DRAUGHTS ITEMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 67

DRAUGHTS ITEMS.

The Question of Originality. — In our ow\,, experience of nearly 20 years we have dis-'" covered many instances of deliberate endeavour on the part of someone to claim credit for a probL-em which belonged to somebody else, and beyond a doubt many more cases have never been discovered at ull. The great host of draughts columns published week by week throughout the Englishspeaking world renders the perpetration of a fraud comparatively easy, and, ac in other spheres of life, the means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done. Sometimes the attempt! . at plagiarism is ludicrous, while others*-, again, make one sad. On the other hand; however, there are instance? innumerable in which identical positions have been evolvedi without any shadow of suspicion attaching! to anyone. Still more numerous are the cases in which similarity of device is disclosed in otherwise dissimilar problems. In a recent issue we drew attention to a case in point in a footnote to Barker's problem, wherein we showed its likeness to Mr Boreham's problem of a few weeks back. Both. thes« problems have twe pieces a-side, of which we are reminded by the following not* in "a recent Norwich Mercury: — " Mr Robinson writes : ' I «up sorry to inform *yo-u thafl my two-to-two problem, No. 1014, which occurred on board the Sumatra (like No. 1015), is not now. It belongs by right of prior publication to Mr H. T. Smith, of London, and occurs in the ending of his Problem! 209, Reynolds' Newspaper. Isn't it disappointing? As you know, I take great interest in ' these two-to-two endings, and have a collection of abcut 300 of them. I was entering up No. 1014 only a few days ago, and made the discovery.' " "Second Double Corner!" — In the preface ' in his li<-t!e work on this opening Mr W. T. i. Call says.: — " R. D. Yates said' to Melvin i Brown that the easiest game to draw ist I the " Double Gcrnw.-" ... It is not the . pfey itself that is important; it is the situations occuring here and there, the landmarks of the play, that, count. In othen , words, the common player would not be mu'cla' j * benefited by committing all the play tr i> memory. Block can easily transpose move* and confuse the memory player. When once tlie important situations, the safe positions i that characterise the play, are mastered, the ' White pieces may be conducted from one> landing to another in spite of Black* .^ jugglery. If Black varies from the moves here assigned to him, except bj transposition! or playing for a draw, the supposition is tbafc the attack is thereby transferred to White, who should at once drop the defensive, and/ play to win." - " A Skilful Amateur." — A correspondent inquires (says the Norwich Journal) whether 1 it is true that the notorious Charles Bradkugh was an expert draughts player. Iff cou.d not be in any way said that he wart an expert; but this noted man of brain and brawn" was, in both work and recreation, one thing — gigantic. He played, ac he debated! in the House ot on the platform, with his wholp faculty. A close personal acquaintance of his says: — "He played poker with a fev^ friends for infinitesimal slakes -with higr" zeEt and glee. His che9S play stood very high in the House, and at draughts — the game of his soldiering days — he vras raielyj matched." Steinitz, the cbess champion, writing of Bradlaugh, alludes to his skill afe chess playing, and adds: — "He was alec* a skilful ama'ieur in other scientific games, and notably in checkers or draughts, as thati is called in England, in which he belonged^ to the rank of masters. At Puxcell's Coffe* Rooms, Cornhill, which was, the headquarters for such amusements, he wculd give » mam to the be?t players, including Blackburne. who. it is said, plays a verj good game of checkers." Apropos of the greet American contest^ which was to commence on November 2, th« following pithy anecdote is related on Drouillard: — "Pique, ambition, a rainy Sunday, and the gibes of a farmer's boy, indirectly brought about the gaeat match. Twenty T fiv« years ago Drouillard, then 16 years old. was » country echool teacher living at Independence. Kas. One Sunday he was maroonecl by rain in a farmhouse near his school. Ai farmer boy suggested a game of draughts, and the schoolmaster accepted, though unfamiliar with the game. The country boy. won easily. Then he called in » younger: brother. who likewise was victorious. 'Humph!' the elder boy exclaimed, 'it is funny a man can teach school who hasn'fi enough brains to play checkers!' The giber rankled. Drouillard then and there determined on revenge. At the Independence; courthouse there was a. checker board' thai? was an institution. It was called ' the county board.' All classes forgot their political grievances over its tesselated surface. Young! Drouillard edged in at the sessions as opportunity offered. In a feu weeks be was the superior of all the checker devotees. One day he drove to the home of the farmer boy, who had railed at him. He was not long inducing his host to play. The victory wasf signal. Drouilard won every game. 'I havet often thought that was the proudest moment of my ife,' be said afterwards in relating the incident."

A woman named Thalberg, who died in a Paris asylum, had, in .spite of all that Could bo dono to prevent her, ■worn her petticoat day and night since her admissiot* the institution a year ago. When the pfettlooat was examined it was found to contain £5000 in bank notes and. a cheque for £1000 sows into the lining.