Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Excelsior (chess problem)
open-in-new
<p>"Excelsior" is one of <a href="/facts/Sam_Loyd/FWreSB37">Sam Loyd</a>'s most famous <a href="/facts/Chess_problem/jVyYlAXs">chess problems</a>, originally published in <i>London Era</i> in 1861. In 1867, it participated together with five other problems as a set in an international problem tournament. The motto for the full set was "Excelsior" (eng. 'Ever upward'), generally known as the title of the <a href="/facts/Poem/ylGarm6p">poem</a> "<a href="/facts/Excelsior_(Longfellow)/CfVBx8Th">Excelsior</a>" by <a href="/facts/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow/vrQqjSn5">Henry Wadsworth Longfellow</a>, and as that term is very fitting for this particular problem, it is generally associated with it. It is not to be confused by a popular 1958 study of the same name by Russian <a href="/facts/Chess_composer/8ynqUbjX">chess composer</a> Vladimir Korolkov, which has a similar thematic motif. </p>