Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-04-26
FINALS IN RICE 6AMB|T
F. C. BYLER WINS CLOSE RACE
AND IS THE FIRST CHAMP.

The distinction of having his name first
inscribed on the handsome presentation
chess table donated by Prof. Rice in honor
of the Rice gambit tourney just COM
pleted at the local chess club has fallen
to F. c. Byler, the well known Interior
player 1t was predicted in last weeks
notes that the final issue would probably
be very close and 1t will be seen from
the scores below that, to use racing par
lance. a postage stamp would cover the
out STARTS. Smell and Napoleon. who
were tied for the second place only half
a point behind him. The winner played
in his usual careful style throughout.
but perhaps his success was due mostly
to the way in which he handled the black
forces He departed to some extent from
the recognized book play in the Jasno-
rodsky defense, thereby establishing a
variation that required the most expert
meet. In addition to this his line of
play included trap which was so clever
ly masked that a number Of strong play
ers readily fell victims to 1t. Only three
Of his opponents succeeded in outwitting
Byler's defense. namely, Pratt, Stephen
SON and MundelIe One other player.
Smell, was equally successful with the
black pieces. though his defense was less
tricky. 1t was unfortunate that a few
of the most expert competitors In the
tourney. notably F. B. Walker, the De-
partmental League champion. were I'M
able to finish their schedules and thus
failed to qualify for the final scores.
4 =
Exhaustive analysis has shown that the
Rice gambit should at least win as many
games as the defense with the best on
both sides. nevertheless in the present
tourney the attack was always slightly
behind when the weekly totals were
taken. Altogether white won 1O1 games
and black 1874. while 40 were drawn. SO
that the gambit ran behind 80 games on
the whole play. UnQuestfonably, how
ever, this result was not attributable to
any intrinsic demerit in the Rice attack.
but rather to lack of knowledge on the
part of the competitors. The majority
of these started the tourney with practi-
cally no familiarity with the finer points
of the attack and Defense and, inasmuch
as there were many defenses to choose
from and but one attack, it followed that
any player who was well posted on a par
ticular defense generally had his Oppon-
ent at a disadvantage. The real value Of
the Rice gambit among amateur players
can no doubt be better demonstrated by
means of correspondence play, when each
side has the book to refer to as well as
ample time to analize the position move
by move. A tourney of this sort was
promoted some time ago by the Pills
bury National Correspondence Chess AS
ISOLATION and was participated in by 80
experienced players all over the United
States. The AGO games contested in the
first round resulted in 2O6 wins for white
and 1876 for black, while 30 were drawn
and 20 unfinished. Thus the gambit
scored per cent more wins than the de-
Tense in this thorough test. In any event.
with this Ohe first) years experience to
fall back upon, Washington players will
no doubt give the famous Rice opening
a more searching test next season.
The final standing of each of the con-
testants having a percentage of 500 or
above is as follows: