Personal Peculiarities of Steinitz and Zuktertort — Two Curious Little locks.

Otago Witness, Issue 1796, 24 April 1886, Page 23

Personal Peculiarities of Steinitz and Zuktertort — Two Curious Little locks.

As the champions sit opposite each other, the contrast between the two is very marked. Steinitz is a typical German, of the blonde type, stout and short, with tawny beard, ruddy complexion, and eyes beaming with good nature and satisfaction with himseh and the world. When perplexed he folds his arms upon the table and gazes steadily at the board, sometimes for five minutes on a stretch, without moving a muscle. Then he grasps a glass of brandy and water which stands at his elbow, and, without taking his eyes off the board, swallows a mouthful and continues his study. When he becomes restless it is known he is about to play. Afrer the move is made he gives a sigh of satisfaction, and if his opponent gives him time he get 3up nnd walks about or talks with the umpires. I)r Zukertort is small, thin, sallow, and brown-haired. His forehead is strong, his nose sharp, and his eyes restless and piercing. It is apparently much more an effort to him to play than for Steinitz. While studying a move he rests his head in both hands, his elbows upon the table, and fixes his ey«s upon one particular piece or part of the board, exhausting all possible combinations in that direction before passing to the next. Or else he plunges both hands deep into his pocketß and twists one leg around the other. With him quiet means that his mind is nearly made up. As he moves he makes a sharp glance opposite, as if to catch any_ visible impression which the move may make on his stolid opponent. When waiting for Steinitz to move he seldom leaves his chair. When he walks up and down, and the fame is in his favour, he occaasionally looks at teinitz with what might be described as a mild sardonic grin. He is the more rapid of the two, and has the reputation among chess players of more daring, while Steinitz never sacrifices safety to brilliancy. Both men have the faculty of carrying the game and position of the men in their heads so accurately that they can work out the problems in hand almost as well without the board before them as with it. Sometimes both get up from the table and walk about in an abstracted way, the man whose play it is studying the matter over without reference to the board. Long practice has made both men imperturbably cool in manner at the close of the game, whatever their feelings may be, and any excitement or applause in the audience is discountenanced.

According to the rules of the match there must be thirty moves made during the first two hours of tho game, and if they are not made the man who has occupied the most time in playing loses the game. For tho purpose of recording the time of each man, two little pendulum clocks are fastened upon a sort of a miniature see-saw in such a manner that when the clock at one end is up in the air its pendulum swings freely and that clock goes, while the clock at the other end of the see-saw stops. The whole apparatus is not more than six inchss long, but answers the purpose perfectly. The moment a player has moved he dopresses his end of the see-saw, thus stopping his clock and setting bis opponents going. At the end of the game the combined time shown on both dials ought to equal the whole time occupied in play, and each man's clock shows the time he has used up individual^.— New York Evening Post.