The Westminster Budget from London, Greater London, England • Page 8

WILHELM STEINITZ. knew intimately Paul Morphy, the THE CHESS TOURNAMENT. BY AN EXPERT. This week, at the Hastings Brassey was brought to sue cessfulconclusion the International dhess Congress of 1895; on foot by the Hastings and St Leonards Chess! Club and their, friends, who subscribed the bulk of the amount required for a series of seven principal prizes, and who have throughout the proceedings spared no effort to secure for their liberal and admirably managed enterprise a memorable place in the annals of chess. I have recently seen it averred by a scofier in one of the London daily papers that chess is "a fruitful parent of headaches, a charioteer of nightmares, an estranger of lriends, a sower of blood feuds between acquaintances, a divider of households against themselves." To this formidable series of indictments I Chess a parent of headaches I never had a headache that wasn't dissipated five minutes after taking the infallible chess cure.

I greatest chess-player who ever existed, and I can bear up, if necessary, by a statutory Morphy's frequent attacks of migrane were instantly mean, were stopped as if by magic by the simple application of pawn to king's fourth. It is the same with all the brilliant masters who have just finished a month's fun at Hastings, free from headaches during that halcyon period, and now, alas going back to their respective homes with their heads enveloped in towels soaked in vinegar, particularly the fifteen champions who won no prizes. Taking advantage of my visit to Hastings, I scornfully exhibited to the twenty-two experts the libellous imputations above quoted, and received the unanimous assurance of the Congress that, in the treatment of headache, the only infallible remedy is chess. Citrate of cocaine, anti-pyrine, and other pharmaceutical preparations of a similar sort occasionally give temporary relief, but chess cures radically. Indeed, one of the masters imparted to me, confidentially, that he had often successfully treated alarming symptoms manifested by some of his adversaries by merely hitting their heads energetically with a chessboard.

Amongst the twenty-two Hastings experts the most prominent figure is Wilhelm Steinitz, the winner of many tournaments and matches, and, until his defeat by Lasker, in America, in the spring of last year, for over a quarter of a century the acknowledged champion chessplayer of the world. For some years past, Mr. Steinitz has fixed his abode in the United States, of which he is now a naturalised he was previously a twenty years' resident of London, where he made his reputation as a chess player, editor, and analyst of the first rank. In London, in 1866, he won his great match with the late Professor Anderssen, then the chess champion of the world, ind during the following twenty-seven years Mr. Steinitz successfully 'leld the title against all disputants.

Mr. Steinitz is by birth a Hungarian, hd is in his sixtieth year, having been born at Prague in May, 1836. M. Tchigorin, another player of world-wide repute, is a native of St. Petersburg, and is forty-four years of age.

He is principally famous games, in many of for the brilliant and dashing style of his which he has carried off the palm of victory by the daring and vigourof his onslaught. Always ready and eager to play a part in any chess enterprise- of importance, M. Tchigorin has won prizes in several previous international tournaments, dividing with Weiss the first and second prizes at the New York Congress of 1889. He has played matches With Steinitz, Gunsberg, Dr. Tarrasch, and others, winning a cable match of two games against Steinitz, drawing with Gunsberg at Havana, and with Dr.

Tarrasch at St. Petersburg. Mr. Lasker is a native of Berlin, is only twenty-seven years of age, and his record as a chess-player is as triumphant as it is brief. In the minor tournament at Breslau, in 1891, he won the first prize, and was also a prize winner in the subsequent Amsterdam tournament During the German Exhibition iti London he was engaged to give daily displays of his chess-playing powers at Earl's Court, where he de.eated nearly all the opponents who ventured to enter the lists against him.

A short time later he won the first prize in the tournament of the British Chess Association, played at the British Chess Club, King-street, "Coven Garden, uncler whose hospitable auspices a match was also' arranged between Laskdr and the English champion, which was won by the former without the loss of a single game. Visiting America in 1893, Mr. Lasker's first exploit MR. LASKER. in the States was to win WMfk tournament of fourth competitors, organised by Manhattan Chess Club York, and this event Was, soon afterwards followed successful match against Mr.

Steinitz. Dy hl Qf Mr. J. H. Bla'ckburne, wbq i emphatically contributed to the exci.lW interest of the closing proceedings, little can be said that ng already familiar to every lover of chess In the three kingdoms ot long held, and still holds, a foremost He has place amongst the best chess players of the world, whilst as a blindfold, player his numerous admirable per- 1 formances stand at the present day i without a parallel.

Mr. H. E. Bird, too, a prominent exponent of chess England during over half-a-century, continues to play with undiminished ardour, 'brilliancy, and imagination. Mr, Bird was a competitor in the London International Tournament of 1851.

In short, he is the G.O.M. of British chess (sixty-five years old next birthday), and the public are requested not to permit the fact to escape their recollection. Dr. Tarrasch, the distinguished of the German masters, is well known by repute as of the very first players of the day. He is still a young man of thirty- three, and resides at Nuremberg, where he is a medical practitioner.

Thus, Dr. Tarrasch is not in any sense a professional chess-player, but a simple amateur who devotes his leisure to the game from pure love of it. His for chess has been amply justified by his marvellous public record as the winner of four successive international tournaments, three in Germany and one at Manchester. His position in the recent contest was prejudiced at the outset by the adjudication against him of a game under the time limit, Dr. Tarrasch having missed one move in writing his score, and unconsciously exceeding his allotted time.

Notwithstanding this mishap, his position at the end of the tournament was only a step below the principal winners, having an adjourned game to finish with Steinitz, the result of which placed these two players respectively fourth and fifth. Last, but by no means least, of the twentytwo competitors must be mentioned Mr. H. N. Pillsbury, who was but a day or two since a "youth to fortune and to fame unknown." The first prize in the Hastings national ChessTournamentisnot precisely afortune, as fortunes are measured in these extravagant times, but a hundred and sixty golden sovereigns still constitute a tolerably fair reward for winning a few games of chess.

The thousand tongues of the Press will now celebrate Mr. Pillsbury's prowess, and fame will thus be his, especially in ths native land of Paul Morphy, to which the new international chess champion likewise belongs. Mr. Pillsbury is, in fact, the only native-born American who took part in the late contest, though the United States were also represented by Mr. Steinitz and Mr.

a Hungarian and the other an Austrian. Mr. Pillsbury was born in Somerville, State of Massachusetts, on December 5, 1872, and is therefore not yet twenty-three. At sixteen he learned the moves at chess, but, until 1890, he received the odds of a knight from the more expert of local players. From this time he studied the technique of chess thoroughly, and he has just given unimpeachable evidence that he now fully understands the game.

He has played throughout the Hastings tournament (the first contest of the kind in which he ever engaged), with the most painstaking judgment, and at the same time with the dash and brilliancy of true chess, as the game was played by the greatest of the past, including such adepts as Labourdonnais, Anderssen, Staunton, and, master of them all, Paul Morphy, who had already beaten the experts of the world before he was twenty-three. At the present time, Mr. Pillsbury is identified with the Brooklyn (New York) Chess Club, who sent him as its representative to Hastings. The Brooklyn Chess Club is to be congratulated upon the possession of so sturdy a bearer, and Mr. Pillsbury upon the success of his maiden effort the chess-parliament of the world, of which, in spite of a determined and obstructive opposition, he made himself the acknowledged leader belor the adjournment of the session sine die MR.

GLADSTONE REMINISCENT. Q- G1 dstofte as been visiting, Drayton Manor, the seat of bir Robert Peel, and spent about two hours in inspecting the various Object of historical interest. Before leaving, Mr. Gladstone wrote in the Visitors book A day of the Utmost interest and delight on visiting Drayton after an interval of sixty years." Mr. Gladstone was accom- the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Norton, and other members of the house party at Hams Hail,.