Nov. 



1881.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



83 



Ending which occurred in an nctnal game played by '' Mophisto ' 

 II Nor. 15, 1881, at 48a, Ucgent-streot. 



AUATKrB. 



■White. 

 Mephisto. 

 Black to move. 

 White. Bl«ck. 



Mkphisto, Amatkitb. 



.... 1. Q. takes Q. 



2. P. takes B. 



This fin5 move, as will be seen, wins the game. If White had 

 played, B. takes Q. instead, then B. takes P., would give Black the 

 better game. 



2. Q takes B. 



Best ! for if the Qneen should 

 retire on B.i. or R.4., then White would play B. takes R., and his 

 Pawn on Kt.7. could not be prevented from Queening, which would 

 leave White with a Rook ahead and a winning position. 



3. B. tabes B. 



This again is right, as will be seen 



3. Q. to R.2. 

 1. B. to K.8. (throatcning 



mate). 4. Kt. to B.3. 



If Black plays 4. P. to Kt.3. 

 then White Queen's. 

 ItJWhitc would play 5. B. to Kt.5, discovering check, and on the 

 Black King moWng to 5. Kt.2. G. B. takes R. 6. Kt. to B.3. 

 (beet.) 7. R. to R.sq. 7. Q. to B.4. 8. Kt. to K.4. 8. Q. takes 

 Kt. 9. B. to Kt.5. 9. Kt. to Kt.sq. (best.) Q. to R. ; and White 

 weuld have a very unsatisfactorv game. 



5. B. take-s Kt. eh. " 5. K. to Q.2. 



6. Q.R. to Q.sq. (ch.) 6. K. to B.3. (If K. takes 



R. 7. R. to Q.8. 

 mate.) 



7. R. to K.R. 8. 7. Q. to Kt.3. 



8. R. takes R. 8. Q. takes R. 

 P. Queen's Q. takes B. 



And White mated in two moves. 



Chzss Queries.— [2] — A few errors occur on page 20 of Know- 

 I.8D6K which may confuse young chess-players, viz. : — Oame No. 1 : 

 White's 17th move should be Kt. to Q.2; Black's 34th move should 

 be K. to Q.R. 5. Jii Notes to Game No. 1: C") White's 18th move 

 Bhonld be P. to Q.6 ; variation A, Black's 19th move should be 

 B. toR.2; (') White should be if K. to Kt.3; (°) This note I do 

 not understand ; In A'ofe.5 on " Ches^iin " : Black's 7th move 

 ghonid be Q. t.ikes R.P.(ch.) ; Black's 8th move should be K.Kt. 

 takes P.— WniTE Pawn. 



[3] — I beg to call your attention to what I think is an error in 

 Mephisto's note (*), Knowledge, No. 1, page 20. Having 



16. B. takes P. .j. ^ ^ white takes B. Black would win his 



B. takes K.B.P., 

 Qaeen by P. takes P. should this not be R. takes Q. ? — Tours, 

 G. N. Sherbohn. — [Mr. Shcrborn misunderstands Mephisto's note. 

 It is at move 15 that White cannot take B. Of course, if White 

 played 16. B. takes B., Rook would take Q. — Chess Editor.] 



Black Pawn. — Tour game is very interesting, and shall appear, 

 with some additional notes. 



iLL-HUMOtTR. — A great deal of what we commonly call ill-humour 

 springs from the ill-conditioned state of the body. We familiarly 

 talk about people " rising from bed on the wrong side," and there 

 is a very suggestive meaning in the plirase. They may have been 

 sleeping all night in a very badly-ventilatefl room, or have gone to 

 bed after taking a heavy and indigestible supper. The consequence 

 is, that in the moraing, from want of pure oikygen, or from over- 

 loading the stomach, the whole organism is out of order, the nerves 

 are on edge, and they rise fretful and impatient, and continue so 



throuffhont thp dnv — PatorcATi'o " TTonlfl, .SJtnHJoo " 



&m miin^t Column. 



By " Five of Clubs." 



So soon as wc have accepted the general principle that in whist 

 each player is to consider his partner's hand as well as his 

 own, and that for this purpose each must inform his partner by 

 every legitimate means of the nature of his own hand, we are at 

 once able to decide on the proper way of conducting whist strategy. 

 Were it otherwise, the first consideration of each player would 

 naturally be the nature of his o^vn hand. He would play so as 

 either to make all his strong cards at once, or to adopt the course 

 which seemed to him best for making them in the long run. If 

 he had a short suit, he would try to get rid early of the cards of 

 that suit, in order presently to trump the remaining good cards of 

 the suit. And he would play his trumps solely with the object of 

 making as many of them as he could. If every jjlayer followed 

 such a course as this, the fortunes of the different hands would run 

 ^•ery much as they do with good I'lay, but the game would not be 

 whist. It would be simply a chance game, each player's success 

 depending on the number of good cards which happened to fall to 

 his share, or on the fortuitous occurrence of short suits with oppor- 

 tunities for trumping them. The advantage of the scientific game 

 is that it requires skilful strategy, and calls into action many useful 

 faculties. 



To tell my partner anything about the constitution of my hand, 

 I must in the first place follow a systematic and generally under- 

 stood method of selecting a suit to lead from, and, in the second 

 place, I must open a suit so selected in the correct way. 



Now, considering first the selection of a suit, we note that there 

 is only one quality which, being common to all hands, can be 

 adopted for systematic guidance. A player tells his partner nothing 

 useful by playing out his good cards, even if he made the best use 

 he could of them for himself by showing them at once. Leading 

 from a short snit again is not only bad in itself — especially the 

 atrocious lead from a single card which young players affect, — but 

 it is not a method of leading systematically available, for not every 

 hand possesses a suit of fewer than three cards. But every hand 

 must possess a suit of four cards, at least — that is, a long suit. If, 

 then, for no other reason, still for this, that, by so opening the hand, 

 partner learns that one holds four, at least, of that suit (save in a 

 few exceptional cases), the long suit would be a good one to lead, 

 if that were always understood to be the meaning of the lead. But, 

 apart from this, there is a manifest advantage — other things being 

 equal — in leading from the long suit. This suit always has an 

 element of strength, even though every card be small. Suppose, 

 for instance, I have 2, 3, 4, 5 of a suit, an opponent have Ace, King, 

 Queen, and the remaining six cards equally divided between the 

 other players. Then, though we by no means advise a lead frcm 

 2, 3, 4, 5, if the holder of Ace, King, Queen drew tliree rounds, I 

 shonld remain with 5 ; and, when trumps are drawn, that small 

 card, if I get a lead, is as good as a trump ; or, it I obtain a lead 

 before all the trumps are drawn, that small card would either make 

 a trick or draw a trump from the enemy as well as an Ace or a 

 King. By leading from a long suit, and getting that suit so far 

 exhausted that I have commanding strength in it, I secure an element 

 of strength for my hand which comes next in efficiency to strength 

 in trumps. 



For the double reason, then, first and chiefly that in that way I 

 can tell my partner the chief constituent of my hand ; secondly, 

 that by so playing I am likely to strengthen my hand, my first lead 

 should be from my longest suit. 



Of course, this rule, like all rules relating to a game so varied 

 and complex as Whist, is not without exceptions. 



I showed just now that a hand of four veiy small cards has a 

 certain element of strength, which is wanting in a suit of the three 

 highest cards ; yet the latter has, of course, the greater strength. If 

 you have two suits thus constituted, one long, but very weak, the 

 other a three-card suit of great strength so far as the indiviilnal 

 cards are concerned, you would be showing your partner best the 

 chief constituent of your hand by leading from the shorter very 

 strong suit, than by leading from the other. But a tliree-card suit 

 must be very strong, or a four-card suit very weak, for the former 

 to be preferred in this way. There are several reasons for 

 this, besides the general reason that long-suit leads, followed syste- 

 matically, instruct the partner best. A suit which is short with you 

 is likely to be long with one or other of your opponents ; and, if so, 

 yon are playing their game by leading it. Again, commanding cards 

 of a short suit are more useful as cards of re-enrry, that is to give 

 you a lead later in the game, than tliey can possibly be if used early 

 in the play of the hand. If your long suit is vei-y weak, your 

 partner will very soon find that to be the case, and by showing you 

 where his strength lies, can serve your game, as a rule, better than 

 you can serve his by opening a three-card suit, unless it be of 



ol^onliifol,. ,-r>Tr.tr>!ir.<i;n<r Qtrnncrfli 



