James Mortimer - Chess Career

Chess Career

Mortimer had a very poor record in chess tournaments, nearly always finishing near the bottom of the field. At a London tournament in 1887, he finished last of ten players, losing all nine games he played. Despite his poor finishes, he was invited to many tournaments and seemed to be regarded more highly as a chess personality than a chess player.

Although never successful in tournaments, Mortimer sometimes did play well in individual games against powerful opponents. In the London tournament of 1883, he beat Johannes Zukertort and Mikhail Chigorin, but finished tied for last in a field of 14 with a score of 3–23. At the BCA International Congress in London in 1886 he defeated Jean Taubenhaus, James Mason, William H.K. Pollock, and Emil Schallopp, but finished with a score of 4–8 and in 11th place of 13. When he was 74 he played the 1907 Masters Tournament at Ostend and defeated Savielly Tartakower, Eugene Znosko-Borovsky, and Joseph Henry Blackburne, but finished last of 29 with a score of 5–23. He also won tournament games against Henry Bird and Jacques Mieses, and drew with Wilhelm Steinitz and George Henry Mackenzie.

Mortimer wrote two best-selling chess books published in London. He is the eponym of the Mortimer Defence in the Ruy Lopez and the related Mortimer Trap, and the Mortimer-Frazier Attack in the Evans Gambit.