March 1, 1889.] 



♦ KNOW^LEDGE ♦ 



115 



iiOTE.— Trick 7. Here lies the point of the hand. Having only 

 one heart, B determines to sacrifice a trick in trumps by leading up 

 to Y's tenace, in the hope that Y will draw another trump with his 

 queen and then continue the clubs. If B returns the heart lead 

 immediately, Y Z make the odd trick. 

 Trick 9. 



[ill 



B 



A B, 4 ; 



Tricks— A B, 5 ; Y Z, 5. 



Tnclis 11 to 1.3. A makes the remaining hearts, and 

 A B Score Two by Cards. 

 A's Hand. B's Hand. | Y's Hand. Z's Hand. 



D.— K, 8 D.— Kn,9,6,3,2 | D.— Q, 10, 5, 4 D.— A, 7 



0.-6.4,3 C— K, 6 I C— A, Q, Kn, 9 C— 10, 8, 7, 2 



H.— K, Q, Kn,9, H.— 10, 8 H.— A, 4 ;H.— 5, 2 



S.— 9 ' ' S.— A, 7, 5, 4 i S.— Q, 6, 2 S.— K,Kn,lO,8,3 



Remarks. — Y plays his adversaries' game to perfection. In his 

 anxiety to draw a losing trump, he fails to see the necessity for 

 retaining his queen to block the heart suit. He might have foiled 

 B entirely, and secured the odd trick, by continuing the club suit 

 at Trick 8 ; for B, after ruffing, would have had no choice but to 

 lead hearts. Y might also have made two by cards by returning 

 the spade suit at Trick 9, but he could not be certain that his 

 partner held the king and knave, which might have been with 

 A and B respectively. Z's lead at Trick 6 may have been forced, 

 for (owing to B's finesse) he could not tell that the knave, 10, of 

 trumps were not with A, and would therefore hesitate to return the 

 club suit, in which either A or B must be void. 



Elementary E.xplanatiox op the Play. 



Trick 1. — A opens his long suit, and leads one of his head se- 

 quence in order to draw the ace, and so obtain command of the 

 suit. As he has more than four hearts he leads the knave ; with 

 four only he would lead the king. Y', as second player, plays cor- 

 rectly in putting his ace on knave led. B commences to call for 

 trumps by playing the ten o£ hearts instead of the eight. 



Tricks 2 and 3. — Y in turn opens his strong suit. This is the 

 orthodox lead from ace, queen, knave ; the king comes out in the 

 second round, and Y remains with the command. 



Trick 4. — B leads his "penultimate" trump (the lowest but one) 

 to show that he has five. He infers from this trick that the ace of 

 trumps is with Z. 



Trick 5 — A of course returns trumps, and B finesses the eight. A 

 little reflection will show that, as tlie ace is on his left, he can lose 

 nothing by this course ; while, on the other hand, he may be a gainer 

 if, as turns out to be the case, the ten is on his right. B infers 

 from this trick, as already explained, that the remaining trumps are 

 in Y's hand. 



Trick 6. — Z opens his strong suit, and, holding king, knave, ten, he 

 rightly leads the ten. The suit is cleared in one round, and B is 

 able to infer that Z has the command ; but A and Y cannot at 

 present be certain that Z has not led the highest of a three-card 

 suit. From A's point of view, I! may hold the knave and Y the 

 king, and Y' cannot toll that B has not the knave and A the king. 



Trick 7. — B knows that Y has tenace over him in trumps (i.e. 

 best and third best against second and fourth best), and by leading 

 up to this tenace he loses a trick in trumps ; but, if he returns the 

 hearts immediately, they will probably be trumped very soon, and 

 he will never be able to put his partner in again. Therefore he 

 runs a small risk in the hope of getting out the adverse trumps 

 before giving his partner the heart. 



Tricks. — Y plays the *' book" game in drawing a losing trump. 

 His error in the present instance has already been explained. A 

 discards his best heart to show his partner that he has absolute com- 

 mand of the fuit. This is often a very useful hint, and may always 

 bo adopted if there is no danger of its being mistaken for a call for 

 trumps. 



^uv €^ffm Column. 



By I. GuNSBERG (Mephisto). 



[Contributions of general interest to chess players are invited. 

 Mr. Gunsberg will be pleased to give his opinion on any matter 

 suhmittcd for his decision.] 



E much regret that the End-game given in our 

 February number was defective, owing to the 

 Kook being misplac<d on QR6 instead of QB6. 

 We now give the corrected position, togeiher 

 with the solution. 



Kuowleilgo is not like food, destroyed by use, but rather 

 igmeutod and perfected. — Siu Joun Hekschel. 



White. 

 Whi'e to play and win. 

 The win is brought about by White so playing his Rook that the 

 black Bishop cannot be brought into play to attack the white Pawn, 

 and the manner in which the white Rook limits the action of the B 

 is instructive ; the idea has been embodied in many problems. 

 But, if the black King moves instead of the B, White plays his K on 

 the 7th file, and also plays P to R", compelling K to Rsq, when 

 Black will be compelled to play his B. Then a rapid advance of 

 the white King, although it does not prevent Black winning the 

 white Pawn, will, however, bring about one of the positions in 

 which the Kook wins against the Bishop. White begins with 



1. R to R6 



To prevent B to R6, as he threatens then to play B to Bs:] ; and 

 even if White prevents this, Black has gained sufficient time to 

 draw. B to Kt2 is, however, no good now, as White just gains the 

 one move necessary to win, i.e., 1. R to Rfi, B to Kt2 : 2. K x P, 

 B to K4 ; 3. K to KS, B to Kt7 ; 4. R to B6, B to R6 ; .">. K to B4, 

 B to Bsq ; 6. K to Kt5, and should win. 



1. K to Ktsq 



2. R to R7 2. K to Rsq 



The white King must ne%'er move as long as the while Pawn is on 

 R6, for then Black would always Queen his Pawn and get the white 

 Pawn. It would also be wrong to play 3. P to R7 now, for Black 

 would play B to Kt7, followed by B to Kt2, and gain the Pawn. 

 White now plays 



3. R to Q7 



Because B to KG and B to Bsq need not be feared now, as White 

 would pin the B on Bsq by R to Q8 ; nor can Black play his B any- 

 where else from Rti with advantage, for after K x P White will, as 

 on the preceding move, reiich his I'awn in time or give it up, and 

 win, as the following interesting variation will show :— 3. R to Q7, 

 B to Kt2 ; 4. K X P, B to B3 ; 5. K to Q3, B to Kt4 ; 6. P to R7, 

 B to KG ; 7. K to K4, B to Kt2 ; 8. K to Bo, K x P ; 9. K to Kl5, 

 K moves; 10. K to Kt6, and wins. This is the main idea, and its 

 success depends on gaining one move, which enables t'lie King to 

 come up just in time to bring about the winning position. But if 

 instead of this Black plays 



3. K to Ktsq 



4. P to R7 (ch) 4. K to Rsq 



5. R to Kt7 



To prevent the B playing to Kt7 and Kt2 too early, 



5. B to B6 



6. K X P 6. B to Q3 



If G. B to Bsq instead, then 7. R to Kt8 wins; or if H. B to Q2. 

 then 7. li to Kt8 (ch), K x P. 8. R to Kt7 wins. 



7. K to K3 7. B to K4 



8. IC to K4 8. B to Kt2 



9. K to B,-) 9. K X P 



.\nd, again. White has arrived at the same position as given in our 

 note to \Vhitc's third move, and wins by 



10. K to Kt6 followed by 11. R to KtS. 



