Of armies on the chequer'd field array'd And guiltless War in pleasing form display'd; When two bold Kings contend with vain alarms, In ivory this, and that in ebon arms, Sing, sportive maids No prize we need our ardour to inflame, We fight with pleasure if we fight for fame.-SIR W. JONES. HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY BEQUEST OF SILAS W. HOWLAND LONDON: HARRISON AND CO., PRINTERS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE. PREFACE. In the year 1840, the conductors of the Saturday Magazine determined to introduce the game of Chess into the pages of that widely circulated periodical, from a conviction that if the game were more generally introduced into families and schools, it would exert a highly beneficial influence by exciting a taste for more exalted sources of recreation than are afforded by games of chance, which are still sometimes permitted to young people in the absence of other sedentary occupation for their leisure hours. It was considered that games of chance, so far from producing a beneficial influence on the mind, are apt to disturb the temper, excite animosity, and foster a spirit of gambling; whereas Chess, on the contrary, being an effort of pure skill, gives healthy exercise to the mental powers; it requires caution and forbearance on the part of both players; it leaves the victor satisfied with having won the game without the additional stimulus of “a stake;” and it entails no humiliation on the vanquished, but rather prompts him to greater exertions. In the beginning of 1841, therefore, a series of papers illustrative of the History, Antiquities, and Curiosities of the game was commenced, and continued in alternate numbers throughout the year. This series having been well received, a second was entered on, illustrative of the game itself, the chief objects being to enable any one to study the game from the very commencement, and to make the young student acquainted with a few of the leading features of the principal openings; it was also a further object to introduce |