CHESS-CLUBS AND CHESS-PLAYERS. 431 



the general decay, though a study peculiarly suited to the grave 

 cigar-loving Spaniard. The only symptom I can find to " tell that 

 once it lived," is the fact, that Don Francisco, brother of Ferdinand 

 the Catholic, has the good taste to patronize the game, and is himself 

 a great chess-player. 



In Italy " in the land, where the poet's eye and the painter's 

 hand, are most divine" the science was formerly studied with great 

 success ; the academy of chess in Naples was celebrated throughout 

 Europe, and knight-errants frequently adventured into other coun- 

 tries, challenging to single combat all players of eminence. It was an 

 Italian who vanquished the Spanish champion, Lopez, in a public 

 contest before the king and court, and a host of warriors have arisen 

 at different periods in Sicily and the various states of the Peninsula. 

 It is not singular, that our southern neighbours should have excelled so 

 much in a game of so grave and thoughtful a character : with the 

 exception of Phillidor, the foreign writers of celebrity are almost 

 exclusively Spanish or Italian. Lopez, Giochino Greco, Carrera, 

 Saliro, Lolli, the Modenese, and a number of others, are all well 

 known in this country, and the earliest European work which has 

 come down to us on the subject, is that of Dannano, a Portugueze. 

 The only German work I know of, is one published by Stein, which 

 is rather scarce; the Germans love a dissertation, and Mynheer Stein 

 has favoured us with a parallel between the art of chess and the art 

 of war, which on a wet day in a country inn, with no one to talk to 

 and nothing else to do, might be very decent reading. 



Phillidor's great work, the " Analysis of Chess," is of the highest 

 merit ; his management of pav/ns is allowed to be unrivalled, and 

 though several of his positions have been successfully attacked by the 

 Modenese and others, there is no one whose name is so completely 

 identified with the game on which his reputation is founded. There 

 is also a " Star in the East/' which a young player if he be a wise 

 man will assuredly follow ; it is Stamma, a Syrian by birth, and the 

 contemporary of Phillidor ; there are few treatises more useful than 

 his for beginners. Of our English authors, Sarrat may be considered 

 the standard; in the match between London and Edinburgh, his 

 book was agreed on as a work of reference : next to this, Mr. Lewis's 

 " Progressive Lessons on Chess," is certainly the best of modern 

 date. It is divided into two parts, one for beginners, the other for 

 more advanced players, and contains a complete anatomy of the 

 principal openings, modes of attack and defence, methods of check- 

 mating with certain pieces, &c. together with a number of games 

 actually played by himself or other first-rate artists. This gentleman 

 has also published a small work, called " Elements of Chess ;" and 

 has translated several of the foreign writers. There are a variety of 

 translations, treatises, and essays on particular games, by Bingham, 

 Cunningham, Walker, c. too numerous to mention here : for begin- 

 ners, I should recommend the above works of Sarrat and Lewis, that 

 of Stamma, and the octavo edition of Phillidor. 



An opinion very commonly prevails, that chess cannot be learned 

 from books ; and perhaps it cannot from books alone : but that the 

 study of the best writers on the science, will not be of use to a learner, 



