# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Bird, Henry Edward

​BIRD, HENRY EDWARD (1830–1908), chess player, born at Portsea, Hampshire, on 14 July 1830, was son of Henry Bird, of a Somerset family, by his wife Mary. His father afterwards kept a shop in south London. Bird's schooling was scanty, but he educated himself and as a boy developed notable powers of memory. In 1846 he became clerk to an accountant in London, and was afterwards partner in the firm of Coleman, Turquand, Young & Co. During the financial crises of 1847, 1857, and 1867 Bird was greatly occupied in professional business, and between 1860 and 1870 he paid four visits to Canada and America. To railway finance and management he devoted his special attention, giving evidence before the parliamentary committee on amalgamations of home railways in 1868 and framing the statistical tables which still govern the Great Eastern railway. He wrote pamphlets on railway accounts, a comprehensive 'Analysis of Railways in the United Kingdom' (1868 fol.) and 'A Caution to Investors' (1873). But Bird's serious interest through life lay in chess. He learned the moves by watching the games at Raymond's coffee house near the City Road Gate in 1844, moved ​thence to Goode's, Ludgate Hill, and so to Simpson's, in the Strand, where the professionals at first gave him the odds of queen. Buckle, the historian, who was considered the first amateur in England and who did not mind hard work, soon found Bird too much for him at the odds of pawn and move. In 1851 in the great international tournament he played eighteen games with the great Anderssen with an even result, and later played Boden, Harrwitz, Lowenthal, Falkbeer, Wisker, Mason and others. With the dignified Howard Staunton [q. v.] he only played two games on even terms and won both, but this at a date when Staunton's best days were over. In 1866 he played a match of twenty games against Steinitz and was only beaten by seven to six (seven being drawn). He was a friend of Steinitz's rival, John Hermann Zukertort [q. v.], who lived near him in Heygate Street, Waiworth Road. In 1879 he won first prize in the Lowenthal tourney against Blackburne, Mason, and McDonnell, and in the same year took the first prize at Gouda, winning nine and a half out of ten games and first prize in the B.C. A. tournament (1889), not losing a single game. At Venice in 1873, Paris in 1878, Nuremberg in 1883, Hereford in 1885, and Manchester 1890 he was among the prizewinners. His last appearance as a public player was at the London tournament in 1899, where, however, he took a low place.
Bird had long since retired from professional work and his resources failed. Members of the St. George's Chess Club purchased an annuity for him, which enabled him to spend his last days in comfort. He died at Tooting on 11 April 1908. He married young and was left a widower in 1869.
Well known for his rapidity (R. J. Buckley says he once played three games in ten minutes at Simpson's, scoring one and a half), dash, and eccentric openings (KBP2 is often called Bird's opening), Bird was the most popular referee of his time and answered more questions about chess than any man living. In chivalry and enthusiasm for chess as a pastime, in pluck, and in readiness to play at a moment's notice for stakes or no stakes, Bird had no equal. After Staunton, Blackburne, and Burn he probably ranks next among English masters of the last sixty years. Unfortunately his patience and judgment were very inferior to his power of combination. As a problem composer he was not great. His books, discursive compilations of mediocre value, include:
* 'Chess Masterpieces,' 1875.
* 'Chess Openings,' 1878 (reviewed by Steinitz in 'Field,' Dec. 1879).
* 'Chess Practice,' 1882.
* 'Modern Chess,' 1887 and 1889.
* 'Chess History and Reminiscences,' 1893.
* 'Chess Novelties,' 1895.
These last two were dedicated to his favourite opponent and patron, W. J. Evelyn of Wotton. Among his opponents at the chess clubs and divans were Buckle, Bradlaugh, Isaac Butt, Lord Randolph Churchill, Ruskin, and Prince Leopold. For a time he was chess correspondent of 'The Times.'
[Who's Who, 1908 ; The Times, 16 April 1908 ; Chess Mag., 1908, 211, 248, 303 ; Chess Monthly, March 1889 (portrait) ; McDonnell's Knights and Kings of Chess ; Lee and Gossip's Chess Player's Mentor; Fortnightly Rev., Dec. 1886 ; Bird's Chess History (portrait), and Chess Novelties, 1895 ; Sketch, 21 Aug. 1895.]
T. S.