CHESS ITEMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2391, 28 December 1899, Page 52

CHESS ITEMS.

Chess players who always aim at winning are at a great disadvantage. Looking at th* matter in a common-sense light, nothing would appear simpler or more obvious than that the object of each player is to win his game. No such thought appears present to the mind of the true English disciple of the German school. He keeps tHe draw in hand, will not be tempted to make any attack, waits to disoover a weak spot or a blunder, and too often wins against a chivalrous but aggressive opponent by such tactics as we have described." v It is a paying game, but it is not noble.— Times ■ Weekly.

A Famous Book. — Mr Blackbume's "Games at Chess," for which players have been waiting a long time, was to be published in October by Messrs Longmans and Co. Selected, annotated, and arranged by Mr Blackburne himself, the games are edited, with a biographical sketch, by Mr P. Anderson Graham. This work will contain a portrait of the famous player. The games are about 400, and represent not only Mr Blackburne's match and to'.rnament contests, but also those wonderful exhibitions of blindfold and simultaneous play which have won for him his unique reputation. In his preface Mr P. Anderson Graham explains that the aim of the work is twofold: — "In the first place, it is a collection of the best games of a very brilliant and interesting chess player; in the second, the hope is that it may be found of much use as a manual for chiss players. Everybody knows what a wearisome thing it is to learn chess by means of the old system of analysis, with the endless variations and back games. A pleasanter and quicker method is by playing over the games of a master, and Mr Blackburne has unique advantages for this purpose. For nearly 40 ye.ars he has held the foremost place in English chess, and there is scarcely a tournament between that held in London in 1862 and that in 1899 wherein he has not been a prominent figure. His match games, arranged in openings and by dates, form in themselves" a history of chess moves, and will not only show the chess student how to play, but at a glance explain to him why certain tactics have become old-fashioneel and others have come into vogue."

The Championship. — The Daily News states that the negotiations for a match between Lasker and Janowski have fallen through, as the former insists on the condition of "eight games up" only, Janowski holding out for 10. It is difficult to understand Lasker's attitudo in this matter. In all the matches for the championship in which Steinitz took part against Zukertort, Tichigorin, Gunsberg, and Lasker himself, a series of 10 games up was played, and it seems only reasonable that Lasker should be expected to defend his title on the same terms as those under which he won it.

The example set at a former match by Mr A. W. Britton, of umpiring on the strictest lines for a sister colony, was followed by Mr S. Henderson, who proved to be a model umpire in acting for Queensland. It is eminently satisfactory nowadays for onloookers in Sydney at important telegraphic matches to see that there is not the slightest attempt at consultation on the part of players and fellowplayers, or players and bystanders. A Brisbane correspondent informs me that the same order and decorum were observed at the Carlton, Brisbane. No attempt was made at consultation, and, in the event of any siich attempt, it would have been promptly put down by Umpire Palmer and Captain Apperly.

The greatest interest is being manifested in Sydney, and throughout the colony, as to the forthcoming intercolonial match by wire en January ] between N.S.W. and S.A. This match will be under the auspices oi the Chess Association of N.S.W., and no effort will be spared to put the best team available in tne field at the Sydney end. This will be all Ihe more necessary in the event of the redoubtable Mr H. Charlick, of Adelaide, playing at the top board.

The question whether chess and draughts players are entitled to control the copyright of game scores is still agitating the playing mind of England. Sir Wemyss Reid, in his inaugural address to the London Institute of Journalists lately, said: '"It is the head and not the hand which creates copyright in ideas, and I trust I shall offend the susceptibilities of nobody when I venture to express the opinion that the only person who ought to have the control of the copyright of a speech (or game) is the speaker (or player) himself." Many Sydney chess players approve of the notion of a match for the championship of Australia, and with a view to this a match for the championship of New Soufli Wales is desirable as a preliminiry. It is believed that Messrs W. Crane, G. B. Hall, W. H. Jona<s, W. S. Viner, and several others, would take part. Unfortunately, these seems iio prcaeafc iikoli-

hood of Mr E. N. Wallace being swerved from hi? temporary retirement, or of his making one in a triangular contest between Messrs Wallace, Esling, and Apperly. Moscow. — The Russian National Tournament, which has lately been played at Moscow, has resulted in Tchigorin winning first prize and Schiffera second prize. There have been some capital games played, the quality all round being fairly high,, while several individual games have been quite firßt class. Evidently the tournament has been productive of much good, and shadows ' forth possible rivals at no distant date of Tchigorin himself. There were 12 competitors in the present tourney. That the. well-known player, Alapin, is the real '" Alexejev " is much questioned, his style not quite bearing fully out the ingenious attempt to guess.

THE SECRET OP BLINDFOLD CHESS. •The remarkable mencil process Mr Blackburne and other distinguished' players go through in playing blindfold chess is defined by a contributor to the Paris Magazine: — The very fact that in chess the pieces have distinctive powers is an aid to his memory. Blindfold exhibitions of Polish draughts are unknown, not because of the uniform appearance of the men, but ■ because of theii almost uniform powers. In draughts there is little to which the memory can cling except position. In chess the blindfold player has to deal with several entities &a di&tirct in their nature as so many different perrons. The incidents of the game nre not chaos, but an intelligent development of intimately related events which have something of the interest of a novel. Games, indeed, may differ from. each other as widely as novels, and' a blindfold player, having usually the first move,' can often impress each/ of^ his games with a different character from the* outset, and thus facilitate hia task. For him there is safety in variety. He is no more likely to confuse a bishop with a rook, or one game with another, than an intelligent novel-reader is likely to confuse " The Egoist " with " The Mighty Atom." -It does not follow that the man who can play the largest number of games blindfold is the strongest player. Zukertort has played 16 blindfold games, but Steinitz has seldom -played more than four. Gunsberg carl play almost any number of simultaneous games, but very few blindfold. Success depends entirely tipon the player's powers of mentally visualising the board.

Questioned as to the methods adopted by him in performing the wonderful feat of playing several games of chess and draughts blindfold, at the same time taking a hand at whist, Pillsbury says: "I can't tell you exactly how I do it. It is largely a matter of practice. MosJ; people put it down to memory entirely, and I don't keep pictures of the chess and draughts board in my mind, as many imagine 1 do. It is mostly will power. It has been described as self-hynotism, and I think there's a lot in that. While I am thinking of a move at one of 'the chess boards all the other games are as completely obliterated from my mind by an effort of will as if I had never entered upon them, mls soon as the move is made, I turn my attention to one of the other boards, or to the cards in my- hand, and concentrate my mind on that in just the same way. I pass so quickly in my mind from one game to the other that T seem to be playing all at once, but in reality they are absolutely distinct. The only time the games give me the least trouble is at the commencement, when they are pretty much alike. As soon as ever they are given a little individuality it is quite simple, though, as you understand, I am not allowed to ask any question as to where any piece is. I know exactly 'where each one is on the board. It is like the playing of an expert pianist. He can keep his eye on the ceiling and still play away upon the keys with the utmost confidence, knowing where they all are. Still, there is certainly a little mystery about it after all which I cannot explain." The curious part of the business is that Mr Pillsbury said he did not find mental strain of this sort of thing at all troublesome, nor even in the great tournament games, when on five days of the week he has to play against champions for eight hours a day if necessary.