Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1892-11-16
ELEMENT OF CHANCE IN GAMES.
Great Players Often Owe Their Most Bril-
liant Efforts to n Chance Play.

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liant Efforts to n Chance Play.
We should like to know how good
a PLAYER a man must be before he
can truly say that he never owes
victory or defeat at chess to good
or Il luck. Chess, as played by be
ginners, is far more often decided by
chance than not AS played even by
fairly good players, it is not always
a game which is entirely controlled
by their contending skill. A more
than average player must3ften con-
fess to himself that the result of
move was purely accidental, and
that the very step which he re
GREETED, the moment that it became
irrevocable. was the step which ulh-
mately opened the way TO success.
No doubt among such chess players
as Messrs. Blacllburne, Steinitz and
others this element of chance is re-
duced to the minimum; but. even in
their game it must still exist to a
certain extent.
A player who is said to play bril-
liant game must often appeal TO
blind fortune in making some of the
moves which earn him the title,
for from all accounts there are
among even the best chess players
two different classes-the brilliant
player and the machinelike player;
that is to say, the player who some
times goes astray from his rule and
theory and the player who never de
viates from thems and what advan-
tage can the former ever hope to
gain over the latter except it be
with the aid of chancel -
Even more strictly scientific Than
chess is the game of draughts. Be
tween skillful players of draughts it
seems impossible for there to be any
room for the Intervention ofafortune.
But then draughts, with all due de
ference to its players, is not a very
amusing game, and they who seek
amusement will probably reverse
the board and with the cheerful rat
tie of dice embark upon the chances
of backgammon. Even in games of
manual skill it is the lurking ele
ment of chance which adds to them
no unimportant attraction.
The GLORIOUS uncertainty of crick-
ct" is not an empty phrase; were it
not for that uncertainty a cricket
match would lose much Of its inter
est not only for the spectators, but
for the players too. And in cricket,
tennis and in other games, as in
chess, there is also the distinction be-
tween the brilliant and the cautious
player, the player who hazards the
most and the player who hazards
the least; the one who sometimes is
willing to depend on chance, and the
one who is not. Now there is no
doubt which of these two the world
most admires and would most will
lingly emulate.
Curiously enough, the same world
that welcomes the element of chance
in games of science and skill is al
ways anxious to introduce some ele-
ment of science into its diversions
with pure chance. When it actually
plays with fortune as an antagonist,
it gets its keenest enjoyment from
its efforts to load the dice. We do
not suppose that the gambler exists
who does not secretly cherish the
fond idea that he can cheat fortune.
If betting upon horse races were a
matter of absolute uncertainty, the
bookmaker's occupation would be
gone, and the interest that we now
display in betting-we mean to say
in the improvement of our breed OF
horses-would speedily diminish. In
this case we try to cheat fortune
with the science of superior informa-
ton, and it must be confessed that
the amusement allows q large mar
gin for the operation of that science,
and that the person who possesses it
wins.
The turf is a board upon which
the game of pure chance is only
played by fools.-London Spectator.