Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-03
ATHLETIC CLUB
IN FOR CHESS
DR.. GRIFFITH, CRACK PLAYER,
TO FORM TEAM
Prot. Dewitt Van Court, instructor
Of Boxing, Assumes His New
Duties with Bright
Pro, poets

Tbe best chess player on the Pacific
coast and at one time the best in tbe
country Joined the Los Angeles A th
ietic club last week when DR.. r. n.
Gritfith signed the membership role
ne FORMATION of n strong chess team
MT TO represent Los Angeles is being
pusheo apace, and upon Dr. Grih1th il
pIaceu tne main reliance for its sue
cess. He has promised to deliver a
series of lectures and illustrate sop,e
OF the various games, as we'll as pIav.
some exhibition games blndfold and
otherWise, these remarkable feats ,e
ing among his specialties.
Grlfnth won the national champion
ship at chess i'm New York early in
the last decade by defeating in two
successive years the champion of tbe
Mammalian Chess club in a series of
match games between a Philadeln,Ia
club which he represented and the
New York organization. Prior to that
griffith qualified for a place on the
american cable team Of ten best play
ers In the United States This team
played without Griffith owing to his
illness at the time, but won its matches
consistently. DR.. Griffith himself nm
previous occasions, and subsequently,.
defeated some of the best men on the
victorious American team, making his
claim to the championship appear we'll
founded.
The most remarkable things to a.
layman in Griffith's work are his
Dllndfold games. He can play a num-
Der of these with different players at
the same time and win practically all
of them, never seeing the hoard at all.
CARRYING eight or nine different games
| IN his head and walking from one
board to another is nothing for Griffith
and at this style of play no man on
the coast can hold a candle to him at
his best. Many think that with a lit
tie practice he could best the celebrated
DR.. Lasker, who speaks in the highest
terms of the young physicians play.
The Los Angeles Athletic club is now
considering series of telegraph
matches for it's chess team as soon as
the players are brought together
Denver Athletic club, Chicago, San
francisco, Seattle, and New York all
have strong clubs and some great
games may be expected. DR.. Griffith
is OF course the main reliance, and
with such help it is hard to see how
the local team could lose.
Some kind of a chess trophy is be-
| ing considered, and the Los Angeles
Chess, Checker and Whist club may be
asked to cooperate in securing one to
carry with it the championship of the
coast. This organization has some
splendid chess players in it, many be-
ing also members of the Los Angeles
Athletic club.
Van Court at Work
| Dewitt Van Court, the crack boxing
instructor of the local athletic club
assumed his duties last Thursday after
noon at the club gymnasium on South
Spring street. and has had a very en-
| thusiastic class ever since. He gives
two hours q day to the boxers, and has
some of the finest material he ever
| handled.
| Van Court operates systematically,
not by hit and miss methods, as most
instructors do. He inculcates the use
of the feet as well as of the hands;
teaches one how to keep his head out
of harms way, and works individually
after the first principles are shown.
| Van does not do so much boxing with
his pupils; he relies mainly upon maxi
ing them learn the game by sparring
with each other under his direction,
and no one can say it is not a most
successful scheme. Any fellow he can
not teach to box is a hopeless case and
had better quit wasting his time trying
| to learn.
| He makes of the manly game a splen-
did exercise, perhaps the best in the
world. His pupils are made to learn
forbearance; nothing brings sharp
reprimand so quickly from Van Court
as any evidence of "slugging" or a bet
ter man making a punching bag of a
weaker. FOrbearance and GOODNESS
under fire are two of the greatest ad-
Vantages he claims for boxing.