Cheselden Vchez-ol-donX, William (b. Oct. 19, 1688, Somerby, Leicestershire, Eng.—d. April 10, 1752, Bath, Somersetshire) British sur¬ geon and teacher. His Anatomy of the Human Body (1713) and
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
386 I Cheshire ► Chesterton
Osteographia (1733) were both used by anatomy students for nearly a century. His technique for extracting bladder stones through an incision in the side rather than the front (1727) was soon used by surgeons through¬ out Europe. He also devised a way to surgically create an “artificial pupil” to treat some forms of blindness.
Cheshire Vche-shoA Administrative (pop., 2001: 673,777), geographic, and historic county, northwestern England. The county seat is Chester. Cheshire borders Wales, fronts the Dee and Mersey estuaries to the north¬ west, and lies partly within Peak District National Park. Evidence of hill forts from the Bronze and Iron ages has been found, as well as ruins of structures from the Roman occupation. The county is largely rural, but, along with dairy farming, engineering and chemical and technology industries are important.
Chesnut, Mary orig. Mary Boykin Miller (b. March 31, 1823, Pleasant Hill, S.C., U.S.—d. Nov. 22, 1886, Camden, S.C.) U.S. writer. The daughter of a prominent South Carolina politician, she attended pri¬ vate schools in her youth. In 1840 she married James Chesnut, Jr., who would play an important role in the secession movement and the Con¬ federacy. After her husband became an officer in the Confederate army, she accompanied him on his military missions and recorded her views and observations in her journal. Her Diary from Dixie, a perceptive view of Southern life during the American Civil War, was published in 1905.
Chesnutt, Charles (Waddell) (b. June 20, 1858, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.—d. Nov. 15, 1932, Cleveland) U.S. writer, the first important Afri¬ can American novelist. As a young school principal in North Carolina, he was so distressed by the treatment of African Americans that he moved his family to Cleveland, where he became an attorney and began writing in his spare time. He published numerous tales and essays, two collec¬ tions of short stories, a biography of Frederick Douglass, and three nov¬ els, including The Colonel’s Dream (1905). A psychological realist, he used familiar scenes of folk life to protest social injustice.
chess Checkerboard game for two players, each of whom moves 16 pieces according to fixed rules across the board and tries to capture or immobilize (checkmate) the opponent’s king. The game may have origi¬ nated in Asia about the 6th century, though it continued to evolve as it spread into Europe in Byzantine times; its now-standard rules first became generally accepted in Europe in the 16th century. The players, designated white or black, start with their pieces arranged on opposite ends of the board. Kings move one square in any direction—but not into attack (check). Bishops move diagonally, and rooks horizontally or vertically, any number of unobstructed squares. Queens move like either bishops or rooks. Knights move to the nearest nonadjacent square of the opposite colour (an “L” shape) and ignore intervening chessmen. Pieces capture by moving to an enemy-occupied square. Pawns move forward one square (except one or two on their first move) and are promoted to any non-king piece if they eventually reach the last row. Pawns capture only one diagonal square for¬ ward of them. For one turn only, a pawn has the option, known as en pas¬ sant, of capturing an enemy pawn that has just made a first move of two squares to avoid being captured by moving only one; the capture occurs as though the pawn had moved only one square. When the first row between a king and either rook is clear, and as long as the king and that rook have not moved, a maneuver known as castling can be done in which the king is shifted two squares toward that rook and the rook is placed directly on the other side of the king. Kings cannot castle when in check or through any square in which they would be in check. A draw, known as a stalemate, occurs if a player is not in check but any move he could make would place him in check. A draw also occurs if the same position occurs three times (such as through “perpetual check”). See illustration opposite.
Chess, Leonard orig. Lejzor Czyz (b. March 12, 1917, Motule, Pol.—d. Oct. 16, 1969, Chicago, Ill., U.S.) Polish-born U.S. record pro¬ ducer. He immigrated to the U.S in 1928 with his mother, sister, and brother and future partner, Fiszel (later Philip; b. 1921), and they joined his father, who had preceded them, in Chicago. After working at several trades, Leonard Chess opened a lounge, and Phil joined him in the busi¬ ness. In 1947 Leonard joined the Aristocrat record company; in 1950 he bought the company and, with Phil as partner, renamed it Chess. Fans of the electric blues that were being heard in the city after World War II, they signed such artists as Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, How¬ lin’ Wolf (1910-76), Etta James (b. 1938), Koko Taylor (b. 1935), and Bo Diddley (b. 1928), and played a major role in introducing black music to a wider white audience.
Chess pieces located at their starting positions on the chessboard.
© MERRIAM-WEBSTER INC.
Chester ancient Deva or Castra Devana City and administrative district (pop., 2001: 118,207), seat of Cheshire county, England. Located on the River Dee south of Liverpool, it is an active port and railroad cen¬ tre. The Romans chose it as the headquarters of the 20th Legion; well- preserved Roman walls remain. It was the last place in England to surrender to William the Conqueror, who made it the centre of a palati¬ nate earldom in 1071. It became an important port in the 13 th—14th cen¬ tury, trading especially with Ireland. From about the 14th century, it was the scene of the presentation of the mystery plays of the Chester cycle. The
gradual silting of the Dee led to the city’s decline, but in the 19th century railroad traffic renewed Chester’s prosperity.
Chesterton, G(ilbert) K(eith)
(b. May 29, 1874, London, Eng.—d. June 14, 1936, Beaconsfield, Buck¬ inghamshire) British man of letters. Chesterton was a journalist, a scholar, a novelist and short-story writer, and a poet. His works of social and literary criticism include Robert Browning (1903), Charles Dickens (1906), and The Victorian Age in Literature (1913). Even before his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1922, he was inter¬ ested in theology and religious argu¬ ment. His fiction includes The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), the popular allegorical novel The Man
" 3 )
i _
G.K. Chesterton, chalk drawing by James Gunn, 1932; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
chestnut ► ch'i i 387
Who Was Thursday (1908), and his most successful creation, the series of detective novels featuring the priest-sleuth Father Brown.
chestnut Any of four species of deciduous ornamental and timber trees of the genus Castanea, in the beech family. Native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, they bear burrlike fruits that contain two or three edible nuts. The usually tall trees have furrowed bark and lance¬ shaped leaves. The American chestnut (C. dentata), which once extended over a large area of eastern North America, has been almost eliminated by chestnut blight. The other three species are the European chestnut (C. sativa), the Chinese chestnut (C. mollissima), and the Japanese chestnut (C. crenata ). The nuts of these three have local importance as food and are exported in large quantities, and varieties of all three are cultivated as ornamentals. The European chestnut produces useful timber as well; the American chestnut also was an important source of lumber and nuts before the arrival of the blight.