The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-07-07

MorpHy Dle0--ChesS Players Emphat-
 ically Answer "No"--second Avenue
 Rocks.
 Does overdevotion to chess impair the mental powers? The question had its suggestion in the death of Harry Nelson Pillsbury with clouded intellect, which was also the fate of the equally renowned masters. Steinitz and Nor phy. The coincidences seem to be be- yond chance conjunction of events, especially as many more great chess
 players have become insane or have died in want.
 At a reception In his honor given at the Manhattan Chess Club after he had won international laurels at Hastings, England in 1895, Pillsbury referred to the popular notion concerning the effect of overindulgence in chess. Regarding a character in an anecdote he was tell ing, Pillsbury said:
 He thought as the world does-that all chess players are crazy-and I some times think him right"
 PiIlsbury's thin, angular body was topped by an oddly shaped, knobby head that gave the impression of men, tai power. Here's an odd genius" a person would naturally think before he learned Pillsbury's identity.
 His eyes were of remarkable beauty. They were very dark and reflected the mixed pride and friendship that actu- ated Pillsbury at the moment in a manner to haunt one. Such eyes could hypnotize a wooden Indian. There was something uncanny about them, and as Pillsbury the aside about craziness they seemed the mirrors of mind di- seased. He was only 2S and a prodigy of the game just then.
 Chess has always been the recrea- tion of the few, the minority who seek something beyond beer and sktttles in their amusements, and the resorts that amateurs frequent in the metropolis are not many. The best known are three clubs, the Manhattan, Brooklyn and Harlem, and situated in the rooms of, restaurants or cafes on the conti- mental blocks of lower Second avenue, which those of foreign birth most af- feet, are the Cosmopolitan, Boulevard, Metropolis, Rice and Hungarian clubs.
 The Rice Chess Club meets at one of the largest restauration on the avenue and is named for its patron, Isaac L. Rice. now in Europe on business of the Holland Submarine Company, of which he is president, He has conceived a gambit, or invented oned that, With the positive conclusions of true chess en- thusiast, he believes to mark an epoch in the game.
 He has spent a good deal of money in inducing masters to open With his gambit at tournaments and in prlses for games to include it. The club is made up of believers in the brilliancy of the combanation and in him.
 After several fittings, the Manhattan Chess Club has been for three years in rooms at Carnegie Hall, The suite is a peaceful oasis in tho hurly burly of city doings, and from the quiet intent ness of the members who sit over the pieces there in the afternoons and eve ings there is the suggestion Of concen- trated mental energy in the place that suggests a great consulting library.
 To corner an odd clubman waiting for a game and fire at him point blank such an explosive, dynamite sort of question seemed an invasion of club etiouette, but the one addressed, who proved to be veteran of American chess. seemed to be very glad to dis cuss the insanity theory and to refute 1t.
 'It is not true that chess makes master morbid or impairs the mind" said he. Our personal information and reseaches have caused us to lay the blame for Pillsbury's affliction to other causes.
 For instance, he would smoke ten or twelve of the very strongest cigars in an hour, at first only as stimulus during a match, but afterward habi- | tually. He was irregular in eating and had insomnia.
 'During the tournament at Cam | bridge Springs, in 1904, l know that Pill bury, after the days chess, would play | bridge until midnight, and on retiring | to his room, would read and smoke | until daylight. Such a disregard of na- | tl,re's laws would break down an iron | man.
 'steinitz, too; lived an irregular life. | He was cripple and of a craobed, rlorose disposition; besides, insanity | was heredity in his family.
 q knew poor Morphy well hand i some boy he was, and of gentle na- ture When at the height of his fame he | fell in love with belle Of New Or- leans, and when she rejected him for the reason that she could never marry | a mere chess master, it broke his | heart. He brooded and forsook chess living melancholy life, that had it's ending In insanity before he was 25.
 "The moderation of chess if reflected | in the worldly life of this trio of mast CTS. would have probably prolonged | their years of usefulness in the game | and heightened their share of earthly | 
 There is an old painting of Paul Nor phy on the wall of the clubrooms' It despicts a youth of unusual beauty, suggests earl picters of Byron, but this may be heightened by the curling locks and loose collar.
 The veteran, while showing the cur los +rophies and books of the club, re- verted again to the theme:
 Charles H. Stanley, British Vice. Consul at New York, was the best anna teur of the day until the rise of Morphy I met him frequently and he was person of delightful culture.