The history of Chess Problems—a delightful subject, by the way—has yet to be written, and we are uninformed of the extent to which this beautiful off-shoot of the parent game was cultivated in former times.

At no period, however, in all probability has the attention of so many Chess Amateurs been devoted either to the production or to the solution of these ingenious puzzles, as in the present day. Chess Problems are now, indeed, a distinct branch of Chess study. This is undoubtedly due in a great measure to the immense impulse given to Chess a few years since, but it is partly owing, also, to the more attractive character of the compositions themselves. The earlier collections of Chess Problems consist largely of positions of the nature of what are called ‘End-games,’ positions in which, so long as the resemblance to a real game was preserved, little pains were taken to limit the number of moves required to effect the mate. Many of them, again, are of the ‘suicidal’ kind, and others are clogged by special and perplexing stipulations.

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A volume of Chess Problems so meritorious as these of Mr. Brown carries its own recommendation, and can hardly fail of a welcome wherever the game which it serves so beautifully to illustrate is known.

This posthumous collection, has, however, another claim to consideration, and one which will be irresistible to Chess players of generous sympathies. It is published solely for the benefit of the widow and orphans of its estimable Author.

In explanation of the fact that three or four of the diagrams in this volume are repetitions of preceding diagrams, it is proper to mention that many of Mr Brown’s Problems were printed in several periodicals, and have been collected bv different hands.