Chess Item?.

Otago Witness, Issue 2310, 9 June 1898, Page 40

Chess Item?.

Mr F. K. Young, of Boston, U.S.A., ua3 pub lished through Messrs Robert Brothers, of that city, a very handsome and well-printed volume entitled "The Grand Tactics of Chess " It is ac

2 attempt to put into language for the first time the processes by which the greater masters gained Kenawn. The various situations and their

possibilities are beautifully illustrated in quite a novel way. "The Art of Chess," by James Mason ; second edition, revised and enlarged. London : Horace Cox. We have to thank Mr Mason for a copy of the above work. It has been revised, corrected, and very considerably augmented the new matter, extending to over a hundred pages, or about one-fourth of the book. The book in its first edition is well known and highly appreciated by all students of the gams. It is not a book for mere beginners, but rather one for good players who desire to improve. The arrangement of the matter has not been altered, but to each of the three parts into which it is divided — namely, the end game, the middle game, and the openingsnotable additions have been made. In an able introductory article on "Method" Mr Mason states weighty reason for thus beginning with the Ending. He say 3: " That due knowledge of any subject not perfectly simple in itself implies exact knowledge of its elements or parts is a truism remarkably appropriate to chess. Now, to form just ideas of the parts or elements of which chess consists, it is necessary to consider them each separately at first, and not to confound them all into one view, so that, as it were, we cannot see the wond for the trees. A player in a fog as to the movements of two or three pieces — what will ha do with two-anS-Thirty ? But having mastered these parts, then a correct method will enable us to trace their connections and interactions until we eveutua'ly perceive them working together according to that controlling principle of unity or diversity which is the last to be discoveied in the actual jjame. The acquisition of this knowledge is one thing ; its application in practice over the board is another very different thing. What is wanted not only in chess study but in chess play is a grouudwoik of clear and determined- ideas aa to the final object of the game—checkmate. It is a principle of experience, if we reflect upon what passes within our own minds, that the clearer our idea is the more fruitful it is in producing other ideas and increasing our knowledge, and the simpler the idea the clearer, if only it be attentively considered. We should first of all be intent upon the end ab which we, would arrive if we would best avail ourselves of the means of getting there. Thus in chess it is the end ,we Sshould consider first, so as the more easily to master the simpler ideas of the game, that we may become readily" familiar with them in order to go on with confidence to thencombination or involution. Again, if you do not know what to do with three pieces, what about thirty-two ? ... Of all parts of the game the opening, say the first dozen moves or so,i« ever the least understood, even by the accomplished players, and it is juat the point that the neophyte is usually recommended to # master at the beginning. A moro fatuous gripping of the wrong end of the stick it would be hard to imagine." The whole of Mr Mason's article on " Method " should be read, marked, and inwardly digested by thos» who wish to improve their knowledge of chess. There is ample material for study in the whole of the book, and to be of use that study must be careful and thorough. Many of the end games given are difficult enough to have puzzled the masters from whose play they resulted, and cannot therefore be mastered so that the principles they embody may be so grasped as to be useful in actual play unless they are thoroughly studied. Several new and interesting end and middle game positions have been added, and also explanatory observations on some of the positions which must prove of graat interest and value to the student. No book on chess han yet been produced dealing with the game exhaustively, nor is it likely that any such book ever will be published. The perusal of such a book as Mr Mason's shows how vast a field chess presents, for although the book comprises within its 400 pages probably more chess learning than any other book of the size it is easy to see that every illustration is but the openiDg to a vast unexplored field which would need a. whole volume for itself. If Mr Mason's first bonk, " The Principles of Chess," was combined with the one under review the combination would form the -be»t and most complete t reatise on ths gsime that exists — at least in the English language, perhaps it is not too much to say the best extant This does not include the subject of problems, which has a special literature of its own.