CHESS EXTRAORDINARY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2192, 29 March 1880, Page 3

CHESS EXTRAORDINARY.

At Presbnrg the following game was recently played : —A billiard table was the chess board, and the 64 squares were duly chalked out. Each of the pieces was represented by a bottle of wine. Champagne was the king, claret the queen, burgundy the bishops, port the castles, madeira the knights, and pint flasks of Hungarian wine the pawns. The one novel and original rule which governed the play was this : —Whenever a player took a “piece” he was to empty his own and the captured “piece ” at a draught. Unfortunately for the success of the experiment the chessmen were more than a match for the players, all four of whom ignominiously collapsed before the game was half finished. There is a limit, as experienced topers know, to drinking “no heeltaps,” and if this new fashion of playing chess is ever to become popular there will have to be fewer “ pieces.” If four players arc unable to consume 62 buttles of mixed wines between them without becoming nobly drunk, what hope is there for two players ? But, at any rate, no one can deny that this was a gallant attempt to relieve chess from the charge of slowness.