Maiu.ii 17, l>;f^2.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



441 



6 pn^ 





THE GAME. 



NOTB. — The underlined card wins trick, and card below it leads next. 



REMARKS AND INFERENCES. 



1. — A leads the lowest but one- 

 B wins with the Queen and observes 

 that the two docs not fall in the 

 trick. Either one of tlie i)Iayer8 is 

 callinsr for trumps, or A is leading 

 from live or more. If from more 

 than five, the suit will bo trumped 

 next round. Having a sequence, 

 he leads the heat! of it. 



2. — B knows now that the adver- 

 saries are two by honours. K, having 

 turned up the King, properly heads 

 the trick with the Queen. 



.■?. — Z plays his best suit. B win- 

 ning the trick continues the trump 

 lead. He knows that he must 

 make two by cards to win the 

 game. He properly leads the 

 eight, to show his partner the 

 strength of his sequence. 



•t. — Z continues his suit. 



5. — Z plays another Spade in the 

 hope of finding the Knave with Y. 



6. — A knows now that the Ace 

 will fall, and that B will, probably, 

 remain with the last trump. Of 

 course, there is a chance of Z 

 having the seven. 



7. — Z is now in a difficulty. He 

 knows he can force the remain- 

 ing trump, but he knows also 

 that B has led trnmp upon the 

 Heart suit. I" may, however, have 

 an honour in Hearts, and it is 

 better in any event, as far as the 

 Diamonds are concerned, that Y 

 should be fourth player. 1' discards 

 a Diamond to the 13th Spade, 

 though not of much use now, as 

 the only trump is forced from B. 

 The rest of the game play.-; itself, 

 but if the young player will play 

 the game over, and suppose B to 

 have led three rounds of Hearts 

 before leading trump, he will find 

 that Y and Z will make sis tricks 

 and win by their honours. If the 

 two had been led instead of the 

 three, B, although he might never- 

 theless have led trumps, would 

 have had no means of judging 

 that the entire suit was between 

 him and A. 



JU Jk A A lA A 

 A 



* ^ •!• * 4- 



•f 4- + + 4- 4- 



O 4-J5.* ♦ ♦ 



I't ^♦il! 



Errat.v. — It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to explain that in the 

 ?esy easy Double IJummy problem given last week, the partners 

 k and B, not Z and Y, are to save and win the game. The cor- 

 rection was made in the proof sheets ; but, in making a more 

 important change (" Mogul's letter had been put last, instead of in 

 ts proper position), the compositor overlooked this one. A similar 

 «mark applies to the word '■small," p. 41G, 2nd col., 1. 22. Clay 

 ibhorred "false" cards, not small ones. Whist players will recill 

 [/avour's ^not : when some one complained, as bad players always do, 

 if constant ill. luck at whist, he replied, "C'est, mon ami, que vous 

 I'avez pasassez de respect pour lespetites cartes." — Five of Clubs. 



All the Trumps in" One H.^nd. — In All the Year Round for 

 Dctober, 1876, page 77, two instances are given of a player being 

 lealt the entire trumps [" having dealt himself," it should be]. 

 Pery recently, I myself held all the trumps but two (five and six) 

 n a hand at whist. — R. E. P. 



A CORRESPONDENT asks how to score at Short Whist, not finding 

 Clay's account clear. If he would say what seems to him obscure, 

 we will endeavour to explain. — Five of Clubs. 



J^. M.vcKENziE regrets to see Knowledge wasted, advising how 

 best to play Wliist, " a game depending so much on mere chance." 

 Does it depend on mere chance ? Cavendish has settled that 

 (luestion pretty decisively. The clement of chance is eliminated 

 in the long ran, and good jilay tells as certainly at Whist as it does 

 at Chess. The way chance works is to make Whist a capital moral 

 as well as mental exercise. The player who, having a bad hand, 

 steadily does all he can while yet a chance remains, and perhaps 

 retrieves a game which another might have thrown up as hopeless, 

 has had a useful exercise and set a good example. — Five of Clcp.s. 



G. Thompson's second letter, relating to B.'s lead in problem 1, 

 somehow escaped the editor's notice until now, and has only just 

 reached me. He points out that in a somewhat similar case, in 

 Cavendish's fifth Hand, leader's jiartner prefers returning his 

 ])artner's lead, to leading from a hand headed by a tenace (\, Q. 

 and two small ones.) 'j^he play in these hands is not intended to 

 guide Whist players, though Cavendish does not call attention to 

 every error in the play. In Hand X, Cavendish calls attention to 

 the importance of returning the best of two cards, without savin<' 

 whether B would not liave done better to show his best suit. 

 There is, however, an important difference between the two 

 cases. In Problem I, B. has length in trumps; in Cavendish'.s 

 Hand Y, B. has not. Again, in hand V, B. can return a 

 good strengthening card. The ten of Clubs, in Problem I., played 

 with the certainty that Y (fourth player) holds the Queen, and that 

 Z (second player) is weak in Clubs, could scarcely be considered a 

 strengthening card at all. The words to which I referred (which 

 llr. Thompson could not identify, having a different edition) are 

 these : — " Many players will not lead from a strong suit if headed 

 by a tenace ; preferring, for instance, to lead from ten, nine, three, 

 to Ace, Queen, four. two. They argue that by holding up the Ace, 

 Queen suit, they stand a better chance of catching the Kin*'. So 

 far they are right : but they purchase this advantage too dearly ; 

 for the probable loss from leading the weak suit may be taken as 

 greater than the probable gain fron holding up the tenace." Mr. 

 Thompson argues, however, that the case comes under Cavendish's 

 advice about returning yoiu- partner's suit rather than your omi, 

 with weak or only moderatel}' strong suits, which you open to a 

 disadvantage. Does Mr. Thompson regard Ace, Queen, to four, as 

 only a moderately strong suit ? I should call this great strength. 

 Cavendish refers to such a suit as Queen to four, in some cases 

 King to four, or Queen, Knave, two small ones. Even in such 

 cases as these, if you have strong cards in the adversaries' suits, it 

 is better to show your own. Five of Clubs. 



©uv CftfSs Column. 



PROBLEM No 25. 

 By Leonard P. Rees. 



White to play, and mate in three moves. 



T 



THE GIUOCO PIANO. 

 HIS form of the Knight's opening, called by the Italians the 

 slow game, arises if, inst ead of m oving his Kt. to B.3 on his 

 third move. Black should play B. to B.4., i.e., 

 . P. to K.4. ., Kt. to K.B.3. „ B. to B.4. 



■ P. to K.4. "■ Kt. to Q.B.3. ' B. to B.4. 



White has now four moves at his disposal, viz., 4. P. to B.3 



