imported>Smasongarrison: Copying from Category:Australian chess players to Category:20th-century Australian chess players Diffusing per WP:DIFFUSE and/or WP:ALLINCLUDED using Cat-a-lot

2025-06-19T03:50:12Z

Copying from Category:Australian chess players to Category:20th-century Australian chess players Diffusing per WP:DIFFUSE and/or WP:ALLINCLUDED using Cat-a-lot

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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Use Australian English|date=August 2011}}
{{Infobox engineer
|image =
|image_size =
|caption = 1955
|name = Frederick Karl Esling
|nationality = {{AUS}}
|birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1860|7|20}}
|birth_place = [[Creswick, Victoria]], [[Australia]]
|death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1955|7|31|1860|7|20}}
|death_place = [[Box Hill, Victoria]], Australia
|education =
|spouse =
|parents =
|children =
|discipline = [[civil engineer]]
|institutions =
|practice_name =
|significant_projects = [[Flinders Street Viaduct]] <br> [[Saltwater River Rail Bridge]]
|title =
|worldchampion =
|womensworldchampion =
|rating =
|peakrating =
}}

'''Frederick Karl Esling''' (20 July 1860—31 July 1955)<ref>[[Jeremy Gaige]], ''Chess Personalia: A Biobibliography'', McFarland & Company, 1987, p. 110. {{ISBN|0-7864-2353-6}}.</ref> was an Australian [[railway engineer]] and [[chess]] [[Chess master|master]].

==Railway career==
Esling was engineer-in-charge in the Way and Works branch of the Victorian Railways department, located at Flinders Street. Among the many important works that Esling carried out were the building of the [[Flinders Street Viaduct]], the replacement of the spans of the [[Saltwater River Rail Bridge]] over the [[Maribyrnong River]] (formerly the Saltwater River), refurbishment of the [[Moorabool River#Moorabool Viaduct|Moorabool Viaduct]], and the complicated lay-out of the tracks at the Flinders street station and yards. The refurbishment of the Saltwater River Rail Bridge, which was carried out inside the old bridge with minimal interruption to rail traffic, was a complex piece of work that excited much interest in engineering circles.

Esling presided over the topping-out ceremony on the [[Flinders Street railway station|Flinders Street station]] clock tower in 1909, when he laid the last brick and was presented with the ceremonial trowel. He published a number of technical papers, including one based on his work on the Flinders Street viaduct, which identified a puzzling problem related to the horizontal forces due to braking, in combination with side forces from wind-pressure.<ref>F K Esling, "A Problem Relating to Railway Bridge Piers of Masonry or Brickwork". Institute of Civil engineers, Minutes of the Proceedings, Volume 165, Issue 1906, pages 219 –230 [http://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/content/article/10.1680/imotp.1906.16754]</ref> He resigned from his railway position in 1917, partly because he did not consider that he had been treated fairly as regards his promotion.<ref name=Argus>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1614893 |title=The Railways.: Mr. F. K. Esling's Resignation |work=The Argus |issue=22,078 |location=Melbourne |date=3 May 1917 |accessdate=16 March 2019 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

==Chess Master==
At the age of 18, Esling won an offhand game against [[Adolf Anderssen]].<ref>[http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter43.html#5411._Maroczy_v_Korchnoi Chess Note 5412], Chess Notes by Edward Winter</ref> He won the first [[Australian Chess Championship]] by defeating [[George H. D. Gossip]] in a match in 1886. Gossip, having [[immigration|emigrated]] from [[England]] to [[Melbourne]] in 1885, issued a challenge the following year to any player in the Australian colonies to play him in a match for 20 [[British pound|pounds]] a side and the title of Australian champion. While Gossip was considered to be strong than any other Australian/Victorian chess player at the time, Esling, also a leading Melbourne player, accepted the challenge and won the first game with the 2nd game being adjourned in favourable position, after which illness forced Gossip to forfeit the match.<ref name="Digglep.2">Diggle, G.H., "The Master Who Never Was", ''British Chess Magazine'', January 1969, pp. 1–4, at p. 2. The article is about Gossip, not Esling.</ref> In 1950, shortly before Esling's 90th birthday, the Australian Chess Federation formally decreed that this match victory had made Esling Australia's first champion.<ref>''Chess World'', Vol. 5, No. 7 (1 July 1950), pp. 149–50.</ref> Esling finished second in the Second Australian Championship, a [[chess tournament|tournament]] held at Adelaide 1887, with 7 out of 9 points, behind [[Henry Charlick]] (7.5) but ahead of Gossip (6.5).<ref name="Digglep.2"/><ref>Gino Di Felice, ''Chess Results, 1747–1900'', McFarland & Company, 2004, p. 103. {{ISBN|0-7864-2041-3}}.</ref>

In 1895, Esling challenged [[Alfred Edward Noble Wallace]] of Sydney, the reigning Australian champion, to a match for the title. It was played in Melbourne between 8 June and 11 July, and aroused great interest. Wallace narrowly won, winning seven games and losing five, with four draws. In a letter published in ''[[The Sydney Mail]]'', he graciously wrote that "after the close fight we have had, I cannot as much as I would like to - think myself a better player than my late opponent, F.K. Esling, champion of Victoria".<ref>A.C.L. Partnership, ''Australian Chess Lore (Volume I)'', Chess in Australia, 1981, pp. 6, 8. {{ISBN|0-9595297-1-3}}.</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{chessgames player|id=31744|name=Frederick Carl Esling}}
* [http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter43.html#5411._Maroczy_v_Korchnoi Chess Note 5412], Chess Notes by Edward Winter

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Esling, Frederick}}
[[Category:Australian civil engineers]]
[[Category:19th-century Australian chess players]]
[[Category:1860 births]]
[[Category:1955 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Creswick, Victoria]]
[[Category:People from the Colony of Victoria]]
[[Category:20th-century Australian chess players]]

Frederick Esling - Revision history

imported>Smasongarrison: Copying from Category:Australian chess players to Category:20th-century Australian chess players Diffusing per WP:DIFFUSE and/or WP:ALLINCLUDED using Cat-a-lot