Catherwood and Chess.

The English chess master Frederick Catherwood and tne American traveler John L. Stephens visit Chiapas and make an important contribution to the Mayan History.

But in 1851, Catherwood make another contribution, but this time to Chess.

The International Chess Tournament in London was reported an illustrated by Catherrwood.

Leandro Katz and FIDE Master Ral Radulov work in the Project Catherwood from many years ago in Varna, Bulgary, but now we are working sepparatedly. In Yucatan, with support of Mexican international chess masters and the Miami University I am living in Merida continuing the project.

I want to explain in my bad English.

One hundred and fifty years ago, John L. Stephens and Frederick Catherwood undertook a series of expeditions into the Maya area of Yucatan, Chiapas, Guatemala and Honduras, uncovering ancient monuments that rivaled the famous ruins of Egypt. Stephens and Catherwood were the first English- speaking travelers to explore the regions originally settled by the Maya.John L. Stephens (l805-l852) practiced law in New York before he took up his work as a writer and 'antiquarian.' Because of ill health, he began traveling in the Near East, Greece and Egypt, and his first essays concern the ruins and artifacts of ancient civilizations there. On a visit to London, he met Catherwood, whose drawings of digs in Egypt and famous map of Jerusalem he had already admired.Frederick Catherwood (l799-l854) was an Englishman who had been trained as an architect but whose real talent lay in his ability to render views of ancient monuments with great accuracy and insight. With the aid of a camera lucida - an optical device that preceded the invention of photography - he developed a technique of drawing that he used while documenting Robert Hay's expeditions in Egypt, drawings which became a marvel of the period.The first collaboration of Stephens and Catherwood, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, was published in l84l and ran to l2 editions in its first year. In l843, they brought out Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, the result of a subsequent trip to that part of Mexico. Both of these books are composed of detailed descriptions of their extensive findings and many steel engravings made from Catherwood's drawings, so excellent that even today they are frequently referred to as perfectly accurate records of the objects they document. In l844, Catherwood published his Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, a book of 25 color lithographs, reprinted in Mexico in l978.My appreciation of the drawings of Frederick Catherwood and the paradoxical elements that appear when these drawings are observed next to the restored monuments became a main area of concern in my work. During the summer of l984, I had the opportunity to work in the Yucatan area, photographing the Maya sites drawn by Catherwood from the same vantage points that he used when making his camera lucida drawings. In this way, I started to compile the elements of a work-in-progress called The Catherwood Project, a visual reconstruction of Stephens and Catherwood's expeditions. I continued this project in the summers of l985 and l986, covering other sites in Yucatan and the Chiapas region in Mexico. During December and January of 1987/88 I completed the itineraries of the two expeditions, photographing the sites of Quiriguá in Guatemala, and Copán in Honduras.My intention when starting The Catherwood Project, which resulted in nearly 4,000 black-and-white photographs and l,800 color, was not only to reappropriate these images from the colonial period, but also to visually verify the results of archaeological restorations, the passage of time, and the changes in the environment. In this 'truth effect' process, issues having to do with colonialist/neocolonialist representation became more central, particularly during the last section of the project.Three different approaches are used to produce the works in this project:•The first approach attempts to adopt as closely as possible the same points of view used by Catherwood, which at times included lower or elevated perspectives. Each print in this method juxtaposes a reproduction of Catherwood's published engraving side by side with my final photograph.•The second approach incorporates a view of my hand holding Catherwood's published engraving in front of the documented monument, making the comparison the subject of a single photograph.
Everybody interested in Catherwood or with special information write me.

Ral Radulov Chess Master and PH D.