“THE MEADOW HAY AND STONEWALL OPENING

The Meadow Hay is an invention of Mr. Preston Ware of Boston.  It’s the first move to P QK 4 for either attack or defense.  Mr. Steinitz gave it some passing attention in 1878 and pronounced its irregularity more manifest than its value and said that is not likely to supersede the debuts of the middle Pawns which free the actions of the Queens and Bishops.  When it is remembered, he remarked that there are actually over 400different ways of starting the game on both sides on the first move only without proceeding further, it would occasion no surprise that originality is sometime applied to the very first move, and strange openings are thus introduced.  Mr. Ware has played the Meadow Hay at Chess Congresses in Europe and America and proved it to possess considerable strength among the irregular openings.  The Stonewall Opening was also invented by Mr. Ware, but thus far has attracted little attention.”

Reference Data:

Synopsis of Chess Openings, by William Cook and Joseph M. Miller, 1884, page 247