Jl-xe 15, 1883.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



363 



fell asleep, and in the night I awoke to find my vessel a 

 wTecL" Truly, an awful warning! 



The Chess Tournament, as we write, is nearly over. It 

 is not clear who will take the second, third, and fourth 

 prizes ; but it is certam that Zukertort will take the tirst 

 And what a record he has 1 In no former chess tourney among 

 the great masters has anyone gone ahead of all the rest as 

 Zukertort has here. It may be urged that tournaments 

 are not the best way to test chess strength. A match 

 between Zukertort and Steinitz, for instance, would be tlie 

 only just way of showing which is the stronger player. 

 Possibly, though even so, it is clear that a particular 

 quality of chess strength is better indicated by the tourney 

 than by the tilt, l^y combat among many than by jousts 

 between two. " It is better, though scarce easier " (or to 

 that effect), says Wamba the Witless, " to be the best man 

 of twenty than the best man of two," a remark whose point 

 was not fully appreciated by Athelstanc the Unready. 

 Zukei-tort has achieved the harder task ; even should he 

 fail in the easier, he would .still hold the tourney champion- 

 ship. 



Our daily papers will shortly cease to record the jousts 

 of the chess masters. AVe must confess to a sense of relief. 

 For truly some of the notes and comments have been per- 

 plexing. Thus in the Times we read some time back that 

 though Mackenzie and English are strong players, i/et the 

 game between them ended in a draw. A day or two later 

 we were told that Mr. Skipworth had been prevented from 

 Castling, and tlius had to submit to the loss of either a 

 Queen or a Rook. Yet again, Steinitz played Pawn to 

 K Kt's 4th, and therofor>' had no time to Castle. Then 

 we had the moves in which Blackburn mat«d Mortimer, 

 without the position from which the process started ; a 

 diagram showing how a game stood after Black's .5l!nd 

 move with the Black King left in check, and other rather 

 odd chess nuts. 



CuEss becomes less and less of a home game as it 

 becomes more and more of a profession. The clubs started 

 and maintained to encourage chess have also been, we 

 believe, the liane of chess as a home game. Just as home 

 whist is decaying (though that is little loss, perhaps, for 

 home whist is usually not worth playing) ; as clul) whist 

 extends, so home chess is gradually dying out. The good 

 players are drawn away to clubs ; and when they do play 

 in the drawing-room, they do not play (as a rule) for love 

 of chess, but to show how weaklings can be crushed. 



Certainly, home chess, like home whist, is apt to be an 

 uninteresting game for strong players. Tlie weak know 

 nothing of their weakness, and would be offended if odds 

 were offered. To win against them affords no chess 

 pleasure. To leave pieces en prise becomes too obviously 

 condescending. The only way to bring on a fight is to get 

 into ditiiculties by moves not obviously meant for tliat pur- 

 pose, and then to struggle out of them again (if possible), 

 which often affords excellent practice. But there should 

 be a rule that, after winning three games in succession, a 

 player should be entitled to give (not merely to offer) either 

 such odds as he may choose, or certain definitely advancing 

 odds for each triple victory, the odds-taker being entitled 

 to give back the odds, or the last advance in odds, when he 

 has secured three successive games. The steps in ordinary 

 home play might be the Knight, the Rook, two minor 

 pieces, Rook and Knight, and the Queen — for, in home 

 play. Pawn and move, and Pawn and two moves, are not 

 desirable odds. 



" Let Knowledge grow from more to more." — Alfbed Tenkison. 



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LETTERS KECEIVED AND SliOKT ANSWERS. 



[Our " Letters to the Editor " are unavoidably " crowded out."] 



Geologist wishes to know who are the publishers of Mr. Beeto 

 Juke's " Manual of Geology."— J. U. A. 0. Thanks, but already 

 provided. — G. Hakdingham. I was myself the author of the article 

 to which you refer. The Star-drift spoken of is not a drift of the 

 whole universe, but of Kro\ips of stars in different directions. Other 

 question referred to Mr. Slingo.— W. H. M. AsKEW. Thanks; glad 

 to hear the system has suited you so well. I can quite understand 

 that many try it with something like the same idea as the country 

 joskin had about the spectacles in the well-known story, " Helps to 

 KeaJ." — yf, Vf_ B. Very glad to have j-our opinion on the Loisette 

 system. Your friend entirely misapprehended my remark, which 

 neither implied doubts about the system, nor any feeling as to M. 

 Loisette's perfectly legitimate use of my name. I simply called 

 attention to the circumstance that, as indeed M. Loisette showed, 

 I had not myself any personal knowledge of the system. I hope 

 before long to avail myself of the opportunity, long since offered 

 me by M. Loisette, of examining into the system personally. — 

 A. G. McCallum. Thanks ; but I fear my opinion on questions 

 metaphysical is of no value. Your Trinity— time, space, and 

 matter— appears to nie rather lopsided. Why should not " motion" 

 have a place ? — Thos. Kimber. Thanks ; I should be glad to make 

 use of the papers you kindly offer if each of the fifteen or sixteen 

 articles were not more than, say, li or 2 cola, in length. — A. M. M. 

 Thanks ; the series might conveniently follow the one now com- 

 menced in that column. — Philistine. Granted readily that a 

 drawing-room dress and an out-door exercise dress should differ. 

 But you forget that apart from the nuisance of occasional complete 

 changes of attire, the advocates of what may be called the reason- 

 able divided skirt — that is, the divided skirt concealed by light 

 overskirt — claim for it superiority in just the points which you 

 name — warmth and convenience indoors. Again, do heavy inside 

 skirts " add grace and dignity to the figure ? " So far as my own 

 observations extend, the reverse is the case. They take away all 

 grace (unless you admire the movement called the " skirt-kick"), and 

 the dignity they give is akin to that which characterizes the move- 

 ments of a hobbled cow. I do not my.self interfere in the slightest 

 degree with the ladies of my household in such matters ; but I 

 must confess that my eyes have become now so used to the easier 

 and more lissome movements following the disuse of corsets and 

 heavy underskirting, that I should be very sorry to see again the 

 heavier movements and the somewliat entangled gait of former times. 

 • — W. A. Anderson. I forget at this moment (and am away from 

 library for reference) in which of De Quinccy's works Richter's 

 dream occurs. Yon mil find the reference in the index to his com- 

 plete works. — F. M. Lvpton, J. H argreave, and Many Others. It is 

 quite impossible to answer through the post the hundreds of letters 

 reaching me on the subject of the divided skii-t.--T. J. Dewar. 

 Thanks for illustration of integral calculus without cymbols. Such 

 methods are to be classified in Newton's lemmas, and would only 

 be suitable hero if presented systematically. On the other subject, 

 vou should note that letters are not " articles."— J. P. notes that in 

 other accounts of the Archer Fish a distance of five or sis inches, 

 instead of a metre and a half, is indicated as his range of shooting, 

 but Brehm refers to a larger species than the one usually kept in 

 vessels of water to amuse people by its skill in shooting. — L. M. G. B. 



