Copyright On Chess Games

Copyright Copyright on Chess Games Edward Winter (1987, expanded in 1999 and 2005) Can there be copyright on a chess game? Could players or organizers place restrictions on, or demand payment for, the publication of game-scores in columns, magazines and books? It is worth examining some of our forefathers’ attempts to grapple with these questions. Rule number 12 at the first international tournament (London, 1851) read as follows: ‘As the managing committee guarantee to every subscriber of a guinea and upwards, a correct copy of the whole games, and as considerable expense must attend the recording of so many games and their subsequent publication, it must be understood that no-one will be allowed, in the first instance, to publish any part of them without the express sanction of the committee.’ Source: page lviii of the tournament book by Staunton. Although New York, 1857 had an almost identical regulation, it took two years for the tournament book to be published, by which time games had been widely printed in magazines and newspapers. Similarly, the rules for the Cleveland, 1871 congress specified, ‘All games and problems shall remain the property of the Congress, and shall not be published without its consent’ (page 5 of the tournament book). At Philadelphia, 1876 a complication was added: ‘The games shall be the exclusive property of the association for publication in book form, each player, however, being entitled to the use of three of his games for that purpose.’ Source: tournament book, page viii. The above cannot, however, be dismissed as just an eccentricity from the nineteenth century. One of the conditions of play at New York, 1927 was the following: http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/copyright.html (1 of 17)28/06/05 13:43:26 Copyright ‘The players undertake not to write any annotation or publish any of the games played in book form for a period of one year after publication of the Official Tournament Book.’ Here the trouble was that the ‘Official Tournament Book’, which was supposed to be by Capablanca, was never published. (American Chess Bulletin, February 1927, pages 21 and 23.) Copyright controversies are not uncommon. In 1853 the Chess Player’s Chronicle reported on the ‘Chess Meeting at Manchester’, attended by such luminaries as Staunton, Harrwitz, Horwitz, Williams and Löwenthal. Page 189 related: ‘Mr Löwenthal then explained the circumstances of the transaction as to his challenge to Mr Harrwitz, and said that the London Club wished to force on him conditions which no player would accept, viz. – that all the games should be played at the London Chess-club; and that all the games should be the property of that club (Shame! absurd!). He proposed that half the games should be played at the London and the other half at the St George’s Chess-club; but that the games must be public property (applause); but to this they would not agree ...’ Daniel Harrwitz http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/copyright.html (2 of 17)28/06/05 13:43:26 Copyright On page 438 of the November 1894 BCM Charles Tomlinson wrote: ‘When Mr Walker’s book appeared [i.e. George Walker’s 1844 volume Chess Studies], Staunton was very indignant at what he called ‘wholesale spoliation’ and he threatened legal proceedings. This opens a curious question as to whether there is any copyright in a game of chess. If there is, does the copyright belong to each player or in consultation games to all the players? In practice, copyright is ignored, as, when Harrwitz won the first two games in his match with Löwenthal, he told me that the games would be printed “many times over”. Of course if the games are edited with notes, the notes would enjoy the privilege of copyright, but I should like to have a competent opinion as to the copyright of the game itself.’ Another copyright controversy had