RARITIES OF CHESS LITERATURE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 189, 12 May 1928, Page 24

RARITIES OF CHESS LITERATURE

A SPECIAL FIELD FOR THE COLLECTOR

At the end of this year a Melbourne

chess week is to be held under the direction of the Melbourne Chess Club, and a programme of tournaments and

matches for both town and country players will be provided. The committee in charge of the scheme have had a happy inspiration in suggesting a chess exhibition, to include books, pictures, cartoons and pieces, and it is hoped that any private collectors in possession of interesting and rare specimens will allow them to be exhibited for a few days. It is natural tliat a game with the long and fascinating historical background which is associated with chess should attract the attention cf the collector, and those who have specialised in chess first editions, or in chess pieces of historic value, have found in both a field of uncommon interest (writes E.A.R. in the “Age”). The British Museum, of course, is particularly well supplied with both literature and rare pieces, but scope has been left for the private collectors, and the sale at Sotheby’s last month of one of the most famous of chess libraries, that of Mr. J. W. RimingtonWilson, of Broomhead Hall, rear Sheffield attracted more attention than usual, both in England and across the Atlantic. Mr. Rimington-Wilson, who died in 1877, had gathered together one of the most comprehensive collections in existence, and the literature of the ancient game from Jacobus de Cessolis (1300) until the middle of the 19th century was represented by an almost unbroken sequence of first editions, many of which were of great rarity.

There were included three early manuscripts of Cessoli’s work, “Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium,” as well as four editions printed prior to 1500, and including the. very rare illustrated Florence reprint of 1193, which contains thirteen woodcuts showing .the five pieces, king, queen, judge (bishop), knight and king’s deputy (rook), as well as the eight pawnsi portrayed as woodman, smith, wool merchant, money changer, actor, innkeeper, watchman and water carrier.

Cessolis, who was a friar of the order of Friar Preachers, now known as Dominicans, was more concerned with the moral applications of the game than with actual play, and his work is practically a sermon in twenty-four chapters, filled with anecdotes end stories hung upon a framework of the pjeces and'game of chess. The chessboard represented the city of Babylon, upon which the king and his subjects moved, and the origin'll treatment of the eight pawns as indivuals gave additional scope for allegory. This most striking of the chess moralities "had a great contemporary success, and the number of MSS. that exist, both in the original Latin and translated into the spoken languages of the time, shows that its popularity must have rivalled that of the Bible.

Lucena, who wrote the “Arte de exedres” (1497), was not concerned with moralities. He advises the player to drink water, and not wine during the game, but to challenge his opponent immediately after the latter has eaten and drunk freely. He advises his reader to play only for small stakes so that a loss will not worry him; to place the candle at his left hand, or if playing by day, to place his opponent facing the light, and to play always with the same colour.

If the opponent insists upon a change of colour, the effect may be neutralised by giving the board a half turn. Lucena’s work is a broad octavo of 121 pages, the first 73 of which comprise a long love poem of no apparent connection with, chess. He states that the openings given are the best he has seen played in Italy, France, and Spain, but some are extraordinarily feeble and he overlooks mates on the move. If looks as if Lucena had written his book in a great hurry, as soobn as he learnt something of the new game, and it has had very little influence at any time. v

However, it is now one of the rarest of books, and apart from Mr. Rimington’s volume, only three, copies are known in private collections and five in public museums.

The first chess,book printed in. Italian, and one which had a great influence upon the development of the game,, was that written by a Portuguese apothecary Damiano, in 1512, and of which eight editions were published in the sixteenth century. It contains 72 problems and- gives the rules of the game, a number of openings and a good deal of advice, but does not show its author to have been more than a mediocre player. ' Some of his advice to players could still be adopted with advantage by many. “If you have a good move, look for a better,” and "Do not disarrange a good game merely to win a pawn,” are two of his maxims.

He states that the board must be placed with a white corner square at the player’s right hand, thus doing away with Lucena’s idea of turning the board when playing Black. . The Rim-ington-Wilson library contained no original copy of Damiano, but included two copies of its first translation into English by James Rowbotham. “The I?leasant and Wittie Game of Cheasts” (1562), which is dedicated to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, thus:—“l knowe that bothe your Lordship with divers other of ye noble men and gentlemen of this realme can playe excellently at this game of ye Cheast, and have as deepe knowledge therein as either French men, Italians or Spaniard's have.” Bv 1560 Damiano’s work was of use to no one on the Continent but the veriest beginner, and the need for a more advanced treatise led to the publication of the "Libro de la Invention liberal y arte del juego del Axedres,” written by Rny Lopez de Siugura in 1561, of which Mr. Rimington Wilson possessed three copies as well as several contemporary French and Italian translations.

Ruy Lopez de Sigura was a Spanish priest, and one of the finest chess players of the time. In 1559 the accession of a new Pope, Pius IV., brought him to Rome, where he beat the leading Italian players, and also met with Damiano’s book in the Italian translation, of which he formed a very poor opinion.

By 1561 he had written and published his “Libro,” a volume of 158 quarto leaves. He quotes from Cessolis as to the origin and utility of Chess in his first book, his second treats of openings, and the third and fourth are devoted to a severe analytical criticism of Damiano. His w.ork shows him to be but a poor analyst, but for more than twenty years he remained the foremost player in Spain and won many rewards for his ability. Blindfold play before Philip 11. gained him a golden rook suspended on a golden chain, and preferment to a rich benefice, whilst from Guiocomo Buoncompagno, Duke of Sora, the Maecenas of Italian chess, he received an annuity of 2000 crowns. No wonder the impecunious priests of Italy, France and Spain secured Ruy Lopez’s treatise ajjd .eq&gxj# feludied,

The next great historical figure in chess literature is Greco, a Calabrian, of poor parentage and little education, who learnt the game from the writings of Ruy Lopez, and travelled to Rome, where he found a patron in the abovementioned Duke of Sora. He kept manuscript notes of chess from 1619 onwards, and took them with him to Paris, where he soon made 5090 crowns by his play. Crossing to England in 1622 he was unfortunate enough to fall in with a ban! of thieves, who robbed him of his money on the way to London, but he soon amassed another fortune in England.

Subsequently he beat all comers at the court of Philip IV, at Madrid, and thence sailed to the West Indies, where he died in 1634.

A result of his London visit was the publication by Francis Beale of a translation of Creco’s MSS. entitled “The Royal Game of Chesse,” the title referring to the love of Charles I. for the game. It included a portrait of the King, who was playing chess when the messenger came to tell him that the Scots were about to surrender him to Parliament.

One of the first books printed in England was Caxton’s “Game and Playe of the Chesse,” published in 1474, and founded upon the treatise of Jacobus de Cessolis, and by the 17th century the game had a firm hold at the English court. In 1614 Arthur Saul wrote “The Famous Game of Chesse-Play,” fo which Mr. Rimington possessed one of tjie only three copies known, and which wa# dedicated to Lucy, Countess of Bedford. Saul quaintly describes the various possible mates as follows: —lhe queen’s mate, a gracious mate; the bishop’s mate, a gentle mate; the knight’s mate, a gallant mate; the rook’s nate, a forcible mate; and the pawn's mate, a disgraceful mate. He describes a mate in the middle of the board as fin unfortunate mate, in which, doubtless, many players will agree with him, and a mate of discovery as the most industrious mate of all.

The Modenese Masters of the Ifeth century, Ponziani, Ercole del Rio and Lolli, were particularly well -epresented in the collection, which included Ponziani’s own copy of his treatise with numerous corrections and additions in his own hand writing, and Lolli’s “Observazioni Terico—Pratiche” prepared by the author for a second edition, which was never published. There was also a long autograph letter from Ercole de Rio to Lolli, together with the latter’s draft of nis teplv. Salvio, Carrera, Cozio, Philidor (sev-enty-two editions of the “Analysis of Chess”), Sarratt, Lewis, Walker, Cochrane, Evans, Lowenthal, Morphy, Staunton and others of almost legendary prowess, carry us in unbroken review through two centuries of the development of chess. After this list of treasures gathered by one private collector, one regrets to find in the Melbourne Puopc Libi ary practically no early editions of interest to chess players'. Vida, Salvioli, and Polerio are u presented by quite recent translations, u;d the only copy of early date is the lilO edition of Philidor’s • “Analysis of Chess.” This is inscribed on the title page with the Latin tag Ludimua effigiem Belli, which is significant of the general attitude to chess as a microcosm of war, and includes a heroic and rather pompous poem by Sir William Jones, a few lines from the contusion ,or which will bear quoting— Now flies the monarch of the sable shield, His legions vanquished, o er the lonely field He hears, where’er he mo/ej the dreadful sound ‘Check,’ the deep vales, and ‘Check’ the woods rebound, No place remains; he sees the certain fate, And yields his throne to ruin,—and

Checkmate I Philidor devotes considerable space to an exhaustive arithmetical analysis of the relative power of the pieces, and aruves at the figures, x'awn 1, Knight 3, Bishop 3|, Rook s|, and Queen 10, which are essentially as they are regarded to-day. It is noteworthy that he estimates the rook s pawns as having only two-thirds of the value of the oil cis.

Francois Andre Danican Philidor, who in his own day was equally’ 1-ni-ous as chess player and musican, was born in 1726, and was almost the last of the great figures in chess history whose career depended upon the patronage of the nobility. His “Analyse du Jeu des Echecs” was published in 1749, when the writer was only’ twentythree years of age, and his are expressed with all the confidence of youth. He received the patronage of the nobles- of France .Germany and England, amongst whom figures Loid Sandwich, the Duke of Cniuberland and Frederick the Great, and his second visit to England in 1< 7 2 led to the foundation of a chess club strictly limited to a hundred members, which became one of the most fashionable clubs in London. Charles James Fox, the Marquis of Rockingham, Lend Mansfield, Elliott the defender of Gibraltar, and General Burgoyne were amongst the members, and it may be. regarded as the .last effort of the English nobility to lay claim to chess as (be game most typical of their order. It is curious that Philidor Irmself by his literary labours did most to destroy this historic exclusiveness, for it was the higher standard of play, resulting from a more precise understanding of the principles of the game, which effected the change. It was now necessary for the chess player io study if he wished to excel—per ardua ad astra. Revised editions of the “Analysis of Chess” were published by Philidor in 1777 and 1790, but the latter received little support from the fashionable world, and by the time if his death in 1795 the London Chess Club had become the resort of chess players only. A treasure which came to light m the Rimington-Wilson collect! m was the original autograph manuscript of Oliver Goldsmith's transaltion o: Vida’s “de Ludo Scacehorum.” This was a poem written in Latin by Heirouymus Vida, Bishop of Cremona, in 1527, which described a game of -chess between Apollo and Mercury in the presence of the other gods.

The Goldsmith Ms. had been lost for fifty years, during which time it repose peacefully at Broomhead Hall, and its rediscovery more than doubles the Ictal surviving amount of Goldsmith manuscript. Many books not usually associated with chess were also included in the library, in all of which there is somewhere a reference to the game. : A. notable example is tli~ magnificent “Hypernotomachia Poliphifii, which introduces a description of three games of “living chess,” although these are treated in a rather unsatisfactory manner, which adds little to our knowledge, they probably served as a model for the well-known description of a similar game played before Pantagruel in the Palace of Quintessence. It is a pity that this very fine collection should now have been broken up in the ■ rction room, but, doubtless the must specimens have gone to improve oil.'-1 libraries or found a permanent resting place in thg Brtiish Museum,