Vo.tume VI. No. 1l.
THE CHESS TOURNAMENT,
Yale has an Excellent Coach for Her
Players.
Yale will send better prepared men
to the fifth annual Intercollegiate
Chess Tournament, than she has sent
to any previvus contest of this kind.
This much is sure, whatever the result
of the tournament. To be sure, Mur-
dock, one of Yale’s representatives this
year, was defeated in several games
in the University Tournament, where-
as last year he did not lose a point.
But that only shows that chess is on
a higher level here now, and the
average play is better.
The increased interest in the game
has not only resulted in better play
all around, and hence better practice
for the best players, but it has en-
couraged the members of the Chess
Club and the chief graduate sup-
porter of the game at Yale, Mr. E. A.
Caswell, Yale, ’66, to engage the ser-
vices of an excellent coach, Major
Hannam of New York, under whose
influence the Yale play has already
improved and who has said that he is
very much pleased with the response
of the men to the instruction given.
It is early to speculate, but Har-
vard certainly seems to have the best
chance to win the cup for the year,
and so tighten her grip on it for per-
manent possession. In her list are
such men as Ryder,~ Southard and
Hewins, all players of the first class.
Columbia put up a strong game last
year, her men having been well
coached. Only a slip by Price in the
end game of the last day lost that
game to Princeton and gave the cup
to Harvard,
The tournament will be held in New
York at the Columbia Grammar School
from December 27 to January 1. Yale’s
representatives have been chosen and
will be F. A. Lehlbach ’98; and W. M.
Murdock ’98S8., with F. C. Cook 1900
and H. C. Robbins ’99, as substitutes.
The teams from the other colleges
are not yet announced, although Mr.
Southard is) sure of a place on the
Harvard team, and at this writing
Messrs. Parker and Seward are ahead
in the Columbia tournament.
The list of entries from the colleges,
other than Yale, is as follows:—
Columbia—John Erskine, College;
Miles R. Moffatt, College; George R.
Jacobus, College; John C. Knapp, Col-
lege; Ernest G. Lemcke, College; Gor-
don Parker, Jr., College; Asa W. Park-
er, Jr., Mines; George O.
Mines; Alfred L. Kroeber, Philosophy;
Arthur Price, Law.
Harvard—W. C. Arensberg, 1900; C.
L. Barnard, ’97; C. H. Dunn, Medi-
cine; E. P. Fay, Law; H. C. Ffoulke
98; J. Hewins; “98; Aj W. Ryder 97;
HK. E. Southard, “of; ih. Enavyer, 99.
Princeton—Henry L. Bassett, ’98;
Milton B. Morehouse, 798; Edmund B.
Seymour, ’98; John A.. Ely, °99; Wil-
liam W. Young, :-99; Harry J. Brandt,
1900; FE. Jarvis, 1900; G. W. Gordon, ’99;
Walter L. Johnson, ’97.
PAST TOURNAMENTS WITH RECORDS.
These tournaments have been held
in New York for the past’ five years,
during the Christmas holidays. Play
begins every day at 2:30 p. m. and
if the games are not decided by 10:30
p. m., they are judged by the umpire.
Each player plays one game with each
other man, and fifteen moves must be
played within the hour.
The championship emblem is a sil-
yer cup, which was presented by grad-
Seward, |
NEW HAVEN, CONN., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1896.
vates of the four colleges. Edward A.
Caswell ’66, was originator of these
tournaments. He contributed largely
towards the cup and will have entire
charge of the tournament this year.
Each member of the winning team is
presented with a silver medal on
which is engraved his name and the
date. If the challenge cup remains
with any club for ten consecutive
years it becomes the property of the
college.
The record of the tournaments for the
last four years follows :—
1892-93.
COLUMBIA. YALE.
Won. Lost. Won, Lost,
Hymes 6 0 Bumstead 3 3
Libaire 3 3 Skinner 2 4
HARVARD. PRINCETON.
Bailou 4) 1 Dickey 0 6
Wilson 24 38% |EHwing 214 314
1893-94.
COLUMBIA. ALE.
Won. Lost. Won. Lost.
Hymes 56 1% |Ross 2 4
Libaire 3 38 .jSkinner 3 3
HARVARD. PRINCETON.
Hewins 5 1 |Ewing 1 5
Spalding 2 4 |Roberts 2% 3%
1894-95.
COLUMBIA. YALE.
Won. Lost. Won. Lost.
‘Binion 1% 442 |Bumstead 2) 4
(Price 1% 4144 |Ross 4 2
HARVARD. PRINCETON.
‘Ballou 4lh 1% |Belden 214 314
V'n Kileeck 4% $=$.$11% |Seymour 3% 216
COLUMBIA. YALE.
Won. Lost. Won. Lost.
Price 3 3 Arnstein 1% 4l,
Ross 5 1 Murdoch 2 4
HARVARD. PRINCETON.
Ryder 4ln 144 |Elmer 0 6
Southard 4 2 Seymour 4 2
HOW THE TOURNAMENTS BEGAN.
The following from an issue of the
New York Tribune in the Fall of 1892
gives the history of the tournaments:
“The idea of having an annual chess
tournament between the four colleges,
Columbia, Harvard, Yale and Prince-
ton, representing Massachusetts, Con-
necticut, New York and New Jersey,
was started about a year ago by EH. A.
Caswell, of Yale, ’66, in a letter pub-
lished in The Tribune of November 8,
1891. This gentleman secured sub-
seriptions of $100 each from Harvard,
Columbia and Princeton’ graduates,
and
ceeds were used in the purchase of
the cup, at $400; a die for striking off
medals, and a handsome book of rec-
ord, which contains the deed of gift,
and later will contain the record of the
tournaments. Several designs for the
cup were submitted by different manu-
facturers, and the donors, as well as
the four chess clubs of the four col-
leges, were unanimous in the choice of
Messrs. Tiffany & Co.’s design. A
code of rules and regulations is also
the result of an agreement on the part
of the various clubs. . The first tourna-
ment will be held in this city during
the Christmas vacation, but the lo-
cality has not yet been determined.
“Inter-University chess matches be-
tween Oxford and Cambridge have
been instituted in England since 1872,
the first having been organized in that
year chiefly through the efforts of Mr.
Steinitz, Mr. Anthony, then president
of,, the Oxford, C...C.,. and... Mr... De
Soyres, president at the time of the
Cambridge C. C. These contests have
been very successful, and greatly in-
strumental in making the game
popular’ throughout England.
“The cup weighs about seventy-five
ounces, and is fourteen inches high.
The back of the vase has blank shields
for the inscription of the names of the
competing colleges, with dates and
scores of tournaments.”
$200 from Yale men, The pro-—
MR» RAYNOLDS REPLIES,
Some Pertinent Points on Yale’s
Debating Methods. :
[Mr. E. V. Raynolds in Yale News.]
As the action of the Advisory Board
on Debating of Harvard University
has brought up again the question of
coaching of debating teams, and in
view of the fact that at the confer-
ence of representatives of Harvard,
Princeton and Yale held last May I
gave my assent to a guarded expres-.
sion of opinion that there was a pos-
sibility of abuse in Faculty coaching,
it may not be out of place to give my
opinions on this subject at somewhat
greater length, especially as they are
in radical disagreement with those of
Harvard’s representatives.
I did not, and-do not, consider that
there has been at Yale any abuse in
this direction, nor do I regard the ad-
mitted possibility of abuse as other
than a very remote one, and I should
consider any action taken at Yale sim-
ilar to that of the Advisory Board at
Harvard as ill-advised and unfortu-
nate. ‘
It is of course true that there will
rarely be much originality in the mat-
ter presented by the debaters, but if
that is a fault it is one inseparable
from debate. It can rarely happen that
any member of the team will have any
thorough knowledge of the subject as-
signed or can startle the world by any
really new thought upon it. Knowl-
edge, both of the facts involved and
of the pros and cons of the argument,
must be got up between the time of
giving out the subject and the time of
the debate, and it seems to me im-
material whether such knowledge be
obained at first hand from men who
have it, whether members of the Fac-
ulty or not, or whether it be obtained
at second hand from books and mag-
azine articles which those men have
written. If preliminary training for a
debate is to be restricted to elocution
there is one way to ensure it, that of
giving out the subject for the first
time when the debate is about to be-
gin, but it is hardly probable that
any one would care to listen to more
than one intercollegiate debate con-
ducted under such a rule.
The editorial writer in the Crim-
son who compares the coached de-
bater to a chess player performing
the mechanical act of moving the
pieces while an expert behind his back
plans the moves for him, can hardly
imagine that a professor stands on the
platform behind the debater, whisper-
ing in his ear, though his words would
seem to imply some such belief. If the
part of the chess expert were limited |
to improving his pupil’s play before
the match the comparison would be
less infelicitous.
Harvard attempts to limit as much
as possible Faculty coaching, but re-
fuses to put any limitation whatever
on the eligibility for the debating team
of any students, no matter what the
character of his studentship may be. I
have this year no connection with
Yale, except as a graduate; last year
I was a member of the “Faculty” in
the broad sense in which the word in-
cludes all whose names are on the list
of officers. Is there any reason why I
could now legitimately do what would
have been illegitimate last year, or
would the case be altered if, by the
simple and easy means of writing my
name on the books, I were to make
myself nominally a graduate student?
In the latter case, according to Har-
vard’s contention, it would be at once
Price Ten CENTS.
become entirely proper for me to be a
member of the debating team. I should
be disposed to consider that an
“abuse,” but it would have a certain
merit as a practical reductio ad absur-
dum of Harvard’s position.
$$$ ——_
The New Football Captain.
A meeting of the members of this
year’s football team was held on Mon-
day, and James Otis Rodgers, ’98, of
Toledo, Ohio, was elected captain for
next year. :
Mr. Rodgers played two years on
the Andover eleven and was captain
of the team the last year. He was
substitute tackle on the University
eleven in his Freshman year and for
the last two years has played regu-
larly at left tackle. He rowed on his
class crew in Freshman year and was
a member of the University crew at
Henley last July, rowing at No. 4.
Some doubt has been felt as to wheth-
er Mr. Rodgers wished to become cap-
tain of the eleven or the crew, but
he will not row next year. He has
been advised by physicians to rest
from severe athletic work during the
rest of the year. The strain of row-
ing, it is feared, might develop a
slight tendency to heart trouble, some
traces of which have been found on
examination. It is believed, however,
that he will run no risk whatever in
football work another year.
———_—_4@___—_—_
Freshman Base Ball Officers.
A meeting of the Freshman class
was held last Friday evening in Alum-
ni Hall for the purpose of electing
officers for the class baseball associa-
tion. H. M. Keator, ’97, presided and
aiter a few remarks called for nom-
inations for the offices of president
from 1900, vice president from ’9958.,
and treasurer frcm 1900. The nomina-
tions for president were Wickes,
Brindley, Schweppe and Nims; for
Vice President, Hogle, Warden, Mit-
chell, McCullugh and Grant; for Treas-
urer, Francis, Tenney, J. Phillips and
Minor. 'The following were elected:
President, R. J. Schweppe, 1900, — St.
Louis, Mo.; Vice President, C. Warden,
’°99S., Philadelphia, Pa.; Treasurer, D.
D. Tenney, 1900, Minneapolis, Minn.
——_——_—_- >
A New Library Acquisition.
The University Library has just re-
ceived a volume issued in commemora-
tion of the cumpletion by Professor
Sievers, of Leipzig, of twenty-five
years of activity as Professor of Ger-
manic Philology. The large octavo,
containing almost 450 pages, is en-
titled, ‘‘Philologische Studien: Fest-
gabe fur Eduard Sievers zum 1, Ok-
tober, 1896,”’ and is wholly the work of
former pupils of Professor Sievers.
Among the contributions is one by
Professor Cook, entitled, ‘“‘Bemerkun-
gen zu Cynewulfs Christ.”
me
Dr. L. J. Sanford Seriously Ill.
Dr. Leonard J. Sanford, an honorary
member of the Class of 1858, is at
present very seriously ill of heart dis-
ease at his homeinthis city. His attack
came on about a week ago and after a
few day’s his life was given up by his
attending physician. As the WEEKLY
goes to press (Wednesday noon), it is
still his physician’s opinion that he can
not recover, though he may live three
or four days longer.
_ Dr. Sanford has always taken much
interest in Yale and is well known to
Yale men through his extended practice
in this city and his connection with the
University as professor and lecturer.
