THE MAKING OF A GOOD DRAUGHTS PLAYER.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 15, 25 June 1920, Page 6

THE MAKING OF A GOOD DRAUGHTS PLAYER.

Patience, courage, courtesy, and selfreliance are essential qualifications to the successful pursuit of draughts. Patience to investigate calmly and accurately the consequences attending each move; courage to act with promptitude and decision, and to bear with eqyanimity the reverses sustained in Competition with a player of superior judgment; courtesy which implies forbearance to, and the recognition of equal rights and advantages for, an adversary ; and self-reliance which begets independent judgment — the first practical .step to mental culture and progress in this as in all other science. Even in negative features the game of draughts is entitled to our respectftd admiration.- Totally devoid of chance, its influences are repellent of the excesses which disfigure and militate against games in general. The abuse of intoxicatihg liquors cannot be associated with it, the indulgence in which being at all times preventive to its practical developmefit. Nor can the mi'schievous and alluring propensity of gambling be justly laid to its charge. In contests for the ch'ampionship, where the highest stakes are played for, the players, whatever be their success, are but illrequited for ihe labtiur involved and the time spent in bringing the match to a conclusion. Theirs is but the honourable ambition to excel in a mental. conflict. At this game the' ordinary and habitual gambler has no chance.- Truly "its intellectual grasp lies far beyond his comprehension. ' '■ — Hedley.