Chess Items.

Otago Witness, Issue 2403, 22 March 1900, Page 52

Chess Items.

A two-round open handicap tourney, at "status odds," will shortly be played at the Canterbury Chess Club. A prize of the value of £1 2s will be presented to the winner by Mr W. Acton-Adams. There will be an entrance fee of Is, and all money from the entries will be devoted to a second prize. Entries closed on March 16.

Mr Philip H. -Williams, the problem-com-poser, recently announced that he had on hand a number of copies of his small collection of problems, and *that he desired to sell them at Is each, with the intention of placing the whole sum received to the credit of the Daily Telegraph shilling fund for the Transvaal war. Freemasonry of Chess. — In any quarter of the globe which can boast of a chess club, or a circle of chess players, a chess player is at home. It is one of the pleasantcst circumstances in connection with the royal game that a stranger, who is a player, is always welcomed m foreign chess circles. The bare intimation that he is a chess devotee is a passport. that secures for him a cordial reception; a, passport that is never questioned, but always unhesitatingly accepted as a bond of union and brotheihood between man and man. — Australasian.

A suggestion was recently made ] y Mr C. E. Turner, of Sydney, that the only way out of- the difficulty in regard to chess dissension in Sydney was through a "full recognition of the lately-created Chess Association of New South Wales by the other colonies." Com-menting-on this, Mr A. Burns, of Melbourne, one of the finest chess critics in Australia, writes: "This is very well, bit 1 ; so long as the association is so poorly lepresenlatiye of the chess-playing strength of the colony it is difficult for the other colonies to accord this. I think the settlement must hi arrived at by internal rather than external action. ' This is a trifle severe, as the association has several strong players identified with it, although not Mr E. N. Wallace, Mr W. Crane, or Mr G. B. Hall. As lately mentioned, the inspired paragraphs insidiously circulated in other colonies, averring, quite without foundation, that the Sydney Chess Club is actuated by hostility to chess players outside its membership, are calculated to create dissension, and to postpone the likelihood of Mr Wallace and other strong players being enrolled under the association, or of a cordial amalgamation of the Suburban and the League. — Town and Country.

The American Chess Magazine for December contains a frontispiece entitled "A Serious Game — Prom a Dutch Point of View," representing the Right Hon. J. Chamberlain engaged in a game of chess with President Kruger, while overlooking them is the shadowy from of Prince Bismarck. Explaining the frontispiece is a contribution by Jocelyn Johnstone, entitled

"BISMARCK SPEAKS." Paul, you gained a very strong position; Your opening's sound, and wins my warmest

praise, 7or I, too, bear in mind those furious days When Germany appealed to war's decision In scorn of cowardice and weak delays! Yon Moltke told me then one's best defence Was fierce attack. In chess that's common

sense. Pour pawns ahead before the middle of the

game! Well played, Paul! But be watchful all the

same ! Britain has such resources in her play That pawns and knights have fallen in the

fray — Fought to the end on many a bloody field — Where Britain won because she could not

During the famous Tichborne case, which lasted for 188 days, the obese "Sir Roger," in cross-examination, was unable to answer a single question as to early recollections of chess. He had also "forgotten" all about swimming, dancing, fencing, and his elementary military training. The real Roger Tichborne (as pointed out to me by J. D., North Sydney) frequently played chess with his cousins, but the claimant in court did not even know the names of the pieces, or the moves. Notwithstanding this, the story was current that some of his friends discovered he was a chess player, and remonstrated with him for professing total ignorance of the game, whereupon he replied: "Do you think I should be such a fool as to tell all I know about chess to that d thief of a Solicitor-general?" The relation of this retort at the time made nianjr chess placers doubt whether the former

claimant was not the real Sir Roger. It would be of interest to know if the new claimant can he shown to have been a chess player.

New York. — Major Hanhain has won the championship of the Manhattan (New York) Club with the fine score of nine and a-half games out of a. possible 11. The list of competitors was a very stiong one, including the names of E. Delmai, D. G. Baird, P. J. Marshall, and otheis. — Bradford Observer.

Nstal. — The late Right Hon. Harry Escombe, Q.C., P. 0., ex-Premier of Natal, was a strong chess player. He won the right to be one of the four players to represent Natal on the occasion of the third South African Chess Congress last April, — Ibid.

Vienna. — The Kolisch National Tournament at Vienna has now terminated, the first prize of 1000 kronen being won by Maroczy, who, now thet long-continued illness has, it is feared, removed Charousek altogether from the chess arena, must be regarded as the strongest player in Austro-Hungary. Maroczy' s score in this competition was nine out of a possible 11. Schlechter and Brody tied for the second and third piizes, receiving 675 kronen each. Alapin, who scored six and a-half, won the fourth .prize of JSOO kronen, the other scores being — Marco, Wolf, and Zinkl 6 each, Kotrc 5, Popiel 44, Albin 4, Schwartz 3£, Prock 0. Brody is a young player, who promises to rival the fame of the other Hungarian celebrities, and Kotrc and Prock are problem composers.— Ibid.