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| Weinstein in 1960 |
Clearly Fischer was the favorite, but there was always the possibility of surprise upset like the one he suffered at the hands of Edmar Mednis in the previous year’s championship. Fischer won that championship by a full point ahead of Arthur Bisguier, but his loss convinced him a US Championship consisting of 12 players was too small because a single loss could end up being very costly.
Enough about Fischer...this tournament is always about Fischer, but he wasn’t the only one playing and the other 11 players produced some good games, but nobody remembers them.
The tournament, as usual in those days, was played in the Hudson Hotel, a 27-story high-rise boutique hotel located at West 58th Street at Ninth Avenue in New York City. 5,059 Google reviews give it 3.6 stars out of 5. Rates are cheap...I’ve paid more for hotel rooms in dying cities in the US’s Rust Belt. For a $150 a night plus taxes and a daily $34.37 facility fee (whatever that is) you can get a one bedroom suite at the Henry Hudson. Regular rooms are half that.
The hotel was constructed in 1928 by Anne Morgan, daughter of J. P. Morgan, as the American Woman's Association clubhouse and residence for young women in New York. It was completed in 1929. The building contained 1,250 rooms, along with a swimming pool, restaurant, gymnasium and music rooms along with a multitude of specialized meeting rooms. The American Woman's Association went bankrupt in 1941 and the clubhouse building was converted into The Henry Hudson Hotel, open to both men and women.
During World War II the building housed Dutch soldiers. More recently, until 1997 the second through ninth floors served as the headquarters for public television station WNET; the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour was broadcast from the building. WNET has since relocated.
In 1997, the building was purchased by Morgans Hotel Group and underwent a three-year renovation and the name was changed from The Henry Hudson Hotel to simply The Hudson. Hudson Bar, with its glowing yellow glass floor hosts events such as dance parties, movie premieres, book launches, and has been featured in several TV shows such as Gossip Girl and Sex and the City. No more chess tournaments though.
If you eliminate Fischer’s score, the top finisher was Larry Evans who lost to Raymond Weinstein, but won his crucial game against Pal Benko.
Samuel Reshevsky lost his game to Evans..if he had won, their scores would have been reversed. Reshevsky’s loss to Weinstein was also costly, costing him a tie with Evans.
I never cottoned to the play of either Larry Evans or Pal Benko either. Evans, they used to say, was a mini-Reshevsky. His games, to me at least, were precise, but boring. He liked to grab a Pawn then hold on to it and squeeze out a win in the ending.
At the time Benko was one of the world’s top rated players. He was King of the Opens, having won just about every major open tournament in the United States. He played some interesting games in the course of mowing down lesser lights in those opens, but against his peers his play was not in the least exciting...or interesting.
The two most exciting players in this tournament were cousins Arthur Bisguier and Raymond Weinstein. You never knew how Bisguier was going to do. Perhaps it had something to do with his fun loving personality which carried over into his chess.
I remember before the start of the 1975 US Championship in Oberlin, Ohio when a bunch of people were milling around outside the playing room taking advantage of the opportunity to chat with the players and pose for pictures. Bisguier asked a couple of young men where you could get a drink in town. When they informed him alcohol wasn’t sold in the college town and the nearest place was several miles away, Bisguier whipped out his wallet and handed them some money and asked them to go buy him a fifth of Jack Daniels.
Probably the most exciting player was Raymond Weinstein as attested to by his 5 wins, 6 losses and no draws! The 1963/64 championship was Weinstein’s last event.
In round 1 he caught Reshevsky with an unsound sacrifice and the veteran failed to notice a followup pseudo Q-sacrifice. Reshevsky played on far too long, but that wasn’t unusual for him because you never know what can happen and he had some incredible luck in his career. His hesitation at resigning was demonstrated in the 1951 Rosenwald tournament when he adjourned in a dead lost position against Bisguier but wanted to play it out. Bisguier had better things to do and convinced Reshevsky’s wife, Norma, to convince him to resign.
In round 2 Weinstein launched a risky cut-and-thrust attack against Edmar Mednis and after a seesaw battle Weinstein, in a double-edged position, made a do nothing move with his K that turned out to lose almost immediately.
Weinstein’s round 3 game was postponed until after round four because he had college exams on the scheduled day. In that game he delivered a positional crush to Donald Byrne. In round 4 he was positionally outplayed by Dr. Anthony Saidy.
In Round 5 Larry Evans committed a tactical blooper, but imprecise play by both sides left the outcome in doubt until the end when Evans missed a shot at drawing and lost. The round 6 game between Weinstein and Bisguier promised to be exciting and it was. Weinstein ceded the initiative early on and resigned after 33 moves and a faulty combination.
In round 7 he won a gem of a game against Robert H. Steinmeyer by making a nifty positional sacrifice. Round 8 saw Weinstein getting crushed in a flurry of Fischer tactics. In round 9 he was outplayed slowly but surely in a boring Benko positional win that stretched into the ending. In round 10 Edmar Mednis grabbed the initiative and slowly squeezed the life out of Weinstein. In the last round Robert Byrne succumbed to a brisk attack.
Finishing with a minus 1 score isn’t impressive, but when you consider how he did it, you have to admire Weinstein’s audacious play. Here is his win against Reshevsky.
It's nice to see something positive about Raymond Weinstein. As you say, he was a talented and dynamic player before his life was crushed by mental illness
ReplyDeleteHi Paul,
DeleteI agree. I never met Raymond, but I had the pleasure of meeting Arthur Bisguier several times. Both are my cousins on my mother’s side. I’ve read that Raymond’s mother was also institutionalized.