Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-05-04
REWARDS OF CHESS-PLAYING
Even the Best Players Must Fall Back
Upon Something Else for Living.


From the New York Sun
In a large room at Union square. where
the chess congress is holding its tournament
twenty expert chess players spend from six to
eight hours out of every twenty-four in earnest
play. Hour after hour they sit looking steadily
at the chess board studying intently the posi-
ton and concentrating all their intellectual
powers In each move. This they have done
almost daily for one month, and will continue
to do for another. When it is all over the win
ner of the greatest number of games will re-
ceive $1,000, and the others proportionately
less, until the five or six who rank lowest will
get perhaps 300 each. Ii is highly probable
that the same amount of intellectual energy
directed toward any other achievement would
earn at least double these rewards Neverthe-
less every player in the tournament would
rather earn $40 in game of chess than $50 in
any other manner
Many lovers of the game, especially in Eng
land, have bewailed the fact that chess is such
a very poor profession. OF the men VINO have
devoted their lives to chess but few have man.
aged to make a comfortable living, and none
has yet arrived at the degree of prosperity en-
joyed by professional base ball PLAYER of anv
reputation. Mr.. Chas. Anthony, of Hereford,
England, who is an ardent lover of the game,
ments, wrote letter on this subject to the Lon
don Times few years ago. In it he said:
AT present the professional chess player is
not, as a rule, treated with as much considera-
tion as his talent, perseverance, and self-denial
ought to secure for him. He is left more to his
own resources than even a cricketer or a cham
pion runner, and yet his triumphs are won by
the intellect, and not by strength of lung or
limb. 1t is certain that in the last few years
there has sprung up throughout the world
80,
attained high distinction without deriving the
slightest material advantage themselves. A
great master may be even llustrious, while his
family may be actually suffering in conse-
quence. With regard to the objection that
chess is not sufficiently developed to be looked
upon as regular profession, 1 would say that
this is very much the fault of those who think
so much, and who consequently withhold from it
the aid which it is in their power to give. After
the evidence of recent years, the frequent inter-
national tournaments, the development of chess
literature in every FORM the rapidly increasing
number of clubs throughout Great Britain, to
say nothing of the interest so widely felt and
expressed in the forthcoming match between
Messrs. Steinitz and Zukertort it Is simply inn
possible to deny the existence of a profession
of chess-a profession, that is to say, of men
who prefer a certain intellectual, inexpensive,
and unostentatious game to any other, and
who, eXcelling in mental power or aptitude.
are led by the keen appetite of victory to shun
delights ana i've laDOrIOuS DAYS. 1t follows.
therefore, in this not less than in any other
profession, that all who cultivate the art are
bound in fairness and honor to see that such
are its mainstay-always ready to play, to
instruct, to illustrate theory, or to analyze a
postion-shall not be unduly handicapped in
the struggle for existence. As ii is. MANY of
our professional chess players are compelled to
engage IN some other calling, which distracts
the mind and more than doubles the mental
strain. There is no luck in chess, and
the utmost ability is scarcely rewarded at all
The whole question is whether something cam
not be done to increase the number and value
Of the rewards to which successful players may
look forward"
Nearly all of the foreign players in the tour
nament receive small compensations from their
local clubs to enable them to stay here for two
months and perhaps longer. Otherwise most
of them would be losers in the end There is
at present but one man who subsists entirely
by chess playing, and that is Mr. Blackburne.
OF London. Others there are who, besides be-
ing professional chess players, furnish chess
articles for the newspapers and magazines or
edit chess periodicals, but MIR. Blackburne is
the only living player who plays and only plays
ana even ne has not yet amassed the fortune
which the inventor of the '.pigs in clover" un-
doubtedly realized from his ingenious TOW.
Mr.. Blackburne possesses the ability to play
many games simultaneously. He gives exhibit
tions Of this sort Of playing, well as of blind
folded playing, in the London chess clubs.
Besides this, he is also an excellent tournament
player. As there are over fifty chess clubs in
London, and tournaments are held more fire.
quently than here, Mr.. Blackburne manages,
with his brilliant abilities, to exc out an exist
ence.
But the other professional chess players all
must fall back upon something else. Messrs |
Steinitz, Mackenzie, Bird, Tchigorin and Weiss, |
all brilliant chess players, devote most of their
time to writing about chess, and even that |
brings but poor return Mr.. Mason said to the /
writer: "A man NAV devote his life to chess, /
and If he has love for the game it is an easy |
step to take but at the end of his life he viii /
be no better off than when he began
Chess has only q foothold in this country. /
The number of its devotees is still small, and /
though it may never acquire the popularity /
which many other games have, the chess clubs |
look forward to a time when a man devoted to /
the game will receive proper reward.
Rain He ana ara too many when they NAV be