The Game of Chess

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THE GAME OF CHESS.

Fashion is the great arbiter of human conduct. Now one thing, then another, is lifted into a degree of public notice which it never had before. Then something else of an analogous kind usurps its place, and sends its predecessor into obscurity, to be revived by circumstances in the course of time. As the fashions of our garments alter and change, one succeeding another until the old come back again, so the habits and diversions of civilized life lose their popularity, and disappear, to be revived at some future time with an equal popularity to that which they ever enjoyed before.

In this way the game of chess, which had long fallen into desuetude and neglect among us, has been revived by the singular success obtained by our youthful countryman, Paul Morphy,¹ in his contests with the ablest chess players of Europe. We are glad to see that in all our large cities, and even in rural neighborhoods, chess clubs are being formed, and as much avidity is exhibited to gain distinction and pre-eminence in the practice of this game, as politicans display in their struggles for place and power.

The chess game we regard as one likely to exert a most beneficial effort on the American character, if it become a favorite with us. The greatest fault in our mental constitutions is that we are too hasty and excitable. We are logical enough, but we are deficient in the patience necessary to reason out an intricate problem to its legitimate conclusion. Hence Congressional orations are declamatory rather than argumentative, voters are often led away by momentary excitement and sudden impulses, instead of basing their political action on long-cherished principles and calm reflection. In our business affairs, as in our political action, we are too much addicted to what sensation newspapers would call "splurges"—we attempt to get rich by bold speculations instead of a long course of steady industry; and in our recreations, even, we rush forward with an avidity which often defeats the object of recreation itself.

To these habits and tendencies the practice of chess is likely to act as a corrective. There is probably no other amusement which demands such patience, such intense and long-continued exercise of the faculties of combination and analysis. It is therefore adapted to strengthen our national characteristics precisely in the point where they are most liable to be deficient, and to neutralise that prevailing tendency to haste and superficiality, whihc mars our intellectual efforts and too often exhausts and wears us out, prematurely, both in body and mind. We are therefore glad to see that a thriving chess club has been formed in this district, which meets at Theall's, South 8th street, and of which many of the most promising young men in the Burgh have become members.

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