Polish y. English Draughts.

Otago Witness, Issue 2398, 15 February 1900, Page 52

Polish y. English Draughts.

The draughts editor of the Leeds Mercuiy translated the following from the French weekly draughts magazine, La Tribune dcs Damiates : — The English draughts players have become passionately attached to the game " a la Francaise," and there are numbers in England commencing to take inteiest in our game of Polish! Draughts. Games by correspondence are now in pi ogress between several distinguished Eag-

lish amateurs and good players of the Polish game in France. We may mention amongst others two games by correspondence between Messrs Baledent and Frank Dunne, of Warrington, and two others between Messrs Ra- ' phael and "Willie Gardner, of Holbeck, Leedsv^ This master, well known the world over, whrf is the champion of England (at the English.' game), has exhibited on one or two occasions ss surprising feat of strength in conducting 22 games together without sight, and that with ex- v Iraordinary ease and power. He has obtained) tho magnificent result of 11 games won, 4 lost 1 , and 7 drawn. "We repeat that his result is magnificent, because there is much difficulty in; scoring a win at the English game, on account! of drawn games occurring so much more frequently than in our Polish game. Mr Gardner has declared to us that he will be able t<j( conduct with ease one game, if not more, -without sight, at Polish draughts, when he has be'-* come familiarised with the notation of thei board. We do not think that this feat oh stiength, which has already been attempted to' our own knowledge several times in France, hag ever been successfully accomplished. This isi however, the first time that any player of the English game has been so successful as to conduct at one time such a number as 221 games, without being disconcerted. Consequently, we await with eagerness the result o£ the little match with Monsieur Raphael, a re.sult that we ourselves shall hasten to give our! readers a knowledge of. It may, perhaps, help vs — in contrasting English and Polish draughts — to form an opinion upon the difference in point of difficulty in conducting a game .at one $a compared to the other. We cannot conclude this little paragraph without warmly applauding Mr Willie Gardner for the splendid results he has obtained, and we tender him our greatest! good wishes to encourage him to devote himself to the study of our grand Polish game, the attractions of which we are assured are quite aa numerous as, if not more so than, those of the English game — the old French game.