The weekly Anglo-African., 1859-09-10

gu Coulu dlLnoSt see Hln tullk: at IenS Cd,
with a peculiar flourish of his arm, he
seizes pawn and moves. With scarcely
moments hesitation, with his eyes for an
instant bent on the board, Morphy raises
his arm as if to strike, and throws piece
right in the way Of his antagonist An
other long, long pause, the -hands again
clasped:- :" why, take the piece, man," is
on every body'S unopened lips; yet Paul
sen pauses, again clasps his hands, and for
nearly half an hour pores over the board +;
he does not take the profered piece, but
offers one of equal value: then something
akin to electricity flashed through and out
Of Morphy, the calm white forehead "pleat-
ed up" his arm raised, he swiftly moves
and, as if caught with the same impulse,
Paulsen moves instantly; then for a few
seconds, there is click, click, click-a move
each second-percussion-c rifles, can
mons, grape, canister, the clash of swords
and then all is still. Flushed with the
struggle, Paulsen looks up to see why the
other does not move; and the other sits
calm and cold as an icicle; Paulsen glances
again at the board, and sees mate for him
self three or four moves off
Surely, thought we, chess is a question
Of magnetism; given, fair parity in skill
between two players, and the more power
fully magnetic will sway and conquer the
will of the less magnetic, and force him in
to moves according to his will. We had
tried this often, directly, with the suscepti-
bic engraver, P. H. R., and once, in re-
flex manner, with j. S. of Providence. In
this latter instance, he being the less prac-
tised player, but of impossible nerves, by
fixing our attention on the board at the
same moment with him, and marking out
the best move against us, he invariably
made that move, and won: per contra,
while, in another game, we made moves,
and then looked away; ignored the board
until he had moved: unmagnetized, the ter
mination of the game was speedily against
him.
How then did Paulsen, with his superior
magnetism and not very inferior skill, fail
to affect Morphy2 The moment that Nor
ply completed a move, he threw the whole
board away from his attention brushed
away magnetism, so to speak-often went
off to the other end of the room, and had
to be summoned thence to reply to Paul
SENS move* And it was very evident
that the study of the former was not at all
in relation to what Paulsen pc0uld move,
but, in regard to the possible moves and
combinations, embracing from twelve to
twenty moves, and their twelve times
twelve, and twenty times twenty of posi-
BILE inter-combinations This whirl of per-
mutation, with accurate results in each of
thousands of combinations, evidently passes
through Morphy's mind in like manner as
in Zerah Colburn and other arithmetical
prodigies, addition, subtraction, multiplied
ton and the square root, are performed
with the rapidity and accuracy of Mr..
Babbage's machine So that for any one
less gifted in this peculiar power than Nor
ply, to attempt to play with him, is like
one man at the brake of fre-engine striv-
ing to play the same against another work
ed by steam; or more accurately, for an
ordinary adept to endeavor to count interest
with Zerah Colburn, or the negro prodigy
recently announced in Alabama.
This leads us to enquire, what is chess :?
Is it a purely intellectual exercise, afford
ing scope and Improvement, and test of the
mental faculties? or is it a physico-intel-
lectual exercise, engaging muscular as well
as brain work What faculties does it
call into exercise? The eye and fingers,
the muscles of the arm, and the muscles of
the orbit, the peculiar power of seeing the
men in their places, and of seeing men
that are in their places as if they were not
there, but elsewhere, and others, or blanks,
where they actually area sort of physi-
cal reticence and imagination acting at one
and the same moment-such is one phase
of chess exercise. Napoleon planned his
battles on large maps, with pin-heads indi-
eating the whereabouts Of each corps, di-
vision, and even brigade. He moved the
pins about as his thought required, and
thus completed his plan. But your chess
player must go through this preliminary
fight without touching map or pin: lie
must-most difficult reticence!-keep hands
off until he makes a complete survey of
the men and the field, and when he once
touches man it must be moved beyond
recall This requires stretch of attention