Puzzle of the Week
August Julius Mendheim (c. 1781 – † 25 August 1836) was a German chess player and composer. He is considered the first Prussian chess master and forerunner of the Berlin Chess School. The interesting position is two folded: White can mate in five if White to move and so can Black.
Black to Move - Mate in Five
Game of the Week
Marshall - Burn- Paris
Knaurs Schachbuch - Vier Jahrhunderte Schach
The Paris 1900 chess tournament was an event held in conjunction with the Exposition Universelle (1900), one of the world’s most notable fairs or exhibitions and designated a “World Exposition” by the Bureau of International Expositions.
The tournament of 1900 was played in the Grand Cercle, Paris, from May 17 to June 20, 1900
While this could be just another tournmanet, one notable game stood out due the comments of one player, Mr. Marshall. Marshall’s “game report” of his famous match against the English Amos Burn (see annotations) would be grist to the mill of those who claim that chess is not a sport.
This short game was humorously commented on by Marshall himself in his book “50 Years at the Chessboard”:
I attribute my victory in this game to the fact that my partner did not find time to smoke his pipe during the game.
The Englishman Amos Burn was a chess player of the old style who loved a long and tough fight in closed-type positions above all else. He settled down at the board just too much at home and studied the possibilities persistently and patiently, always with the inevitable pipe between his teeth.
