The New York LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. PREFACE. WIDE as is the field of theory which comprehends the manifald varieties of openings and endings in the game of Chess, its every part has been explored in modern times with so much skill and perseverance, that little now remains for a follower in this walk beyond the adaptation and arrangement of materials which have been garnered by his predecessors. The pretensions of this treatise can therefore take no lofty ground. Adopting the common basis founded by the earlier writers, Lopez, Salvio, Greco, Cozio, Lolli, &c., and superadding the important discoveries brought to light in the works of Bilguer and Jaenisch, I have aimed only at producing an instructive compendium available by the large majority of English players to whom those works are inacces sible. In my labours of collation and compression, I have not, however, indolently acquiesced in the opinions of those distinguished authorities, but have subjected every variation they have given to the test of repeated investigation, and hence it will be found that I have occasionally deviated from the course prescribed by them, and ventured on a route which they have overlooked. For these digressions, put forth without the advantage of revision by other players, I may reasonably solicit the indulgence that should be shown to any one who devotes himself to a task so difficult as that of devising new combinations in openings which have already undergone the ordeal of laborious examination by the most penetrating and industrious intellects. In a work of this description, intended as well for the general as the scientific reader, it was thought desirable to adhere to the notation in common use among the players of this country, but in a more elaborate and expansive treatise, it would certainly be desirable, perhaps indispensable, to adopt such a modification of the system as would admit of tabular demonstrations. Who that has ever attempted the wearisome exertion of threading his way through the ramifications of a leading opening from an English book, can ever forget the bewilderment and confusion which its endless references to "Variations 1, 2, 3," and " A, B, C," and "Games 5, 6, and 7," have occasioned him? And yet such references for the most part are needful, and indeed inseparable, from our method of recording the moves in columns, rather than on tables. Mindful of these obstacles to the progress of the student, I have been at some pains to lessen his difficulties in the present work. In the first place, by discarding all unnecessary variations, and abridging, where curtailment was practicable, the remainder; and secondly, by distinguishing the accredited methods of attack and defence from the subordinate or doubtful ones, by a difference of type. Thus the reader who has not leisure to pursue an opening through its several deviations, and is content to follow the moves which have been pronounced the best, has only to play over the column of larger type, and may reserve for a future opportunity the study of the many beautiful and suggestive variations which are given in the smaller letter. By these means much of the irksomeness complained of in the practice of playing from book may be avoided, and I have hopes that the mere learner will be enabled in a short time to master an opening of "The Handbook," variations and all, and derive not only profit but even pleasure from the task. |