Chess Items.

Otago Witness, Volume 14, Issue 2648, 14 December 1904, Page 62

Chess Items.

In giving the conditions of the MarshallJanowski match for the first seven wins, draws not counting, the Hambtirger Nachrichten adds : — "Whichever wins shall be entitled to challenge Lasker to play a match for the chess championship of the world." Although chess is classed as a game, it is such, says Mr W. E. Napier, only when it is played with little understanding of its nature. Of course, there are those who see in chess nothing more than a pleasant way of passing _ the time. To the connoissetir, however, "it is a canvas, a poem, a symphony," and quite as permanent. Encounters at chess dating back centuries are still preserved to please the enthusiast, and to puzzle the critic. Unlike a painting, one need not journey thousands of miles to have a glimpse of it; unlike a symphony, there are no executants required to reproduce it ; the poor man can have as splendid a* collection of chess gems as the poor man's patron. By some it is held that chess is a science ; by others that it is an art. .1 am inclined to take the latter opinion, because it is imaginative before being exact. Someone has said it is too much of a game for a science, and too much of a science for a game. To compromise, therefore — to say that chess is an art, and the chess player an artist, seems to me to approximate to the nature of the thing. The secretary of the Seventh American Chess Congress Problem Tourney reports that 122 problems were received. The judge in three movers was Otto Waztmrg (Grand Rapids). His report is not yet made. The l'udge in two-movers was Mr Hamilton (St. Louis), and he awarded the first prize to MiVan Dijk (Wea*rland), second prize to Mr S. L. Henry (Lonflon). first hon. mention to MiArthur Charlick (of Rose Park, S.A.), second hon. mention to Mr F. Gamage (Westborough, Mass.). It is gratifying to find that Mr Charlick is pushing his way to the front ranks of the world's problem composers. Mr Van Dijk, it will be remembered, won hon. mention in the last tourney of the Sydney Morning Herald.