Brief, 1879

Received problems were given a preliminary examination, and, if they passed, were published anonymously in Brief between 1879-11-07 and 1880-08-27 (44 problems), where they were also object of a solving tourney.

In May, 1880 a list of 18 unsound problems was published together with the details of the fault(s). (While it is not stated, it later becomes clear that this list refers to the unsound problems from the preliminary examination.)

The judge's report adds that 62 problems had been contributed in all. Of the published problems, another four problems were disqualified due to unsoundness. Here no details are provided: the reader presumably has to find the corresponding solving tourney reports.

In addition to the announced prizes, the judge also donated and awarded third prizes for both two- and three movers.


The lack of motto requirement caused some minor problems in the publication of the result. The list of unsound problems had to refer to set from Chichester or set from London, sometimes complemented with the position of the Kings for disambiguation. However, a fairly large number of competitors had included mottoes, and they were used when possible.

The problems were published with a position no. from I to XLIV (1 to 44), and as they were also published as part of the series of problems on diagrams they also were assigned a problem no. from 90 to 174. The judge, however, used arabic numerals for position no. in his report, leading to some small confusion, particularly as the list of unsound problems also numbered entries 1 to 18.

The absence of motto requirement may also have caused the inadvertent omission of the set of J. Clark, postmarked 1879-10-12, to go unnoticed until the list of competitors was published almost a year later. While Clark did include a motto, there was no notice printed in Brief that a set had been received by the tourney manager.


The title of the newspaper changed during the period of the tourney. When v. 4 starts, the full title is Brief: a weekly epitome of the press, for the home circle, travellers and residents abroad, which in issue 90 (when the first tourney problem is published), changed to Brief, with which is incorporated The Week's News: An Epitome of the Press for the Home Circle, Travellers, & Residents Abroad. (The chess editor used the abbreviated full title Brief: The Weeks News in his postal address). In v. 6, the main front page title has changed accordingly: Brief: The Week's News, while the subtitle remains unchanged.