The opening season of the new Metropolitan Chess League is well underway, with twelve teams - representing the Brooklyn, Columbia, Eastern District, Lyceum, Manhattan, North Jersey, Ocean Hill, Progressive, Queen's Gambit, Rice (Newark), Staten Island, and Washington Heights chess clubs - competing on a regular basis. One unfortunate occasion of discord arose early on, when the Rice Chess Club of New York withdrew from the competition, the stated reason being the appearance of several Rice Club members on the roster of the Progressive Club team. As many, if not most, metropolitan chess aficionados maintain a membership in more than one club, we consider the objection by Prof. Rice, whom we hold in the highest regard, to be quite unfounded, and the withdrawal of his club from league play to represent a serious error in judgment on his part. To his credit, let it be noted that Prof. Rice has stated that notwithstanding the refusal of his team to participate in the league he will nevertheless supply the trophy that he had promised to award to the team taking second place in the competition.
To return to events on the chessboard, on the 14th inst. the Brooklyn and Manhattan clubs, both then undefeated in league play, met in Brooklyn in a much-anticipated clash, with the hosts prevailing by a narrow 4 1/2 - 3 1/2 score. Winners for Brooklyn were club Champion Roy T. Black and William M. de Visser, while G.E. Northrup scored for the Manhattan side, the other five games being drawn. As of this writing the Brooklyn Club has won all of its matches during the current season for an 8-0 mark, with the Manhattan and Progressive Clubs trailing close behind, each with a record of 6-1.
We have three games from the Brooklyn-Manhattan match to offer to our readers, all worthy of attention. In the first, Roy T. Black wins a pawn from Manhattan's Leonard B. Meyer and later achieves victory in a long Bishop vs. Knight endgame.
Next, Brooklyn's de Visser bests Albert Pulvermacher in a hard-fought battle that does credit to both men.
In our final offering of the day, Brooklyn's Harry Zirn and Manhattan's Magnus Smith play to a short, sharp draw.
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