George Walker

George Walker (* 13 March 1803 in London; † 23 April 1879 in London) was an English chess master, chess composer and writer.

Tournament player
He was the son of a London bookseller. Together with his father, he ran a music publishing company until the latter's death in 1847, after which he worked as a stockbroker on the London Stock Exchange. After the death of Alexander McDonnell, who was able to give him pawns and moves, he was regarded as the best player in London for several years. He founded several chess clubs: the Westminster Chess Club in 1831 and St George's Chess Club in 1843.

In 1845 Walker, together with Henry Thomas Buckle, William Davies Evans, George Perigal and William Josiah Tuckett, played two games (one win and one draw) by telegraph in London against a team consisting of Howard Staunton and Hugh Alexander Kennedy in Portsmouth. In 1846 Walker won a match in London against Daniel Harrwitz by 7 : 5

Chess publicist
From 1835 to 1873 he had a regular chess column in the Sunday newspaper Bell's Life. He also published the first English chess magazine The Philidorian from 1837 to 1838. He was friends with Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais and William Davies Evans, whom he also supported financially.

Walker was the author of The Celebrated Analysis of A D Philidor (London, 1832), The Art of Chess-Play: A New Treatise on the Game of Chess (London, 1832), A Selection of Games at Chess played by Philidor (London, 1835), Chess Made Easy (London, 1836) and Chess Studies (London, 1844).[3] The latter book contains over 1,000 games from the period between 1780 and 1844, making it the most comprehensive collection of games at the time. Howard Staunton criticised Walker's compilation and threatened to sue for copyright infringement.

Chess composition
Over 80 compositions by Walker are known, almost all of them related to practical play. With his endgame studies he made important contributions to the development of endgame theory in chess.

Individual references
 Jeremy Spinrad: The telegraph, the velocide, and the Bristol sloth (Memento of 11 February 2012 in the Internet Archive) (PDF file; 427 kB)
 Chessmetrics
 Books and Writers - Chess Books 1749-1875
 Edward Winter: Copyright on chess games
Weblinks
George Walker (1803-1879) on Wikisource. Entry in the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 59 (English)
Some compositions by George Walker on the PDB server

Source: Germain Wikipedia

Others: On Dutch Website ARVES are 30 endgame studies by George Walker selected