OBITUARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2818, 18 March 1908, Page 83

OBITUARY.

CHARLES WILLIAM BEXBOW.

J Mr C. W. Benbow, ex-manager at Welling- ' ton for the South British Insurance Company, whose death at the age of 66 was recorded in this column last week, developed into a brilliant chess player when quite a young man, which accounted for his being afterwards president of the Wellington Chess Club for nearly twenty years. The Dubuque Chess Journal for May, 1874, says: — "Mr Benbow's attention was first called: to chess by seeing a problem in the Illustrated London News during the fall of 1858. Being determined to know what it meant, he made inquiries about the game, and was informed that there was a very good book for beginners called ' Chess Made Easy,' edited by George Walker. Having immediately procured this book, he commenced its study with pleasure and profit, dwelling with much, delight on the four games between La Bourdonnais and M'Donnell, especially with the annotations given to every move. In May, 1859, occurred his first game by correspondence." Tlie game is given, and shows that Mr Benbow's opponent, Mr J. W. Witty, resigned after his twenty-fifth move. From this to the end of 1863, quoting from th© same source. "he continued the practice of the game, though only in a small degree, but then, from the pressure of business and other engagements, he was compelled to give it up, and with the exception of two correspondence games in 1865 he did nothing until April, 1867, when he says : — ' I felt an irresistible longing to enter the arena again and try my powers against "any athletes that might come my way. I did so with more ardour than ever, and trust that I shall not withdraw from the mimic battlefield till the last move of all is made.' In the year 1869 he carried off the honours in a tourney by correspondence in connection with the Young Men of Great Britain." Several of these games are given with notes by Lowenthal, all more or less complimentary of Mr Benbow's play. In 1871 the Birmingham Club, of which at that time Mr Benbow was a member;- was honoured by a visit from the celebrated French player, M. Eosenthal, who conducted four games simultaneously, winning three and losing one-^-that one being lost to Mr Benbow. This game is given in the chess journal referred to above, and the game is credited to Mr Benbow at the thirty-sixth move. "In I November of the same year Birmingham was visited by another star of the first magnitude — viz., Mr Blackburne. On the opening day he carried on simultaneouely tw-enty games, out of which number he won nineteen, losing one to friend Benbow. On the second day he went through the marvellous performance of playing ten games blindfolded. Mr Benbow on this occasion fell a victim to his prowess, though it seems as though he ought to have made a better ending with him. Up to the nineteenth move of this giame he played with great judgment." After giving a number of games all brilliantly won by Mr Benbow, the article closes with some three or four pages of his problems, the editor remarking that — " Besides his great talent for chess play over the board, Mr Benbow has a remarkable, talent for constructing chess problems." From the time of his arrival in Wellington in 1875 he was, perhaps, the prominent figure in New Zealand Chess. At th© funeral, which took place last Wednesday, Messrs F. B. Sharp and! C. W. Tanner (representing the New Zealand Chessi Association), Mr A. I. Littlejohn (Wellington Chess Olub), Mr R. J Barnes (Working Men's Chess Club),' and Mr F. K. Kelling (South Wellington Chess Club), among many others, attended and paid their last tributes of respect to the dead. M. I. TCHIGORIN. Home advices record the death at St. Petersburg of Michael Ivanovitch Tchigorin, the celebrated Russian master. M. Tchigorin was one of the most eminent of international players, and was born in the Russian capital in 1850. Early in life he learned chess in college from one of his professors, and gradually rose to be the first player of Russia, and its chief representative in international chess. For some time he held a Government appointment, but threw it up to devote himself entirely to professional chess. He contested two splendid matches with. Steinitz, in 1890 and 1892, but lost these. Drew with Gunsberg in match at Havana, 1890; also with Dr Tarrasch in match at St. Petersburg, 1893 ; and won many other matches. In the Quadrangular Tourney at St. Petersburg in 1896 he came out third. Of the players who took part in this only Dr E. Lasker now survives, the other three being the late Herr W Steinitz, Mr H. N. Pillsbury, and M. Tchigorin. M. Tchigorin beat Mr Steinitz in a match of two games by cable, and helped to win the correspondence mateh — St. Petersburg v. British Chess Clvb — for the Russian side. He had many successes in great international tourneys — one of the most notable being at Hastings in 1895, where he came in second to Pillsbury, and only half a point behind the American. At New York, in 1889, he tied with Max Weiss for the lop prizes. M. Tchigorin was a very brilliant player, with probably more of the old school characteristics about his play than the new. Though an impetuous Slav, he was one of the deepest chess idealists, regulated by a generally sound judgment in practice. His theory of the " openings " was of an original kind, and he did not follow beaten tracka. In Britain his games have always been highly prized, because of their sporting and bright character. The late master was well-known in England, but he never could speak English, though he conversed freely in other European languages. Few people, of course, could tackle him in Russian outside of his own country. Illness prevented him playing in the just concluded National Tourney at Lodz. The lamented death of M. Tchigorin deprives Russian chess of a striking personality &n& a great leader; but it is notable that many young stars, evidently of the first magnitude, are rising at present in the Tsar's Empire. Their names (unfortunately for Britons) are of the most unpronounceable and apparently cacophonous kind. i