Potter William Norwood (17.08.1840 – 13.03.1895)

A leading English player of the 1870s. A barrister’s clerk. He met strong opposition in only one tournament, London 1876 when he took third place after Joseph Blackburne and Herman Zukertort.

In match play, he lost to Herman Zukertort in 1875 and drew with James Mason in 1879. Potter edited the City of London Chess Magazine (1874-86), wrote the chess section for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and contributed well-written chess articles to the Westminster Papers and Land and Water during 1868-79.

He played a part in the development of new ideas attributed to Steinitz, with whom he established a firm friendship and to whom he may have shown the ideas of the English School.

In 1872 the London Chess Club, represented by Joseph Blackburne, Herwitt, Johann Lowenthal, William Potter, Wilhelm Steinitz, and John Wisker, began a correspondence match of two games against a Viennese team led by Baron Kolisch for stakes of 100 pounds a side. Unable to accept the ideas of William Potter and Wilhelm Steinitz, the rest of the London team soon withdrew, leaving these two to play on. And they won the match. Subsequently, Steinitz declared that “modern chess” began with these two games.