DRAUGHTS ITEMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2490, 4 December 1901, Page 62

DRAUGHTS ITEMS.

The English Draughts Association was to meet at Leeds on October 26, when the arrangements for next year's championship tournament at Leeds weie- tc be made. Hpeakiug of this the Liverpool Merrnry pays:— "We sue reminded that our Scottish friends require considerable notice before they undertake an international match, and that under the circumstances it would be well to give notice now foi a. meeting between English and Scottish teams m 1903"!

A patty of Liverpool checkerists visited Dublin recently with the intention of playing some fuendly games at the City of Dublin Draughts Club, of which an exchange says: — The City of Dublin Club is a particularly strong organisation, and its energetic officials are not niereJy content to confine their energies to their own club, but are interesting themselves in assisting weaker organisations in other parts of the country. A suggestion has been made. that an Inah team should visit this countiy [England] and contest against some of our leading clubs. The idea is a good one, but we think might be enlarged iipon to the extent of an international match with a picked English team. The objection no doubt will be made that Ireland at the present moment could not raise a team sufficiently strong to make the match interesting. But this difficulty could easily be oveicome by permitting the Irish executive to call upon those players of Irish parentage who are resident in other countries, similar to the rule in force in the football world. The team that Ireland could then raise would be tiuly formidable, and would include Mr Richard Jordan, the world's champion ; Mr James Ferric, Glasgow, an«ex-champion of the woild, ; Mr W. Beattie, London ; and Mr James Searight, Glasgow, amongst others. We see no insuperable difficulty to overcome in bringing such a consummation about.

A "Social ISnteitaimnent Diaughts Society" has been foimed in Dublin, with headquarters in Great But? in stieet. It will be under the captaincy of Mr Tom O'Brien, a gentleman of whom the Liverpool visitors saw little but heard much. He is styled "the well-known Dublin champion." The object of the society is "to levive the much-neglected game cf draughts m Ireland."

Chess v. Diaughts Problems. — Since the death of Mr C M. Wilder, thcie have appeared "so few playeis with sufficient oiiginality to give ideas with a view to incieasing the popularity of draughts, that it is not tc be wondciv-d at no Oiie hae ever previously suggested emulating chc=s by publishing problems with tne declaied number of moves necessary to produce the desuod le-uH. Chess, piobleius aie ofUu unpiactica l , because, although the teims may hf "White lo mo\i and win in thice, ' tlie supciionty oi the White pieces l^ oftei. so pionounced that n practical diaughta plajei who kiiows the mlea of che=s might lermrk m cli--gust, "1 kiiow I can win with white, so what

the object of a few moves more or less?" A. draughts problem, on the contrary, almost invariably necessitates mathematical accuracy, and if once a point is missed, it is usuallygone for ever. It is plain, therefore, that the majority of draughts problems are better than those of chess, but to popularise the latter chess players have long adopted the idea of declaring the number of moves. It is obvious that a player who can only see three cr four moves ahead will be unable to solve a problem which necessitates looking 20 moves ahead ; therefore, when editors wish to induce novices to take a greater interest in draughts, they should publish problems stating the number moves ; at first giving~"three or four movers', and gradually increasing ; or they could give a. variety, then the novice need not strain his intellectual vision by attempting to see things far beyond his range, and he has a standard 1 by which to measure his progress. I venture to say that 90 per cent, of players never put: the positions on the board; they either solve them from the diagram or let them remain unsolved. To avoid the solutions being too long, composeis should always pre-suppose on the part of solvers a knowledge of the most elementary principles of draughts, first and second position, etc. "White to move and win in 7" would mean, of course, 7 whita moves, the black ones not being counted. Ifc is unaccountable that none of the authors* of pioblem books have arranged their problems so as to give first those with the shortest solutions, and gradually working up to those having the longest solutions, because it is the method of every teacher of science or art to commence with the easiest theorems and proceed to the most difficult. It vi culd also add interest to problem competitions to give prises for so many move problems. — Leeds ilercuiy.