George Hatfeild Dingley Gossip (December 6, 1841 – May 11, 1907) was a minor American-English chess master and writer. He competed in chess tournaments between 1870 and 1895, playing against most of the world's leading players, but with only modest success. The writer G. H. Diggle calls him "the King of Wooden Spoonists" because he usually finished last in strong tournaments. Gossip was also a noted writer. His treatise The Chess-Player's Manual—A Complete Guide to Chess, a 900-page tome published in 1874 after several years of work, was harshly received by the critics, largely because he had included a number of informal skittles games that he had (atypically) won against stronger players. As a result, Gossip developed a lifelong enmity toward chess critics, whom he often attacked ferociously in his books. However, his 1879 book Theory of the Chess Openings was well received. Wilhelm Steinitz, the first World Chess Champion, wrote that the 1888 edition of The Chess-Player's Manual was one of the best available books on the game. Thanks in part to a 122-page appendix by S. Lipschütz, it became one of the standard opening works of the time. Gossip made his living primarily as a journalist, author, and translator. He wrote for publications in England, France, Australia, and the United States. At various times he resided in each of those countries, as well as in Germany and Canada. In 1898 and 1899, two publishers issued Gossip's sole book about a subject other than chess, The Jew of Chamant. Published under the pseudonym "Ivan Trepoff", it was virulently antisemitic. Chess writers have often mocked Gossip's play, calling him a "grandpatzer" and the like. However, Kenneth Whyld, one of his previous critics, suggests that history may have judged his strength unfairly. Early life and education Gossip was born in New York City on December 6, 1841, to George Hatfeild Gossip, an Englishman, and his wife Mary Ellen Dingley Gossip, of New York. When he was sixteen months old, his mother died; about two years later, he and his father moved to England. His aunt, Mrs. Reaston Rodes, raised him, apparently with little involvement by his father. Gossip grew up at Barlborough Hall, Derbyshire (the Rodes family seat) and at Hatfield, in Yorkshire. Both the Gossip and Rodes families are listed in Burke's Landed Gentry. He was educated at Windermere College, Westmorland, and won a scholarship to Oxford University, but was