James A. Leonard

James A. Leonard (November 6, 1841 Ireland – September 26, 1862 Annapolis, Maryland) was an American chess master, who grew up as a son of poor Irish immigrants in New York City. He learned to play chess at age 16 or 17. Before his 20th birthday, he was already famous for his fierce attacking play and prowess at blindfold chess, at which he played as many as ten games simultaneously.

In 1862 he fought for the Union in the American Civil War. He was captured and, while being held as a prisoner of war, died of dysentery before reaching his 21st birthday. Commentators have compared his promise, never realized, to that of American chess giants Paul Morphy and Harry Nelson Pillsbury.

Early life Nineteenth-century chess journalists and Jeremy Gaige's book Chess Personalia: A Biobibliography state that Leonard was born in New York City. However, his biographer John S. Hilbert, states, based on Leonard's military records, that "recent evidence strongly suggests he was born in Ireland".

Leonard grew up in New York City with his parents, who were poor, working-class Irish immigrants. Hilbert believes, based on 1850 United States census records, that his parents may have been John Leonard, a cabinet maker, and his wife Eleanor. Leonard also had a brother Joseph, about two years his junior. In October 1860, Paul Morphy, the de facto world chess champion, visited New York and played Leonard, giving him rook odds. The result of the game is unknown.

In 1861, Leonard visited Philadelphia, where he played a match against William Dwight, who later became a general in the Union Army.

By late 1861, Leonard was giving simultaneous exhibitions of blindfold chess, commonly on eight boards. Hazeltine referred to Leonard's "wonderful blindfold séances in the Fall of 1861, the Winter and Spring of 1862". The most blindfold games that Leonard ever played simultaneously was apparently ten, in New York on November 16, 1861. He scored four wins, two draws, and four losses.

Biographer Hilbert writes that "during his short career he won three major New York tournaments and defeated all the finest chessplayers of the city, and most of the finest players in the country, save one. Although the two main chess matches he played were left unfinished, his dominance in those matches was evident."

Civil War, death On February 1, 1862, Leonard enlisted on the side of the Union in the American Civil War in Company F., 88 N.Y. Volunteers, an Irish regiment. After seven days of battles, he was captured by the Confederate Army. While held in a facility in Annapolis, Maryland that housed prisoners of war captured by both sides, he contracted scorbutic dysentery and died on September 26, 1862.

Legacy Chess historian Edward Winter writes that Leonard "acquired fame among his contemporaries for his brilliant attacks and blindfold prowess". William Ewart Napier wrote in the mid-1930s, "Among the neglected masters of this country who should be kindly remembered as exhibiting the premonitory signs and urge of champions was Leonard. In style, he was no doubt frankly satellited to Morphy, whose exploits were still a fresh memory in Leonard's day."

James D. Séguin, in a tribute to Harry Nelson Pillsbury on page 127 of the July 1906 American Chess Bulletin (reprinted from the New Orleans Times-Democrat) remarked of Leonard: In 2005, a biography of Leonard by chess historian John S. Hilbert was published, entitled The Tragic Life and Short Chess Career of James A. Leonard, 1841–1862.

Notable games

In the following game, Leonard nonchalantly allows Black to trap his bishop, then launches a blistering attack: