OVER THE CHESS HOARD.

Evening Star, Issue 9581, 29 December 1894, Page 1 (Supplement)

OVER THE CHESS HOARD.

[Conducted by J. W. Meiaor.] TO CORRESPONDENTS. We invite communications on all matters concerning chess. Problems, games, and analyses will receive our attention, and if of sufficient merit will be inserted. Solutions of problems acknowledged. All communications must be addressed Chess Editor, Evening Stab." " Kibkland."—l.: 26 P-Q Kt 4. II.: 28 Q-K 3. "Koenig."-L: 33Kt-QBsq. II.: 34 Kt-K 6 ch. " 8.M.K.." along with a correct solution of No. 96, gives it nigh praise for ingenuity. PROBLEM No. 98. Dr H. R. Hatherly, Wanganoi. Black 7 pieces.

White 7 pieces. White to play and mate in two moves. PROBLEM No. 99. C. W. Benbow, Wellington. Black 3 pieces.

White hj pieces. White to play and mate in four moves.

A GAME WITH A GHOST.

Human voices have an identity of their own. You know a hundred people, perhaps, but each one speaks with a difference. If you were blind you would know who spoke when a friend oame to see you and began to converse. Some people recognise these varying tones better than others. Call to mind your dead friends. Can you not remember their voices ? Do you not hear them sometimes in dreams ? Last aucumn I had business in , and on my way passed through some of the deserted farms that are to be found there. There are sparsely settled districts where one sees a string of them one after another. Those who once cultivated them have gone elsewhere, leaving their homesteads to moulder and rot, their fields to be grown out with weeds- I was driving in a sulky, and late one. afternoon I lost my way, when I saw before me one of those deserted homesteads. My tired horse did not want much checking to make him pause and begin to crop the grass by the side of the rough road. The homestead lay back from this track with some trees around it. I was fearfully hungry, but alas! there appeared to be no signs of life about the place. The chimney was smokeless. Still I thought I should have to stay there all night and try and find my way in the morning. Just now J seemea to be a few miles away from everywhere, and darkness 'would soon close in, I turned my horse into the beaten track that led up to the house, and in a few moments I pulled up before the grass-grown steps of the front door. It was a good-sized old-fashioned log house, with rough cast additions, which seemed to ha.ve been made at different periods. " Hallo ! Hallo !" I shouted. There was a faint echo of my voice from the woods at the back of the house, hut the house itself was as silent as the grave. I paused and listened-r-all silent. I tried the door—fast.

I could not help contrasting the present state of the dwelling with what it probably was years before. Then, more as a joke than anything else, I rapped at the door with the butt end of my whip as if I expected my summons to be answered. Strange to say I heard a sound as of the drawing of bolts. Then the door swung slowly open. But I could see no one. " Excuse me," I said, " tt»e fact is I have lost my way and am in search of a night's lodging for myself and horse." " Certainly," said the voice, and I knew the voice too. Where had I heard it ? I could not locate it. Moreover, I could see no person to whom the voice might belong. " Won't you come in ?" "Thank you," I said. Evidently a shy retiring person. But how strange that he should keep behind the door like this ! I entered. There was no one in the passage. But I heard steps going along before me. lam an old soldier, and have been ieekoned on one or two occasions during the wars a fairly brave man. But I confess to a creepy sort of feeling at this peculiar experience. Nerertheles, I plucked up heart and followed, A door on the right opened into a large room. It had evidently been the living-room of the family, and by the fading light I could discern tall cupboards against the wall, and a strongly-made table with a chair or two near it in the centre of the apartment. In one of these chairs I sat down and looked around me. When my eyes became accustomed to the dim light I became aware of the figure of a man in a white turban—evidently some inhabitant of the East —sitting in one corner and apparently asleep. 1 struck a match and went over to him, and on looking at him by the uncertain light thus afforded I made oat that be was either a Hindoo or a Malay. His legs were stretched straight in front of him, and his head had fallen back against the wall

" Will you have something to eat ? " said that voice again by the table. It flashed upon me where I had heard it. I had heard it during the war. It was the voice of one of my comrades. Now, the question was which ope. of them" and wha.t had the Hindoo to do wjth itV And what in the world brought that inhabitant of the East to a 4eaerte4 farm, in -~- ? The, memory

*tsf the voice came back suddenly a* that "'moment. ' J felt my heart stand still, and then gave a great leap as .1 determined to test tny supposition. "Now, Mackenzie, old man, yon are trying' a blnff on me. Cnme ont and show y«urself-,"-said I. _ " Would that I could, my dear fellow ; would that I the shadow, addressing me by name. " Later on, perhaps .—later on;" His voice!. It w*»s Capuiu Mackenzie, the great chess player. That was his voice. Then I remembered that his early years were spent with tho British Army in India. Perhaps, the Eastern gentleman in the corner Was one of Jus faithful old retainers. A meal was produced from the cupboard by unseen hands, and I ate it. V What do you say to a game, old fellow,'*" said the voice.

". With all my heart," I replied. The unseen hands brought out a <chess board from the cupboard, laid it on the -tableland set out upon it a set of chess-men. I had played chess with Mackenzie again and again by the, camp lire on the tented field, and though, as a rule, he bad always beaten me, he used to appreciate my efforts. But it was so strange to playing with a phantom. A move was made, and I had to follow it. As the game went on I recognised Mackenzie's style of play. I got interested, and so did he, to judge by his remarks, which were interjected in exactly his old style ! Still the Hindoo slept or was in a trance up in the corner. : There came a period in the game when I more than ever longed to see the mysterious player who sat on the other side., of the board. I concentrated my mind on this desire, and as I did so I noticed strange tremors agitating the frame of the tawny Eastern in the corner. Looking straight before me, and in a way which I can only describe as being similar to the development of a steraopticon view, I saw Captain Mackenzie before me ! There was his fine figure and handsome face. He paused with a piece in hia hand in the act of making a move, and while perhaps .one conld count six I saw him as of yore, and he looked with a friendly gaze into my eyes. I put out my hand to grasp his, but he was gone. A passionate hand swept the pieces from the board, and the voice said mournfully: "No use ! no Use ! Good-bye." "Good-bye, old man," I replied, and simultaneously with my words the Hindoo seemed to wake, shake himself, and come towards me,

" The sahib has had his sapper, and now he will want his bed." He pointed to an antique lounge that, stood there. I cast myself upon it, and he busied himself with removing the remnants and implements of the meal.

"It is strange to Bee you here, you are so far away from your own country, are you not?"

"I come to all the places where the Mackenzie once was. I was years ago his servant. Sometimes I think I see him now. He saved my life in India a long time ago. I have the gift to find him. But it is long, • it is long ! Only, sometimes I see him." He spread his carpet, and mumbled some sort, of prayer or enchantment, then he lay upon it and was soon asleep. So was I. In the morning he went- bis way and I went mine. I never could understand the matter, but I tell it just as it occurred. I know 'that I saw my old comrade, heard his voice, and played partof a game of chess with him. I shall never forget it. MISCELLANEOUS. A telegraphic match Oamaru v. Ashburton is being arranged for January. . The Oamaru ' Mail,' by a process of sound logical reasoning, endeavors to prove that their "No. 1," in the recent scratch match with Dunedin, is a superior player to Mr Edwards because he happened to beat Mr Edwards in this match. They are also indignant because we did not give the Oamaru "No. 1" sufficient credit for winning the game. We are sorry this is so. Perhaps the following good-natured banter from the pen of Mr Mouat gives all that their petulant remarks call for: "No excuses are admissible for losing a game of chess. For success many faculties are requisite, and to say that a game is lost for the want of either one or the other can only mean that the player did not possess that one, or that it was at the time in some way obscured. So well is this recognised that an excuse for losing is generally treated as a joke. For a player to say that he would have won if he had had two or three more pieces is tolerably well known as merely an attempt at humor. Mr Mellor, in some remarks to the game which was played between the captains in the late match between Dunedin and Oamaru, said that Mr Edwards, ' under - estimating the strength of the Oamaru player, had sacrificed two Pieces, which left him with an insufficient force to win.' This is certainly meant as a joke. Unfortunately the 'Oamaru Mail' (we do not know whether the chess editor is a Scotchman or not) does not see the joke. * The player who wins must be taken to be the better player until the contrary is shown by his subsequently losing as many or more games than he has won. Mr Edwards can play very good chess, and is champion by winning in the last congress against such players as Messrs Hookham, Barnes, and others."

The good habits and moral qualities a chess-player should cultivate are of no less importance to him than the scientific principles upon which the game is based. A slovenly, hesitating, or noisy demeanor over the chess board is prejudicial to the attainment of a fine style. The good player is known by his conduct as well as by his strategy. He does not hover over the board, first thinking of moving one man and then another; he does not finger the squares to see the effect of certain moves; he does not spend long in deliberating when there is but one .move that, consistently with the laws of the game, he can possibly make. Although good practitioners sometimes lose their temper, ft is recommendable to restrain it or, at least, try to restrain it, which depends, of course, on the kind of temper you have. A reporter on the staff of the ' Woman's Signal' recounts a conversation with Miss Lilian Baird (daughter of the well-known Mrs W. J. Baird), the infant prodigy of the chess world, and a portrait of the young lady adorns the front page of the magazine. Miss Baird began to play chess when she was four years old, but she gravely informs her interviewer that she did not compose a problem till she was eight! A year later our little friend had occasion to indite the following letter, which tells its own tale:— My dear Mr Editor,—When you see Mr Dunipace again will you please tell [him that I do not think 1 like his "sceptical" remarks about my age. : Mother says I was born on October 19,1881. so, you see, I am really only nine. I composed the problem all alone, mother pointed out a few " cooks " and " duals," but I got rid of the stupid things, all myself.—Your little friend,

Lily Baikd. Miss Baird, who is now approaching tho mature age of fourteen, has produced a large number of problems, many of which have been published in the most popular chess columns of Kngland and America. A correspondence tourney, known as the "Continental Tournament," has been in progress in America since the Ist of January, I&J4. About seventy players entered the competition, whiah i* divided into five sections, the prizes ranging from lOdol to 50dol each. The ' Baltimore News' publishes one of the games, in which Mr C. W. Macfarlane, of Richmond, defeated his opponent in seven moves. By a clerical error he mailed a wrong move in the opening of the game, and the consequence was the discovery of a new gambit, which is to be called the Macfarlane Gambit. The error consisted in the omission of White's third move in the Evans. Mr Blackburne is said to have stated that the Steinitz Gambit had its origin in a similar oversight, Mr Steinitz having played 4, P-Q4 mechanically, thinking he had already played out his king's knight to bishop's third. Any player who has not yet discovered a gambit will do well to observe how these things are managed. As in chess the movements and actions of the pieces are the same whether roughly made of wood or finely carved from ivory, so in our life's game of chess, whether the performer bs of high or of law degree,, whether he be prince e* philosopher* peer or peasant, hp hat Ike same ctoas of men around him to play against* and, equal opportunities with them to let his moves be such as will ensure success and honor,—Thomas Bowden Green.