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{{Short description|Long-distance chess match}}
[[File:Liverpool_Calcutta_Chess_Match_Game_A,_1880.png|thumb|Final outcome of the first game between Liverpool and Calcutta, reported by ''[[The Chess Monthly (British magazine)|The Chess Monthly]]'' (Calcutta resigning and Liverpool winning).]]
'''Liverpool versus Calcutta, 1880''', was the world's first intercontinental, long-distance chess match.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Spalding|first1=Roger|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JLUYBwAAQBAJ|title=Entertainment, Leisure and Identities|last2=Brown|first2=Alyson|date=2009-03-26|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=978-1-4438-0724-1|language=en}}</ref>

==History==
The match was played via [[electrical telegraph]], predating and later inspiring the [[Anglo-American cable chess matches]] of 1896 to 1911. The match was played between the Liverpool Chess Club in [[Liverpool]] and a team from [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] (now Kolkata), over the course of several months. The match was proposed by [[Robert Steel (chess player)|Robert Steel]], a wealthy businessman in Calcutta who was also a renowned chess player, in addition to being a former president of the Liverpool Chess Club.<ref>{{Cite book|last=J. S. Edgar|url=http://archive.org/details/liverpoolchessc00edgagoog|title=Liverpool Chess Club: A Short Sketch of the Club from Its First Meeting ...|date=1893|publisher=The Liverpool chess club|others=Harvard University|language=English}}</ref> ''The [[British Chess Magazine]]'' reported that the match was "exciting great interest in chess circles all over the world",<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aKZJAAAAYAAJ|title=The British Chess Magazine|date=1881|publisher=Trubner & Company|language=en}}</ref> ''The Chess Monthly'' referred to the match as "the leading topic of chess conversation",<ref name="Chess-monthly">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZFoFAAAAQAAJ|title=The Chess-monthly|date=1880|publisher=Jas. Wade|pages=100|language=en}}</ref> the ''[[Chess Player's Chronicle]]'' called it "the most remarkable event of the kind",<ref name="CPC">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9SQCAAAAYAAJ|title=The Chess Player's Chronicle|date=1880|publisher=J. Sampson|language=en}}</ref> and the London ''[[Daily News (UK)|Daily News]]'' similarly termed it "a most remarkable match in the history of chess."<ref name=":0" />

At the time, a telegram from Liverpool to Calcutta cost four shillings and six pence a word (over GBP 20 in present-day valuation).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Liverpool vs Calcutta Telegraph Match (1880)|url=https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=88210|access-date=2021-10-24|website=www.chessgames.com}}</ref> However, a member of the Liverpool Chess Club devised a unique code which reduced time and expenses considerably.<ref name="Chess-monthly" /> An updated version of the code was later used in the Anglo-American cable chess matches, though the latter was criticised as inferior to the code used in the Liverpool-Calcutta match.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yraxSAH84MQC|title=The International Chess Magazine|date=1890|language=en}}</ref>

The rules of the match required moves to be communicated within forty-eight hours. The match commended on 28 October 1880 and ended in March 1881. The Calcutta team was initially led by Steel, "assisted by two natives and an Anglo-Indian".<ref name="Chess-monthly" /> However, Steel departed for Britain mid-way. In the end, two games were played, with Liverpool winning the first (after Calcutta resigned) and drawing the second, thus winning overall.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Liverpool vs Calcutta Telegraph Match (1880)|url=https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=88210|access-date=2021-10-24|website=www.chessgames.com}}</ref>

The "natives" who were Steel's teammates were reported to be "Baboo caste",<ref name="CPC"/> i.e. Brahmins,<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=1880-12-18|title=INTERNATIONAL CHESS MATCH.|work=Evening News|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108741552|access-date=2021-10-25}}</ref> but their names do not appear to be easily confirmable. A report from 1880 describes Baboo Ishur Chunder Gossain and Baboo Mahodeb Chowbey as two "eminent" players in India,<ref>{{Cite book|last=College|first=Huddersfield|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zs1eAAAAcAAJ|title=Huddersfield College Magazine|date=1880|pages=280|language=en}}</ref> and Steel and Gossain were declared joint winners of India's first round-robin chess tournament in Calcutta in 1878. <ref>{{Cite book|last=King|first=Daniel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gUXcDwAAQBAJ|title=Sultan Khan: The Indian Servant Who Became Chess Champion of the British Empire|date=2020-04-08|publisher=New In Chess|isbn=978-90-5691-876-7|language=en}}</ref> It is, however, not clear if the two were also Steel's "Baboo caste" teammates. Similarly, the identity of Steel's Anglo-Indian teammate is difficult to confirm. Nevertheless, Steel's partnering with Indians in the same sports team contrasts with contemporaneous racially and religiously segregated sports in colonial India, such as cricket and football.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Collins|first=Tony|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DiqSGkDmxdUC|title=Sport in Capitalist Society: A Short History|date=2013-04-12|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-08199-7|pages=65|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Silvestri|first=Michael|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zm2hDwAAQBAJ|title=Policing 'Bengali Terrorism' in India and the World: Imperial Intelligence and Revolutionary Nationalism, 1905-1939|date=2019-07-08|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-030-18042-3|language=en}}</ref>

== References ==

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Chess games]]
[[Category:Chess in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Chess in India]]
[[Category:Correspondence chess]]
[[Category:1880 in chess]]

Liverpool versus Calcutta, 1880 - Revision history

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