Random Posts

Thursday, April 25, 2019

Chess Records and the 1954 Rosenwald

    
     Hoochie Coochie was a really old term, going back to 1890, about a sexual belly dance performed in carnival side-shows. Such dances, or something similar, were performed at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London in 1851, the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, and the World's Fair in Paris in 1889. 
     Although such dances became wildly popular in the United States during the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, there is no evidence of them being known by the name Hoochie Coochie until a couple of years after the fair closed. 
     I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man was the original title of a blues standard on Chess Records that was written by Willie Dixon and first recorded by Muddy Waters in 1954. The song makes reference to hoodoo folk magic elements and makes novel use of a stop-time musical arrangement. 
     It became one of Waters' most popular and identifiable songs and helped secure Dixon's role as Chess Records' chief songwriter. The song is a classic of Chicago blues and one of Waters' first recordings. After the song's initial success in 1954, Waters recorded several live and new studio versions. 
     On October 2, 1954, Elvis Presley appeared on the legendary Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. After hearing his rendition of Blue Moon of Kentucky, Opry talent manager Jim Denny told him he should go back to his day job as a truck driver. 
     Pool player Willie Mosconi sunk 526 pool balls, without missing, in Springfield, Ohio and then Vice-President Richard Nixon broke the original ivory gavel that had been in use by the Senate since 1789. RCA produced the first color televisions for public use and they cost $1,000, that’s almost $9,000 in today’ currency. Big names in entertainment were Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, Milton Berle and Lucille Ball. The big late night television talk show was hosted was Steve Allen. 
     The 1954-55 Lessing J. Rosenwald Tournament was the first of a series of strong year-end invitational tournaments sponsored in part by Lessing J. Rosenwald of Sears Roebuck Co. One goal was to provide young US masters strong competition at home, with the long-term aim of improving US performance in international events. The initial plan was to have the Rosenwald Trophy rotate each year until a player had won it three times. 
     The fourth Rosenwald tournament would double as the US championship and would be Bobby Fischer’s first entry into a US championship and also his first of his eight US championships. 
    In the 1954-55 event Reuben Fine was originally invited, but declined. Robert Byrne was also invited, but decided against playing because of his graduate studies. James Sherwin was selected as Byrne's replacement. 
     Samuel Reshevsky had dominated US championship tournaments from its inception in 1936 until Fischer took over in 1957, with Reshevsky winning every championship he entered, with the exception of the 1951 event, which was won by Evans. 
     Larry Evans won the Marshall Chess Club championship at age 15, played in his first US championship at age 16, and his first Olympiad at 18. Evans had won the US championship in 1951 ahead of Reshevsky. 
     Arthur Bisguier won the US Championship in 1954. Donald Byrne won the 1953 US Open and would lose to Fischer in the Game of the Century in the third Rosenwald tournament in 1956. 
     James T. Sherwin was NY state champion in 1951 and won the US speed championship several times. He would play in a number of US championships.  George Kramer played in a number of US championships and was a reserve for the US team at the 1950 Olympiad, winning an individual bronze medal. 
     Reshevsky jumped out to a comfortable lead in the first half of the tournament with with a point and a half lead over Evans and Sherwin who were tied for second, Despite losing to Bisguier in Round 8, Reshevsky was able to hold his lead and win the tournament as Evans was only able to gain a half point on him. 
     Sherwin lost every game in the second half! Bisguier was able to finish third on the strength of an impressive +4 -0 =1 in the second half. 
     One of the more interesting games was Sherwin’s defeat of Kramer in the second round when Kramer played a variation with which he had scored many successes even though he knew that by the time this game was played it had been refuted. 
     The game followed Kramer’s analysis up until move 14 when Sherwin punched a hole in the analysis and followed it up with a series of hard hitting blows. 

1) Samuel Reshevsky 7.5-2.5 
2) Larry Evans 6.5-3.5 
3) Arthur Bisguier 6.0-4.0 
4) Donald Byrne 5.0-5.0 
5) James Sherwin 3.0-7.0 
6) George Kramer 2.0-8.0 

1 comment:

  1. In Australia, the Petrov Affair was the big story in 1954:

    https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/petrov-affair

    ReplyDelete