Moheschunder Bannerjee (Bengali: মহেশচন্দ্র বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়, fl. 1850) or Mahesh Chandra Banerjee was a strong chess player from Bengal, many hundred of whose games survive through the writings of John Cochrane, who regularly played Bannerjee between 1848 and 1860, during Cochrane's tenure at the Calcutta bar. His first name is sometimes misspelled Mohishunder, though Mahescandra is a variant. Moheshchunder, also known as "the Brahmin", was a player from the mofussil or suburbs of Calcutta. He played traditional Indian chess, which in Bengal at the time, pawns did not have the option of moving two squares from the starting row and pawns would promote to the piece of the square reached. Also Bengal chess rules did not have castling, but an unchecked king could execute a knight's move once during a game. However, there is little difference in the middlegame and many Indian chess players were very strong tacticians. Bannerjee is likely to have transitioned to western rules after contact with Cochrane and other Europeans. Among his contributions to mainstream chess is the class of openings now called Indian Defence. An even greater contribution from him is the hugely complicated and popular Grünfeld Defence which was first introduced, and then regularly used by him against Cochrane. Career What little is known of Moheschunder comes from articles that John Cochrane, stationed at Calcutta in the 1840s, wrote for the London chess magazines. It appears that Cochrane, who had defeated every player in England barring his protégé Howard Staunton, had been searching for some worthy opponents for some time. In the autumn of 1848, a member of the Calcutta Chess club heard of a Brahmin in a village (mofussil) who had never been beaten at chess. He found an opportunity of meeting him, played him, and lost. It was stated that the man, 'Moheschunder Bonnerjee, a Brahmin', of about 50, hardly knew the European rules of chess; yet his play was presumably under European rules. This club member brought Bannerjee back to Calcutta with him. Cochrane played him and won, but was impressed. Banerjee was engaged as "a paid attaché" of the Chess Club, where he improved wonderfully. In the Chess Player's Chronicle for 1851 are published some games between Cochrane and Moheschunder; and "the Brahmin" figures as a player in various collections of games. The Indian Defences by P-KKt3 coupled with P-Q3, or P-QKt3 coupled with P-K3, were largely taught to European players