"TEEMS AND THEMES OF CHESS PROBLEMS."

Otago Witness, Issue 2805, 18 December 1907, Page 67

"TEEMS AND THEMES OF CHESS PROBLEMS."

By S. S. Blackburne, Christchurch, N.Z. London: George Rout ledge and Sons (Limited). This daintily bound volume, which arrived by the last English mail, came as a pleasant surprise to one who has recollections of the modest pretensions of the same author's little brochure on " Problem Teims and Characteristics." Mt Blackburne, who, as is wellknown, was for many years chess editor of the Canterbury Times, has fairly excelled himself in the present book. It was known throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand that the author had a wealth of problem lore sfored up in his brain, but few had any idea that he would evolve from-his inner knowledge and experience a work of so ambitious a character, one, moreover, that will without doubt stand the test of time, and serve to reveal to the minds of generations to come the subtle and fascinating beauty of idea that lies hidden deep in the heart of an. intricate chess problem. The volume is adorned by a preface written expressly for the author by the late lamented A. F. Mackenzie, the noted problemist of Jamaica, who had a just conception of the intrinsic merits of the author's work when he wrote: "There will be no turning back when the explorer has within easy reach a handy guide-book such as this, which unfolds, with lucid terseness, ©very outlying intricacy, takes him on the path that leads to those scenes of boundless beauty and that world of wealth which are within. The charms will soon begin to make themselves manifest, and if he have the chessic soul, he wil] be driven towards them by an irresistible fascination." The volume will prove doubly attractive to chess players of this fair Dominion by reason of the tact that Mr Blackburne has laid under liberal > contribution the problems of several New Zealand composers, notably those of Messrs T. Sexton, P. A. L. Kuskop, W. S. King and R. J. Barnes-yto say nothing of the author's own compositions. The utility of the ■ work, however, lies in its unquestionably able exposition of everything appertaining to the problem art. The chess player who plays a good game, but summarily dismisses problems with the curt remark: "Oh, they are too deep for me," will have in the book under notice not only a clear and lucid explanation of how solutions to problems are to be arrived at, but he will also imbue- a very fair idea of the synthetical construction of problems. Mr Blackburne has skimmed the cream of the world's problem talent and spread it thickly throughout the pages of his book. The volume is one which every chess player should possess, and we have no hesitation wHwtever in commending it to players throughput the Commonwealth of Australia and Dominion of New Zealand.