CHESS CONGRESS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2080, 4 January 1894, Page 28

CHESS CONGRESS.

The annual Chess Congress was continued yesterday at the Otago Chess Club's rooms, Manse street. The following is the result of the play :— Board I.— Cleland won from Mellor. Board 2.— Borton won from Mouat. Board 3.— Brown drew with Lelievre. Board 4.— Edwards won from Barnes. Board 5. — Hookham won from Pleasants. Board 6. — Smith, a bye. Board I.— Mr Mellor opened with the Allgaier Kieserilzkij, but lost a piece on the eighteenth move. Mr Cleland thereafter forced the game, and obliged his opponent to resign on the twentyninth move. Board 2.— Mr Borton opened with the Allgaier Gambit, which his opponent accepted. At lunch time Mr Mouat was subject apparently to an overwhelming attack, but possibly his position was defensible. He was, however, called away at this point, and could not return until his time limit had expired. Board 3.— Mr Brown opened with the Guioco Piano. The game was played very rapidly, and was very even throughout, the result being a draw. Board 4. — Mr Barnes had the attack, and Mr Edwards adopted the Sicilian defence. After a very hard-fought game Mr Edwards gradually wore the ex-champion dowo , and won on the thirtyfifth move. • - Board s.— Mr Hookham adopted the Ruy Lopez. Mr Fleasants defended by 4 Ktß3, and conducted his game remarkably well up to his fifteenth move, when he made a slip, by which he lost a piece, without compensation of any kind. Having to face the loss of another piece on his twentyfifth move, Mr Pleasants preferred resignation to I continuing a hopeless game. I It may be mentioned that Mr S. Jacobs has kindly offered to provide a fourth prize. Tinun Day— December 28. The Chess Congress was continued to-day, with the following results :— Cleland v. Borton.— Mr Cleland had the attack, and played P — K 4. Mr Borton adopted the Sicilian defence, and a most exciting game resulted. Mr Borton obtained the advantage of a pawn, and kept it until near the close, when a slip lost him his advantage, and a draw resulted. Mellor v. Mouat. — Rlr Mouat opened with the • Scotch gambit. At the twelfth move he was the victim of an unfortunate oversight by which he lost a pawn : and in the next move, by another slip, he lost his queen, and resigned. Edwards v. Brown. — Mr Edwards adopted the Zukertont opening. After vigorous play on both sides, Mr Edwards won a piece on the twentyfourth move, and the exchange on the twentyseventh move, and queened a pawn on the thirtysecond move, when Mr Brown resigned. Barnes v. Lelievre.— Mr Barnes played the French defence. The game was pretty even to the twenty-fourth move, when Mr Barnes instituted a very strong combination, and was enabled to effect mate on the thirty-third move. Hooiham v. Smith.— Mr Smith opened with the Scotch gambit, and the game was even till the thirty-second move, when, having the diaw in hand, Mr Smith played a weak move, and resigned shortly afterwards. Mr Pleasants had a bye. The results at the end of yesterday's play were as follow :—: —

Fourth Day— December 29. The Chess Congress was continued to-day in the Dunedin Chess Club's rooms. The following is the result of the play : — Edwards v. Smith. — Mr Smith had the move, and Mr Edwards adopted the Sicilian defence. At the eighth move Mr Edwards made a weak move and gave his opponent a strong attack, which he took every advantage of until the thirtyfourth move, when he lost his queen for a rook, and on the forty-seventh move resigned. Mellor v. Lelieyre. — Mr Lelievre played the Giuoco Piano opening, and went in for exchanging pieces, from which manoeuvres Mr Mellor emerged with a pawn to the good, and by careful manipulation be threatened to win the queen, when Mr Lelievre resigned. Brown v. Pleasants. — Mr Pleasants opened with the Scotch gambit. On the twelfth move Mr Brown, by sacrificing a bishop, gained a very strong attacking position. Mr Pleasants played a tough defensive game, but eventually had to resign on the fortieth move. Barnes v. Borton. — Mr Barnes had the move. Mr Borton adopted the Sicilian defence. About the sixth move a succession of exchanges occurred by which Mr Barnes obtained a superior position. At the twenty-first move Mr Borton, through a miscalculation, lost a knight for a pawn, and though he made strenuous efforts to equalise matters his opponent played with great care, and Mr Botton resigned on the forty-first move. Hookham v. Mouat. — Mr Mouat had the move, and offered the Evans gambit, which Mr Hookham declined. A very strong, even game ensued, till Mr Hookham originated a combination which, after a few moves, compelled Mr Mouat to resign, a mate in four moves being imminent. Mr deland had a bye. The following is the result of the games played :— Won. Lost.

Fifth Day— December 30. In order to allow Mr Borton the privilege of witnessing the first day's play of the AucklandOtago crickot match, the players in the Chess Congress kindly consented to grant him his bye on Saturday instead of on Tuesday {as fixed by the drawing). To do this without materially altering the arrangements, the seventh draw was substituted for the fifth, and vice versa. A. fairly large number of leading citizens have during the past week visited tbe room's (corner of jHigh and Manse streets), but the committee desire it to be more generally known that the public, as a whole, are invited to watch the progress of the games, and they hope to see larger attendances during the remainder of the tournament. All that is requested in return is silence and good order. The fifth round was started punctually at 10 o'clock on Saturday morning, and resulted as follows :—: —

Board l\o. 1 was occupied by Messrs Brown and Cleland. The former had the move, and opened with the Ruy Lopez, Mr Cleland replying with a variation of the Berlin defence. A splendidly contested and highly interesting game followed until Mr Cleland, shortly after the luncheon adjournment, made a slip, moving his Kto R3 instead of to R sq. This blunder gave Mr Brown mate in two or three moves, and compelled his opponent to resign. Mr Mellor had the move at board; 2 against Mr Smith, and opened with the Evans gambit, which was accepted. Mr Mellor at once asserted his superiority over the Nelson man at this opening. Mr Smith worked hard to stay the attack he had allowed his opponent to make, but without avail, and- was ultimately compelled to resign. At board 3, Mr Hookham had the attack, and Sir Lelievre adopted a noyel variation of the Sicilian defence. An instructive and very interesting game ensued, which resulted in neither side gaining an advantage, a draw being eventually mutually agreed upon. Mr Barnes had the move against Mr Pleasants at board 4, and was for the third time subjected to the Sicilian defence. At move eleven Mr Barnes sacrificed a pawn, for an attack which

became so strong that Mr Pleasants had great difficulty in defending his position, and about the fifteenth move lost two pawns, exposing his king very much. Later on, at move twenty-four, Mr Pleasants thought it advisable to give his queen and a pawn for two rooks. This, however, did not stay the attack, and falling into a little trap at his twenty-seventh move, he immediately resigned. The remaining board was occupied by Messra Edwards and Mouat. The former played the Zukertort opening, and Mr Mouat at the sixth move played P to Q Xt 3,., which looked all right at the time, but proved weak as the game proceeded. On the eleventh move White started a series of forced exchanges and obtained a strong attack, during which Mr Mouat lost his queen for a rook. At the forty-fourth move Black resigned. Borton a bye. , The following shows the results of the play up to Saturday :—

Sixth Day— January 1. Play was continued at the Chess Congress to-day, with the following results :—: — • Hookham won from Borton. — Mr Borton had the move, and played the Guioco Piano opening, and made a premature attack, which was foiled, and resulted in a speedy defeat, Mr Barton resigning on the eighteenth move. Brown won from Mouat. —Mr Mouat opened with Evans gambit, which Mr Brown declined. Shortly afterwards Mr Mouat lost a knight by sheer oversight, but eventually, by careful play, recovered the piece. Mr Mouat played a very clever uphill game, and made things more than equal, when another blunder lost him the game. It is admitted by his opponent that had Mr Mouat played correctly at that point, he would have won the game. Lelievre won from Smith. — Mr Lelievre adopted the English opening, and began the attack early in the game. At the twelfth move he won a knight, and, pursuing his advantage, won a bishop from his opponent on the eighteenth and mated him on the twenty-second move. Cleland won from Barnes.— Mr Cleland offered the Evans gambit, which was declined. At the eleventh move Black won a pawn. A long and very interesting game ensued, carefully played on both sides. At the thirty-sixth move Mr Barnes unfortunately made a weak move, which was immediately taken advantage of by his opponent, and .Black resigned on the thirty-ninth move. This is the longest game in point of time which has yet been played at the present congress. Edwards drew with Pleasants. — Mr Edwards had the move and played the Zukertort opening. The game was very even until the fifteenth move, when a scrips of exchanges took place which gave Mr Edwards a strong attack, which was ably defended by Mr Pleasants. On the twenty-fourth move Mr Edwards could hive forced a win but made a slip which gave Mr Pleasants the advantage up to the thirtieth move, when the Wellington representative forced a draw. Seventh Day— January 2. The play to-day, which was the seventh day, resulted as follows :— Cleland won from Edwards.— Mr Cleland had the move and Mr Edwards defended with the Sicilian. Black was subjected to a strong attack, but had quite recovered his position at lunch time. Two moves later he made an unsound sacrifice which cost him a piece. Still he had a good attacking game, but in endeavouring to force matters he lost another piece. After this it was only a question of time, but Mr Edwards made such a determined resistance that over 70 moves were played before he was mated. Brown won from Hookham.— Mr Hookham had the move and opened with the Ruy Lopez. At the twenty-sixth move he lost the queen for a rook and pawn, and after a hard-fought game resigned on the ninetieth move. Pleasants (white) drew with Lelievre (blacksWhite opened with the Ruy Lopez, and a very good game was played on both sides up till the twentieth move, when a premature attack on Black's part cost him the loss of a bishop. However, by careful play Black eventually neutralised his opponent's extra piece, and to prevent the queening of a pawn, White had resource to a statemate, which gave a drawn game. Barnes won from Mellor.— Mr Mellor had the move, and offered the Evans gambit, which wa,s accepted. At his fifth move Mr Barnes adopted the B— B 4 defence. Mr Mellor sacrificed several pawns to keep up the attack, and at the thirteenth move had sacrificed a bishop and three pawns for his opponent's king'B rook A very interesting game followed up to the twenty-eighth move, when Mr Mellor made a miscalculation and resigned on the thirtieth move. Borton won from Smith. — Mr Smith had the move, to which Mr Borton played the Sicilian defence. A very even game ensued till the twenty-ninth move, when Mr Borton gained a pawn, and pursuing his aivantage queened a pawn op the forty-eighth move, and the Nelson representative resigned a few moves later on. The following shows the results of the games played up to and including yesterday :— Won. Lo3t.

The following gentlemen have yet to take their bye :— Lelievre, Barnes, Brown, Edwards. Eighth Day— January 3. Play | was resumed at 10 o'clock to-day morning, with the following results : — Cleland drew with Pleasants. — Mr Pleasants had the move and opened with the Ruy Lopez, Mr Cleland defending with the Berlin defence (Xt to B 3). The game was very even right through. A series of exchanges commenced on the twenty-seventb, which eventually led to a draw on the thirty-fourth move.

Brown drew with Borton.— Mr Brown declined Mr Borton'B proffered A llgaier, playing B to B4 as his second move. At move 22 Mr Brown took White's X Xt pawn with his rook instead of with his queen's bishop (check), thereby losing a distinct advantage and allowing Mr Borton to win a pawn, which he held until at move 4.4 a draw was mutually agreed up.on. The play on both sides fell far short of congress form. Edwards won from Mellor.— Mr Edwards played the Sicilian defence, and the game was very evenly fought until the twenty-third move, when Mr Ei wards won his opponents queen for a rook, and Mr Mellor resigned on the forty-sixth move. Barnes won from Hookham. — Messrs Barnea and Hookham played the best game yet witnessed during the congress. Mr Barnes had the move, and adopted the Ruy Lopez, conducting the attack on the Steinitz plan. On the twelfth move White had an almost irresistible attack, which, however, Mr Hookham sue-, ceeded in neutralising in a masterly manner. At move 46 Mr Hookham proposed a draw, which Mr Barnes declined. At this time Mr Barnes had a knight and five pawns against his opponent's bishopyand'fhre pa\yns, which, however, were too isolated. ' The end of the game was watched with absorbing interest by the numerous onlookers, and the game, which resulted in a win for Mr Barnes, did great credit to both winner and loser. Time occupied 6hr 35min. Mouat won from Smith. — Mr Snjith played the Four Knights opening. At the ninth move Mr Smith made a weak move, thereby losing a piece at the eighteenth move. Mr Smith played a very careful defence game, but finally resigned on the fifty-eighth move. The following are the arrangements for today:—Borton playa Lelievre t Barnea plays

Mouat, Pleasants plays Mellor, Brown plays Smith, Hookham plays Cleland, Edwards, a bye. The following are the results up to and including the eighth day's play :— Wins. Loses.

The following gentlemen have yet to take their byes :— Messrs Edwards, Brown, and Barnes.

Dleland ... Mouat Mellor Borton Lelievre ... Edwards ... Brown Barnes Pleasants ... Smith Eookham ... Won. :::? ... li '.'.'. 1 ... 0 ... 2 Lost 3* 2 f 2 0 t.

Jleland tfouat Mellor Borton Lelievre Edwards Barnes Brown Pleasants Smith Kookham ::: f ... 2 = ? ... 2 :■:. i 1 ... 0 ... 3 4* 2 li f 2 n 2 3 0

Hookhara... Edwards ... Brown Cleland ... Borton Barnes Mellor ... Lelievre ... Pleasants . . . Smith Mouat ::: ::: ? ::: ::: I! ::: ::: I' , 3 ... . ... 2 1 0 0 .4 U 14 2 2 3 3 4 5

... it louat lellor Sorton .elievre ... Sdwardß ... Srown !arne3 'leaeants... imith lookham... • ... 0 ... 3 ... 3J ... Sfr ... 4i ... 5i ... 4 ... 2 ... 0 ... Ah 6J6 J 3 21 3i 2i ¥ 4 6 li

(Jleland Mouat Mellor Borton Brown Barnes Lelievre l'leasants ... Smith Hookham ... Edwards ... ... 5 ... 1 ... 3 ... 4 ... 6 ... 5 ... 3J ... 2J ... 0 ... Ah ... 5£ ii 6 4 3 2 3 3J ¥ 2i