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Monday, February 27, 2012

CC vs OTB

       I was watching a debate unfold on a forum about whether or not playing correspondence chess will help your over the board skills.  I think cc will help only to a limited extent.  After all they aren’t played the same way. In CC you don’t have to remember opening lines and endgames can always be looked up.  The same holds true for middlegames to some extent.  You can search out similar positions and play over a lot of master games to get a feel for how to handle similar positions.  And the fact that you have a lot more time to select a move is a big factor. Research and hours of analysis of a cc game won’t hurt you but fiddling with the pieces won’t help your powers of visualization …an important factor in otb games to be sure!  To hone that skill requires a totally different approach.
        I often hear of players who use cc in an attempt to enhance their otb skills.  Players who do this usually treat cc games as though they were otb games, but personally I think there are better ways to train yourself to play otb games.
       The biggest argument I hear is that using books, databases, and these days engines, shuffling pieces around in the analysis process, etc. is not a good way to learn anything.  For some reason a lot of players assume correspondence players are trying to hone their otb play or are trying to learn something.  I haven’t played in an otb tournament in decades because I realized I didn’t like playing chess at the rate of three games on Saturday consuming 12-15 hours and then coming back on Sunday playing two more for another 8-10 hours, finishing up late at night, arriving home near midnight then getting up at 5:00 am to go to work for 10 hours.  Fact is, I’m ‘chessed out’ after playing an hour or two; always have been.  With correspondence play I can spend as little or as much time on selecting a move as I want and then only when I feel like it.
       I’m not trying to learn anything!  I haven’t actually studied chess for years.  I play for fun.  I enjoy fiddling around with opening and game databases, doing research and checking out different move suggestions in order to find the best move I can.  Whether that means letting two or three engines analyze for a few hours then checking their recommended lines for flaws, running shootouts to see if the position really does favor one side, digging similar games out of databases and seeing how strong players handled the position or even (gasp!) experimenting with my own ideas to see if they are any good…that’s what I enjoy and it’s why I play correspondence chess.  I’ll leave trying to improve to the younger guys who play in tournaments and dream getting a high rating and becoming a Grandmaster.

Andrija Fuderer

Andrija Fuderer (13 May 1931, Subotica, Yugoslavia – 2 October 2011, Palamos, Catalonia was a Croatian–Belgian chess master.

At the beginning of his career, he won the Yugoslav Junior Chess Championship in 1947. He was the 1951 Croatian champion and was a regular participant in the Yugoslav Championship tying for 2nd in 1951 behind B. Rabar won), took 2nd, behind Dr. Peter Trifunovic in 1952, and won (jointly) in 1953.

In other tournaments, he took 4th at Bled 1950, shared 2nd behind Albéric O'Kelly de Galway, at Dortmund 1951 and finished  fifth at Beverwijk 1952.  Fuderer finished first at Saarbrücken 1953, second at Opatija 1953, fourth at the zonal tournament in Munich 1954, tied for 3-5 place at Hastings 1954/55 and tied for 14-15 at Gotheburg 1955 (interzonal). After that last failure, he left chess for a University career in chemistry and earned his PhD degree from the University of Zagreb, and became a famous inventor.

Fuderer played for Yugoslavia in the Chess Olympiads three times:
In 1952 in Helsinki (+2 –0 =3), won team bronze medal;
In 1954 in Amsterdam (+6 –1 =5), team bronze and individual silver medals;
In 1958 in Munich (+8 –2 =1), team silver and individual bronze medals.

He also played in the 1st European Team Chess Championship at Vienna 1957, and won team silver medal.

Fuderer was awarded the International Master title in 1952 and an honorary GM title in 1990.

Fuderer, who died at age 80, was also an eminent chemical engineer and inventor with more than 50 patents to his name.  When he died in October of last year few in the chess world noticed his passing, yet long ago in his twenties he had been one of the game's most gifted attacker outside the Soviet Union.

Fuderer was considered one of the most talented Yugoslav players of his generation with a style similar to that of Mikhail Tal but his results never quite lived up to this promise.  He made an impressive international debut at Bled 1950, where as a 19-year-old he finished fourth in a strong field and was praised for the style and elegance of his wins. A year later, he played for Yugoslavia against Britain in London and was paired with Jonathan Penrose, later ten times British champion and already the hope of English chess. He defeated Penrose in a sharp attacking game.

Noted for his friendliness, Fuderer faced a career dilemma early on. He was studying chemistry at Zagreb, played the piano and had the possibility of making it to the top in the chess world.  For several years he postponed the decision, as his chess career seemd to be going places. In 1954 he qualified for the world title interzonal, scored a fine victory over Ewfim Geller at the Amsterdam Olympiad where Yugoslavia took the silver medals behind Russian gold, and finished third to Vassily Smyslov and Paul Keres at Hastings.

Then came the 1955 Gothenburg interzonal. At halfway after ten rounds he was on 7-3, battling for the lead with David Bronstein and Keres. But the pairings were such that the six Soviets played each other at the start while in the second half Fuderer had to meet all six in successive rounds. Keres beat him in 18 moves and those last ten rounds were a disaster, four draws and six defeats. And so ended his chess career.

Fuderer took his doctorate at Zagreb, married in 1957, and after helping Yugoslavia to silver at the Moscow 1956 Olympiad gradually withdrew from chess. His last event was the 1959 Soviet Union vs. Yugoslavia match at Kiev where, at age 28, he showed what might have been by beating Bronstein.   In the late 1960s he left Yugoslavia, living in Italy and Spain and working as a chemical engineer in Antwerp.

Even in his best chess years there were games where he settled for quick draws against much weaker opponents. An obituary by his son Miha explained why. Fuderer felt his greatest passion was for chemistry, and he used his tournaments outside Yugoslavia to acquire consumer goods which when he got home he could resell at a profit to finance his university studies.

Royal Chess Circle Deurne published a letter from Fuderer's son detailing his life.

Andrija was born in Subotica, which was then part of Yugoslavia. Although ethnically German, he grew up in a town that was mostly Hungarian-speaking. That´s why I was never really sure of his mother tongue - it depended whom you asked. Separated from his parents in 1945, his family dispersed throughout the world.

Many close relatives now still live in the US. Andrija managed to escape the ethnic cleansing without having to flee Yugoslavia. Surely, he must have remembered a lot of friends of that time, but it is difficult to trace down any of them today.

Soon after the war, while still in secondary school, he attracted attention as a very good chess player. By 1949, he was known all over Europe; soon, several chess clubs were named after him and Fuderer fanclubs emerged all over Europe. These do not exist anymore, but I am sure that the members of that time will remember Andrija. Fans kept visiting Andrija up to the 1990s. By the 1990s, he was awarded the title of honorary grandmaster due to his remarkably unconventional style of chess in his past.

Also in 1949, he moved to Zagreb for his university study in chemistry engineering.
Towards the end of his studies, he met Pavica; they married in 1957. It is a great sorrow to announce Andrija´s death to his family-in-law - my aunts, uncle and cousins.
Two sons followed soon - but due to the tragic death of Ivo in 1995, he will not share our sorrow today.

By 1968, the family moved out of Yugoslavia. Since Andrija was renowned in Yugoslavia, he was always under close political scrutiny - and although all interrogations by the secret police were very polite, it is always better to be safe than sorry. Andrija left Yugoslavia, but he left amicably. This brought his family first to Italy, then 15 months later to Germany, and after 20 more months to Belgium.
I am grateful to my father that he managed his family well through all these changes.

It is also my father who learned me the relevance of learning languages even before all these moves. From him, I also inherited the passion for physics and mathematics (Not for chess, though; Andrija did not have a real passion for chess, he just played well. That served him well, since his studies were actually paid by smuggling goods in while travelling to international tournaments. I am sure that his teammates will share the experience).

The stay in Italy and Germany was too short to make numerous friends, but I am sure that at least one Italian friend - and later companion - will vividly remember Andrija. Numerous friends and (former) neighbours in Antwerp will be with Andrija in their thoughts.

By 1976 Andrija took up the idea of planning for an almost autarchic retirement in southern Europe; this became Italy, and the house (and valley) called Cornaldo became his passion for more than 25 years - till he realized that, with increasing age, that project got less and less realistic. He was very happy that he could sell the place to a person who intended to maintain it with the same passion as he did. Although the place was remote, managing it was a lot easier with the help from the people from the hamlet of Bassi. They will certainly remember Andrija well.

Rather, by 1982, Pavica and Andrija chose for a different type of southern-Europe settlement.
After considering a number of countries and visiting many locations, their choice became the Spanish resort of Calella de Palafrugell. Very different than the place in Italy, their new apartment went with a swimming pool, a tennis court and a lot of other luxury that would have been inconceivable in Cornaldo.  For almost 30 years, Andrija spent a significant part of the year in Calella. He enjoyed the friendship from many other inhabitants of the apartment compound, and, above all, his tennis-partners. The help of his neighbours and tennis-friends was very valuable (to Andrija and to Pavica) during the last few weeks, days and hours of his life.

In general, Andrija was always in good spirit and in good health, and he enjoyed swimming and tennis.

Yet, in 2005, he noticed a problem: although feeling generally well, he was short of breath.
This got serious enough to interrupt his stay in Calella and to seek medical advice in Antwerp, where a melon-sized tumor was detected within his left lung. The tumor that was surgically removed proved to be a very rare type of cancer, which, as far as statistics were available, had a very low rate of recurrence once properly removed. With Andrija, the odds went against statistics (as was often the case with him). After four years, a regular checkup showed a number of new lung tumors; surgery revealed even more small nodules, which the surgeon was not able to remove at that time. This left my father with the prospect of even more surgery later on.

By mid-2010, it was decided to entirely remove his left lung. This seemed to go well, and Andrija kept up all the activities that the reduced lung volume would allow. Yet, his general condition started to deteriorate by October 2010. Doctors hesitated about chemotherapy because of the age of their patient, but also because Andrija himself was indecisive whether he would choose for such a treatment. By January, he was in a really bad shape.


In early February, he was admitted to hospital for chemo. When I asked about his condition,
he said "todo el mundo me trata bien" - an allusion to a Spanish language course; for a part, it expressed gratitude towards all people around him in general. But it was also an indication that, while he appreciated all the medical help that was given to him, he regarded it as somewhat vain, since he would not live forever anyway.


Actually, we would not expect more than a few weeks. Nevertheless, with difficulty, he said
"When you come to visit me in Calella next time, we´ll have lamb chops at Mas Pou" - which sounded like an overly optimistic statement.  But he recovered and went to Spain again in June, and then again in late August. The return flight was already booked for Sunday, October 2nd, in order to allow for the next round of treatment in Antwerp.

I visited Andrija around the 15th of September. He was in rather good shape. We went to Mas Pau. They indeed have delicious lamb chops there, and Andrija enjoyed them too. But it seemed as if this fulfilled his last promise. After that day, he started deteriorating quickly. There was hesitation whether to take an earlier flight back. By Monday, September 26th, he was taken to the hospital in Palamos, and released the next day, with a prescriptions of diuretics, since he was rather swollen. He did not bother to take these pills and his condition was now clearly deteriorating from day to day. On Friday, Pavica called me that it would be good to drive straight to the Antwerp hospital as soon as they would land on Sunday. By Saturday morning, Andrija´s friends were arranging special assistance at the airports. By Saturday noon, we were questioning whether he was fit to fly at all. In the early evening, Andrija was sent to the hospital in Palamos again. He got intravenous diuretics, which seemed to quickly give some relief. Todo el mundo me trata bien, he said.

By 11 in the evening, he called his neighbor to tell that they would not release him for the flight the next morning. Probably his last words. The idea was to book another flight a few days later.

Andrija probably did not even consider the possibility that he would not survive till then. Alas.
He died in the morning of October 2nd. He died without any loved ones nearby, which would probably have been his choice anyway.

Andrija leaves behind his wife, Pavica, his son Miha, Margriet, and their children Andreas, Lucas and Johanna.  Andrija was cremated on October 4th. On a later date, with a brief ceremony, his ashes will be thrown into the sea, where they can disperse throughout the Mediterranean and later over the whole world.

 The following game against GM Arthur Bisguier is pretty boring until Bisguier played 28.Ra1.  I’m sure Bisguier did a double take when he saw Fuderer’s reply which left Black with such an overwhelming position that Bisguier just resigned.


Friday, February 24, 2012

The Mysterious David Gladstone

Looking at a crosstable from the 1944 US Championship that was won by Arnold Denker ahead of Dr. Reuben Fine, I.A. Horowitz and Herman Steiner, I noticed the tailenders: 16-Irving Chernev (+3 -11 =3), 17-David Gladstone (+2 -14 =1) and 18-Louis Persinger (+0 -16 =1).  Chernev and Persinger are well-known, but who was David Gladstone?!  A Google search didn’t turn up much…a couple of his games, but little else. 

 The Log Cabin Independent Open was held in West Orange, New Jersey on February 22–24, 1957 in which Gladstone and Bobby Fischer played.

Saul Wanetick scored 5 – 1 to win.  Second to fifth in the 61-player Swiss, also with 5 – 1, were Matthew Green, Arthur Feuerstein, Geza Fuster of Toronto, Canada, and Anthony E. Santasiere. Sixth to thirteenth with equal 4 – 2 scores were Bobby Fischer, George E. O'Rourke, Jr., Attillio DiCamillo, Eliot Hearst, Norman T. Whitaker, William J. Lombardy, Homer W. Jones, Jr., and Claude Hillinger.

Fourteenth to twenty-sixth with 3.5 – 2.5 each were Joseph Tamargo, John Falato, Herbert M. Avram, Alexis Gilliland, David Gladstone, Sidmund Hauck, Charles C. Heinin, E.S. Jackson, Jr., George Krauss, Jr., George J. Mauer, Jr., and Eugene Steinberger.

Beyond that, no information seems to be available. Chessgamesdotcom has two games played by ‘D. Gladstone.’  A loss to Frank Marshall played in the Marshall vs. Manhattan chess club match of 1932 and a game against Alekhine played in London 1938. The excellent site, The Chess Library, which is a site listing crosstables of historic events from prior to 1900 up to 1993 does not list a tournament played in London in 1938. Additionally, I did not find Gladstone’s name listed in any of the US tournaments up to 1960.  In passing I should mention that this site has a very nice section documenting the career of International Master Nikolay Minev.  I did find some Google hits on Gladstone+chess but couldn’t verify it’s the same person.

I did locate an article in Boy’s Life, September, 1923, about a couple of young men attending New York University and Gladstone was one of them.

As further proof that innate ability, not environment and advantages, was the chief factor, there is the story of another boy, also at New York University.  This boy-who, by the way, sticks to his short pants-finished the public schools of Newark, New Jersey, far ahead of his years.  His name is David Gladstone.  While he has had the interest of his family in his progress, he has not has active assistance.  One might almost say he has helped them.  His vacations he has spent at home, keeping house for his father while the rest of the family were away at summer resorts.

Because of different environment, probably, David has not taken part in outdoor sports and games.  And, perhaps as a consequence, he is not as well developed physically as young Talbot.  But for recreation he has a hobby-and that hobby is chess.  For two and a half years he has been devoted to chess, playing not only direct opponents but exchanging moves by mail with members of the Correspondence League.  And, so expert is he, he was chosen a member of the University Chess Team soon after entering.

Gladstone doubts if his chess playing has been of any direct value in his school work-and yest he does admit that he led a class of seventy-five freshmen in trigonometry :because chess is something like trig.”  In addition to freshmen studies and his “passion for chess” he has been chosen a member of the University Debating Squad; a group of nine students picked to represent the University.  From this it may be judged that he has a quick, keen mind-a well ordered, analytical mind that can plan campaigns on the chess board, grasp and digest information of the classroom or book, and organize and present facts in the heat of debate.

Talbot and Gladstone are positive individuals.  They use their heads sixty minutes out of every hour awake-and probably their subconscious minds are clicking along overtime as the sleep.  It is only necessary to talk with them a while to know that they have fairly good ideas of the world about them, and that they pretty much know their own minds.

Both Talbot and Gladstone have been interested and active in dramatics.  It is their opinion that this training helps in standing up before their fellows of the classroom and in facing the world outside.  And that world outside the classroom, their future: it is evident they are working toward definite goals.  For each there is a job ahead for which he is fitting himself.

Gladstone is divided in his mind between law and journalism, but he has an idea that he will study law and then go into journalism, thus combining his two ambitions.


Thursday, February 23, 2012

Instructive Bishop Ending

In the starting position of this game, I thought I might lose because of Black’s well-placed King and the limited scope of my B.  But it appears that my passed h-Pawn made all the difference.  The game should have been drawn, but my opponent made a fatal mistake of playing the seemingly logical capture of my e-Pawn but it was the wrong move because his King ended up blocking his own passed Pawn.  One thing I found interesting was that on move 44 he could have played the counterintuitive 44…Kg1 and still drawn.

Kurt Richter


Kurt Paul Otto Joseph Richter (24 November 1900, Berlin – 29 December 1969, Berlin) was a German International Master and writer.  In 1922, Richter for the first time, won the Berlin City Chess Championship. In 1928, he tied for 1st-2nd in Berlin. In 1928, he won in Wiesbaden. In 1930, he tied for 4-5th in Swinemunde. In 1930, he tied for 3rd-5th in Prague. In 1931, he lost a match to Gosta Stoltz (0.5 : 1.5) in Berlin. In 1931, he took 2nd, behind Ludwig Rellstab, in Berlin.

Nazi authorities and the local Munich Nazi leaders spared no effort to make the Munich 1936 Olympiad a resounding success for the "New Germany." Part of preparation was to have a new chess set designed in order to replace the Staunton sets invented in England and adopted by a still fledgling FIDE.

The result was the following design was used:


A few hundred of these sets were made and used throughout the Munich event.  These sets seem to have had a long life after the war in German clubs.

Richter played for Germany at two official and one unofficial Chess Olympiads: at fourth board (+6 –3 =3) at Hamburg 1930, fourth board (+7 –1 =7) at Prague 1931, first board (+8 –2 =8) at Munich 1936. He won two team bronze medals (1930, 1936) and one individual bronze medal (1931).

In 1932, he won in Hamburg. In 1932, he tied for 1st-2nd in Kiel. In 1932, he took 3rd in Berlin. In 1932, he took 4th in Swinemünde. In 1932/33, he tied for 1st-2nd in Berlin. In 1933, he took 2nd, behind E.D. Bogoljubow, in Bad Aachen. In 1933, he tied for 5-6th in Swinemünde. In 1933, he tied for 4-5th in Bad Salzbrunn. In 1934, he took 2nd, behind Gideon Ståhlberg, in Bad Niendorf.  In 1935, he tied for 1st-2nd in Berlin. In 1935, he took 2nd in Swinemünde. In July 1935, he won in Bad Aachen (3rd GER-ch). In September 1935, he played in Zoppot (GER vs SWE match). In 1936, he won in the Berlin championship. In 1936, he took 2nd in Swinemünde. In 1936, he tied for 8-9 the in Poděbrady (Salo Flohr won). In 1937, he tied for 2nd-3rd in Berlin. In 1937, he took 4th in Bad Elster. In 1937, he tied for 1st-2nd in Bad Saarow. In July 1937, he took 2nd, behind Georg Kieninger, in Bad Oeynhausen (4th GER-ch). In 1937, he took 3rd in Berlin (Friedrich Sämisch won). In 1938, he took 9th in Bad Harzburg (Vasja Pirc won). In 1938, he won in the Berlin championship. In 1938, he tied for 4-5th in Berlin. In July 1938, he tied for 5-7th in Bad Oeynhausen (5th GER-ch). The event was won by Erich Eliskases. In May 1939, he took 2nd, behind Bogoljubow, in Stuttgart (1st Europa-Turnier).

During World War II, Richter played in several strong tournaments. In June 1940, he won in Berlin (BSG), and took 2nd, behind Bogoljubow, in Berlin. In August 1940, he tied for 3rd-4th in Bad Oeynhausen (7th GER-ch). In November 1940, he took 3rd in Cracow/Krynica /Warsaw (the 1st GG-ch). In 1941, he tied for 3rd-4th in Berlin. In August 1941, he took 3rd, behind Paul Schmidt and Klaus Junge, in Bad Oeynhausen (8th GER-ch). In September 1941, he tied for 5-6th in Munich (2nd Europa-Turnier). The event was won by Stoltz. In September 1942, he tied for 3rd-5th in Munich (1st European Championship, Europameisterschaft). The event was won by Alexander Alekhine.

After the war, he participated in the Berlin championships. He tied for 1st-2nd (1948), tied for 3rd-4th (1949), tied for 2nd-3rd (1950), took 2nd (1951), took 3rd (1952).

Awarded the IM title in 1950. He was co-editor of Deutsche Schachblätter and Deutsche Schachzeitung. Author of several chess books.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Make a Correspondence Database

     I have mentioned before the necessity of having a database and opening book of first class games if you are serious about playing correspondence chess.  As I pointed out in a previous post, I made available my opening book, which is in Chessbase format, that contains 404,080 positions compiled from 15,620 correspondence and engine games (up to 30 moves deep) in which at least one player was rated over 2400. With this opening book you can be sure that you are playing the best moves in any variation because they have been analyzed by strong CC players who were most likely checking the moves with engines.

     In conjunction with the opening book you also need games by strong players.  You can download archived ICCF correspondence games that are in PGN format and are zipped for faster download.  Games dating back to 2003 are available. Another source is the archived games from the now defunct IECG site covering its activity period from 1995 to 2010.  An excellent source of otb games can be found at The Week in Chess.

     After downloading the games and putting them in a DB folder you’ll need to weed out those played by all except the best players.  You can decide on whatever rating you want for the cutoff point; I chose 2300.  It was from these remaining games that I made my opening book except I upped the rating to 2400 for the opening book. 

     After you’re done you will have a database of games from which you can search out positions and see how the best CC and OTB masters played a position.  What I usually do is select games that were won by whatever side I’m playing then run through them just to make sure that the win wasn’t the result of an opponent’s mistake later in the game.  Once I’m reasonably sure I have some games that are well-played where my side won, I can follow them.  Sooner or later it will be up to my opponent to find an improvement on the loser’s play.  Sometimes they are successful, sometimes not, but the onus of improving play is on them.  It makes for more successful results.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Chess Sets at the Smithsonian

The Smithsonian Museum has some pretty interesting stuff on display. Here is a picture of Civil War General George B. McClellan’s chess set.  The box is covered with black paper and has his name inscribed on the top.  The set was made by Schuyler, Hartley and Graham in New York City.  A white Pawn and black Knight are missing.

Ray Charles’ peg set is shown here.  Charles was a pretty decent player who played a lot, but just for fun.  He was once interviewed by Larry Evans for Chess Life and came within one move of drawing their offhand game!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Rzeschewski on Tour in 1920

From the American Chess Bulletin:

Another private exhibition of Rzeschewski’s prowess was had on the evening of January 9, 1920 at the residence of Dr. Heny Keller, 143 West 86 Street, New York, lecturer on orthopedic surgery at the New York Polyclinic Medical School and instructor in orthopedics at New York University, as well as president and director of the Harlem Forum.  

Among the many guests were many physicians, specialists, neurologists, ministers and lawyers so that Sammy was the cynosure for the eyes of a very critical audience.  Seemingly unconscious of the galaxy surrounding him, the nine-year old developed the openings, laid his plots and caught his victims in his traps as though he were playing with children instead of five grown-up men.  Einar Michelsen of the I.L. Rice Progressive Chess Club and former Western champion was the fourth to yield and at 11:45 PM, when Leon Kussman, the Jewish dramatist gave in, there was prolonged cheering.
Dr. Marcus Neustaedter, noted neurologist, who has played considerable chess in his time, referred to Rzeschewski as a particularly precocious child, whose abnormality, he said, was fortunately bent in the right direction.  He regarded Sammy as very high strung and of a somewhat neurotic temperament.  Endeavoring to cross examine him a bit, he interrogated him as to his school work, but Sammy, never over-chummy with interviewers, tore him away with a curt, “I’ve got a teacher at home; that’s all.”
Dr. Neustaedter stated the boy’s growth is a bit stunted and that he was undersize for his age.  Ordinarily this might account for some malformation or sluggishness of the mind, but not so in Sammy’s case – rather the reverse.  His peculiar precocity, he added, made the child a phenomenon and one with a pronounced ego which in elder persons would pass for swelling of the head.  Dr. Neustaedter laid especial stress on his ability to concentrate and work out abstruse combinations.  “His genius,” the neurologist said, “shows itself in the fact that he is a classical player who develops problems.”

Dr. Keller commented on the prodigy as follows:  “He is three years ahead of his age in mentality.  Although a genius in one line, he is not abnormal in other things. He has a brilliant memory, is very witty and quick at repartee.  Altogether he is a very unusual child.”

Dr. Jacob Tarlau, rabbi of the People’s Synagogue of the Educational Alliance, who is not acquainted with the difficulties of chess, expressed his unbounded astonishment and commented upon the fact that Rzeschewski is most faithful in keeping up his Hebrew studies and punctiliously observes the requirements of the faith of his orthodox parents.
Here is one of the games from the simul:

Mary Bain

       Mary Bain (born Hungary, August 8, 1904 – died New York, October 26, 1972) was an American Women's World Championship Challenger in 1937 and 1952 and the first American woman to represent the U.S. in an organized chess competition.
       Bain was awarded the Woman International Master title in 1952 and represented the US at the 1963 Chess Olympiad, held in Split.  In international tournaments, she took fifth place at Stockholm 1937 and 14th place at Moscow 1952.  She won the U.S. Women's Chess Championship in 1951.
       In 1937 an open women's tournament sponsored by the Marshall Chess Club for custody of the Hazel Allen trophy was held in New York City.  , As we go to press, the finals of this tournament are getting under way. In contained four who qualified from preliminary events and six seeded players.  The qualifiers were: Miss Adele Raettig of Hoboken, NJ, Mrs. Wm. Davey of New York City and Mrs. Elsie Rogosin of Roselle, NJ and Miss Elizabeth Wray of New York City.  The seeded players were Mrs. Adele Rivero of New York City, (Champion), Mrs. Mary Bain of Astoria, NY, Mrs. Raphael McCready of Hackensack, NJ, Mrs. William Slater of Doylestown, PA, Miss Helen White of New York City, and Miss Edith L. Weart of Jackson Heights, NY.
       Adele Rivero won, going through the tournament without the loss of a game. Her only draw was with Bain who was runner-up for the second time. Mrs. Bain received a beauty kit as her prize. She also went through the tournament without losing a game and missed her chance for first by drawing Kathryn Slater of Doylestown. 

Adele Rivero – 8.5-0.5
Mary Bain – 7-1
R. McCready – 5-4
Kathryn Slater – 5-4
Adele Raetig 4.5-4.5
Helen White – 4-5
Mrs. Davey* - 3-6
Ellie Ragosin – 3-6
Edith Weart – 2-6
Elizabeth Wray 2-7
*Withdrew due to illness with a 3-3 score

      Also in 1937 for the first time in many years an American woman competed for the title of Woman Chess Champion of the World, held by Vera Menchik. The representative for the US was Mary Bain, who finished second to Adele Rivero in the women's tournament at the Marshall Chess Club. Unfortunately Rivero was unable to go to Stockholm.  This was Bain’s first appearance in the international arena.  Of course no one expected she would displace Menchik.
       There were twenty-six entries in the women's tournament at Stockholm, which was played using the Monrad system.  The Monrad system was a common tournament system in Norway and Denmark which was very similar to the Swiss System, but deemphasized ratings, and based the pairings on the starting number each contestant received at random before the tournament.
In the Danish version the players were initially ranked at random, and pairings modified to avoid players meeting each other twice. The Norwegian system had an optional seeding system for the first round pairings, and within a score group, the pairing algorithm used to give players alternating colors.
       As expected, Vera Menchik retained her title of Woman Chess Championship with an impressive fourteen wins. The surprise of the tournament was Benini's second place finish. In the Semmering tournament of 1936 (Menchik did not play) Benini finished in second place, two and one-half points behind Sonia Graf.  Bain made a very creditable showing in this, her first international tournament, finishing in fifth place.

The leading scores:
Vera Menchik Czechoslovakia 14
Clarice Benini, Italy 10
Sonia Graf, Germany 9
Milda Lauberte, Latvia 9
Mary Bain, U. S. A 8½
May Karff, Palestine 8

       In describing her Stockholm experience Bain said, “It was a most wonderful experience.  Everything was very well arranged and the accommodations were very good. It was a most successful tournament,"
       Speaking of Menchik, Bain described her as  a very friendly and charming person.  She described Clarice Benini of Italy as an attractive, tall, dark young woman.  Her description of Sonia Graf was less flattering: Graf dresses mannishly and walks, hands in pockets, with a masculine stride. Mona May Karff (who played for Palestine) was formerly from Boston, MA who eventually returned to the US.  Bain spoke of 18 year old Milda Lauberte of Latvia, who she described as a small, blond, very calm young woman with great promise and predicted that she would be a future woman champion.  Lauberte (born 7 October 1918, Vildoga and died on October 19, 2009 in Riga) never quite fulfilled Bain’s prediction but she was a Latvian master and played in two Women's World Championship tournaments.  Besides sharing third place at Stockholm she placed sixth place at Buenos Aires 1939 (Menchik won).
       It was aid that the previous year at Warsaw the women were more interested in having a good time than in playing chess, but Bain said this was not true at Stockholm. The women, she said, all took their games very seriously.
       One thing which impressed Bain particularly was the fact that most of the European women were under the instruction of some chess master. She was asked who was her coach. "No one," she answered. "Well, then, who is teaching Mrs. Rivero?" "So far as I know, no one," she replied again. They couldn't understand it. How could a woman progress unless she was being tutored?
       Bain was not very well pleased with her standing. She entered the tournament not expecting to finish very high but believing the experience would do her good.  When she began winning and had a chance for second place and missed it by losing her final game, she felt that she should have done better.
       While returning to the US she gave a simultaneous exhibition aboard ship against ten men, winning eight, losing one and drawing one.   games, lost one and drew one.  Then in the US at the Women's Chess Club of New York with simultaneous play against eight women, all of whom she defeated.
       Eventually Bain owned a chess club in New York City which was, in about 1958, purchased by Larry Evans and Aaron Rothman but it eventually folded due to lack of interest, most likely because at the time there were three clubs operating within two city blocks on 42nd Street.
       In California the Pasadena Chess Club was a strong proponent of women's chess. The club did not segregate men and women in its competitions and included women among its board members.  Despite that it still did not give equal status to the women's events.
       It once proposed double-round robin event was to be played on weekends on the days adjournments were played in the master's event. This resulted in games being postponed or never played altogether. The participants were Mary Bain, LaVieve Hines, Marian Fox, Alma Wolff, Laura Hinchman and Elizabeth Hillman.
       The two most prominent participants were Hines and Bain.  What was interesting was that Hines was said to have been "the strongest American female chess player you've never heard of."  Indeed, she won the tournament undefeated 7-0, with three games going unplayed.  Hines became a noted international musician and died June 12, 1998.  Wolff finished second with 6-3 (one game unplayed) and Bain at 5½-4½ (all games played).
       Hines was a child prodigy on the violin, played piano, studied dance, and was fluent in three languages. She worked full time as a violinist with the Pasadena Symphony, and is said to have been sharp-witted, outspoken, and contemptuous of authority. She was quoted in a chess column of the Los Angeles Times in 1931 as saying, "Men aren't so bad if they are chessmen You can generally get them to do as you wish."  Unfortunately, very few of Hines's games exist. There are four are from simuls:  a win against the strong master Harry Borochow, and two losses and a draw against Alekhine!
       Bain moved with her husband to Hollywood in 1931. He had acquired a contract with the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation, and though he was not as interested in chess as Mary, he was instrumental in establishing the Hollywood Chess Club, whose members included Cecil B. deMille and Douglas Fairbank, Jr.  Mary was on the board of director.
       In the following game Bain defeated the US Junior Champion Charles Kalme (b. 1939) who eventually went on to gain the IM title, play on the US Olympic Team, participate in the US Championship and become a master in contract bridge.  Originally from Latvia, Kalme’s family ended up in the United States after WW2.  When Latvia got its freedom from the Soviet Union, Kalme returned to Latvia where he died in 2002.