Chess Items.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 48

Chess Items.

Criticisms in Tourneys. — The New Zealand Field has the following: — " It seems to us that such -wholesale remarks and criticisms on problems competing in a tourney, before the awards are known, as are made in the Otago Witness anent the competition for two movers, just concluded in that journal, are better left unsaid until the prizes are allotted, and should on no account be ' countenanced by any chess editor while the matter is practically sub judice." Canterbury Times: ""We altogether disagree with our contemporary. In our opinion the criticisms have been a most interesting, instructive, and valuable feature of the tourney, and we cannot see that they are in any way detrimental. Critics are no more out of place in a problem tourney than counsel in a lawsuit. The pvirpose of both is to cause judges to consider and weigh facts and points which might otherwise be overlooked. The want of current criticisms has, in several recent competitions, led to prizes being awarded to problems which, under the light of subsequent criticism, have proved to be unsound. It is impossible for busy men, as tourney judges usually are, to give the time and research necessary to avoid the possibility of such errors when dealing with a munber of problems, and a competent critic may render the judges real assistance. We observe that the practice is being adopted elsewhere, and notes and criticisms are, at the present time, being regularly published in an English tourney conducted by Mr S. Tinsley, than whom there is probably no more competent authority in such matters. The introduction of this system in New Zealand is calculated to do more than anything else to improve construction in our local composers. It should also give to students of problems a higher appreciation of the clever and artistic work with which good compositions of the modern school abound. To defer the remarks till after the award would be to deprive them of all point and value. The time for criticisms 'is when the problems are fresh in people's memory." We have to thank Mr Hookham for the above very able statement of our case in the Canterbury Times. It leaves but little more to be said. It is a matter of regret that some of the_ criticisms above referred to have caused irritation in the minds of some esteemed contributors. But criticism, even when unfavourable, should be regarded to some extent as a compliment. Worthless pioductions neither deserve nor receive criticism. It does not happen that criticism is invariably just, and much of it depends upon the idiosyncrasies of the critic, whose tastes and opinions often are different from those of most other persons. It is premature to state what the judges think of the problems, but it may be permissible to say that they have already expressed the opinion that the competing problems as a whole are of great merit. The Leeds Mercury states that a chess department now forms part of the contents of the youthful magazine All Sorts. The subject is well managed, and is in capable hands, but the problem given for its opening essay, and announced as " a first prize winner," by Max Karsted, was wrong, no solution in two moves being obtainable. The Growth of Wisdom. — Alexander Neckham, foster brother of King Richard I. who became Abbot of Cirencester in 1213, wrote a work which has been recently published by the Master of the Rolls. He describes the eagerness exhibited by chess players of that early time. The winner is elated, the _ loser terribly downcast; they cannot leave off, but set to work with renewed energy to contest another game when one haa been finished. Sudden quarrels are frequent, and tho encounter of wits often degenerates into a brawl. The Abbot treats the game entirely as a lnili4o££ Aversion, the action of the several pieces

being compared to the military deeds of heroes of old or to strategical devices in war. Perhaps the presence of the chess rook in the armorial bearings of many English families may be taken as a proof that in .Europe chess was played chiefly by soldiers ; and, in fact, in Neckham's time ecclesiastics discouraged the game on the ground ol its being a vanity and a source of quarrels. A writer in the future describing the chess of the nineteenth century will probably describe it as being played chiefly by gentlemen! — Leeds Mercury-