November 30, 1997

Trabue Chess Tourney Goes Big Time With Cash Prizes

Col. Isaac Trabue, founder of Punta Gorda in 1885, would be pleased.

The eighth-annual Spirit of Trabue revival chess tournament goes big time this year under U.S. Chess Federation rules.

Regular and four-handed games will held over a three-day period: Saturday December 6, Sunday December 7, and Monday December 8 at the historic Trabue office building, corner of East Marion and Nesbit streets, Punta Gorda.

The event is sponsored by Old Punta Gorda, Inc., the non-profit organization dedicated to saving local historic buildings.

Referee of the games is John Bird, president of the Punta Gorda Chess Club. He is a licensed player and tournament director of the U. S. Chess Federation.

In accordance with Federation rules, cash prizes will be awarded and a $40 entrance fee charged for the regular chess games. Guaranteed minimum purses are: first $125, second $75, third $50. Federation rating points will be recorded.

There is no entry fee for the unique four-handed game invented by Trabue but which is not sanctioned by the chess Federation. Purses are: first $100 and second $50.

Information, entry forms and rules for four-handed chess are available from Bird at phone 637-9320.

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Trabue, a genuine Kentucky colonel, was an avid chess player -- as was his whole family.

A younger brother, William Chastine Trabue, was a national chess master. A nephew, Stephen Fitz James Trabue, was an attorney who joined Isaac at Punta Gorda and once defeated the Cuban chess champion in a celebrated match at Tampa.

A familiar photograph of Col. Trabue is of him and his wife, Virginia, playing chess in front of their rustic cabin at what is today the parking lot of the Best Western motel.

One of Trabue's first acts after filing the plat for his town -- originally bearing his name -- was to deed a block of land for promoting chess.

That property is bounded by Olympia, Marion, McGregor and Chasteen streets. The deed is dated March 23, 1885, while Trabue was still living at Louisville, Ky.

The 30 acres he had recently purchased sight-unseen at Charlotte Harbor was surveyed, but was inhabited only by his cousin, John Trabue.

Trabue placed an advertisement in the Louisville New Argus newspaper extolling the many virtues of his new community. Among them was: "A chess tournament endowed to come off on the second Monday in December of every year -- no entry fee."

The endowment was set forth in the deed: "Block 28, in the town of Trabue on the waters of Charlotte, Fl., to be planted in pineapples, lemons, oranges and other profitable fruits which are to be properly cared for and, when ripe, sold.

"Two-thirds of the profits of said fruits are to be given to the first, best chess player that plays at the tournament. The other one-third of the profits is to be given to the second-best chess player. They must also have gold medals with appropriate inscriptions."

Trustees for the indenture were John Cross and John Trabue.

Cross was agent for Hamilton Disston who owned four million acres of Southwest Florida. He also operated a freighting business of ox-drawn wagons at Liverpool, a town now disappeared, which he founded on the Peace River south of Fort Ogden in 1880.

Future Predicted

According to a letter discovered by Punta Gorda Historian Vernon Peeples, Col. Trabue had leased his land to cousin John for "a fruit place, truck garden, cattle ranch, place for shipping cattle, packing house, or hotel."

Isaac was astute in evaluating the site. All the enterprises mentioned became reality a year later with coming of the Florida Southern Railway.

In his tournament rules, Col. Trabue decreed: "It is to be free for all, male or female, except for the lawyer who has compromised with his adversary's client without the consent of said adversary."

This cryptic statement indicates the crusty colonel had a specific lawyer in mind -- toward whom he bore a grudge and who was to be barred from the chess match.

How this foe was to be identified and excluded is not spelled out. Perhaps the miscreant was known to the "masters of ceremonies" of the tournament.

These were listed as: "William Trabue, Col. H. M. F. V. Stump, John Trabue, John Cross, Isaac H. Trabue the Grantor, and any of his nephews."

After a series of elimination matches, the final pair were to play a championship match.

"The victor shall be declared the First Knight of the Tournament," Trabue stipulated. "The vanquished knight shall be declared the Second Knight of the tournament.

"The First Knight shall receive a gold medal appropriately inscribed, and two-thirds of the profits of Block 28 for that year after paying for the medal, also a fair proportion of any other donations or endowments.

"The Second Knight shall receive the other third of the profits of Block 28 less the cost of a medal, and also a fair proportion of other donations or endowments."

How many chess tournaments were held at Punta Gorda is not known. Existing records show only that after Col. Trabue's death in 1907, Cross and John Trabue gave up their trust; and the land was sold for home lots.

As Col. Trabue in 1904 neared the end of his long and eventful life, he devoted more time to his chess passion. He took time to write a pamphlet describing a variation of the game he had devised.

The Punta Gorda Herald, which printed the tract, stated in March of 1904: "Col. Trabue has published a brochure on how to play American, or four-handed chess -- a game which he invented."

The brochure consists of 24 pages with numerous chess-board diagrams.

Trabue chess involves four players on an enlarged board in the shape of a Maltese cross. It pits four armies, two of which are "allies" of the usual black and white pieces.

Partners endeavor to check one of their opponents' king, thereby immobilizing his army, in order to collaborate in mating the remaining king.

An ally can, with strategy, relieve the checked prisoners; and the reunited armies can launch a counter-attack. Possibilities are greatly multiplied with four players and four sets of pieces.

Col. Trabue was so enamored with the complexity, he devoted half his booklet to an essay on the joys and character of chess. He signed himself "General Punta Gorda."

"Trabue, or American Chess, is destined to create great interest in chess, love of mental amusement feats, and combinations of the mind," he wrote.

"It has no parallel in grandeur but the late American (Civil) War -- the immensity of which was difficult to comprehend except to one that knew the extent of the country, also the multitude of characters that figured in it.

"Hence we may call this American Chess -- on account of its grand range of territory over which to operate.

"In giving to the world this giant game, I hope that I have been the means of contributing to their pleasure and pastime.

"If it affords a few fagged-out students, or worked-down men of the world, pleasure -- at times when they need something to divert their minds from their dusty books, the price of gold, tobacco, cotton, or wheat -- I am more than gratified."

Played in 1855

"We -- Isaac Shelby, Jr., Baylor Goffney, my brother William and I -- played this chess in 1855.

"Later we -- Mrs. George D. Prentice, Miss Mary Shipman, my brothers William and Henry -- played it in Louisville, Ky., at our villa near that city.

"The game can be played by clubs in different parts of the country, by correspondence or telegram. I hope ere long to hear of Charleston and Boston allies matched against Chicago and New Orleans.

"We have a perfect game in every particular. If any knight is of a different opinion, we will be most happy to see his waving plume, with visor up or down. His thrust will prove the metal of his lance.

"Chivalry and generosity is the soul of war; so gallantry, etiquette, and honor is the spirit of chess -- all of which should be punctilious observed.

"No passion, violent, or un-knightly feeling should be exhibited at the board. If so, you are beaten not only on the board, but in your knightly courtesy and conscience.

"The movement from queen's 7th to ally's king 7th, I have called the Kentucky Rifle Movement. The pawns' kingdom is the same as its ally's king's pawn and can attack the square it has just left.

"This appears to be taking backwards, but it is not. The pawn's quarter is changed, its kingdom changed, its circumstances changed; consequently its orders. Hence, it about-faces after crossing the center of the board and attacks in its former rear, which is a beautiful movement.

"When either side is checkmated, his pieces are prisoners of war until relieved. They cannot attack or defend until relieved of the mate. When relieved, they stand exchanged and can go to the fray as if they were never in trouble.

"Prisoners cannot be taken or disturbed during the checkmate of the crown. When both the whites or blacks are mated, the game is lost.

"This game is intended to cultivate rapidity of action. I have played chess by the flashes of lightning. At one flash of lightning I have seen the board, taken in the whole situation, determined what to do, and announced my move. I consider that Americanism."

Col. Trabue died July 16, 1907. At his request, his remains were shipped to Kentucky for burial.

His wife, Virginia, was a founder of the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church and continued to live for awhile at Punta Gorda. She died penniless on July 4, 1924, at her nephew's home in Alabama. At her request, her remains were returned to Punta Gorda for burial at Indian Springs Cemetery.

S. F. J. Beats Cuban Champ

S. F. J. Trabue, Isaac's nephew, became Punta Gorda city attorney, justice of the peace, and mayor. He carried on the family interest in chess.

His famous match with a Cuban master was reported by the Tampa Times in 1913:

"The chess experts who will order the moves in the game with human figures during the Gasparilla Celebration next summer have been selected. Their names will be presented to the boosters' committee this afternoon.

"They are Nestor Hernandez, the Cuban champion of Tampa, and Stephen Trabue, formerly of Louisville, Ky., and the chess club there, but now living in Punta Gorda.

"Both Senor Hernandez and Mr. Trabue have been made honorary members of the Tampa organization and will participate in their tournaments.

"The two met last Sunday for a match, in the rooms temporarily loaned to the chess club by Hartford Jones, The game was watched by a number of enthusiastic chess players.

"Mr. Hernandez, who has been playing among the Cuban and Spanish players of the city, has never been defeated here. He is considered an expert player, and has figured in some matches of special note.

"Mr. Hernandez directed the play for Key West in the matches three or four years ago between that city and Havana, played by cable, and which attracted attention all over the world of chess players.

"Sunday, however, Mr. Hernandez met a stronger player in Mr. Trabue, 60 years old, who met each play of Mr. Hernandez successfully, winning every game of the six played during the afternoon.

"Another match will probably be played between the two in a couple of weeks. In that encounter Mr. Hernandez, who is at work bettering his play now, expects to come out ahead."

In the following match of seven games, S. F. J. Trabue defeated Hernandez four times.

cutline 1 - man and woman playing chess.

Photo from " Florida's Vanishing Era" by Eleanor Pearse, courtesy of Historical Association of Southern Florida

Col. Isaac Trabue was an avid chess player, here joined by his wife Virginia in front of their first rustic cabin at Punta Gorda.

cutline 2 - chess board

Illustration courtesy of Cleveland, Ohio, Public Library.

The four-handed chess board invented by Col. Trabue.

By Lindsey Williams, columnist for Sun Coast Media Group newspapers