CHESS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1095, 24 February 1893, Page 32

CHESS.

All communications for this department MUST be addressed to the Chess Editor, Mr C. W. Hen bow. 24/2/93 *#* The Karori Chess Club meets every Saturday evening at 8 o’clock in the Karori schoolhouse. Visitors invited. In April next the club will resume its two meetings a week.

SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS. No 1338 (Thomas Sexton). 1 Q to Kt 3 1 Any move 2 Mates accordingly Solved by B.C. (Wellington); O.P.Q. (Foxton) ‘ Neat enough, hut not very difficult (8);’ Horace (Patea); M.R. (Taranaki); RP. (Gisborne) ‘Somewhat simple, and different in style to the genera l run of problems by this composer (8);’ T.S. Ashurst); and Felix (Auckland). It is clear that all the work is to be done by the Queen and tho labour is thus reduced (8).

No 1389 (G. E. Carpenter). 1 B to Q 8 lKxKt 2 Kt to B 6 (ch) 2 Any move 3 Mates accordingly

Solved by R.P. (Gisborne) ' A real beauty (9);’ Horace (Patea); and M.R. (Taranaki). Good from all aspects (9).

PROBLEM No 1398. By B. G. Laws (London). From the London Standard. Black.

White. White to play and mate in two moves, PROBLEM No 1399. By Otto Fuss (Hanover). Second prize problem in the Pittsburg Dispatch Tourney, Black.

White, White to play and mate in three moves, CHESS IN AUSTRALIA. The following very interesting games was played at Board No 1 in the late telegraph match between Melbourne and Adelaide. Ruy Lopez. White. Black. (Mr Fuss,) (Mr Hodgson,) Adelaide. - Melbourne. 1 P to K 4 1 P to K 4 2 Kt to K B 3 2 Kt to Q B 3 3 B to Kt 5 3 Kt to B 3 4 P to Q 3 4 P to Q 3 5 Q Kt to Q 2 Correctly played. 5 P to K Kt 3 6 Kt to B sq 6 B to Kt 2 7 Kt to K 3 White should play Kt to Kt 3. 7 Castles 8 Gastle3 8 Kt to K R 4 9BxKt 9 P x B 10 P to K Kt 3 Weakening the IC’s position, 10 P to Q 4 11 P to B 3 11 P to K B 4 Well played. Although it looks hazardous, this counter attack i 3 quite sound. 12 P x B P 12 P to Q 5 13 Kt to Kt 4 13 R x P 14 Kt to R 6 (ch) 14 B x Kt 15 B x B 15 Q to Q 4 (fine) 16 Kt to R 4 16 R to B 2 17 P to Q B 4 17 Q to Q 3 18 Q, to Q 2 18 B to B 6 19 K R to K sq 19 Q R to Q Kt sq 20 Q to K 2 20 Q to B 3 Well played again. 21 B to B sq Needlessly afraid of P to K Kt 4. 21 Q R to K B sq 22 B to R 6 22 R to Q sq (beat) 23 Q to Q 2 Specious, but Q R to Q B sq was better. 23 Kt to B 5 ! Beautifully played and worthy of the Victorian ex-champion. Mr Hodgson plays the terminating moves in masterly style. 24 B x Kt 24 P x B 25 R to K 4 25 P to Kt 4 26 Kt to Kt 2 26 B to B 4 2f P x P 27 B x R 28 P x P 28 Q to B 6 (good) 29 P x B 29 Q x K P 30 R to K sq 30 Q to Kt 5 31 P to K B 4 31 P to Q 6 32 P to Q Kt 3 32 R to Q 5 33 K to R sq 33 Q to B 6 34 K to Kt sq 34 R to K 5 85 R xR 35 Q x R 36 IC to B 2 36 B to IC 2 37 Resigns,

CHESS IN PARIS,

A lively skirmish, with a pretty and very curious mating finish, recently played at the Cafd da la Rdgence, between Mr 0. A. Maurian, of New Orleans, and MrC. W. May an American amateur resident in Paris. (Score and notes from the New Orleans ‘Times Democrat.)

(Allgaier-Thorold Gambit. White. Black. (Mr Maurian.) (Mr May.) 1 P to K 4 1 P to IC 4 2PtoKB 4 2 P y P 3 K Kt to B 3 3 P to K Kt 4 4 P to K R 4 4 P to Kt 5 5 Kt to Kt 5 5 P to K R 3 6 Kt x P 6 K x Kt 7 P to Q 4 7 P to Q 3 8 B x P 8 Kt to Q B 3

Having entered upon the. 7 P to Q 3 defence, he should have gone on with the normal continuation —8 BtoK2;9Bto K 2,8 x P (ch); 10 P to K Kt 3, B to Kt 4; 11 Castles, &c. 'there is no time to spare as yet for the development on the Queen's wing. 9 B to Q B 4 (ch) 9 K to Kt 2 10 Castles 10 Q x R P 11 Q to Q 3 H Kt to B 3 12 P to IC 5

The correct move, evidently played with an eye to the pretty possibilities that result from having the White P at IC 5. 12 ICt to IC R 4 Which looks singularly good at first blush, but—--13 B to IC Kt 3 Turns out singularly badly on account of this curious and seemingly unanswerable reply. 13 Q to K 2

If instead, 13 Q to Kt 4, White mates in three by 14 R to B 7 (ch), IC to ICt sq ; 15 R to Q 7 (dis ch), P to Q 4 ; 16 B x P, mate. The same mate ensues if 13 Q (or Kt) x B. 14 B to IC R 4

A markedly zealous prelate in pressing his attention on Her Majestv. 14 Q to IC sq He might have saved the mate by giving his Q for B here by 13 Q to K 3, but, as poor Captain Mackenzie waß wont to say, that had been * but a plunge of despair.’ 15 B to B 6 (ch) 15 Kt x B 16 P x Kt, mate A highly elegant and remarkably curious mate.

Mr Esling the Victorian Ch ampion.—Our readers will probably be interested in the following account of the performances of MrF. IC. Esling, chess champion of Victoria, in the various tourneys and matches on level terms in which he has t*ken part during his career as. a chessplayer. He has been a competitor in seven such tourneys, of which three were played in Germany, three in Melbourne, and one in Adelaide. He has been placed first three times; he has tied for first and second place twice, in one case losing in the play-off and in the other dividing the first and second prizes ; he has been placed second once; and he has failed to obtain a place once. For the four tourneys which he has played in Australia, his figures are as follows Adelaide Congress of 1887, 6 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss; Victorian Championship Tourney of 1890, 8 wins and 1 loss ; of 1891, 12 wins ; and of 1892, 13 wins and 1 loss. He has also played the following matches One with the late John Wisker of six games up. This was suspended in consequence of his sudden transference from Melbourne to a country position as a civil engineer and was never resumed. His score at the. time of the suspension of the match was 4 wins, 2 draws, and 5 losses. One of five games up with G. H. D, Gossip, who issued a challenge to all comers to play for the chess championship of Australia. Mr Esling won the first game, and obtained a winning position in the second, before the completion of which Mr Gossip withdrew. One—a tie match of two games with R. L. Hodgson—for the championship of Victoria (1890). Mr Esling lost both these games. Five matches of one game each, as representative of Victoria, in telegraphic contests with New South Wales. He won all these, the plavers whom he defeated being Brown, Chamier, Hicken, Gossip, and Ash. With Gossip his total score was, practically, 3 wins and 1 loss, the loss being the celebrated game at the Adelaide Congress, for which Gossip obtained the ‘Australasian’ Brilliancy Prize. In club matches his score has been 3 wins and 1 loss. The total number of match and tourney games which he has played in Australia on even terms since 1880 has been 68, and of these he has wonJiS, drawn 4, and lost 11. It may be added that of the 53 wins 23 were recorded in succession, without a break, in the last two tourneys for the championship of Victoria. Mr Esling has also competed in three handicap tourneys, in one of which he was placed first. In a second he tied in score for first and second places, but lost by points based on the Sonneborn system, and in the third, which was played in sections, he was not placed in the final pool. Tne preceding figures compare favourably with any previous record of chess performances that has come under our notice. —Australasian. The Intellect and Chess.— At a social gathering of chessplayers at Newcastle on the occasion of the presentation of the Newcastle Chronicle trophy to Mr Downey, among the speeches made was a very sensible one delivered by Mr Nicholson, Chairman of the South Shields School Board. He protested against accepting skill in chess as a measure of intellectual supremacy. He had always entertained the view that chess was only a specialized faculty. There were good mathematicians, good astronomers, good theologians, and good chessplayers. If chess were a test of intellectual supremacy, they might ask the Government to abolish all civil service examinations, and to go in for chess competitions. He did not know whether Mr Bird would make a first-class Archbishop of Canterbury, or Herr Lasker a first-class Prussian General, but he did know that some of the most intellectual men of the North of England were poor chessplayers. He was not depreciating chess in the slightest degree. His only desire was to avoid the casting of ridicule on chess by over-assertion. It, was undoubtedly, a fair exercise of reasoning powers, and it had merits of its own that made it one of the most charming games in existence.