Chess History And Reminiscences
matches and tournaments. We can only adduce a few instances which
are more within the writer's personal knowledge.
The statement about 5. Q to K2, in the Buy Lopez, on page 16,
is much confused. The move was adopted by Mr. Blackburne in
the final tie match of the Vienna tournament, but it never occurred
in the first game of the Steinitz-Blackburne match, as Mr. Bird can
convince himself from his own book, where the latter game is
published in full on page 171. Steinitz is also erroneously credited
with strongly favouring the attack in the Scotch Gambit, for we do
not remember a single game on record in which he ever adopted that
form of opening as first player. On the other hand, a variation in
the Evans Gambit is ascribed to Zukertort, which actually occurred
first in a game between Steinitz and Blackburne, played in the
London Grand Tournament of 1872. This error seems to have been
quoted from Staunton and Wormald's "Chess Theory and Practice."
A few more words about the problems at the end of the book and
we have done with the details. There are about a dozen compositions
mostly by high-class American authors, and some of them of very
good quality; but, unfortunately, Mr. Bird has omitted to indicate
their solutions. We must suppose this to be due to an oversight,
as he gives the key moves of the four problems by English composers.
The omission is deplorable, for many students would wish to
appreciate the author's idea, and the merits of the construction,
if they fail to solve the problem. To quote an instance from our
own experience; we could not find any solution to the problem on
page 224, which composition, we conclude, is either of the highest
order or suffers from the gravest of all faults, that of being
impossible. In either case we should have liked to examine the
solution.
Our judgment of the book, on the whole, is that it cannot be
ranked in the first class with the works of Heydebrand, Zukertort,
Staunton, Lowenthal, Neuman and Suhle, Lange, &c.; but it will
satisfy the demands of the great number of lovers of the game who
do not aspire above the second rank. Mr. Bird's ability and
ingenuity is beyond doubt, and there is ample evidence of his
qualifications in the book before us, but he has not yet acquired
that element of genius which has been defined as the capacity
for taking pains. Mr. Bird could produce a much better book than
this, and we hope he will.
Variously estimated from 3,000 to 1,000 B.C.
CHATURANGA.
The Primeval Hindu Chess.
bp--krnb
np--pppp
rp------
kp------
------pk
------pr
pppp--pn
bnrk--pb
[Diagram of a Chaturanga board with 4 armies. Yellow is in upper
left. Black is in upper right. Green is in lower left. Red is in
lower right.]
------
The Medieval and Modern Chess.
White
RNBKQBNR
PPPPPPPP
--------
--------
--------
--------
pppppppp
rnbkqbnr
Black
[Diagram of a standard chessboard, white pieces at the top,
black pieces at the bottom.]
Derived from the Persian Chatrang, 537-540 A.D.
------
833-842.
Problem I. by the Caliph MU'TASIM BILLAH.
Black
-k------
RnR-----
bN-p--r-
p-nQpB--
p--N-b-r
--------
-P--P---
-qBK----
White
White to move, and give checkmate at the ninth move.
------
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