The proceedings of the Congress, and the scores of the players
in the Tournaments have been reported from day to day in the
Belfast papers, and the games of the masters with some selected
from the amateur handicaps have also been given, and save that
the same have been presented without comment on the merits of
the play, description, or notes which are found so useful and
acceptable to the general reader, otherwise considered, from a purely
local point of view, nothing remained to be desired. From a
national chess point of view, however, it seems to have been too
lightly regarded by the Press, some trophy in the amateur
competitions to commemorate the name of Alexander McDonnell, a
native of Belfast, who did more in his time than any other man to
uphold British chess reputation, might also not have been
inappropriate on such an occasion. Personally I was surprised that
the name of McDonnell did not appear to be more vividly
remembered in his native city.
It seems desirable, if not indeed absolutely necessary before
describing the games contested by the four masters, Blackburne,
Bird, Lee, and Mason, to say a few words about the original
inception of the great matches in which it was at one time
proposed that two other eminent players, not British born should
participate, but who at the last moment sought certain undue
advantages beyond the very liberal bonuses provided, and even a
controlling influence never anticipated by the committee, and to
which of course it could not, with any full sense of propriety or
regard to originally avowed intentions and subscribers views consent.
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