Moheschunder Bannerjee

Calcutta 1849 — the earliest game in the archive, and the beginning of the only chess record Moheschunder left behind. Every one of his surviving games was played against John Cochrane, the Scottish barrister who sought him out in the country districts beyond the city. Here he takes White in a Giuoco Piano, wins the bishop pair with 11.Nd5 and 12.Nxb6, and closes the position with 13.d5.

Calcutta 1850. The record classifies this as a Pirc Defense — 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 — roughly seventy years before Vasja Pirc was born. Moheschunder's habit of meeting the centre from a distance rather than occupying it struck his European contemporaries as simply wrong; he wins this one in a 39-move endgame, walking his king up to f4 and pushing the b-pawn to b3.

Calcutta 1851, and the modern King's Indian in full: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f4 O-O 6.Nf3 e5 — the Four Pawns Attack, met by the counter-thrust in the centre that is still the main answer to it. He grabs on e4 with 9...Nxe4, checks with 10...Qh4+, and by move fourteen Cochrane's king has been driven to d1.

Calcutta 1852, a sixty-three-move King's Indian marathon — proof that his strength was not only in the opening. The middlegame burns down to bishop-and-rook against rook, Cochrane pushes a passed a-pawn to a7, and Moheschunder answers it with 62...Be3+ 63.Rxe3+ Kxe3, giving back the exchange to leave the pawn unqueenable.

Calcutta 1853. Again the fianchetto and the counterattack: 1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.c4 Bg7. The finish is the sharpest in the archive — 20...a4 21.Rxf6 axb3 22.a3 Rxa3!, a rook thrown at the pawn shield, and after 23.bxa3 Qxc3+ 24.Kb1 Nc4 the white king has no cover left.

The same fianchetto idea from the other side of the board, 1853: 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 c5 3.Bg2 — a King's Indian Attack a century before the name existed. Cochrane grabs a knight with 17...Qxc4, and Moheschunder ignores it: 18.exf6 Rxf6 19.Rxf6 gxf6 20.Qh5 Kg7 21.Bd5, and the game ends on move twenty-one.

Calcutta 1854. A Pirc that transposes to the same King's Indian structure, and a display of pure calculation: Cochrane wins the queen with 21.Qxf6, but Moheschunder had seen further — 21...Bxf6 22.cxd6 Rxc3 23.Rxf6 Rxd3, and the rooks pick up everything, ending with 26...Rxd6.

Calcutta, 21 August 1855 — twelve moves, the shortest decisive game in the archive. Cochrane's pieces tangle after 10.Qd3 Nb4 11.Qd2 c5, and 12...Be3 traps the queen where she stands. Black resigns nothing; White does.

Calcutta, 11 September 1855, a King's Indian in the classical mould: 5.Bd3 e5 6.d5, the closed centre, and the queenside break 15...b5. When Cochrane takes the a-pawn Moheschunder simply pours down the c-file — 19...Rxc3, 21...Rc1, 22...Rxf1+ — and after 24...Qc4+ the mating net is complete.

Calcutta, 25 February 1856. Seventeen moves with White in an Italian Game: 12.e5 shuts the knight out to h7, 13.Nh4 and 14.Qh5 aim everything at the black king, and 15.Bxh6 Bxe5 16.Bxh7+ Kh8 17.Bg5 finishes it. The classical European openings, played back at the man who brought them to Calcutta.