CHESS

Evening Star, Issue 17928, 25 March 1922, Page 9

CHESS

[Conducted by J.H.F.H.] The Ota co Chew Club mast a for play at No. 193 Princes street south, every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday evening, at 7,30 o'clock. TO CORRESPONDENTS. [All ootnmuiiieattons must bo addressed ‘‘Chess Editor,” ‘Evening Stax.’] "T. 0, Ml.” (Bolleknowes). —In this issue we are publishing the variations of problem No. 1,575, Thanks for kind reference to column.

PROBLEM No. 1,574, By A. M. Sparke. Black, 5 pieces.

White, 9 pieces. White to play and mate in two moves. BQ2: MB2; 8; IPIRP2K; qßks; !Kt3kt2; 4P3; 7b.

.VARIATIONS OP PROBLEM No. 1,575, 1 R-Q B 5 K-K 5 • 2KtsKt ch J£-B 5 3 K-R 2 mate 1 R-Q B 5 Kt xKt 2 Q-K 2ch K-K 5 3 Kt-Kt 5 mate 1 R-Q B 5 Kt-Q 5 2 Kt-K soh K-K 5 3 Kt x Kt mate

SOLUTION OF PROBLEM No. 1,576,

Key move: Kt-K 8.

SOLUTION OF PROBLEM No. 1,577. Key move: K-R 7.

GAME No. 1,431. Buy Lopez. White, Thomas; Black, Wahltuch. 1 P-K 4 P-K 4 2 Kt-K B 3 Kfc-Q B 3 3 B-Kt 5 P-Q B 3 4 B-R 4 Kt-B 3 5 P-Q 3 P-Q 3 6 P-B 3 B-K 2 7 Castles P-Q Kt 4 8 B-Kt 3 Kt-Q B 4 9 B-E 2 P-B 4 10 B-K B-Kt 5 11 Q Kt-Q 2 Q-B 2 12 Et-B P-Q 4 13 P-K B 3 (a) Bx Kt 14 Qx B Px P 15 Px P B-Q 16 Kt-K 3 P-Kt 3 17 P-K Kt 4 (b) P-R 3 18 P-Kt 3 P-Kt 5 19 B-Kt 2 P x P 20 B x P Kt-B 3 21 Q-Kt 3 Kt-Q 5 22 Q R-B P-K R 4 23 Kt-B 4 P-R S 24 Q-Kt 2 Q-Kt 25 B-Q Kt-R 2 2$ Q.R 2 B-Kt 4 27 Kt-K 3 Castles 28 B-B 5 B-B 29 Q-Kt 2 K-R 30 E-Kt P-B 4 31 KPx P. Px P 32 P x P B x Kt 33 E x B R x P 34 K-R Q E-B 35 B-K R-Kt 4 36 B-K Kt 4 Kt-K B 3 37 B-Q 2 Q R-Kt 38 P-B 3 Kt-E 4 39 B-K Kt-B 4 ' 40 R-B 3 Kt-B 5 41 Q-Q B 2 Kt x P 42 Bx P (o) Kt-K 6 43 Q-B 2 Q-K B 44 Qx Kt Rx B 45 Px R Q-R oh 46 K-Kt BxP eh 47 K-B 2......Q-B oh v 48 K-K 2 R-Kt 7eh (d) 49 Qx B Kt x Q 50 Bx P Q-Q B 51 R-R soh K-Kt 2 52 R-Kt soh K-B 3 - 53 Bx Kt Q-B 7oh 54 K-B 3 Q-B 4ch 55 K-K 3 Qx E 55 BxP oh K-B 4 57 R-Kt sch K-K 3 58 RKt 2 Q-B Bch 59 K-Q 3 Q-B Bch 80 R-K 2ch K-Q 4 61 K-B 2 drawn (e) —Notes by Amos Bum.—

(a) Kt-K 3 at onco would, perhaps, hay© been better. After castling on the king’s side it is generally advisable to avoid moving the rook’s pawn or knight’s pawn on that Bide as long ns possible. (b) Probably to prevent Black from playing Kt-K E 4, threatening Kt-K B 5. fc) Not 42 B x Kt, because 42...8-Kt 8 ch: 45 K-R 2. P-K 5 ch; and wins. (d) Mr Wahltuch afterwards pointed out that 48... Q x R instead of the text-move followed, If 49 Q x Kt, by 49... Q-B 7 ch, would have won. Bith players were very much pressed for time at this stage of the a (e)° A fine game, well played_ by both sides, and full of interesting positions.

GAME No. 1,432. Vienna Game. —Notes by W. T. Pierce.— White, Mr Burdock; Black, Mr W. T. Pierce. 1 P-K 4 P-K 4 2 Kt-Q B 3 Kt-K B 3 3 B-B 4 Kt-B 3 ...Better than Kt x P, which loads to 4 Q-R 5, Kt-Q 3; 5 B-Kt 3, and Black has an unpleasant game. 4 P-B 4 Kt x P ...I do not remember to have met with this move before. It seems quite feasible now, as Q-R 5 in reply is nob so potent, as Black's king's pawn is protected. 5 Q-R 5 P-K Kt 3 ...Or 5... Kt-Q 3 and next P x P. 6 Q-B 3 Kt xKt Kt-B 4 is worth looking at. If 7 P xP,Kt xP; 8 Q-K 3, Q-K 2. etc. The text-move rather plays White’s game. 7QP xKt B-Kt 2 8 B-K 3 P-Q 3 9 Castles B-K 3 10 B-K 2 B-Kt 3 seems preferable. Castles 11 P-K Kt 4 P-B 4 12 P-Kt 5 A painful necessity. P-K 5 13 Q-B 2 Q-K 2 ...With an eye on the Q R P. 14 P-K R 4 Bx R P 15 P-R 5 Very vigorous. If P-Kt 3, the reply is B x Q B P. RB 2 16.? x P ."B xKt P ...P x P saves time, and is quite safe. 17 B-B 4 ch A strong move. K.R sq 18 Kt-K 2 P-Q R 4 ...Each side now pursues his own sido attack on the king, regardless of the other’s manrauvres. It in a question as to who .will arrive first. 19 Kt-Kb 3 P-R 5 20 R-R 4 P-R 6 21 Q E-E eq White now threatens mate in four. P-Q 4 ...This avoids the mate, and opens the action of the Qon E 6. He might also have played P x P ch first. 22 E x P ch Of course, a blunder, played on the spur of the moment, thinking ho could mate in four, and overlooking that his B was shut off. B i E 23 R x B ch If Q-E 2, Black could play P x P oh. and then B x P. K x R 24 B-B 6 Probably the best. If 24 B x P, P x P ch; 23 K-Q 2, B x P oh; 26 K-K 2, R-R sq, and Black is quite safe. P x P ch 25 K x P....„,t x P ch 26 K-Kt 3

If 26 K x B, Q-Kt 2 oh, and wina, P x B oh 27 K x 8...... Q-Kt 2 ch 28 K-Q 2 Q-0 2ch 29 K-K 2 K R-Q sq 30 Resigns

FACTS AND ‘TRIFLES. The Otago Chess Club have scoured the board room in Mr H. Divors's office 193 Princes street, for their future activities. Professor Darido Marotti, the new Italian chess champion, wo boo from the special Viaroggio number of ‘L’Alftore di Re’ (Palenno), was born in Naples on January 1 1881, and learnt the game at fourteen. Ilia first attempt at national honors was at the Rome Congress of 1911, when ho cam© out fifth, after Gladig, Rosotti del Turco, Reggio, and Cenni.

CAPABLANCA-LASKER MATCH.

A REPLY TO BLACKBURNE.

In a recent number of the London ‘ Observer ’ J. 11. Capabla-nca replies to a statement of the British veteran, Mr Blackburns, that the games of Gapablanca's match with Dr Lasker were “ superior wood-shifting.” Champions (he says) are bound to arouse all sorts of comments, either from their enemies or from people who do not like their play or their personality. However, a player like Mr Blackburns, and eighty years old at that, should not, for publication at least, qualify the games of a championship match as “wood-shifting,’’ when the losing player in the match has given in the course ot his long career conclusive proof that not only was ho Mr Blackfaurue’s superior, but also the superior of any other player whom ho had met until the last match.

Has Mr Blackbumo forgotten these facts or, as I often suspect, are the old players unable to understand the superior strategy of modern masters? Tt seems that the difficult art of accumulating small advantages and of turning the slightest slip of the opponent into a won game is not properly understood by them. With regard to my own playing during the match, the score is my best argument. I had to play to win, not to please the fancy of a few people. Had I played for brilliant combinations and lost, nobody would have claimed that I could have beaten my opponent, and that I had lost only because of the stylo of play. Instead, they would have lauded Dr Lasker’s play and claimed, as they often did, that he could not be beaten in a match. They would have said, as one of the masters told me, that he had no equal in building up a winning position, and then gradually breaking down the opposition. The fact is that I beat Dr Lasker at his own game, just where he was supposed until then to be invincible. If Mr Blackbumo does not like that kmd of play and prefers brilliant combinations, I believe he can find a few of them amongst my games —in fact, in that line I have a record that neither Mr himself nor any other master can equal—viz., that of having won the brilliancy prize in every tournament in which I have played where such a prize was given. Yet I can assure the chess public that it/ is far easier, for mo at least, to make one of those brilliant combinations than to have played throughout the fourteen games of the match without giving my opponent a single chance to score, at the same time inculcating into liis mind such a profound conviction of the inutility of his efforts as to make him quit. The object of the match was to prove who could beat who. I played accordingly, and since my style of play was succeeding it was not up to mo to change from something sound which produced good results to something else which would have been more speculation and might have turned victory into defeat. In conclusion, I will say that if the games of the match are analysed in the proper spirit it will bo found (as the notes of my book of the match show) that most of the games wore full of possibilities, and that some of them were of the hardest and most difficult type, where the loss of a single “tempo” might have brought defeat. Consequently Mr Blackburne’s utterances with regard to the match are unpardonable, for a player of his standing, whose opinion is avidly sought by the English chess-playing public, must have facts, not mere fancies, to back up his opinions.