ANSWERS CHESS. TO CORRESPONDENTS. CHESS EDITOR "TORONTO GLOBE."-Please send your paper only when it contains a Chess column, and note our right address. MONS. DE RIVIERE has announced that he will produce next month La Riviere, a French Illustrated Journal, devoted to games and sport. The Chess department will be in the hands of Herr Rosenthal. The New Dominion is a monthly journal published by Jno. Dougall & Son, Montreal. Trade agents, Dawson Bros., price 2 dollars per annum. The Chess Department is conducted by Mr. J. G. Ascher. WHIST. PEMBRIDGE.-A deals, and it is X's turn to lead. Instead of this Z leads. Z takes up his card, and the dealer takes up the trump, and calls a trump from X. X, not knowing what are trumps, leads a H which is not a trump, and he is told he must lead a trump and the Heart must be left on the table. X objects because A has taken up the trump card before it was his turn to play, and claims to punish A. Ans.-There is no penalty for taking up the trump card before the proper time. The dealer can be required to place the trump card on the table, and X should have protected himself by asking this to be done. He could also have asked what are trumps. He takes no precaution but plays carelessly. The Heart improperly led is an exposed card. Had not the attention of X been called to the fact that Hearts were not trumps, and the trick had been turned and quitted, he would have revoked. WHIST CURIOSITIES.-All the trumps are out, A has the lead, and he won every trick. How did he do it? A's hand: Diamond, Ace, Queen, Knave, 6, 5, 4, 3. X's hand: Diamond King, 2; Clubs, Ace, King, Queen, 10, 9. B's hand: Diamond, 7, 2; Clubs, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4. Z's hand: Diamond, 10, 9, Heart, Ace, Queen, 7, 6, 5. B. J. R. (New York).—We have written by post. Nos. 6 and 7, Vol. I sent. There are no collections of Piquet problems to our knowledge. There are examples in Bohn and in these Papers. We never heard that Mogul's problem was cooked, and we do not think it was. Send your solution. FOREST HILL.-A, having 3 by cards and 2 by honors, throws the remainder of the cards on the table. They call game, and deal. Objection that the claim of game is irregular. The honours should have been called.-Ans. The claim of game is sufficient. Cavendish decided this years ago, Case 2 in his book. This has always been followed, and is good law. S. E. A.—Buy J. C. (Harrison's) Professor Pole's work (Longman's) and Cavendish (De La Rue and Co.) Read them in order, but do not do too much at a time. Practise the precepts, but do not be discouraged because better players do not follow the Rules. SOUTH KENSINGTON.-You can only get what you want by forming a Social Club to meet at each other's houses. By the Great Western, you will find the Pembridge and Hereford, where play is for moderate stakes, at St. John's Wood a club opposite the " Eyre Arms." In nearly all the suburbs you will find similar institutions by inquiry. At many of the Working Men's Clubs, Whist is played for nothing. H. U. G. For the benefit of skilful players, the higher the points the better, provided the bets are not increased in proportion. Our experience is that bets are quite out of proportion to the points. REFORM CLUB.-What are the odds against a player holding four honours at Whist? Ans. Chance dealer turns up an 319 54145 Chance IT 1775°49' Chance that A has four honours is. Same for B and C. Chance that one of them has four honours is 18. Odds, 33 to 4132, or I to 125. J. D. B.-Law 41 says, if a player whilst dealing, looks at the trump card, his adversaries have a right to see it, and may exact a new deal. In our judgment whilst dealing means any time after the cut, and before the trump card is turned up. P.-If I cut the cards and my adversary rejoins the pack by putting them into exactly the same position as before I cut them, I do not see how that can be a misdeal, as suggested in your last No. Is it so, or is it a slip on your part ?-Ans. We do not think it is a slip. The dealer is dealing without having the cards cut, and his adversary detects the fact; see law 44, sub sec. 7. One of the easiest modes of cheating at Whist was done in this way. He The dealer knew the bottom card. might have known others, for aught we know, but instead of putting the pack furthest from him on to the top, he took the pack nearest to him and put it on the other pack, and the cards were not cut and the dealer knew the trump card, which it may be assumed, was usually an honour. G. G.-The best set of Whist laws ever issued was Cavendish's little sixpenny book of laws published by De la Rue and Co., but unfortunately they do not possess the authority of the code. R. H. S. U. S.-Much obliged for your courteous card. Very sorry we have no Aug. Nos. left. EDITOR "OTAGO WITNESS."-Thanks for notice. The price here is 6s. a volume. SECRETARY.-1, 3, 4, 6, good; 2, 5, 7, 8, we do not know. L.-Apply to the Secretary, Junior Portland, 40 Jermyn Street. Points 5s., bets £2, never less, you can always get more. For milder rubbers, Thatched House, Junior Athenæum. In most of the suburbs of London you will find private clubs at about 1s. points. Say locality and we may assist you. The lines on Whist, by an "Old Hand," which appeared in the first edition of our last No., taken from The Whitehall Review, were written by Professor Pole. and Published by him in his work on Whist years ago. We knew we had read the verses before, but forgot that they were in the Professor's work, or we should have given him the credit for his own work. The two last lines threw us off the scent. It would be satisfactory to Professor Pole to ascertain who the " Old Hand" is, and perhaps the Whitehall Review will inform us. L. B. (New Orleans).—You are labouring under some misconception. We never said anything of the sort. H. G. P. (Boston, U. S.).-Many thanks for letter and packet of the Gazette. We will bear your request in mind. See address at end of No. S. D.-Long Whist. Scores 8 and 9 respectively. Can players at 8 call honours in the usual way? or have players at 9 a right to bar the call and have the hand played out?-Ans. Players at 8 can call; the fact that the adversaries are 9 makes no difference, The Westminster Papers. 1st DECEMBER, 1878. THE CHESS WORLD. "The whisperings of our petty burgh." OUR last Issue contained a brief announcement of the death of Captain Kennedy, intelligence of the sad event having reached us as the number was being sent to press. For some years past his name has been more associated with the literature of Chess than with its practice, but thirty-five years ago he was among the foremost amateurs upon the stage of English Chess. He played with Popert in his prime, receiving the odds of Pawn and two moves, and yielded the odds of a Knight to the Old Master in decay; and was a competitor of Staunton, Walker, and all the leading players of a period that has been correctly described as the most brilliant era in the annals of English Chess. In the London tournament of 1851 he carried off the sixth prize, contending against such adversaries as Anderssen, Kieseritzky, Lowenthal, Staunton, Szen, Williams, and Wyvill, besides largely assisting in the organisation and management of the Congress. It is as a writer upon the subject of Chess, however, that he will be chiefly remembered. In that field he broke new ground; his anecdotes of the game were, for the most part, personal experiences, and therefore had none of the baldness so characteristic of a mere compiler, like Twiss, and he told a story or wrote one with all the raciness and easy dash of Harry Lorrequer. A few years ago some of his contributions to the literature of Chess were published in a collected form under the title of 'Waifs and Strays, chiefly from the Chess board," and the book contains two of his latest articles upon the subject of Chess, originally published in "THE WESTMINSTER PAPERS," "Buckle's Chess References," and "Albany Fonblanque as a Chess Player." His latest letter, in reference to Chess, appeared in the Illustrated London News, on the 20th July last. It may be interesting to note here, as illustrating Captain Kennedy's devotion to Chess, that he played a game with a member of his family on the 21st October last, and died somewhat suddenly on the 22nd of that month, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. At a meeting of the committee of the Bristol and Clifton Chess Association, the following resolution, proposed by Mr. W. Berry and seconded by the Rev. J. Greene, was carried unanimously :-"That this committee desires to record, with deep regret, the removal, by death, of one of its most distinguished honorary members, Captain H. A. Kennedy, who was the first President of this Club (when its meetings were held in the City) and who, by his liberality and great reputation as a first-class Chess-player was greatly instrumental in raising the name of the Bristol Club to its present high position amongst the Chess clubs of the country. That the Secretary be requested to enter this resolution in the Minute-Book of the Association." Among the incidents of the past month was a dinner, which, in the language of the promoters, was intended to "Celebrate the victory of Herr Zukertort at Paris last summer." There is no Chess player who would urge the slightest objection to any demonstration of respect for the skill displayed by Herr Zukertort on the occasion in question, but when we are asked to "Celebrate the victory" of that gentleman in London, we think the request as reasonable as inviting the French Ambassador to the Waterloo Banquet. There are, however, fifty Chess players in London, English and foreign, to whom this view of the case has either never presented itself or who are indifferent to its force, and accordingly about that number congregated at the Criterion Tavern on the 14th ultimo to celebrate the victory. The chair was occupied by Mr. Eccles, who, as a prelude to the principal toast, observed that all that he knew about the Paris Tourney was gleaned from the perusal of a paragraph recording its progress, while he was sojourning in Chicago, the paragrammatist of the occasion conveying to his mind the impression that the guest of the evening was out of the running. This exordium, although followed in proper course by a peroration of complimentary congratulations, seems to us to do scant justice to the subject. Herr Zukertort -although, probably from lack of leisure or opportunity, he has not yet displayed in public any of the qualities that constitute greatness in the other walks of life-is undoubtedly a great Chessplayer, and deserves higher praise as such than can be expressed by the commonplaces of post-prandial oratory. He deserves still higher praise for his literary work in Chess, and we observe with regret that this, the higher quality of his desert, was altogether ignored, no doubt inadvertently, by the chairman. Herr Zukertort replied to a speech somewhat barren of the suggestiveness so useful on such occasions, by relating the circumstances which heralded his visit to England, his defeating Anderssen being among the chief inducements to the adventure, and concluded by declaring his readiness to take up any gauntlet thrown down in his presence. Of the remaining toasts, the most notable, was that of "the Press," the gentleman who proposed it, and the gentleman who responded, creating some amusement from their singular and obviously unrehearsed efforts to drive a substantive-and-six through the English language The heroic phase of the evening came to a sudden end when, to the toast of the "Committee of Promoters," a gentleman responded by "owning up " that he had never contributed a solitary moment to the deliberations of the body he was chosen to represent, or had devoted the slightest attention to the arrangements for the feast. The meeting, although by no means representative of the English Chess world, was socially influential; but, permeating the proceedings, there was a settled gloom depressing in the extreme, and there was little sound of "revelry by night " to rival the noisy echoes of Coventry Street. We are indebted to the honorary secretaries of the Metropolitan and Suburban Chess Clubs who have complied with the desire we expressed last month for reports of the matches in which their respective associations have been engaged. The Athenæum (Camden Road), has played six of the twenty matches arranged for the season winning against the Excelsior, Eclectic, and St. James' Clubs, drawing with the Ibis, and losing a match each to the Railway Clearing House and North London. In the last-mentioned match the following are the names of the players and the score : Besides this victory the North London scored a rather hollow one against the Ludgate Club, winning all the games (four) that were completed in the evening's play. The Hackney Chess Club opened the match season on the 11th ultimo by receiving the members of the Kentish Town Club at their rooms and handsomely beating them with the score of four games to one and three Hackney was represented by Messrs. Physick, Grady, Yarnold, Hunt, Bush, Parkins, Rendell, and King; and Kentish Town by Messrs. F. Hoon, Provost C. R. Hoon, Scott, Thies, Cooper, Brorable, and Foreman. Kentish Town must put a little "Kentish fire" into their play on the occasion of the next encounter with Hackney. The Clubs of Bermondsey and the Railway Clearing House met at the rooms of the former on the 4th ultimo. Eleven players on each side engaged in the play that ensued, which resulted in Bermondsey winning six games, losing three and drawing two. Appended is the score and the names of the players :— WON. CLEARING H. Mr. Dawkins I I I Mr. Holeman, A. о Barker WON DRAWN O I O O I 3 The combatants in the City of London Handicap have not been idle during the past month. Upwards of sixty games have been played or otherwise disposed of, and the victors in the First Round, up to the date of the latest intelligence, were Messrs. Andrade, Bussy, Clark, Eschwege, Israel, MacDonnell, Pfahl, Roberts, Gordon, Smith, Stiebel, Black, Atkinson, Potter, Vyse, Bird, Adamson, Botterill, Keates, Heywood, Sandifer and Stevens. These gentlemen therefore will go into Division A as competitors for the first and second prizes. Their opponents will, as losers, form part of Division B, to which the third and fourth prizes have been assigned, and these are their names:-Messrs. George, Bentley, H. F. Down, Manning, Pizzi, Daniels, Beardsell, M. Down, Earl, Gastineau, R. Green, Lovelock, Moon, Staniforth, Templeton, Tripp, and Whalley. To these are to be added Messrs. Duffy, Huckvale, Humphries, and Eariee, who, through having other engagements, forfeited their games. The other competitors, whose names will be found in the list published by us last month, have also been playing, but remained suspended between the two above-mentioned divisions. By the time this number appears most of them will have been decked with preliminary wreaths of laurel or otherwise. We may observe that there is some tribulation in Division B on account of the unlooked-for descent of Mr. Beardsell in their midst. The other aspirants for the third prize have been heard to mutter that the archway leading into Bermondsey Street is very dark at night; but what may be the meaning of a statement apparently so irrelevant we would rather not attempt to conjecture. On the 9th ulto. Mr. Blackburne played eight blindfold games at the Manchester Chess Club. He had scarcely his customary success, for at the close two of his opponents were observed to be slightly taller than usual, while a third, looking not at these but at five others, wore an air of compassionate satisfaction. However, Mr. Blackburne was amongst his own people, and probably he cared more for Chess of the happy-go-quick style than to be very overwhelming. Moreover, to win five games out of eight is a respectable achievement after all. The two victorious heroes of the occasion were Messrs. Agar and H. Jones. It was Mr. Boyer who drew, while Messrs. Fish, Wilson, Glass, Duerden, and Dr. Hewitt were the five losers. We understand that Mr. Blackburne proposes to return to London soon, so that if any of the metropolitan Clubs think that they can do as well or better than the Cottonopolitans, they will have an opportunity of trying that issue. On the 23rd of October there was a match between the Kentish Town and Ibis Chess Clubs, at the rooms of the latter in Ludgate Hill. Victory was to the invaders by 6 games to 3. Their representatives were Messrs. Barter, Yarnold, Bush, Hunt, and Parkin. The Ibis players were Messrs. J. Schooling, F. Schooling, Williams, Herbert, and Rowbotham. On the 26th October the Eclectic gave battle to the Athenæum at Canonbury Tower. How many fought on either side, and who they were, we do not know, and therefore cannot say; but we place on record the fact of the Athenæum being successful by a majority of three games. The Holloway Press attributes the defeat of the Canonbury Club to the absence of Mr. Hoon, one of its strongest members. Another battle took place on the 26th October-viz., between the Greenwich and Excelsior Clubs, with seven players aside. The former were represented by Messrs. Forrest, Fewing, Huntley, Pettit, Smith, sen., Banks, and Smith, jun.; the latter by Messrs. Wilson, V. C. Peyer, Kindell, McLeod, Holmes, Gortley, and Colegrave. Victory declared for the Greenwich Club by a majority of two games. On the 30th October there was a fight, with five combatants on each side, between the Ibis and Excelsior Clubs. The former was victorious by seven games. Its champions were Messrs. J. Schooling, F. Schooling, Herbert, Williams, and Rowbotham. Their opponents were Messrs. Wilson, Keene, Bott, Keable, and Kiddle. The contest took place at the rooms of the Ibis at Ludgate Hill. On the 4th ultimo there was a contest, at Ludgate Hill, between the Ibis and Athenæum Clubs, the former being represented by Messrs. J. Schooling, F. Schooling, Hooper, Herbert, Williams, and Rowbotham; the latter by Messrs. Griffiths, Hagen, T. Smith, Swainson, Foster, and Thompson. A drawn battle was the result, each side scoring four games with two draws. On the 5th ult. the second team of the Kentish Town Club played the St. George's Chess Club at Barnsbury. The latter were successful by six to four, with two draws. Their representatives were Messrs. Hodson, Fellgate, Laws, Smith, Wade, Cashmore, and Potter. The Kentish Town players were Messrs. Pile, Hunt, Parkin, King, Rendell, Spiess, and Fowler. On the 7th the Shaftesbury and the Railway Clearing House had a bout at the Bedford Institute, but were unable to make much impression on each other, for the score showed five all. On the 9th the Athenæum and the St. James's played at Camden Road, victory deciding in favour of the former by seven games to four, with one draw. The Fifth Class of the City of London Club met their old friendly enemies of the Eclectic on the 13th, with results satisfactory to the former, who won four games to two, with five draws. The successful team consisted of Messrs. Daniels, Bentley, Templeton, Earl, Heppel, Sandifer, and Milson. The Canonbury players were Messrs. Hodge, Gibbs, H. Schmidt, E. Schmidt, Vane, Poley, and Palmer. On the 13th, Messrs. Knight, Tarrant, Hill, Kindell, Hoare, Linton, Woollett, Taylor, and Tuckfield, went as representatives of the Railway Clearing House, to the Athenæum in Camden Road, Holloway, and there found anxiously awaiting them Dr. Batt and Messre. Baxter, Griffiths, Spicer, Swainson, Smith, Thompson, Marriage, and Foster. Victory declared for the Clearing House by nine games to three, with one draw. This was rather a severe defeat for the Athænum to sostain. The 13th was quite a day of battles, for we have another to record of that date, which was fought at Camberwell Hall, between the Shaftesbury and Excelsior, the former winning with two games ahead. A very interesting match took place on the 19th, between the College and Peckham Mutual Chess Clubs. Mrs. and the Misses Down were in bad form on this occasion, and they managed to lose between them five games, which was awkward for the College. However, the gentlemen members were more fortunate, and the result was a neck and neck contest with the result that near ten o'clock each side had scored seven games, and by that time all had been played except one. This was exciting enough in itself, but extra piquancy was added by the fact that the two combatants upon whom the result of the match depended were Mr. Woodward, the Secretary of the Peckham Mutuals and Miss Rymer a very young lady, so young in fact that if it be not rude to express an opinion, she will not be out of her teens for three or four years yet. Round this board all the spectators, including the other players, clustered, and if we had to announce that Miss Rymer, frightened by so many coats and eyes, placed her pieces one after the other en prise no one would be surprised. As a matter of fact, she did nothing of the kind, but went bravely on and won the game, so that the College was victorious by 8 games to 7; of course the figures would have been reversed, had that game been lost, therefore the Collegians have some reason to be grateful to their skilful championess. We have the following further contests to record, viz:-one between the North London and Athenæum Clubs on the 20th, won by the former, who scored 9 games to 2; another between the Railway Clearing House and Excelsior on the 21st, which is to be credited to the former, whose score was 5 to 3, with one draw; also a drawn match played by the Excelsior against the Eclectic on the 6th ult. side. There was an encounter on the 26th ult. between the College and Excelsior Clubs, with ten players on each As the subjoined score will show the Collegians were beaten by ten games to six, with two draws. As will be seen, Miss F. Down distinguished herself by winning both her games. The match was played at the Ladies College, Little Queen Street, Holborn. Croydon Chess Club is now firmly established, with a roll of members A circular has been issued by Mr. Marks, the Secretary to the Royal Aquarium Society, proposing to establish a Chess Club in connection with the Aquarium. The annual subscription is fixed at two guineas, with an entrance fee of half-a-guinea, the payment of which sums entitles members of the Chess Club to admission to the Royal Aquarium and to the Billiard and Reading Rooms. We should be glad to see a well-managed Chess Club established at the West End of London, and hope to hear that Mr. Marks' enterprise has been rewarded with success. |