Saturday, June 1

Telegraph match: Mechanics' Institute vs. Chess Club of Southern California

On Decoration Day, while the Manhattan and Frankin clubs were playing their match over the board in Philadelphia, another contest between strong teams took place a continent away, as the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club of San Francisco and the Chess Club of Southern California, based in Los Angeles, engaged in a 10-board match by telegraph, with the Los Angeles side emerging victorious by a margin of 6-4.  Winners for the southerners were Messrs. Waterman, Struve, Whipple, Perry (the former Harvard champion), and Mlotkowski (a recent arrival in Los Angeles from Philadelphia, who defeated San Francisco stalwart Dr. Lovegrove).  Messrs. Fink, Hallwegen, and W. Smith recorded victories for the northern team.  All reports attest to a considerable number of interested spectators in the two cities, as well as to the friendly and sporting atmosphere that prevailed at both ends of the telegraph line.  Let us hope that this successful event will prove but the first of many more to come in the years ahead.

We present below a selection of games from the match.

Our first offering was by common consent judged the best game of the contest:



Here, in a battle between West Coast chess "heavyweights", Mlotkowski defeats Dr. Lovegrove in an Evans Gambit:



Other notable games:











  

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