Recently, Rod Edwards, who developed the EDO historical rating system, and who supplied my readers with the awesome games and problems of the enigmatic "Judy," informed me of the access to the historic archives of the Victoria, British Columbia newspaper, The Daily Colonist. Furthermore, he included this small but fascinating article he had extracted from those archives:
TOUGH TASK. A rather ill-advised experiment made some years ago at Presburg has been lately repeated at Pesth. Two young Hungarians of the "gilded youth" type recently undertook to play a game of chess under the following extraordinary conditions. Sixty-four squares having been chalked out upon a billiard table, the chess men were represented by pint bottles of wine of various vintages. Thus, champagne was the king, claret the queen, Burgundy the bishops, port the castles, Madeira the knights, and flasks of a Hungarian "vin du pays" the pawns. A number of special rules wore ordained for the game, of which the most important was one prescribing that each player who made a move should empty the "piece" moved by him at a draught. Need I add that the game was never finished? In fact, after two hours or so of eccentric play, both players were stretched out on the floor. The combination of chess and "draughts" as a local wag remarked, had proved too much for them."
Victoria Daily Colonist, 13 May 1890
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