Better Late Than Never

The master had, as always, played quickly and finished the round early, despite his age. Now, as was his habit, he remained at the board (it was the Frankfurt congress of 1878), ready for an off-hand game. "Herr Doktor Anderssen, may I present Herr Esling, who seeks the honour of a game with you? The young man is a student of engineering. His homeland is Australia". Frederick Karl Esling bowed. Adolf Anderssen replied with a smile, "I have met players from four continents. Herr Esling will be my first opponent from the fifth". Anderssen took the black pieces and his 18 year old opponent played the Evans gambit.

[Event "Friendly game"]
[Site "Frankfurt"]
[Date "1878"]
[Round "-"]
[White "F.Esling"]
[Black "A.Anderssen"]
[Result "1-0"]

The winner of the game was in 1891 to become the first champion of Victoria. For most of the 1890s he would hold that title undefeated, while serving the club in different capacities. He would be runner-up to Henry Charlick in the first Australian championship tourney, the Adelaide congress of 1887. In 1895 playing his most memorable chess, he would yet narrowly lose a challenge match against the Australian titleholder A.E.N.Wallace, in a contest arousing more public interest in Victoria than any match until Fischer played Spassky. And he live to see the Australian chess federation in 1950 recognise him as this country's first champion on the strength of a match played 65 years before. In the meantime as a railway engineer he would have presided over the massive reconstruction of Flinders St station that produced the buildings still in use. But let us go back to 1885, when the Hon.George Hatfield Dingley Gossip, the unlikeable and vainglorious Englishman who had come to Melbourne not long before, boldly challenged anyone to play him for a stake of £30 and the title of champion of Australia. Esling was induced to take up the challenge and the match began at the club on 29 June 1885, Esling playing black. Gossip chose the Vienna. He played indifferently and soon had cause to regret his challenge.

[Event "AUS ch m"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1885.06.27"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Gossip, G."]
[Black "Esling, F."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C25"]
[PlyCount "72"]
[EventDate "1885.06.??"]

[Event "AUS ch m"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1885.06.27"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Esling, F."]
[Black "Gossip, G."]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "C84"]
[PlyCount "32"]
[EventDate "1885.06.??"]

The 2nd game was adjourned with Esling in much the better position. That was enough for Gossip. He failed to appear at the next sitting, and showed no signs of ever appearing again. Unfortunately the influential Andrew Burns, who had not been prepared to accept the challenge himself and who was ever jealous of his own reputation, persuaded the Melbourne Chess club committee to announce that the match was cancelled. It had not been cancelled, and in any event the committee had no jurisdiction. Gossip's legacy to us is the curiosity of perhaps the only championship match where but a single game was completed.

An entry appears in the minute book for 1 September 1937, "New member F.K.Esling". The new member - he must have been 77 - is next found enclosing a donation with a letter, unhappily long since lost, dealing with the club's early history. In 1946 aged 86, he comes in from Box Hill to watch the great wireless match against France. Four years later he becomes, retrospectively, the first Australian champion, just before his 90th birthday. He has waited a long time.

If Esling was unlucky to wait 65 years for his Australian title, he was lucky to become first champion to Victoria. He won that title in 1891 when the club inaugurated the Victorian championship tourney. The year before he had come second to R.L.Hodgson in a tournament conducted by the Victorian chess and draughts club, which had been conceived as for the championship of the colony but conducted as the championship of Melbourne because the country clubs were absent. Hodgson had to wait until just before his death in 1901 to become Victorian champion. Esling held the title until 1897, after which he retired from tournament chess, aged only 37, although still playing in the telegraph match for many years.