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Concluding remarks
Let it not be supposed that, in thus proposing to make these Tournaments a game of pure skill (like chess) instead of a game of mixed skill and chance (like whist), I am altogether eliminating the element of luck, and making it possible to predict the prize-winners, so that no one else would care to enter. The ‘chances of the board’ would still exist in full force: it would not at all follow, because a Player was reputed best, that he was certain of the 1st prize: a thousand accidents might occur to prevent his playing best: the 4th best, 5th best, or even a worst Player, need not despair of winning even the 1st prize.
Nor, again, let it be supposed that the present system, which allows an inferior player a chance of the 2nd prize, even though he fails to play above his reputation, is more attractive than one which, in such a case, gives him no hope. Let us compare the two systems, as to the attractions they hold out to (say) the 5th best Player in a Tournament of 32, with 3 prizes. The present system says, 'If you play up to your reputation, your chance of a prize is about ¼th; and even if, by great luck and painstaking, you play 2nd or 3rd best, it never rises above a half.' My system says, 'It is admitted that, if you only play up to your reputation, you will get nothing: but, if you play 2nd or 3rd best, you are certain of the proper prize.' Thus, the one system offers a chance of ¼th, where the other offers nothing; and a chance of a half, where the other offers certainty, I am inclined to think the second the more attractive of the two.
If, however, it be thought that, under the proposed system, the very inferior Players would feel so hopeless of a prize that they would not enter a Tournament, this can easily be remedied by a process of handicapping, as is usual in races, &c. This would give every one a reasonable hope of a prize, and therefore a sufficient motive for entering.
The proposed form of Tournament, though lasting a shorter time than the present one, has a great many more contests going on at once, and consequently furnishes the spectacle-loving public with a great deal more to look at.
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