tu 



CIIKSS. 



hi ransom by playing chess with th captain of the galley whore his 

 brother was chained to the oar. He then proceeded to Madrid, 

 gathering fame on hi* way, and beat Ruy Lopes in the presence of the 

 Court. Among the celebrated players of the 16th century may be 

 mentioned John Frederick of Saxony, who wu playing chaw when 

 ordered for execution by Charles V. He finished bin gamo quietly, and 

 prepared himself for his fate: he was, however, released in 1552. 

 Paolo Boi, of Syracuse, was also celebrated : he was considered equal 

 to n Puttino, and the two players were distinguiiihed by the fanciful 

 title of " the light and lustre of chess." Such players were accus- 

 tomed to travel from court to court, and from one ducal palace to 

 another, and the honour* usually appropriated by the knights of 

 chivalry frequently fell to their share. In 1597 appeared Gianutio's 

 treatise at Turin. It was, however, eclipsed by Salvio's work which 

 appeared in 1604. The games analysed therein lose in value in con- 

 sequence of the Italian method of castling adopted, namely, by moving 

 the king to his rook's square, and the rook to the king's square. The 

 next writer of importance was Can-era, whose work appeared in 1617 ; 

 it is a quarto of 600 pages, and has been translated by Mr. Lewis. ' In 

 the same year Augustus, Duke of Brunswick- Luneburg, published a 

 work under the name of Gustavus Selenus ; it is a large quarto of 

 550 pages, and was printed at Leipzig in 1616. Greco, the Calabrian, 

 was also known in his day as a brilliant player, and specimens of his 

 skill are preserved in his small work, which has also been translated by 

 Mr. Lewis. Early in the 18th century, Captain Bertin obtained fame 

 as a chess player. He invented the opening known as the "three 

 pawns' gambit, ' which, being adopted by the celebrated player Cun- 

 ningham, was named by Philidor the " Cunningham gambit." Stamina, 

 a native of Aleppo, published in 1737, a small work containing 100 

 end-games, many of which may still be consulted with advantage for 

 their ingenious and brilliant play. In 1749, Philidor published in 

 London, in French, his celebrated ' Analysis of the Game of Chess,' 

 a work which has been reprinted or translated in almost every capital 

 of Europe, and although it must be regarded as a compilation it is 

 written in the most agreeable style, and contributed much to promote 

 the practice of the game. This result was further promoted by 

 1'hiliilor's personal qualities, but especially by the then astounding 

 feat of playing blindfold games, which, however useless and not so 

 difficult as is generally imagined, is nevertheless calculated to excite 

 the astonishment of the public. Philidor played three games without 

 seeing any one of the boards. In our own day, a young American 

 of the name of Morpby, has repeatedly played eight games simul- 

 taneously without seeing the boards ; and another American, 

 named Paulson, has played twelve under similar circumstances. The 

 marvel is, that when pitted against a number of strong players the 

 blindfold player should be able to carry on eight separate trains of 

 reasoning, and to preserve so much of his skill as to play stronger than 

 his antagonists. In no case does the player play so well blindfold as 

 over the board. Morphy's blindfold games ore of a higher order than 

 Paulson's ; so that the eight of the one are more surprising than the 

 twelve of the other. The celebrated French player, De la Bourdonnois, 

 who was accustomed to blindfold play, explained his method of pro- 

 ceeding to consist in representing in his mind the actual board and 

 men, just as anyone may call up the features of an absent friend, so 

 that when sitting with his eyes shut his mental vision was contem- 

 plating the shadowy figures. Now, as all persons have this faculty 

 more or leas, although one has it more strongly than another, it 

 remains for him in whom it is most strongly developed, by cultivation 

 and exercise, to acquire readiness in the piactice. Philidor tells us 

 how he was first led to blindfold play. When quite a lad he used 

 to lie awake at night and play over mentally the games which he 

 had won or lost during the day, and he soon found that he was able 

 to run over the whole of a game, and even to introduce variations, 

 so as to play over what are called "back games." This faculty is 

 most useful in life, namely, the power of realising in the mind the 

 minute details of our pursuits. Sir Isaac Newton attributed the 

 whole of his success to this power of concentration. But to return 

 ( Philidor. In 1777, he published a second edition of his work, 

 with considerable additions. The lost and perhaps the best English 

 translation of it is by Mr. George Walker. Philidor died in 1795, in 

 London, of grief, on account of the French rcvolutionista denouncing 

 him as a suspected character, and refusing him a passport to visit 

 his family in Paris. 



In 1750 a treatise on chess was published at Modena, and as the 

 author concealed his name he wan for many years referred to as " the 

 anonymous Modeneee." Dr. Ercole del Hio is the author, and the 

 work has enjoyed considerable celebrity. In 1763, a laborious com- 

 mentary on it was published by Lolly, and this long continued to be the 

 great authority in chew. Coming nearer to our own day we must 

 mention the treatises of Sarratt, Cochrane, Lewis, Walker, and others, 

 which have had a great influence in making chess popular ; but 

 perhaps no treatises have had more influence in this respect than Mr. 

 Staunton's ' Handbook of Chess,' and ' The Chess-player's Companion,' 

 works which place him in the highest rank, both as a player and a 

 writer. The most elaborate work of our own time on chess is by 

 Javniiich, of which there is an English translation. In concluding this 

 part of our subject, it will be understood that wo do not profess' to 

 ! ail the treatises on chess that have appeared, still less to give the 



CHESS. u 



names of celebrated modern players. The reader will find a perfect 

 mine of chess strategy in Mr. Walker's ' Thousand Games,' which 

 include a large number of Philidor's games, the whole of the games in 

 the celebrated matches between McDonnell and De la Bourdonnais, 

 together with games by the beat players in Europe, down to the date 

 of its publication in 1844. 



fracticc of the game. Conceiving that an article on chess in a 

 Cyclopaedia ought to be capable of teaching any one quite ignor 

 the game, how to play, we proceed to explain its rudiment*. A person 

 in a colony or in a remote country place, into whose hands this 

 work may fall, will thus have the means of acquiring one of t In- 

 most delightful recreations that it is possible to connive, and that 

 without any very great amount of study or attempting to become a 

 first-rate player. 



felting up the mm.\Ve have already given the names and forms 

 of the pieces, and will now arrange them in fighting order on the 

 board, our instructions being directed to the placing of the white 

 pieces. Place the board before you with a white square at the right- 

 hand corner, and observe that the lines of squares running upwards are 

 called fltt ; those from left to right ranla or linet, and those which run 

 obliquely tlia;/im<ili. Place on the right hand corner square a 

 white rook. Next to the rook, in the same rank, place a kniglr 

 to the knight a bishop, next to the bishop the king, and observe 

 that these pieces are named king's rook, king's knight, and kind's 

 bishop, respectively; but for brevity's sake they ore written K. II., 

 K. Kt., and K. B. We may here remark, that this first rank or row 

 of squares is called, from the position of the king, the royal line. Next 

 to the king place the queen, and observe that she stands on a white 

 square, according to the old rule, that " the queen must stand on 

 her own colour." (Reyina. ad mum c'Jorem.) Next to the queen 

 place a bishop, next to the bishop a knight, next to the knight a rook , 

 and observe that these three pieces are named queen's bishop, queen'* 

 knight, and queen's rook respectively, or more briefly, Q. B., Q. Kt., 

 and Q. It. Now before every one of these pieces place a pawn. The 

 pawn in front of the king' rook is known a< tin- king's rook's pawn, or 

 K. R. P., next comes the king's knight's pawn , or K . Kt. P., next comes the 

 king's bishop's pawn, or K. I!. I'., then the king's pawn, or K. 1'.. then the 

 queen's pawn, or Q. P., while the three remaining pawns are the < j 

 bishop's pawn, or Q. B. P., queen's knight's pawn, or Q. Kt. P., and the 

 queen's rook's pawn, or Q. R. P. Now sot up the block pieces on the 

 opposite side of the board according to the same directions, making the 

 pieces face each other, and observing that the block queen stands on a 

 block square, and if you have accomplished your task correctly the 

 board will present the appearance shown in the following diagram, 



which represents the pieces and pawns drown up in battle array. \e\t 

 clear off the whole of the men from the Ixxird, in order to learn the 

 names of the squares, and the method of moving the pieces. Place a 

 rook on the right hand corner as before, and call this square the king's 

 rook's square. The file of squares opposite to the rook, and next to 

 the right hand edge of the board is named respectively, starting from 

 the first square, king's rook's square, K. R. second square, K. R. third 

 square, K. R. fourth square, K. 11. fifth square, K. R. sixth square, 

 K. R. seventh square, and K. R. eighth square. So also the square occu- 

 pied by the king's knight is called the king's knight's square: the 

 square before him occupied by K. Kt. 1'. i king's knight's second 

 square : the third square in the file is K. Kt. third, nnd so on up to 

 the eighth. In like manner we have king's bishop's square, K. B. 

 second, K. B. third, and so on up to K. li. eighth. Next comes king's 

 square, K. second, Ac., up to K. eighth. In like manner \v. 

 queen's square, n I: in .in-. Q. Kt. square, Q. R. square, in each case 

 extending to the eighth a.- before. The player of the black pieces adopts 

 the same system of nomenclature, his K. R. square is your K. li. 

 eighth, his Q. square is your Q. eighth, your K. square is his K. eighth, 

 Q. B. fourth square is his Q. B. fifth, his K. R. third square is your 



