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NOTICE.

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The Westminster Papers.

2nd JUNE 1873.

MR. BUCKLE, AS
AS A
A CHESS PLAYER.

In a recent perusal of Mr. Buckle's Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works, I looked, with some curiosity, for any notice of his career as a Chess player, but found the information on this head of a very scanty description. There is a short biographical memoir prefixed to the work, in which a few memoranda of Mr. Buckle's personal character and habits are introduced by a friend of his, Miss Shirreff, who writes:-" But the first thing in which he manifested real power was Chess, and that to so remarkable a degree that before he was twenty he had made a name in Europe by his playing. Through life it remained a great source of pleasure to him, and an afternoon devoted to it from time to time was the form of holiday he most often allowed himself." Miss Shirreff again tells us that :-"From the time he began to write, he never allowed himself to play a match at Chess. One that he had played against the famous Lowenthal, and in which he won four games out of seven, took more out of him, he said, than he would give to any such frivolous triumph again." This statement is not quite correct. The match with Herr Lowenthal referred to was played in 1851, when Mr. Buckle was in the full tide of literary composition. Nor was it the only Chess match he undertook when he was vigorously toiling at the work which was subsequently to make him celebrated. There was a Chess Tournament at Ries' Divan in 1849, in which he contended, and carried off the first prize, vanquishing Messrs. E. Williams, M. J. W. Tuckett, and J. R. Medley in three successive matches. The Chess Players Chronicle, by the way, in a preliminary notice of this Tourney, Vol. X. 65, 66, asserts that it was "not conducted by players of the highest class." The propounder of this singular dictum then gives a list of the combatants, which besides that of Mr. Buckle, includes the names of Messrs. Williams, G. W. Medley, and Tuckett, to whom few, I imagine, would not then have conceded a front rank place in Chess; and if Mr. Buckle was not a player of the highest class, I should be glad to know who in England could pretend to that designation? Miss Shirreff however is right in saying that he avoided match play as a rule, on account of the injurious consequences of the severe mental strain and bodily endurance which it involves, must needs have entailed on a constitution never robust, at a time when the intellectual powers were kept on the full stretch in another direction.

Mr. Buckle, by almost unanimous consent of his contemporaries, was allowed to be a consummate master of Chesscraft; but it is certain that, for some reason or other, his best play did not always find its way into print. His published games therefore, although many of them are of a high order of merit, taken as a whole do not, in my opinion, sustain the great reputation he had acquired, and undoubtedly merited. Nature had gifted him with a superlative aptitude for the game of Chess, and he brought the powers of a rare intellect -clear, penetrating and sagacious beyond that of most men-to bear upon it. His imagination was that of the poet "all compact," but subservient to the dictates of a logical judgment. His combinations accordingly, under such guidance, seldom, if ever, exhibited a flaw, and were characterised by exactitude of calculation and brilliant device. He excelled in Pawn play, which he conducted with an ingenuity and deadly accuracy worthy of the renowned Pawn general, Szen. He gave large odds, such as Rook and Knight, with wonderful skill and success, appearing to have a sort of intuitive knowledge of a strange opponent's Chess idiosyncrasy, which enabled him precisely to gauge the kind of risks he might venture to run. The rendering of heavy odds, as every experienced Chess player knows, necessitates hazardous and unsound play on the part of the giver. These contests of his at odds were always full of interest and entertainment to lookers on, and a gallery two or three deep often surrounded his board in the Strand Divan, where it was for years his "custom in the afternoon" to recreate himself with his favourite game. I have occasionally seen roars of laughter elicited from the spectators by the chapfallen aspect of some poor discomfited Rook player, who, with much care and solicitude, having obtained, as he fondly believed, an impregnable position, had suddenly found his defences scattered

like chaff, and himself accommodated with a mate, after the sacrifice, by his keen witted opponent, of two or three pieces in succession.

Whether winning or losing Mr. Buckle was a courteous and pleasant adversary, and sat quietly before the board, smoking his cigar, and pursuing his game with inflexible steadiness. He was sometimes harassed when at play by a nervous hiccough, which he would endeavour to suppress by humming some little air. He had no love for music however, but rather an aversion to it, which he did not affect to conceal, being the only fine Chess player I have known who was "not moved by concord of sweet sounds." Fearing, probably, that the cultivation of Chess might interfere with more important pursuits, for very many years before his death he avoided the studying of printed games, trying over positions, and making himself conversant with improvements and new variations in the openings. In his later published games, consequently, he almost invariably opens with the safe Giuoco Piano when he has the move, adopting an irregular debût as second player. It is so in his match with Herr Lowenthal. He systematically, in short, used Chess simply as a délassement from graver mental labour. At one time I have reason to think that he did not even possess a Chess-board. I had been dining with him at his house, in Oxford Terrace, and asked him, after dinner, to look at a position in some game which interested me. After searching awhile, to my surprise and amusement, he produced an ancient little backgammon-board, on which we set up a tall, shaky family of red and white bone Chess-men, much too large for the board. He took an interest in Chess literature, as he did in literature of every kind. His voluminous common-place books contain a large number of references to works in which Chess and Chess-players are mentioned. The following extract from a letter, taken from the memoir before alluded to, shows how strictly he forced himself to abstain from a pastime that yielded him so much enjoyment. No doubt on this occasion he went to his old resort, the Divan, to take his fill of Chess, and seems to have rushed off to his beloved game with the glee of a boy escaping from school to engage in a football match:-"19th Jan. 1857.--Being somewhat deranged, if not altogether mad, at finding I had time to spare, I went out in the afternoon to enjoy myself, which I accomplished by playing Chess for seven hours, and difficult games too. I have not been so luxurious for four or five years, and feel all the better for it to-day."

Miss Shirreff remarks of the subject of this brief notice, that, at the time of his father's death, his whole acquirements consisted of little more than reading and writing English, and playing Chess. The latter part of this statement is accurate, but my experience of Mr. Buckle is not in accordance with the former portion of it. I first knew him in June 1841, when he was nineteen years old, having lost his father a few months previously I think. He then played Chess exceedingly well, so strongly indeed that I much doubt if the play of his maturity was anything in advance of that of his juvenile days. I remember, in that early time of our acquaintance, being struck by the bold originality and grasp of thought, the variety and extent of general knowledge possessed by the pale, delicate-looking stripling, who might have passed for a year or two younger than he really was. He was an omnivorous reader, no book of any kind seeming to come amiss to him; and he had the power, accorded to few, of plucking out as it were the heart of a book by doing little more than turning over the pages, with here and there an occasional halt. I remember his borrowing of me, Burder's Oriental Literature, a two volume octavo, of anything but light reading. He brought it back next day, whereon I remarked that I supposed it did not interest him? He said he had read it, and began to expatiate on its contents in a way which satisfied me that he at any rate knew more about them than I did. His memory was peculiarly retentive, and kept fast hold of everything which had been once stamped on it in the course of reading or study. I was on one occasion in company with him when the subject of telling dramatic points was started by some one, who cited as an instance the scene in the Horace of Corneille, in which the father of Horace is lamenting the disgrace brought on him by his son, whom he erroneously supposed to have fled the field after the death of his two brothers in the combat with the Curiaces. Julie asks: Que vouliezvous qu'il fit contre trois?" and the old man passionately exclaims, "Qu'il mourût !" Mr. Buckle agreed that this was very fine, and immediately recited to us the whole scene, from its commencement, giving the dialogue with much spirit and effect.

66

At the period of which I am now writing I resided in Brighton, and Mr. Buckle frequently came down there to spend a week or a fortnight, when he would partially relax from work, and indulge himself with Chess, either at my house, or at the Club. We had Whist there of an evening, a game in which he excelled, and took great pleasure in saying that he thought he played it better than he did Chess. I had then the honour to be President of the Brighton Chess Club, a fraternity of as genial a set of Chess men as heart could desire to know. Many of those good fellows-most of them I fear-have Queened their last Pawns, and gone to the undiscovered country. We shall all follow, cousin, that is certain, whether we be first rates, or lowly recipients of the Queen. "At the end of the game," says the old Tuscan Chess proverb, "the King and the Pawn both go into the bag."

Mr. Buckle's Chess renown, brilliant as it was, paled before the distinction he acquired after the publication of the two opening volumes of his work on Civilisation, which placed him at once in the full blaze of public celebrity. Their composition, to my knowledge, had occupied his time and attention for at least fifteen years, and the completion of the book was the cherished hope of his life. Dis aliter visum. That hope, as we

know, was not destined to be realised; and there is, to my mind, something infinitely touching in the words of bitter regret which were faltered out with his dying breath, "My book, my book, I shall never finish my book." Enough however had been accomplished to show what it would have been had the author survived to complete it, and the magnificent fragment will hand down to the future the name of Henry Thomas Buckle as an eloquent, graceful, and powerful writer, as well as one of the most original and profound thinkers of the age in which he lived.

J. U. S. CLUB.

H.A. K.

THE CHESS WORLD.

"The whisperings of our petty burgh."

A consultation game between Messrs. Bird and Boden on the one side, and Messrs. Campbell and Healey on the other, was played at the rooms of the City Club, on the 9th ult., and was won by the first named players. Mr. Campbell's return to the Chess arena is an important incident of the past month, and although his play on the occasion referred to displayed some of the natural consequences of prolonged disuse, the game was finely contested, and proved that he and Mr. Healey are a formidable pair of adversaries in consultation matches. A statement of our contemporary, Land and Water, that these gentleman were selected by the City Club to inaugurate a series of "games of this description," raises a very nice question as to the comparative merits of the man who makes history and the man who merely writes it. Without discussing the point, we hasten to acknowledge the immeasurable superiority of one who from his unaided inner consciousness contrives to do both.

On the 7th ult., Mr. Blackburne gave his annual exhibition of Blindfold Chess at the City Club, playing simultaneously ten players of more than ordinary skill. The play, which extended over two evenings, resulted in the blindfold player winning six games, drawing three, and losing one,--the latter to Mr. Thomson.

The match between Messrs. Bird and Wisker has been brought to a sudden conclusion by the resignation of Mr. Wisker, through ill health. There can be little doubt that serious Chess matches are incompatible with proper attention to the duties of an arduous profession, and that Mr. Wisker had overstrained his powers in the effort to perform this impossible feat became evident in the later stages of the second match. We should not omit however to render due honour to Mr. Bird, who, throughout both of the matches, displayed all those high qualities for which he has long been famous in the World of Chess. The score at the time of Mr. Wisker's resignation stood-Mr. Bird 6, Mr. Wisker 4; drawn games 2.

The School Magazines of the Huddersfield College and of Rathmines contain the usual Chess articles, and should be in the hands of every schoolboy.

A match for the championship of the Glasgow Chess Club, between Messrs. Grant and Jenkins, resulted in favour of Mr. Jenkins, who scored five games to his opponent's three.

The Handicap Tournament of the Huddersfield Chess Club has just terminated in the victory of Mr. Watkinson (Chess Editor of the Huddersfield College Magazine), who stood alone in the first class. The winner's score was six won, and three lost.

Messrs. James and W. T. Pierce, Problem composers of known merit, are about to publish a collection of their Problems, 300 in number, and we cordially recommend the work to the attention of all lovers of Froblems. Intending subscribers should send their names and addresses to Mr. James Pierce, Copthill House, Bedford. We give in the margin a Problem from the forthcoming work.

The Chess players of the Café de la Regence have sustained a severe loss in the death of M. Chamouillet, in the 90th year of his age. The deceased veteran was a contemporary of Labourdonnais and Mouret, and his Chess career was chiefly remarkable for his unvarying method of opening the game. When he was first player he opened with P to Q 4, and in the defence he invariably played P to K 3.

查

BLACK.

•100

401

WHITE.

401

White toplay and mate in five moves.

La Stratégie has, this month, an article from the pen of Signor Centurini upon the evergreen subject of the Labourdonnais-Macdonnell games.

Sissa, de Schaakspeler, appears this month in an improved form, and is, as usual, full of interesting matter.

A correspondent at Delft has favoured us with another “Chessikin,” as Captain Kennedy has happily named those brief and brilliant little encounters. We give it in the margin.

WHITE.

Miss Jane "Nepos."
IP to K 4

2 B to QB 4
3 Kt to KB 3
4 P to Q Kt 4
Castles

5

6 Kt to K Kt 5
7 P to Q 4
8 B to QR3
9 B mates

BLACK.
Her Cousin.

IP to K 4
2 B to QB 4
3 Kt to QB 3
4 B takes P
5 Kt to K B3
6 B to QB 4
7 B takes P

8 B takes R

The Chess Congress at Vienna, in connection with the Art and Industrial Exhibitions, is to assemble during the first week in July. All the arrangements for the gathering have been placed in the hands of Herr Kolisch, who has, we understand, invited Mr. Paul Morphy to take part in the Grand Tournament. Should Mr. Morphy be persuaded to enter the lists once more, against his old adversary, Anderssen, and the newer school of players, comprising Kolisch, Steinitz and Zukertort, our "petty burgh" may indeed look forward to witnessing a battle of giants.

The first number of the Chess Record has reached us. It is issued in the sheet form, containing four pages, somewhat similar to the London Echo. We congratulate Mr. Reichelm, the distinguished editor, upon the style and contents of the first number of his attractive little journal.

The Dubuque Journal contains, this month, excellent photographs of Herr and Madame Van der Linde, as well as the usual number of games and problems. The earnest work and sincere interest for the advancement of the game, which is so conspicuous a feature in the conduct of this magazine, deserves the warmest support of every Chess player.

From the New York Clipper we learn that a weekly Chess column has been commenced in the Brooklyn Prospect. The Review of Kling's Euclid, in the Clipper, is brought down to the end of the three move problems.

The capital Chess column in the Hartford Times is as interesting and amusing as ever. Good problems and games, and the editor's unfailing wit and humour, in his chat with his correspondents, make an excellent bill of fare for all English reading Chess players.

The proprietors of the Leader and the Australasian (Melbourne) have each presented five guineas towards. the purchase of a Challenge Cup, and the Melbourne Club has, through its Committee, voted a similar sum for the same object. The cup is to be played for under conditions to be prepared by a Committee of Melbourne players, comprising Messrs. Burns, Phillips, Sedgefield and Stephen.

Some idea of the energetic action of the Australian Chess players, to which we have frequently directed attention, may be gathered from the Secretary's report read at the annual meeting of the New South Wales Chess Association, held at Sydney on the 1st March last. In the course of the past year the Sydney players have established a new Chess Club, which now numbers between thirty and forty members, played three intercolonial matches by telegraph, and nearly concluded a local tournament for a handsome silver cup, valued at ten guineas. We want a little of this active spirit at home.

CLASSIFICATION OF PROBLEMS.

To the Editor of the WESTMINSTER PAPERS.

SIR,-In meditating on the possibility of classifying quality of play in Chess Problems I have arrived at the following result, which I submit, for what it is worth, in as concise a form as possible.

All Chess moves have one common property-the displacement of a piece or Pawn; i.e., every move changes the position of one piece.

Every Chess move has also a special property.

It may be

1. A waiting move-the well-known coup de repos.

2. A forced move--to avoid checkmate or stalemate.