The Westminster Papers.

1st NOVEMBER 1871.

THE CHESS WORLD.

"The whisperings of our petty burgh."

MR. Babbage, the famous mathematician, whose death has been the occasion of numerous notices in the daily and weekly press, was a Chess player of considerable skill. His machine for playing the nursery game of "Fox and Goose," or "Tit-tat-to," attracted much attention; but it is not generally known that he at one time contemplated the construction of an Automatic Chess Player, and, indeed, only relinquished his purpose when, extending his knowledge of the game, he came to the conclusion that a genuine Chess Automaton was an impossibility.

The members of the City of London Chess Club now meet on three evenings a week instead of two, as heretofore; and the Handicap Tournament, open to members only on payment of a fee of Five Shillings, will be commenced forthwith.

At the Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution a class has been established for the study of Chess, under the supervision of Mr. H. J. Webber. As a large proportion of the members of this Institution are ladies, the Chess class ought to be attractive, and we should think that Mr. Webber will have an easy task in teaching the young idea how to mate!

The extraordinary pressure upon our space this month compels us to let our usual notice of the foreign Chess items stand over until our next, but there is one piece of news which should not be withheld. We learn from an American paper that at a dinner given by Mr. F. E. Brenziger (Chess editor of the Brooklyn Index) a pie was set before the guests, which, we venture to think, will in future times surpass in interest every culinary effort on record, from Esau's mess of pottage to Andrew Marvel's cold shoulder of mutton. The crust of the pie bore the impression of a Chess problem, composed specially for the occasion, and we are informed that it was exceedingly difficult, and was not solved by the company? "When the belly is full," says Sancho, "the bones will be resting," but what can be the condition of that man's bones-to say nothing of his mind-who has "eaten his fill" of an unsolved Chess problem. Suppose it happens to be incapable of solution, as these things very often are! He must next, we suppose, sit down to a problem solver-like the man who swallowed a blue-bottle, and found his only remedy was to send a spider after it. Is Mr. Brenziger, whose skill in construction and solution is well known, quite prepared for such a contingency.

The death of Mr. C. R. Alexander, one of the most prominent members of the Westminster Chess Club, and a valued contributor to the earlier volumes of this journal, is referred to in another part of this number. It would, however, be impossible to consider a review of the Chess World for the month as complete which did not record that event, and the sincere sorrow with which it is regarded by all Chess players who enjoyed the privilege of his friendship. Memoriam, we append one of Mr. Alexander's finest problems.

In

1 BLACK.

WHITE.

There is a statement in the Chess Quarterly Chronicle for October that the proceedings of a few members at the Malvern meeting, in August, were hasty and irregular, and that the resolutions come to before the business meeting on the Friday were, for the most part, null and void. The Rev. C. E. Ranken desires publicly to contradict this statement. He says all that was done was done deliberately, in perfect form and order, according to the regulations of the published programme; and the Friday meeting merely confirmed in every particular the steps taken by a legally appointed committee, consisting of the Rev. W. Wayte, Mr. Ranken, and others.

We are glad to learn that a Chess Club has been started at Swansea. The meetings will be held at the Tenby Hotel. Mr. Montague Wilmot has been elected Chairman, and Dr. Pedley Vice-Chairman. The club already numbers forty members, and we cordially wish it success.

A new Chess Club also is being formed at Brighton. As the enthusiasm for the game appears to die out in one place it breaks out with increased vehemence at another.

The long promised handbook by Dufresne and Zuckertort is ready, and will be issued to the public before our next number. We are informed there are 772 diagrams and 318 prize games, by the most eminent players of all times, and the price at which the work is issued seems reasonable.

THE utility of anecdote as an educational medium has been entirely overlooked by our Chess writers, who in the face of failures of the most disheartening kind, persist in presenting us with elaborate and painfully scientific treatises, which few people buy, and still fewer have sufficient leisure to read.

They have not observed that in this age, practical as it is called, ninety-nine men out of every hundred cherish an intense desire to reap without undergoing the labour of sowing, and so far as learning is concerned, prefer that sort of instruction which, like the patent medicines, "will not interfere with business."

It is a fact within the experience of everybody that a short paragraph which describes the object and effect of a new invention in science, or the salient points in the character and career of an individual, will receive attention, where an exhaustive treatment of the subject would be altogether unheeded, and if it assumes the form of anecdote the paragraph is simply irresistible.

This wide-spread popularity of the anecdotic paragraph has long been recognized by the editors of newspaper Chess columns, who frequently favour the public with specimens intended to be illustrative of various phases in the history of the game, but these are all of them open to the objection that they record merely isolated events, having no particular application to the practice of Chess, and that they serve only to puzzle and confound the general reader, who, in default of a better explanation, refers their attractiveness to a certain irrelevancy, which in some circles would be termed "chaff."

But it appears to us, or to write more honestly, to me, that a judicious use of the anecdotic paragraph would enable our Chess writers to illustrate the principles which govern the whole art of Chess play; and on a system which would be equally effective for the teacher, and interesting to the pupil-which would get rid too of the main objection to the game of Chess in the minds of those persons who know nothing about it, that it is "over-wise," by shewing that it is sometimes otherwise.

A few examples will serve my purpose better than a hundred arguments, and I proceed to set them forth, only stopping to observe that the suggestion here thrown out is entirely at the service of the next aspirant for bays in the theoric literature of Chess.

Miss Rooster, the accomplished authoress of Curious Conjectures concerning Confucius, and sister of Sir Cocywax Rooster, British Envoy at the Court of Unterirdisch, was passionately devoted to our INTELLECTUAL PASTIME.

On one occasion her dearest friend, Miss Pullet, calling, found her so absorbed in studying a problem by the great Schweilagerbier, that her visitor could not obtain even a sign of recognition. After various unsuccessful efforts to attract the attention of the fair enthusiast, Miss Pullet departed, and meeting an acquaintance immediately afterwards, jocosely remarked that she had left Miss Rooster engaged with thirty-two men. The story spread over the town, and finally assumed the form that Miss Rooster was engaged to thirty-two men, whereby she acquired the reputation of being a dangerous coquette. To this thoughtless jest Miss Rooster always ascribed the circumstance that during the remainder of her life she walked in "maiden meditation fancy free."

II.

"If the King cannot be moved away from the check, nor any man whatsoever be at hand to go between him and the adversary, he is held to be in mate, and the game is ended."--Ancient MS. Translation of Captain Crawley.

Mr. O'B―g—e, the well-known enthusiastic, but not wholly successful Chess player, has just returned to London after some years absence in Boulogne. Dining with a friend at Simpson's the other day, the latter recurred to the changes which had taken place there, and expressed regret that the Grand Chess Divan had been transformed into a dining-room. "Faix," said Mr. O'B-g-e, as he took up a toothpick, "It's the first time in my life I ever felt inclined to say grace after mate in this room.

"The Rooks occupy the corner squares command."-Walker.

III.

and may be played along either of the files of squares they

Mr. Serjeant Drytong, whose legal acumen was acknowledged by all parties, was also distinguished for a pretty wit, and great skill in our ROYAL GAME.

On one occasion he appeared for the defendant in an action brought by four persons, to recover a sum of money lost by his client in a betting transaction. In the course of his speech the Judge (Wontone C. J.) interrupting him, asked, "Do I understand you to say that the plaintiffs were standing two and two at each end of the street in order to intercept the defendant when he came out ?" "Not exactly two and two, my Lord," said the Counsel, "but as on a Chess-board there was a Rook at every corner, only these, as I shall shew, did not act upon the square.”

THE PROBLEM TOURNAMENT.

OUR readers will learn, from the correspondence appended, that the Problem Tourney for the Prizes given by the Westminster Chess Club has been decided, and, in accordance with the request of the Committee of that Club, we have now to state that the award of the judges takes effect and the prizes will be paid to the winners on the 1st day of December next, unless before that date any one of the problems of the sets referred to shall be shown to be unsound.

It will be seen that only thirteen composers have taken part in the Tourney; but in many respects, and especially having regard to the brief notice given, the competing problems are distinguished by more than ordinary merit. It must however be a subject of great regret to every one interested in these competitions, that so large a proportion as six out of the thirteen sets should have their chances of receiving a prize nullified at once from containing inaccurate problems.

Apart altogether from the question of what is or is not a perfect problem, when a composer states as his conditions that White is to play and mate in four moves, giving at the same time four specific moves as his solution, and it is subsequently discovered that four different moves (or it may be three or two, the first move being the same) will answer his conditions just as well, it is very clear that he has only imperfectly understood his own problem, and to give a prize to such a competitor would be to encourage careless or inefficient workmanship, and possibly crude and illogical thought.

Accuracy is therefore the first and most essential consideration in a Chess Problem; it is the point on which, as a rule, judges of problems bestow their attention in the first instance, and if it is wanting, the problem, no matter what its merits may be, counts for nothing in the competition for the prizes. We are desirous of pointing out the importance of accuracy to our younger composers for their advantage in the Tourney which we are about to announce.

THE EDITOR OF THE WESTMINSTER PAPERS offers two prizes (£5 and £2 10s) for the best sets of three original problems in a competition open to the composers of all nations. The limitation of the Tourney just concluded to British composers was adopted on grounds which we believe to be perfectly justifiable to an English Chess Club, but in the present case the Editor of this Journal is at liberty to recognise the universality of the game, and therefore extends his invitation to the brotherhood of Chess, without distinction of nationality. It may be objected in some quarters that the prizes offered are insignificant in amount, and to those who regard these competitions from the money view alone we may concede the point-the more readily perhaps that no argument of ours would induce them to augment the prizes by subscriptions-nevertheless we are old fashioned enough to entertain the conviction that problem composers as a body are less influenced by pecuniary considerations than any other class of the Chess fraternity. There are no professional problem composers that we have ever heard of, and, if there are any, it is no part of our programme to encourage the genus.

The plan of publishing the problems before making the award, adopted in the last Tournament, will be adhered to in the present one, and, as before, the comments and analyses of our subscribers and competitors will receive every attention from the judges, who may be addressed through the Editor of this Journal.

The following are the conditions of the Tourney:

1. The competition will be open to problem composers of all

nations.

2. The problems to be original, to be ordinary mates, and the solutions to be in not less than three, nor more than four

moves.

3. Each competitor to send three problems. The positions to be clearly described upon diagrams, to be accompanied by full solutions, and to bear a distinguishing device, or motto, and not the author's name.

4. Each competitor to send with the problems a sealed envelope containing his name and address, and endorsed with the motto corresponding with that affixed to the problems. These envelopes will not be opened until after the adjudication of the prizes.

5. The problems to be sent to the Editor of the Westminster Papers, 1 Ironmonger Lane, London, E. C., as follows.

From composers resident in the United Kingdom, on or
before the 20th January 1872.

From composers resident in the rest of Europe and North
America, 20th February 1872.

From composers resident elsewhere, 20th May 1872.
6. Problems, the joint composition of two or more composers,
will be disqualified.

7. The Problems, after undergoing a preliminary examination, will be published in this Journal at the rate of three sets per month; and on the expiration of one month after the publication of the last set, the prizes will be awarded.

DEAR SIR,-We have examined the thirteen sets of problems received in the competition for the prizes given by the Westminster Chess Club, and provided no inaccuracy is detected in either set before the 30th November, we are of opinion that the first prize of £5 should be awarded to the set bearing the motto— "Vast images in glimmering dawn,

Half seen, are broken and withdrawn ; "

and the second prize of £2 10s to the set bearing the motto

23rd October 1871.

"Ex luce lucellum."

We are, dear Sir, yours faithfully,

R. B. WORMALD,
P. T. DUFFY.

The award being made, I certify that the envelopes containing the names of the competitors were opened by me in the presence of Mr. Duffy, and I further certify that neither the judges nor any other person ever saw the original problems, or the envelopes in which they were sent, after they reached my hands until the award was made, and that no one knew through me by whom such problems were sent in. 1 Ironmonger Lane, E. C., 24th October 1871.

To the Editor of the WESTMINSTER PAPERS.

CHARLES Mossop.

SIR,-The appearance in your columns of the Tourney Problems naturally calls attention to the subject, and seems to present a favourable opportunity for a suggestion I have long thought of offering.

Why should not the solutions of Chess Problems appear in the same number as the Problems themselves? Simply, I imagine, because for reasons which it is needless to discuss (since they cannot apply to your periodical), it has hitherto been the practice to print solutions in a subsequent number, and you have naturally enough followed the practice you found in existence. I am confident that if the Problems and their Solutions appeared in the same number, dozens of people would be interested who now never think of looking at them. E J. L. P.S.-For my own part, I should like the Solutions at the back of the page which contains the Problems, but this is a mere matter of detail.

Westminster Chess Club, 9th September 1871.

To the Editor of the WESTMINSTER Papers.

SIR,-In the first scene of the first act of the first part of Christopher Marlowe's play of Tamburlaine the Great the following line occurs "How now, my lord; what, mated and amazed."

I was somewhat surprised, I must confess, on coming across the word, as its meaning could only be explained in one way, viz., by giving to it the sense it has on the Chess board. I referred to the notes, and there found "Mated is humbled from the French verb 'mater.' It is still preserved in checkmate." This note, sir, is more astonishing still. Can it be we have been all along mistaken about the derivation of "mate,” or does the old French word come from the same Persian original. Could any correspondent throw any light on the matter. 23rd May 1871. I am, sir, yours, &c. F.

Obituary.

DR. ALEXANDER.

"DE Mortuis nil nisi bonum " is the cold but commendable precept of charity. our dead we cannot with truth but speak good!

How much better when of

From our midst we have lost a sincere, true-hearted, simple gentleman-Mr. Charles Revans Alexander, who died on the 9th of September, after a short illness, at his residence, No. 6 Cork-street, Burlington Gardens. It is with painful regret we call to mind his generosity, hospitality, and friendly sincerity, and we know that in many circles where his cheery presence was ever welcome, a sensible void will be occasioned by his death. Educated at Eton, and a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, he succeeded in his profession his father, whose skilful treatment of diseases of the eye made him pre-eminent.

Mr. Alexander was one of the earliest supporters of the Westminster Chess Club, and was a member of the Committee. He was an enthusiastic votary of Chess, and the constructor of many pretty Problems. A happy example of his style we are able to print in the present Number.