‘When we discipline our conscience, it kisses us while it bites’ Nietzsche, Epigrams and entr’actes 99, BGE
Did you know that the first person ever to receive a brilliancy prize was an Englishman or so it is argued? None other than H. E. Bird, he who is more commonly associated with openings and defences considered to be more so quaint than modern. I am not a trained historian and so cannot document the precise reasons why brilliancy prizes emerged when they did, however, I can show a position from the game in question and link it too, as it is rather impressive I must say.
The game itself can be found here, https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1027995&kpage=2. One would naturally assume that should you want to understand why H. E. Bird won the prize given, you should at least look at the game. Further understanding can be found in Hooper & Whylde’s Oxford Companion to Chess, pg. 49
I do believe this has been documented further in: CN 1062 Edward Winter, “Chess Explorations”, Cadogan 1996. The chat below the game linked also cites the following:
Obviously I am not the first to post about this and nor will I be the last, a more comprehensive, if less motivated by patriotism, post can be found here: https://www.chess.com/article/view/first-brilliancy-prizes
More on patriotism, I visited this tournament but not this round where GM Mc Shane won the first brilliancy prize of The London Chess Classic.
Regarding prizes per se, a more comprehensive historical account can be found here: https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/prizes.html
Explore further as you so wish. If I find further relevant research, I shall post it below.
MJM, South America
McCreadyandChess 