Chess Items.

Otago Witness, Issue 2663, 29 March 1905, Page 62

Chess Items.

Mr E. J. Barnes, the well-known Wellington player, has been awarded second and third honourable mention in the recent problem tourney (eccentricities division) of the Melbourne Leader. The two eccentric problems composed by Mr Barnes — both ingenious and artistic conceptions — will appear in this column next week.

The many friends of Mr E. J. Miles, chess ohampiooi of Auckland, will be glad to hear that he and his bride aTe recovering from the effects of the accident recorded in this column last week.

Mr Frank Hollins, of Huirangi, the recognised English chess expert from Birmingham, to whom the seven games entered for the brilliancy prize- in connection -with the last New Zealand Chess Championship Tourney were referred for adjudication", in*kes the following pertinent comments: — "These games were my first introduction to New Zealand chess, and I was agreeably surprised at the quality of the chess. Some of them are handled by the winners in a manner that no player, however good, need be ashamed of owning them. Unfortunately, in some of them, the play of the- opponent is such as to detract from the value of the game, and I have been obliged 1 lo take this into consideration in awarding the prize, as it is obvious that weak play makes brilliancy easy, and, as a consequence, of less worth." A passenger on board one of the big ocean Timers on the waterway between, the Old World and the New had a3 fellow-travellers a contingent of the world's chess masters en route for the international chess toxirney at Cambridge Springs. Of the contingent, he remarks : "The meal over, they all vanished out of sight, but ' the initiated knew that they were to be found! in the smoking cabin, where from morn till night they sat, caring nothing for the eternal sea or for its changeful mioods; caring nothing for converse with their fellow-passengers ; not interesting themselves in the very slightest degree in the mechanical marvels of the steamship to which they had-- entrusted themselves ; merely playing chess, chess; ecce iterum chess; chess ■without end!"

A match between F. J. Marshall, of Brooklyn, first prize winner in the great international chees tournament at Cambridge Springs, U.S.A., last year (in which Lasker, chess champion of the world, was also competing), and D. Janowski, of Paris, was recently played in Paris. Play began at .1.30, andt at 6.30 there was an ■adjournmen.-fc of two hours. Marshall selected the Queen's opening, and gave \vp a jawn. Early exchanges of queeu followed. Marshall regained his pawn, and when the game was adjourned Janowski's position was slightly to be> preferred. At 8.30 play was resumed For a long time Janowski tried to press his slight advantage to avoid a draw, but an incautious manoeuvre with the Black king after the 55th move gave Marshall a chance, 'which he followed! up vyith great ingenuity. He -won the game by opening his only remaining pawn, after midnight, and in 82 moves. On the >eve of his departure from New York to meet ML Janowski in Paris, the famous young chess master Marshall was married in romantic circumstances. A few months ago Marshall met Miss Carrie D. Krauss, the daughter of a retired merchant of Brooklyn, but none of his friends had suspected him of matrimonial intentions. On the evening before he sailed from America Marshall went for a walk with Miss Krauss, and propesed. He was accepted, and then suggested that they should be- married at cnCe. So eloquently did ha urge his suit that the lady at length consented. They proceeded to Marshall's hoane, accompanied by a clergyman, whom, they had met on the way, and 10 minutes before midnight the young couple were married in the presence of a few of Marshall's friends. There is said to have been a stormy scene afterwards with the bride's parents, but the young couple wers at length forgiven. Trunks were hurriedly packed, and Mt and! Mrs Marshall left within six hours In the Philadelphia. .Marshall intends to rnako a long tour in Europe, playing probably other matches with first-rank masters, before returning to America to take up the father tangled threads of his negotiations with Dr Lasker with regard to a contest for the world's championship. Marshall is iii his twentyeighth year. His bride 13 19. O. S. Bernstein', of Berlin, recently gave * wonderful exhibition of simultaneous play at Munich. Out of 68 games he won 52, lost 6, and drew s— in 6f hours.

No less than, six men were arrested afc Lyttelton on Saturday on charges _of drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and using obscene language,, \»