San Francisco: A.J. Fink is new Mechanics' Institute Champion

From San Francisco now comes word that Adolf J. Fink, whom we recently introduced to our readers, has captured the Championship of the prestigious Mechanics' Institute Chess Club with the excellent score of 14 points from 15 games played.  Finishing a close second to the new Champion was veteran George Hallwegen with 13 1/2 points.  Mr. Hallwegen had the satisfaction of defeating young Mr. Fink in the final round to narrow the gap between the two experts to a mere half-point.  Third place fell to Bernardo Smith, an exceptional result when one considers that Mr. Smith only took up the game three years ago.  Mr. Smith, moreover, inflicted on Mr. Hallwegen the only defeat that the latter suffered during the course of the tourney, and will doubtless make his presence felt in future events.  We have heard that there is some talk of arranging a match between Messrs. Fink and Hallwegen; should such an eventuality come to pass, we shall of course report it in these pages.

We present three games from the tourney: a victory by Fink, the new Champion, over fourth-place finisher William Smith; the win by Hallwegen over Fink; and Bernardo Smith's defeat of Hallwegen.