The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-06
FAMOUS CHESS PLAYERS
AMERICAN MASTERS HAVE ALWAYS
RANKED NEAR THE TCP.
At the Same Time the Ga Has New
e- Enjoyed the Popularity Here
that 1t Does Abroad.
New York Evening Sun.

have long borne the reputation of hav-
ing produced some of the most brilliant
chess masters that the world has ever
known, the game of chess has thus far
wholly failed to attain in this country any
thing like the high degree of popularity it
has 50 long enjoyed among other nations.
OF late years. however, Americans gener-
ally have seemed disposed to take to it
more kindly, and the interest manifested
in the Hastings, st. Petersburg and Nu-
'enlberg tournaments seem to indicate that
his splendid game will soon receive in the
United States that appreciation which is
its due.
Two years ago there were no more than
half dozen reularly organized chess clubs
in New York city. Their membership was
small, and one might have looked in vain
in the daily papers for accounts of their
matches. At the present time however
there are nearly double the number of
clubs and the membership of the older
organizations have been greatly increased
The meetings of local champions are now
duly chronicled in many of journals,
and q devotee of the game no longer ex-
periences the difficulty in finding players
among his acquaintance that was so COM
mon only a few years ago.
Within the last half century chess has
found rather more favor in the South than
it has in the North. Louisiana, Tennessee,
Kentucky and Virginia have produced
many excellent players, and among the ed
ucated people of the South the art of chess
playing has long been regarded as a popu-
lar social accomplishment. Among the
cities of America which possess creditabe
chess organizations New Orleans still holds
its own, having lost of the prestige
which 1t gained in the days when it was
the home of Paul Morphy, the most bril-
liant master of the game that this or any
other country has produced. Nashville,
Brooklyn, Boston and Louisville have also
taken kindly to the game, and their clubs
are entitled to rank with the best in the
world New York has produced few we'll
Known players, and although its chess or
ganizations compare quite favorably with
others in the country, they are fewer in
numebr than those possessed by several
American cities of inferior size.
merous in ali of the larger cities, and
chess boards are to be found in nearly all
restaurants, clubs and drinking places. 1t
is in England, Germany and Austria, how
larty, although there is scarcely a country
the continent in which the game is not
in greater favor than it has ever been in
America.
LONDON CHESS RESORTS.
The chess ''divans of London are insti-
tutions which have equivalent in the
United States. Most of these are attached
to cigar shops or coffee houses, and it is
here that city clerks and members of the
working classes while away their lunch
hours and evenings. Among the chess
rooms patronized by the better class of
London players, Simpsons is probably the
best known. This is large, gloomy apart
ment, whose high, dust covered windows
look down on the Strand. 1t has inter-
estng history, for here many of the most
famous chess masters have met
oro 1it1cr thn h1I1-
itues of Simpsons begin to make their APP
walls in most other resorts of similar
ture, a fee of Cd is charged for admission.
Those who arrive first are usually profess
sional players, each of whom earns a
meagre livelihood by playing with and in
structing amateurs. They are all shabbily
dressed. and most of their faces show
repreheAible lack of intimacy with a
razor Despite their seedy appearance,
names are honored on two continents.
Upon entering the room they while away
the hours of the morning by reading the
papers or laZily watching the traffic on the
Strand. If among the visitors there should
be any DESTROYS of entering into conversa-
ticn with Blackburne, Bird, Gunsberg
other champions this is his opportunity,
for aftec / o'clock all hope to be engaged
in play. The scanty fees vouchsafed these
famous players by amateurs is all that
most of them have to depend upon for a
living and they watch eagerly for the ar
rival of their patrons. 1t is noticeable that
they seldom play with one another, nor do
they seem to evince any interest in the
games that are going on around them.
has kept them out of commercial or pro-
fessional pursuits, and now it seems to one
who observes them closely that even this
youthful enthusiasm has spent it's force,
leaving nothing to compensate them for
the comfort-winning faculties it has robbed
them of.
BY O'Clock the room begins to fill, and
little groups silently surround the tables.
The stiffness of the apartment is broken
only by the low calls for drinks or sand
wiches, the rattle of the chessmen
they are replaced on the board.
1t is amusing to watch the idioSyncrasieS
of the masters as they silently study their
games. Blackburne is inveterate whisky
drinker, and the amount of liquor which he
is able to consume in the course of day
is marvellous. From the time that the
pieces are arranged for play until the game
is finished he sips. his whisky and water
continually, consuming about five glasses
of the mixture in the course of an hour.
He moves promptly and apparently plays
with little effort. Gunsberg. who probably
ranks next to Stenitz analyst, plays
slowly and carefully, and is a stanch be
lever in coffee as a mental stimulant I'm
like Blackburne, he is extremely patient
with his pupils. evincing no disposition to
work out their moves. OF all the habitues
of Simpsons, however, none affords so
much amusement to the visitor as the
stolid-faced Bird, who enjoys the distinc- !
ton of ranking next to Biackburne among
the native born chess masters of England.
He is usually to be seen seated at table
in corner of the room, with his badly
worn top hat tilted over his eye. He is
always ready with his move. and after it
has been made he Immediately forces his
false teeth outward from his lips, and pro-
ceeds to work his jaws vigorously over the
plate. looking for all the world like cocky
Old squirrel nibbline nut. When his OPP
popent has replied to his move, the teeth
go in for few moments as he surveys the
stuation then he moves a piece. takes a
sip of whisky. places his arms akimbo and
resumes his nibbling.
MASTERS WHO ARE WELL OFF.
Unlike the frequenters of Simpsons and
other similar resorts, many of the present
chess masters of the world are men who
do not depend upon their favorite game as
a means of livelihood. Lasker, Tarrasch
Tschigorin and several of the other par
Elephants in the recent Nuremberg tourna-
ment are professional men who have won
distinction in other fields: but, for the most
part, the men who have won fame as mas
ters of the game have looked to the sale
of treatises they have written and the
matches they have played as their princi-
pal source of livelihood.
Among contemporary American players
Piilsbury. of course, ranks first. The adj