Chess Forum / General Topics / July 2008

It seems unlikely to me that Ben Franklin would have recorded games;
1st, we would all know them, and 2d, it was quite rare to record moves
in those days (even many masters of later periods never recorded their
games). I would think more likely sources would involve strong players
such as BL Oliver, or players who frequented some of the early chess
clubs in the New World we know about. The problem of finding them is
that there were no chess journals to record them in until many years
later, so they have to be either quoted from a later date, published
in individual stories not part of a chess column, or found in private
records. Still, I would bet that occasionaly stray games from around
1800 can be found somewhere; I just am curious what would be
considered a valuable find.

Jerry Spinrad