TELEGRAPHIC NEWS
(From Our Own Correspondent) Dunedin this day.
David Forsyth, solicitor, and winner of the chess championship in 1901, was found dead in his rooms yesterday morning. It is a supposed suicide. -Lake Wakatip Mail, 31/1/2/1909.
CHESS CONGRESS.
THIRD DAY'S PLAY.
A KEEN CONTEST.
The third round of the New Zealand chess championship concluded yesterday forenoon, and the fourth commenced after the luncheon adjournment. Public interest showed no signs of flagging. The sad news of the death of an old and successful competitor, the late Mr. David Forsyth of Dunedin, was received in the evening and on reassembling at 7.50 the chairman of committee, the Rev. H. B. Wingfield, sympathetically moved a motion of condolence to be sent to the deceased's mother and also to the Otago Chess Club, of which deceased was a member, and which he represented at championship tourneys for many years, winning the championship on one occasion. The motion was endorsed by Messrs. Barnes, Kelling, and Connell, who each spoke in highest appreciation of the late Mr. Forsyth's value as a player, a friend, and a man. It was mentioned as an instance of his well-known character that at the 1903 congress, at Wellington, he declined to score a game by default because his opponent was not well enough to play his best game. He was the author of the Forsyth Notation, now universally used, and which will carry his name down to posterity. -NZ Herald, 31/12/1909.
MR D. FORSYTH.
Mr David Forsyth, a solicitor practising in this city, was found dead yesterday morning in his offices in Princes street. On Wednesday afternoon Mr Gray, of Messrs Butler and Gray, looked into the office, and found Mr Forsyth sleeping on the sofa. Early yesterday morning Mr Gray again looked into the office and found Mr Forsyth still upon the sofa, but he was dead. The body was duly removed to the Morgue, and there were found upon it keys and papers, and cash to the extent of over £10. An inquest will be held this morning at 10 o'clock. Deceased was a lawyer of Scottish training, and came to the Dominion some years ago. For some time he was employed in the office of Mr John Wilkinson, barrister and solicitor, but about five years ago, on an adjustment of the New Zealand law to permit of legal practitioners engaging in their profession on complying with certain conditions, Mr Forsyth entered into business on his own account. Deceased was a single man, and resided at Mornington, where he has left a small house. As a chess enthusiast Mr Forsyth was very well known, and after participating in many championship contests with varying success, he was successful in winning the championship in 1901, when the tourney was held at Dunedin. A wide circle of chess enthusiasts will miss the deceased ex-champion. At the evening sitting of the chess tourney at Auckland yesterday sympathetic and laudatory references were (says the Press Association) made to the death of Mr Forsyth, the author of the Forsyth notation. A vote of condolence was passed, and telegraphed to deceased's mother and the Otago Chess Club. -Otago Daily Times, 31/12/1909.
HEART FAILURE
PRESS ASSOCIATION. DUNEDIN, December 31.
At the inquest on David Forsyth a verdict was returned that death was due to heart failure, accelerated by chronic alcoholism. -NZ Times, 1/1/1910.
The late Mr David Forsyth was born at Ballachraggan Farmhouse, Alness, Ross-shire, Scotland, and was a son of the late Sir David Forsyth, farmer and justice of the peace (says the Dunedin "Star"). He was a solicitor in the Supreme Court of Scotland, and practised in Edinburgh. He came out to Dunedin in January, 1899, and joined the Otago Chess Club. It was only in his twentysixth year that he learned to play chess, that he made rapid strides in the game, and shortly made his appearance in the major tournament of the first congress of the Scottish Chess Association at Glasgow, where he won a majority of games against the strongest and most experienced players in Scotland, and for a time deemed first favourite for the championship. He was the author of the "Forsyth" notation, and possessed the power in a marked degree of playing blindfold. Shortly after joining the Glasgow Chess Club in 1883, he was appointed secretary, and afterwards treasurer, both of which offices he resigned on removing to Edinburgh in 1887. He had been secretory and treasurer of the Scottish Chess Association from the time of its inauguration until he left for this Dominion. -NZ Times, 4/1/1910.
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