Dr Tolosa-y-Carreras on Chess Problems.

Otago Witness, Issue 2151, 16 May 1895, Page 38

Dr Tolosa-y-Carreras on Chess Problems.

When the analysis of chess problems is not well directed, it gives risß to certain mc inveniences which are ea-ily avoided when pointed out Leforehand. Though the two branches of chess spring from the one stem, and are nourished by the same sap, they constitute respectively the prose and the poetry ot our immortal game. He who cultivates the firdt-named branch must always bear in mind that he contends face to face with the intelligence and the will of another person, to whom he may Jose through his own cirele-sness or mistakes, rather than by the depth of his opponent's ronception, or tho courage of his proceedings. It i 9 Dot bo in the other branch. The sphinx and the cedipus engage under ideal conditions and in the vast field of imagination, and for the. greater success in this kind of chess lists it becomes necessary, in most cases, to search after a .sacrifice and follow indirect paths, however unlikely they may appear or however daring they may be. We make these reflections because the assiduity in the habit of analysing pretty things may inspire the problemist with too much zeal, aad an exaggerated enthu-iasrn to seek to reilise in actual play tho b.auties with which practice has made him familiar in problems. It is important to bear in mind that problem mates are almost exceptional in actual play, and that brilliant conception? and bold strokes are subject to numerous errors of perception. By exaggerating the value of strategic proceedings -that U to say, in acting through the ima .ination— a player may expose himself to sire defeat, wh'ch he might easily have avoided if he had not despised the more prosaic course of simple moves and "bit by bit" tactics. It U true that by the former method good results 4 ire sometimes produced. "Fortune favours the brave," says the proverb, but ita, application has small chance of

success except in dasperate positions, where a deciiod nd\tmtage of position, as compared with tint of tho adversary, has been attained. Outsido of these it ia better to err on tho side of oxces3 of precaution than to yield to the suggestions of blind assurance. It suits best to be cool, wise, and wary: "A bird in the hand is worth two in the tnisb." To t>um up— ln order to know thoroughly the miny resources treasured up in our incomparable same, it in of cons quenco not to despise the simllest detail. It is nccossavy to study tho theory of the openings and to tasta without gourmandising the savoury fruits which depend from the prolific sccoud branch of chess. It is understood that one cannot become a skilful player, or be able to excel in problems, unless gifted with a certain innate intuition, to which must be added sound instruction in the theory of thegHnie, and above all, the power of fiige ting the learning acquired from bo>ks. A means must be found of (isrcudint; by the assistance of the resemblance betweon the example and the application of simple single and concrete matters to other more complex, more general, and more complicated analyses.