Sources

  1. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1019412
  2. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1316491
  3. http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess2/diary13txt.htm
  4. https://web.archive.org/web/20060630172346/http://supreme-chess.com/famous-chess-players/amos-burn.html
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