Chess
WHITE to play and mate in two moves: solution next week.
Solution to last week's problem by Latzel :R-B4 threat Q x B. 1 . . . Kt-K 3; 2 Q-K 5.
1 Kt-Kt 6; 2 R-B3. I B-K4; 2 R-K 4. I .
B-B 6; 2 Q-Q 3. I . . . B any other; 2 Q-Q 2. 1 . . R-Q 6; 2 Kt-Q 5. Very fine example (31 half-pin theme combined with Black interference with his own rooks.
POST-MOSCOW REFLECTIONS
Chess has some claims to be regarded as the most widely played game in the world except for football, and its increasingly international character was borne out by the entries in the Moscow•Glympiad—a record nurnber of thirty- four. This shows up not so much in the top section, which consisted entirely of well- established teams, as in the bottom group in the finals. To choose at random, the pairings in the fourth round were India v. Greece, Scotland v. Philippines, Ireland v. Luxemburg, Puerto Rico v. Mongolian People's Republic, and Saar v. Iran—five of these teams had never before entered. It is particularly interesting to see India competing, as she is generally thought to be the home of chess from which it spread both East and West some 1,300 years ago. While the Indian team did not do particularly well this time, I shall be surprised if both India and Pakistan do not produce formidable teams in the future. No one of my generation will ever forget the sensation caused by the appearance in this country of Sultan Khan and Miss Fatima; in 1932 they both played in the British championships at Hastings—Sultan Khan won the men's title with 9} out of 11 and MisS Fatima (aged nineteen) the ladies' with 10} out of 11, playing with extreme rapidity and considerable nonchalance. What has been done once can be done again.
Curiously enough, European chess has never got any hold in China or Japan. The Chinese have their own version of the game—including, amongst other differences, a 'river' in the middle of the board—which seems, on the whole, to offer less scope than our form and to be regarded by the Chinese themselves as 'a second-rate genie. In both countries, the game of 'Go' .is considered to be much superior to chess, and in • Japan 'Go' is perhaps even more played and more highly organised than chess in Russia (from a superficial knowledge, 1 have a horrible heretical feeling that maybe it really is the better game).
Apart from China and .Japan, there is no major area of the world where chess is not played, and 1 am sure that entries for team tournaments and .nternational play generally will continue to increase, and this, • in my opinion, is desirable, Relations between players on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain are (with a very few unfortunate exceptions) genuinely friendly-1 know that I have made a number of good friends east of the curtain---and inter- national play does help, in a small way, to spread the realisation on each side that those on the other side are also human beings.
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