The first one was awarded to the Henry Bird for his victory over James Mason in New York in 1876. Bird sacrificed his Q for a R, obtaining long-term compensation, but there was no immediate win. See game.
Probably the most famous brilliancy prize game was Levitsky vs. Marshall, Breslau 1912. Marshall’s Q could be captured three different ways, but there was no defense. See game.
Along a similar line was Rossolimo’s brilliancy prize for his win against Paul Reissmann at the U.S. Open in San Juan in 1967. In that game Rossolimo placed his Q on a square where it could be captured by two different Ps. But either capture allowed mate. See game.
By the way, Rossolimo once complained that despite his having won many brilliancy prizes and having played several Q sacrifices, when he approached publishers about publishing a book of his best games he was rebuffed and told nobody was interested in his games because he didn’t win enough tournaments. That was a pity because besides his many brilliant games Rossolimo operated a chess studio in New York’s Greenwich Village, drove taxi, practiced judo, recorded folk albums and was an expert linguist. And, that was just what he did in New York. Before that, who knows? His autobiography would have been amazing.
In a Chess.com article Jeremy Silman figured Mikhail Tal is the all-time brilliancy prize holder with 15 prizes, followed by Gary Kasparov with 12 and Anatoly Karpov, that most boring of all World Champions, with 10.
Bobby Fischer only won four, but his most famous was his win over Donald Byrne in the 1956 Rosenwald tournament, when the 13-year-old Fischer sacrificed his Q. See game.
IM Danny Kopec in his book Winning the Won Game: Lessons from the Albert Brilliancy Prize wrote that what constitutes a brilliancy prize has changed over time. Thanks to engines, the importance of the soundness of the sacrifice is now deemed essential. Flawed play, imaginative though it might be, no longer counts as a brilliancy. I’m not so sure that’s a good thing.
When you think of Samuel Reshevsky you don’t think of brilliancy prize games. As far as I know, he only won three. His first was for his victory over Janowsky at New York 1922. Game.
In his game against Arnaldo Vasconcellos at the US Open, Boston 1944, Reshevsky was assured of first going into the last round, so he sat down with the intention of enjoying himself. The result was a brilliancy although I do not know if there was a prize for such offered. Game.
Reshevsky also won the brilliancy prize for his win over Albert Simonson in the 1938 US Championship. Game.
Many players unfamiliar with Reshevsky think he was a positional player, but he wasn't. Botvinnik described Reshevsky's play as a forceful, active and impetuous adding that he evaluated positions in a routine, but unusual way. His main strength was his calculating ability.
Botvinnik claimed that Reshevsky calculated only 2-3 moves deep (that's just silly), but he looked at a lot of possibilities. He stated this calculation didn't always help because there was no "purity" (not sure what that means) and he often ended up in bad positions.
Botvinnik added that Reshevsky "had no taste" because he was willing to play any position at any time, but he skillfully complicated play and was not afraid of dangerous positions. He also played on both flanks and when he played a "waiting move" it generally indicated that he had realized his original plan wasn't going to work and he was awaiting a mistake and a convenient opportunity.
Reshevsky also liked to make harassing moves and to force his opponents into difficult situations where he could use his imagination. And, he was always ready to go into the ending, especially those with a lot of pieces, because in those positions he had great skill. He was also known for his expertise in handling Knights, especially in the ending.
According to Botvinnik, Reshevsky's weaknesses were his weak positional feeling in complicated positions, openings and his routinely getting into time trouble. In time trouble his play was "deft" but he did make oversights.
Viktor Korchnoi wrote that in every game Reshevsky played you could sense his enormous desire to fight and win. While his lack of opening knowledge was a handicap, in the middlegame he was extremely confident and had enormous tactical talent and possessed the ability to make original and non-routine (there's that description again) evaluations. Positional battles were not to his taste and he avoided positions where maneuverings and waiting were required. This, I think, is why Botvinnik was so criticalof Reshevsky because in Botvinnik's mind the only was to play chess correctly was scientifically with deeply analyzed openings, precise positional play and flawless endings.
Kasparov, on the other hand, abjured, claiming Reshevsky had a high level of positional understanding or else he would never have maintained such a high level of play for so many years.
The tournament got off to a rocky start because the US was still at war in the Pacific and travel was difficult. Several players withdrew for various reasons and others arrived late.
Albert Pinkus and Edward Lasker withdrew because they could not obtain reservations and last minute replacement Weaver Adams was delayed and arrived three days late as did Cruz of Brazil. Another last minute replacement, Herman Pilnik of Argentina, lost his plane reservation and had to rent a car. He ran into an unlighted truck at night and woke up in a Yuma, Arizona hospital where he spent two days and arrived in Hollywood three days late with his head swathed in bandages.
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| Mrs. Charles Henderson |
With all the late arrivals, at the start there were only nine players present so for the first two weeks a lot of postponed games were played making impossible to be exactly sure what the standings were. At the end of the tournament Herbert Seidman, who was in the Army, had to withdraw from the final three rounds because he was called back to duty.
There were five other tournaments in progress:
Masters Reserve:
Harry Borochow scored 13.5-2.5 in a 17-player field. He was followed by R. Solona. G. Grey and A. Weiss tied for third.
Class A:
H. Carlsen ahead of E. Moncalian and 13 others.
Class B:
W. Fieg won ahead of Dr. A. Kupka
Interscholastic Tournament:
This was a double round event. Eugene Levin won ahead of B. Erickson
Women's Tournament:
Mary Bain and May Karff tied ahead of Mrs. Nancy Roos and six others. Movie star, Mitzi Mayfair, played under her married name, Mrs. Charles Henderson.
1) Samuel REshevsky 10.5
2) Reibem Fine 9.0
3) Herman P8ilnik 8.5
4) I.A. Horowitz 8.0
5) Isaac Kashdan 7.0
6) Hector Rossetto 6.5
7-8) Weaver Adams and Herman Steiner 5.5
9-10) Walter Cruz and Jose Araiza Munoz 5.0
11) Jose Broderman 3.5
12) Herbert Seidman 3.0
13) Joaquin Camarena 1.0
Botvinnik had a sure "tell." Whenever he wrote condescendingly and critically about another player, it was a sure sign he was afraid of him
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