|
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
|
