CHESS ITEMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 11 March 1908, Page 67

CHESS ITEMS.

Mr J. A. Connell, president of the Wairoa, Chess Club, -will be> c competitor in the contest at Easter for the chess championship of New Zealand. Chess-players throughout the Dominion will learn with. regret of the serious illness of Mr C. W. Benbow, who has been president of the Wellington Chess Club ever since 1876, and is also a vice-president of the New Zealand Chess Association. Mr Benbow is suffering from an aggressive attack of diabetes, and at the time of writing little hope is entertained of his recovery, the three doctors in attendance having given him' up. An esteemed Wellington correspondent writes that the unfortunate gentleman is quite resigned to his fate. Many chess-players will remember Mr Benbow as chess editor of the New Zealand Mail when that now defunct ■weekly journal was in its palmiest days. He was also a problem composer of moro than average ability, his special line being the composition of problems of four moves and upw.ards. Mr Benbow ever took a. lively and active interest in chess," end to his personal enthusiasm is largely due the vitality of the game in Wellington to-day. [Mr Benbow died on Monday morning. —Ch. Ed. O.W."] PER ENGLISH MAIL. Upwards of 400 competitors are participating in the problem solution tourney of London Opinion. The Berlin Chess Society is evidently one of the oldest chees institutions. The East London Observer states that the society is just about to celebrate its eightieth year of existence by the holding of a National Masters' Tournament. Among the competitors will be Leouhardt, Teichmann, Scheve, and Cohn. " Chees Reminiscences," by the late_ Thos. Winter-Wood, ac given in the Birmingham News, states that " Napoleon Bonaparte was a chess-player, but as such he never rose to the level of a skiilod strategist." Mr WinterWood writes that " he won games, but more because he was Napoleon than because- he played well." A well-known chess-player, who went to Brighton for a change of air. fell in love with a girl, and' whilst courting her he unintentionally trod on her toe and injured it so much that amputation was necessary. Although (says a Home exchange) he paid the doctor's bill, gave her a. specially-made boot for four toes instead of five, a set of chessmen, and a copy of " Chess for Beginners," she resolutely refused to have anything more to do with him! Pon6by left the bishop at the church function, and agreed to call for him at midnight, on his way home from* the church club. At the club Ponsby had an exciting game of chess, and forgot all about his engagement. When he got horn© at 12.30 a.m. his wife met him in the reception hall with the query. "John, where did you leave the bishop?" " The bishop, my love," said the absentminded husband. " I lost him on the fifteenth move, and the game on the fiftyfourth." In his series of articles on problem composers, Alain C. White tells that Antonio G. Corrias is of Spanish descent, a goldsmith by profession, and. was born in 1872. He learnt chess in 1888, and as a problem composer has won between 35 and 40 tourney honours. This composer promises to shortly publish 800 of his best productions in book form. The introduction to the book is to be written in Italian, English, and French. The secretary of the City of London Club has succeeded in making provisional arrangements with the cable company for the use of the wires to plaj- the cable match between England and America on two days about the end of March or early in April. The Newnes trophy can only be gained outright by America after three fresh successive victories. Last match was won by the English tears, so that two more English victories •would secure the permanent possession of the trophy on this side of the Atlantic. In his brochure, "Notes on Two-move Chess Problems," P. H. Williams jvrites that " problem solution, is undoubtedly the offspring of chess, but now of so vigorous a constitution that its players have long ago declared' for self-government, anct the right to make special laws and regulations without reference to the venerable and respectedl parent. . . . The great charm of problem study is its adaptability to wile away the hours of eolxtucle in & ple-asing; £in.cL instructive manner . . . and those who stand outside the threshold of th« problem arena know not what thej; mum' 1