<<DEATH OF MR. C. M. FISHER.>A cable message was received in Melbourne yesterday, announcing the death at Monte Carlo of Mr. C. M. Fisher, of the Melbourne Stock Exchange.
The deceased gentleman, who was a little over 40 years of age, was born in Ballarat, and was educated at Brighton. After leaving school he spent some time in his native town, where he acquired so great a reputation as a chess-player that he was chosen as a representative of Victoria in several inter-colonial matches with New South Wales.
Later in life he resided for some years in Sydney, and was engaged there as a stock and sharebroker. He also occupied the position of chess editor of the Sydney Mail, and became known as a good player of blindfold chess.
In the year 1871 he returned to Melbourne, where he had a successful career as a sharebroker, and was understood to have realised a fortune in Broken Hill stock. He went to England about a year ago with his wife and daughters, and when last heard of he had gone to Nice, presumably in search of warm weather.
Mr. C. M. Fisher succeeded the late John Wisker as chess editor of The Australasian, and occupied that position with great credit to himself for several years. As a chess editor he was always distinguished by his perfect fairness, by his uniform courtesy, by his mastery as a judge of the merits of problem composition, and by his skill as an annotator of games.
As a chess-player his most brilliant and most famous achievement was his defeat of Mr. Louis Goldsmith at a time when that accomplished player was at the zenith of his chess strength.
The match, which was for the first five wins, partook of an inter-colonial character, being played during the years when Mr. Fisher was a resident in Sydney. The score at one stage was in Mr. Goldsmith's favour by four wins to two wins, but Mr. Fisher then showed his quality as a match-player by scoring the next three games in succession, thus winning the most interesting chess match that has yet been played in Australia.
After his return to Melbourne, he maintained his reputation as a match-player by twice carrying off the chief prize in handicap tourneys of the Melbourne Chess Club; Mr. Burns, Mr. Gossip, and other good players being among his competitors. As an odds-giver he was probably without a rival in Australia.
Of late years, however, his business engagements have been too engrossing to allow of his devoting much time to chess and he has been content to be recognised in Melbourne chess circles as one who had won his spurs as a member of the "old brigade." But it is known that during his holiday trip in Europe he had carried out the intention, of which he had often spoken to his Melbourne chess friends of testing his quality as a player in some of the most famous of the chess resorts of Europe; and ‘The Australasian’ of December 28 contains the score of a brilliant skirmish which he had won a few weeks previously at the Cafe de la Régence, in Paris. This is the last specimen of his chess skill which has been published in Melbourne.>
Kibitzing
