Death of Mr A. F. Mackenzie.

Otago Witness, Volume 23, Issue 2684, 23 August 1905, Page 62

Death of Mr A. F. Mackenzie.

From fai-off 'Jamaica comes news of the dieath there of Mr A. P. Mackenzie, the world's greatest problem composer, who departed this life on June 23. The tidings of Mr Mackenzie's demise will be received with g-enuine regret by solvers of chess problems the woivld over, who have foand in his' compositions subtlety of deep beauty and rare desig*. The deceased problemist's career was remarkable from the fact that early in 1896 he had the misfortune to lose his sight, and his productions were purely the creations of an active a,nd vivid imagination. His success in evolving from his brain problem after problem has 'been pronounced "wonderful and without parallel in the history of chess." The deceased's most notable sans voir successes were in tournaments open to the world and partipicated in by the bast and brightest intellects the chess world could produce. The deceased, although totally blind, edited with conspicuous ability a chess column in the Jamaica Leader. He is known to the chess world also as an aiithor, and those fortunate enough to possess his work on "Chess': Its Poetry and Its Prose," have a col'ection of gems of purest ray serene in the problem art. Quite recently deceased was engaged in publishing a sequel volume to ba entitled "Chess Lyrics." Up to the time iof his death, Mr Mackenzie was in constant correspondence with chess players in all parts of the world, and this and his che&s work generally brought much pleasure into a life which would otherwise have been a very weary and sad one.