NEW ZEALAND PROBLEM COMPOSERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2785, 31 July 1907, Page 67

NEW ZEALAND PROBLEM COMPOSERS.

The London correspondent of this journal writes: —No. 10 of the notes about " Chess Problem Composers of New Zealand," now appearing in the Times, has for its subject Mr Thomas Kinsella, of whom Mr Alain C. White—the writer of these series, of notes — remarks: —" New Zealand has few composers to rival Thomas Kinsella. Almost a lightning composer, he frames bold ideas in striking settings. Long strokes of the White queen, notable threats 1, as in No. 95, model queen sacrifices as in Nos. 96 and 97, make up problems which are a pleasure to remember. I think the explanation is that Mr Konsella. is first and last a composer. Nowadays the ideala of the problem art are so far removed from the principles of good play that it is only chess enthusiasts of the most versatile minds who can combine both play and problems In. earlier papers of this series we saw players composing eocentricities, longrange problems, letter problems, one-idea stratagems, and the like—the natural thing to be expected; from players who have not wholly dissociated problems from their connotations of being puzzles, traps, brilliant strokes, end! games, or mere eccentricities. The whole history of the chess problem is its slow emancipation from the puzzle and the end gamej^its slow development into a work of art. In New Zealand we can see this very clearly when we compare the earliest composers to Mr Kinsella. We have now reached the fully-developed artistic stage, the balance of idea and construction, vitality and finish. Mr Kinsella is a young man, not yet 30. He has led the outdoor life in New Zealand, engaged in almost every kind of work, including farming. He has composed few problems, and those in seldom more than' half an hour. His problems have shown, a, steady dlevelopment in merit, so that he now racks as perhaps the composer of most promise in the colony."