El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-05-02
Chess Is Popular Pastime
Game, First Located in Persia in
Year go, Is Now Played.
by Many Nations.
-BT Frederic J. Haafzfu


number Of nations than any other
game which has ever existed. The re-
cent tournament in New York was re-
ported in detail in the press of every
European nation, while the chess de-
voices glOated as enthusiastic Ifv
baseball fan this season over the Prov
eSs of his favOrite. The rules and reg
ulatiOns of the game of chess are the
same throughout the world and in
ternational tournaments are becoming
more frequent each year.
As with several of the other old
games, chess in America has only re-
Gently come into popular favor, but
its advance within the past half cen
fury has been phenomenal and TO-DAY
there are hundreds Of chess clubs in
this country which are well sup
ported. as well as six Interstate as
sociatiOns and several leagues Of
chess clubs.
Popular in Universities.
The game is becoming increasingly
popular in the universities and one Of
the strongest organizations is the c.
n. Y p. league of Chess clubs which
represents Columbia, Harvard. Yale
and Princeton universities The annual
tournament of this league is an i'm
pOrtant event in the chess world. Sew
eral cable matches have been
played by this league with the clubs OF
Cambridge and Oxford universities in
2 AdlA4- ouEA d uldLEn WAS EG0eQuleQ
Tor this spring but had to be post
pOned because the cable service could
not. be secured In order TO have a
cable match, there must be arranged
the exclusive use Of a cable for a day
and a half 1t was PLANNED 10 have
this match in March but the cable
companies could not promise the ser
vice during that month and in April
II was found to conflict with the eX-
aminations in the English universities,
& Oh -
English universities to the American
c H Y. P. league is now in allegiance.
Stimulus to Memory.
While the university chess activities
are regarded by the professional play
ers as amateur, they are becoming in
creasingly important as the interest IN
the game entices a greater number q
serious players. The University cf
Pennsylvania, as well as Brown and
Cornell have well organized chess
clubs whose matches add materially
to the chess activities Of the year. In
the smaller colleges and even in the
public high schools, both in Canada
and the United States, chess is becom-
Brooklyn Institute Of Arts and Sciences
for three years has included chess
among the lists of subjects for q ser
les Of lectures and educators in many
institutions pay tribute to the value Of
the game as Stimulus to .the mem
DRY and the powers Of observation OF
the player.
origin Credited to Persia.
The origin of chess is usually cred
tied TO Persia, although it has been
claimed for China and India. and. by
recent Spanish archeOlOgist, for Egypt
Each Of these nations has legends and
other traces Of the game extending far
back beyond authentic history. The
earliest authentic history locates
chess in Persia in the year $50 and the
word chess is known to be Of Persian
origin coming from the word shaw
meaning king" and chess has been
considered a game for kings from time
immemOriaL Originally it was played
with dice thrown to indicate the num-
Der OF moves The dice have been
discarded for centuries and the old
Persians played the game with a boat
an elephant a horse. a king and four
foot soldiers for each Of the four
sides, making 30 pieces in all. Al
though chess is a game for two play
ers, there used to be four cOlOrs used
The red and yellow might play the
the pieces OF two cOlOrs- Modern
chess has the pieces in two cOlOrs
only which are generally designated
as white and black. Instead Of the
old Persian names. the modern player
designates his chessmen as kings,
paEns, but the number remains the
same.
Book on Chess Written in 1900.
The first book on chess was written
de CessOlis in 1900. 1t is claimed that
a small treatise on the game was writ
ten by AlphOusO II. known as Al
phOnsO the Wise. as far back as the
year $50 The first book ever printed
from metal type was THE Game and
Playe Of the Chesse." printed by VIII
liam Caxton in 1874 It was a trans
latiOn Of a French manuscript book
on the subject. So far as is known
no specimen of this edition Of Cax-
ton now exists
The game found its first home IN
Spain towards the close of the 18th
century and in 1861, Ruy Lopez pun
lished his treatise which is recognized
as the foundation Of all modern chess
His work was republlShed in Venice,
In 1884. and from that date the Ital-
ians became recognized for their
chess dominance. The first chess cham
piOn seems to have been PaOH BOi,
who defeated every master of his
time including RUy Lopez himself
PaOli BOi was patrOnized by Catherine
De Medici and by Sebastian, king OF
Portugal both of whom conferred
nonOrs and gifts of money upon him.
England Favored Game in 1745.
Chess was not played extensively IN
England until about 1745 when a Syr-
an named Stamina appeared in Brit
.sh court circles and excited the ad-
mlratiOn OF the nobility by MS skill
tul playing. The game appealed es-
DecialIy to the literary people who
we're becoming more numerous in
England at that period. They did
much to encourage chess spirit by
exploiting the game in their writings
This tended to pOpularize il with the
educated classes. For more than half
I century England held supremacy in
the chess world. She lost it when
Howard Stanton. her champion, refused
TO meet Paul MOrphy, the first i'm
oortant player ever produced in che
United States and who is even now
regarded by some as the greatest
chess player the world has ever seen.
Honor Roll for Paul MOrphy.
Morphy was born in New Orleans \
in 1887 and began to play chess when (
a boy of 10, being attracted to it by [
the games played by his
father and uncle, the latter being ct
that time the leader of the New Or |
cans Chess club. Before he had COM |
1leted his school life. young MOrphy's
playing was pronounced unusual and
before he was 25 he had defeated (
the Hungarian champion
and Eugene ROsseau, a player well
known on both hemispheres and |
number of the most distinguished !
players in America In 1857 he was |
Induced to come north to attend the (
first American Chess congress which (
was held in New York. His success /
,ul contests with a number of world |
-enowned players brought him directly /
nto the Hmelight- A few years later I
lie went to England to play against |