Burn Amos (31.12.1848 – 25.11.1925)
Amos Burn was born in Hull on the 31st December 1848.
In his early teens, he was apprenticed to a firm in Liverpool cotton broker. He started to play chess when he was sixteen and became immediately recognize as a talented player. In 1870 he joined the London Chess Club and under the influence of Wilhelm Steinitz he reached the rank of a national master.
In 1871 he tied for first prize with John Wiske at the Challenge of the British Chess Association and won the same cup in 1873, 1874 1875 and 1876. The year 1886 marked his entry up to the international tournament area.
For 26 years Burn competed in 22 international tournaments. Among them, he took the first prize in Nottingham (1886), London (1887), Amsterdam (1889) and Cologne (1898) where he had his greater success finishing ahead of Rudolf Charousek, Mikhail Chigorin, and Wilhelm Steinitz. He took part in few matches by cable vs. USA and defeated Frank Marshall in 1911.
Burn’s style of play was solid and prudent rather than aggressive. From 1913 until 1925 he was the chess columnist at The Field.
His historical Elo was estimated at 2530.
