THE CHESS BRAIN

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 214, 4 June 1924, Page 13

THE CHESS BRAIN

Sir Walter Parratt, whoso death was recently announced, ixissessed one of those brains in which music and chess lodge in secure alliance. Certain mental processes were so instinctive with him (“The Times” states) that lie could not understand how they could possibly be barred to other people. He was once explaining at the reaucst of a duffer in chess, his undertaking to sit at a piano and play fugues, direct the moves on half a dozen boards, and elude baffling assaults with soft cushions, at one and the same time. The listener wondered how all this was possible. “Oh.” said Sir Walter, modestly, “it’s only a question of keeping the moves m your head. You yourself, though you can’t play chess very well, know that after a game one falls naturally irto retracing the steps in it. Going home, say. you recall every move you have made?’ “Indeed, 1 don’t,” said his companion. “Oh, yes, yon do," he retorted. “Why. I couldn’t, to save my life,” cried the other. But nothing he could say would persuade Sir AValter that a jicrfect. memory for chess was not the universal gift of the gods.