Theophilus Thompson (1855-1881), a house servant of John Henshaw, editor of the Maryland Chess Review, witnesses a chess game. He immediately shows great talent for the game and, within a year, he writes a book on endgame positions, “Chess Problems: Either to Play and Mate”, published by Orestes Brownson, Jr., editor of the Dubuque Chess Journal.
Thompson is the first African American expert chess player to gain national attention. He is born enslaved in Frederick. In 1868, after emancipation, he works for John Henshaw. Thompson gains fame with the publication of his chess book, but soon falls back into obscurity. His two mentors, Henshaw and Brownson, die in the late 1870s, and then Thompson becomes infected with tuberculosis and dies in 1881.
Today, the U.S. Chess Center in Silver Spring hosts the Theophilus Thompson Chess Club for a match each Saturday.
