CHESS-PLAYER'S HANDBOOK. A POPULAR AND SCIENTIFIC INTRODUCTION TO THE GAME OF CHESS. BY HOWARD STAUNTON. WITH AN ALPHABETICAL LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL By R. F. GREEN. LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK ST., COVENT GARDEN, AND NEW YORK. HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY BEQUEST OF SILAS W. HOWLAND LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. PREFACE. WIDE as is the field of theory which comprehends the mani. fold 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 prolucing an instructive compendium available by the large majority of English players to whom those works are inaccessible. 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. |