Calendar for the United States.

A list of other articles on special aspects of gardening will be found in the chapter For Farmers.

INDOOR GAMES

For learning indoor games—excluding indoor athletic games which have been listed above—the Britannica is particularly valuable, because of its elaborate treatment by noted authorities and because the handy and convenient form of the India paper volume makes an article on any indoor game as easy to consult as a hand-book dealing with only one game.

For example, the article on Bridge (Vol. 4, p. 528) is by William Henry Whitfeld, card-editor of The Field. The article is the equivalent of 15 pages in this Guide; and it describes both auction and ordinary bridge, with paragraphs on advice to players, declarations, doubling, redoubling, play of the hand, playing to the score; and other forms of bridge,—three-handed bridge, dummy bridge, misery bridge, and draw or two-handed bridge; and contains a list of authorities.

Even more elaborate, as befits the subject, is the article Chess (Vol. 6, p. 93), equivalent to 45 pages of this Guide. It contains diagrams showing the arrangement of pieces and the English and German methods of notation and a vocabulary of terms of the game; it treats the comparative value of the pieces—“pawn 1, bishop 3.25, knight 3.25, rook 5, queen 9.5. Three minor pieces may more often than not be advantageously exchanged for the queen. The knight is generally stronger than the bishop in the end of the game, but two bishops are usually stronger than two knights, more especially in open positions.” English, French and German modes of notation and names of pieces are given. The treatment of chess problems is accompanied by eight typical problems with diagrams and analyses. The section on the history of chess gives not merely very interesting early material but a study critical and biographical, of the great chess masters—for example: Ruy Lopez, the first chess analyst Greco; Philidor, a great blindfold and simultaneous player of the 18th century; Allgaier; Mahé de la Bourdonnais; the English school of the 19th century, Sarratt, Lewis, Mac Donnell, Evans (of the gambit), Staunton (on whom there is a separate article) and Buckle, the historian of civilization; the Berlin “Pleiades” and the Hungarians, Grimm, Szen and Löwenthal; Morphy, the American; and among the great players of the last half century, Steinitz, Paulsen, Blackburne, Zukertort, Horwitz, Mason, Teichman, Pillsbury, Lasker, Mieses, Marshall, Tarrasch, Tchigorin, etc. The results of international tournaments are given from 1851 on; and modern tournament play is criticised. The article closes with an elaborate bibliography.

The article on Draughts or Checkers (Vol. 8, p. 547) is by J. M. M. Dallas, late secretary of the Edinburgh Draughts Club, and Richard Jordan, former draughts champion of the world, and gives the history of the game, with a study of the different openings.

The usefulness of the Britannica for card games in general may be easily tested. Let us turn for instance to the article Poker (Vol. 21, p. 899). It is equivalent in its contents to seven or eight pages of this Guide, and among other interesting features it contains a vocabulary of technical terms, including “big dog”, “little dog”, “cold feet”, “splitting”, and the following mathematical table of approximate chances.

To improve any hand in the draw, the Britannica tells us, the chances are:

Having in Hand To make the Hand below The Chance is
1 pair To get two pairs (3-card draw) 1 in 4 ½
1 pair To get three of a kind (3-card draw) 1 in 9
1 pair To improve either way average value 1 in 3
1 pair and 1 odd card To improve either way by drawing two cards 1 in 7
2 pairs To get a full hand drawing one card 1 in 12
3’s To get a full hand drawing two cards 1 in 15 ½
3’s To get four of kind drawing two cards 1 in 23 ½
3’s To improve either way drawing two cards 1 in 9 ⅖
3’s and 1 odd card To get a full hand by drawing one card 1 in 15 ⅓
3’s and 1 odd card To improve either way by drawing one card 1 in 11 ¾
4 straight To fill when open at one end only or in the middle as 3 4 6 7, or A 2 3 4 1 in 11 ¾
4 straight To fill when open at both ends as 3 4 5 6 1 in 6
4 flush To fill the flush drawing one card 1 in 5
4-straight flush To fill the straight flush drawing one card 1 in 23 ½
3-card flush To make a flush drawing two cards 1 in 24