THE ILLUSTRATED SPORTING NEWS

London, England

10 April 1897

(page 236)

CHESS.

THE UNIVERSITY CHESS MATCH, 1897.

(Petroff Defence)

(a) P to Q 4, followed if Kt takes P by B to Q 3, is preferred by many players.

(b) This is not good since the King’s side is wanted on the other side of the board for the end-game.

(c) Still further weakening Black King’s side and winning a pawn.

(d) The Q P could not be protected.

(e) Enabling White to secure an immediate victory, but in any case Black’s position was hopeless.

(Queen’s Pawn Game.)

(a) This delays Black’s development too much. He has no time for waiting moves that do not help to get his pieces out.

(b) An opportunity now occurs of playing P to K 4, which should not be neglected. The Q B could be developed at K 3.

(c) This also is unnecessary.

(d) P to K 4 would still have been better.

(e) White might have won by 24. B takes P—Q Kt to B 5 (ch), 25. P takes Kt—Kt takes P (ch), 26. K to K 3—Q takes B (ch), 27. K to B 4, and Black cannot check again with safety.

(f) If P takes Kt, Q takes Q followed by Kt takes P (ch), winning the Rook.

CHESS CHAT.

Much interest always attaches to the annual ’Varsity chess match, inasmuch as the chess clubs of the seats of learning at Oxford and Cambridge have always proved most fertile in the production of able players, and from them indeed have sprung some of the most brilliant amateurs who have adorned English chess. In the matches themselves the play is generally marked by a lack of maturity that is inevitable among such young aspirants, and it is therefore rather by the signs of promise that they give us for the future than by their actual achievements that attention is drawn to the competition between the representatives of the rival Universities. It is thus a satisfaction to be able to state, after having watched the match that took place at the British Chess Club last week, that the form of the undergraduates was quite equal to that displayed in previous years, and that some three or four at least of the fourteen champions showed a degree of natural ability that, with good practice, should bring them into the front rank.

My readers will be able to estimate the skill shown on the two top-boards by the games that are printed herewith, and the excellent judgment shown by Mr. Spencer-Churchill as well as the pretty sacrifice that led to Mr. Lawton’s victory, cannot fail to be appreciated. Unfortunately Mr. Crowley was scarcely at his best, and though Mr. Naish missed his way to rather a difficult victory, it is easy to perceive that both these representative of Cambridge are capable of something more than they accomplished in this contest. Among other games that call for appreciative comment was the hard-fought encounter between Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Battersby, both of whom especially it must be said the former, showed a degree of resource that would have done credit to far more experienced men.

Oxford won by four to three, thus exactly repeating their scores of 1895 and 1896. This was the twenty-fifth match, and though the Cambridge men have been defeated in late contests they still hold a long lead in the record, having won fifteen matches to Oxford’s nine, while one resulted in a tie. The disparity in the games, however, is much less pronounced, for of 276 that have been contested altogether, Oxford have won 100 to Cambridge’s 118, and 58 have been drawn. Chess used at one time to be more of a specialty at Cambridge than at Oxford, but in recent years the Dark Blues have cultivated the game with such effect that they have gone ahead of their rivals, and their hopes of making the record even again are not without justification.