PREFACE TO NEW REVISED EDITION.


The following work is designed for those who are learning the noble game
of Chess.

Many persons have been confused and discouraged at the very outset of
the study by the great variety and the delicate distinctions of the
openings: and this has constituted a fault in many otherwise excellent
manuals for the learner.

The chief aim of the Editor of these pages has been to avoid this fault,
by simplifying the openings, and by giving to the student chiefly such
moves as are recognized to be the best, both in attack and defence. By
playing over carefully the illustrative games, the learner will also
see, at each opening, the variations made by experienced players in
accordance with circumstances. As great a variety of actually played
games has been given as was possible in a work of such limited scope. To
this end the games of the distinguished players of different nations
have been introduced, classified according to the different openings;
and thus the reader will find the combined genius and skill of the old
heroes like Philidor, Morphy, Staunton, Anderssen, Harrwitz, Evans,
Montgomery and Cochrane, together with such recent masters as Lasker,
Steinitz, Schlechter, Pillsbury, Marshall, Tarrasch, Janowsky,
Tchigorin, and many other players of world-wide celebrity. The basis of
this work is Staunton's "Chess Player's Handbook;" but other standard