CHESS ITEMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 67

CHESS ITEMS.

Scores in the midsummer handicap tournament at the Otago Chess Club up to date are as follow — D. Forsyth, 4 win 6, 1 draw, 2 losses; C. F. Dodds. 6-0-3; A. Ellis, 3-0-2; J. J. Marlow, 2-0-2; G. D. Wright, 4-0-1; H. Armstrong, 4-1-3; J. H. F. Hamel, 3-1-0; R. H Osten, 2-0-7; J. E. Hale, 3-1-5; and j S. S. Myers, 3-0-6. i The late Bang Oscar II of Sweden used to be an enthusiastic chess player. During the eighties he paid frequent visits to the j Stockholm chess clubs, and many of the old | members now speak with pride of having ' enjoyed the honour of playing games of chess j with his Majesty. | Problems have, not inaptly, been termed the " poetry of chess," and, judging from i the numerous competitions at Home and abroad, both for composers and solvers, it is evident that they have become an important branch of the royal game (says J. H. Blackburne, in the Strand Magazine). Without technicalities, a problem may be described as an arrangement of the pieces on the chess board to express or illustrate some deep and subtle strategy or brilliant idea. Ther,e should be but one key or first move to effect the desired mate — against the best defence — in the stipulated number of moves. A certain amount of difficulty ia, of course, necessary, but the chief attributes of a good problem are beauty of idea or theme and artistic construction. The position must be one that can be arrived at by a series of legitimate moves, as in ordinary play. There/ are among the votaries of the royal game many who believe that problems contain the very highest form of chess, and look upon them as works of art — as much a creation as a painting, poem, ctf musical composition. The mere player who has never experienced the magnetip attraction of problems cannot fully realise- the feeling of joy and satisfaction from solving some masterpiece, the work of a famous composer. There can be no doubt that solving problems, especially from diagrams, is an intellectual amusement, and) that the- study of problems tends to accuracy of analysis, quickens the perception, and j strengthens the .chess faculties generally, and I may occasionally impart some of those sparkling ideas which are so eadly needed in ordinary play, *

'Ji fish hawker named Henry Hoffman | was attempting to cross the railway line near Burwood Station, New South Wales, when he was knocked down by a passing train, and had both his hands cut off at fh© wrists. WOLFE'S SCHNAPPS