OVER THE CHESS BOARD.

Evening Star, Issue 9830, 19 October 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

OVER THE CHESS BOARD.

[Conducted By J. W. Mbixob.]

TO CORRESPONDENTS. All communications'must be addressed " Chess' Editor. Evening Stab." . . „ . " Warwick House."—Correct solution for No. 138 received. S. Durrant.—Tbe problem you send is a very, good one, and shows some fine jlay with the four knights. The solution is:-Key: KtK3. If o, 1 kt-k 3; 2 Q-Q 6 ch, kx q; 3 Kt-B 7, mate. If b, 1 kt-b 1; 2 Q-6 6 ch, kx q: 3 Kt-Kt 4. If c, 1 kt-k5; 2 Q-Q4ch, kx q; 3 Kt-B 3. If d, 1 kt-q4;, 2 Q-Q 6ch if kx q or k-q 6; 3 Kt-B 4 or P-B 3, mate ace. If e, 1 kt-kt 4; 2 R-K 87, bx p; 3Q-86. If/, 1 kt-k sq; 2 Q x Kt, k moves; 3Qmates. If a, Ibx p; 2 Q-B 7 ch, k moves; 3Q x Kt. I think variation d will remove your difficulty. If any reader would like to solve this good problem, here it is: 3Q4R5kt2 ppß Kt k 1 Kt PI PsP2kt 7 PPP2KSb 2-6 + 11=17, mate in 3.

Solution of Problem No. 13S. Key move: Q-R4.

PROBLEM No. 140. James Rayner, Leeds. Second prize in the four move self-mate section of the ' Chess Monthly' Third Problem Tournarhent. Blaek<l pieces.

White 10 pieces. White to play and self-mate in four moves. In the present case the prize was £l, and the motto " Caramels."

END GAME STUDY. A. Troitzky, in the ' Nouveau Temps.' A neat little trick is shown in the following, which students 'will do well to naster : Black 0 pieces.

White 5 pieces. White to play, and draw

Thus: White. Black. | White. Black. 1 P-Q II 7 Bx P 3 K-K Kt 7sq Kt moves dis. ch. 2 P-Q 1 7 Kt-Q Kt 314 K-R sq, and draws.

MATE IN THREE MOVES. [A. C. Deane.] THE "NEW WOMAN" AND CHESS, 111.

Mrs Dickson, having dressed for dinner, was sitting nervously in the drawing room, while her face kept wandering between the clock and one of Miss Singleton's most fiery pamphlets, with which she was endeavoring to fan her failing courage. Presently she started as she heard the front door open. Fred had come back then, she thought, with an involuntary sigh of relief ; at least her worst forebodings had proved false. With a hasty gesture she laid aside the pamphlet, and was apparently immersed in the ' Queen' when Fred entered the room whistling cheerfully. What had happened at Queen's road station, she wondered; surely there, must have been a terrible scene. Yet Fred, although she dared not look at his face, seemed as cheerful as usual. He sat down comfortably in a chair opposite her. " Well, Camilla, and what have you been doing this afternoon ?" There was no answer.

"Here, I say, what are you about? Working out some beastly acrostic? You might chuck it up now, and tell me your news. What have you been about ?" She answered in a hard, constrained voicr, without raising her eyes from the page, " That is a question I might more reasonably put to you." " What '{ I? Oh, I went to a few shops, and looked in at the Club for a bit. That's my 'brief unvarnished tale.' And now yours ?" Her heart sank within her. Fred was capable of lying to her, then. " Was—is—Queen's road station a—a pretty place?" she said.

" Queen's road station ? Singularly beautiful, I should think famous for i<s woodland scenery. But why do you ask ?" " Fred"—she raised her eyes at last, and spoke very slowly "what —were —you— doing—at that place ?" " What in the name of goodness are you talking about? Queen's road station ; why I haven't been near it for two months."

" Sir, you were there two hours ago. You see that I know all."

"A precious sight more than I do myself, at all events," rejoined her husband. "Camilla, what do you mean? Is it a riddle, or theatricals, or are you dreaming ?" "You cannot deceive me any longer. I have for some time suspected you, and to/. day, with Miss Singleton's help " " What in "

" Silence, please. I have found you out. Yes, sir," she cried, rising from her seat and suddenly producing the'fatal postcard, "I know what this means."

Fred glared atit in open-mouthed astonishment for some seconds, and then gradually realising the state of affairs he fell back in his chair, and roared with uncontrollable laughter. Camilla burst into tears. "It is too cruel !" she sobbed.

At the sight of her distress Fred en-, deavored to compose himself " And what —what," he gasped, "did you take this to mean ?"

They looked at the card together. It bore a single line : " B-Q.R's 6." «• Why her voice was choked with tears. It means: ' Be at Queen's road station at six !'" Fred relapsed once more into sonorous guffaws. f'Ho, ho! 'Beat 'Oh 1 ho! ho ! Camilla, Camilla, what a goose you are I Why didn't you learn to play chess? It means bishop to queen's' rook's sixth, aud it is my brother's last move in a correspondence game that I am playing with him ! and you and Miss Singleton thought —ha, ba, ha !" Camilla looked up quickly, a light breaking through her tears. A moment's suspense—and she had thrown herself into her husband's arms, laughing and crying at the same time. "0, Fred," she cried, "how can you forgive me ?" It was at this precious moment that the door suddenly opened, and Miss Singleton appeared, flushed, dishevelled, and breathless. "O, Camilla," she exclaimed impetuously, " there is some terrible mistake. We went in five hansoms, and waited an' hour—and there was a rude crowd which jeered—and—why— what— does this mean ?f For she now realised that there was Camilla in her traitorous husband's arms. "It means," remarked that gentleman, cooly, "that for once in your life, Miss Singleton, you have made a slight mistake. It means that the preternatural sagacity of the feminine league is, for once, at fault And it means, I fear, that the New WomanL despite her wisdom, is even more liable to blunder than the old." , j

CHESS GOSSIP. ' Mr Blackburne's disparaging utterances on chess have been the subject of a skit in the Buffalo ' Express,' which states that an institution will be opened in tfiat city " for the treatment of the chess, checkers, and whist habits," Too ardent followers of

W'i '. ..'iiufir^ 1 .. m "" theW w toxiou'a" game* *wew to ,be 'pwtect# Ms^g&* ;#satlekpqfl>y'i> extern of FThe 'professor was very reluCtaMly interviewed, and some sensational were promised. Mr G. H; who has more than once shbwn'his inability to -see a- joke; took the' notice seriously, and entered at once into the fray.: f t fsnow definitely decided that the next Congress meeting of the New Zealand Chess Association will commence its sittings on December at Wanganui. have tried a match against Christchurch by telegraph, with fourteen men a side. The result is : Chriatohuroh B,'Oatnaru 0' wins; five games remain to be adjudicated. The ' Globe' tells an amusing story of an absent-minded chess-player whose name is not given, but who is described as being well known. He was once chaffed in an American newspaper about his predatory tendencies in regard to other people's urnhe called on the editor to request retractation and an apology. The apology appeared in due course, but with a footnote •appended to the effect that on leaving the editorial sanotum'the player had walked off with the editor's umbrella.

Match Pleasant Point v. Timaru resulted in the latter Winning by 20 to 6. The average age of the participants in the Hastings tournament was thirty-eight years. The tournament of the Wellington Chess Club, which has been in progress for some time past, is< concluded. Mr Still takes the first prize, and Mr Matthews the second. Advice to slow players : " Dangers are no more light if they once seem light, and more dangers have deceived men than forced them;'. and it were better to meet some dangers "half way, though they come nowhere near us, than to keep too long a watch upon their,approaches, for if a man watch too long it is said he will fall asleep." — Bacon.

Mr Planck, the well-known problemist, has, strange to say, committed a plagiarism Upon himself by recomposing a problem be made and published three years ago and bad quite forgotten.